Help fixing laptop!

Craterloads · 21 May 2012 at 21:45

Hi guys, got a free faulty laptop off my eldest sister which im trying to fix and give to my youngest sister.

Its a HP 530

Intel Core 2 Duo T5200 1.6Ghz
Intel 945GME Graphics
Intel 940 Chipset
2GB Ram
120GB HDD

As you can see its not a bad laptop, perfect for office etc. Anyhow so far have restored factory default, windows vista basic so is a fresh install.

Problem is after about 5mins of use screen gets all corrupted and freezes, have to restart.

I thought it was an over heating issue so opened up, cleaned, replaced tim on cpu and thermal pad on GPU. Now it works for 10-15mins before screen gets lines through it and freezes. I dont think its the CPU overheating as can run prime and temps are sub 80c, idles around 50c. Fan is spinning when doing something demanding.

This leads me to think its the GPU over heating as it works fine for 10-15mins and then screen gets corrupted, like major artifacting. When i restart straight away will only last a couple of mins, when i leave off to cool down will get another 10-15mins out of it.

Ive all ready replaced the thermal pad on it, so cant figure out what else i can do?

Craterloads · 21 May 2012 at 22:15

Ok just done it again, this is what the screen looks like

Jbugman · 21 May 2012 at 23:32

Can you output to a external monitor? Does the same occur? I it's overheating, any way of blasting it with cold air to see if it is?

May be another part getting hot

J

Purgatory · 22 May 2012 at 12:30

Yes good advice from Jbugman, try it on an external monitor and see if it does the same thing. If it does it could be the Graphics chip is getting warm or has a dry joint somewhere and as it heats lifts from the solder points. If it shows the same on an external monitor you will know it is the GPU causing the problems, if it works fine for hours on the external screen it could be the LCD panel that needs looking at and checking its connections and electronics.

Craterloads · 22 May 2012 at 15:34

I have not tried it on an external screen but can rule that out,

Opened it all up again and put a couple of heatsinks on the GPU and CPU chip and strapped a large fan over them. Been running for hours with no problem. Removed fan and crashed within a couple of minutes.

So 100% something overheating cant tell 100% what, as the fan was blowing all over the board. Logic says it the GPU given the nature of the error.

Ive ordered a replacement heatsink assembly and a copper shim. Seen on youtube instead of using a thermalpad, you place the copper shim in its place with thermalpaste which according to the video will equal 20% temp reduction. Only cost a fiver for all parts so worth a shot i guess.

xpcpu · 24 May 2012 at 00:04

if that doesn't work you may need to reflow the motherboard. the cheapest way is to oven bake it but there is no guarantee on how long it will last before needing to be done again.

Craterloads · 18 Jun 2012 at 19:12

What a *** ive been. Turned out it was a bad memory module.

Wasted so much time opening up, even bought a replacement heatsink and in the end took 1 mem stick out and all sorted!! Bought a replacement and perfect working order.

Should be a sticky or something, any problems - check ram first!!

xpcpu · 20 Jun 2012 at 01:24

i've never seen ram do that before :eek:

and i've fixed quite a few laptops.

learn something new everyday