To all HP nx5000 and nc6000 owners

lhuser

Golden Master
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A couple of days ago, I had a job of restoring life to a HP nc6000 laptop, which basically was hard to start (didn't post) and would turn off by itself.

The symptoms of the problem was that once it would post, I would boot a live CD of Ubuntu (Will happen in Windows as well), it would randomly lock up on me, and once turned off, it would be hard to start again. If you ever come to play with the two models mentioned in the title, try to apply a pressure to the top right-hand side of of laptop, and while applying pressure, turn it on. If it does turn on, you have a very common problem, which will require you to have a soldering job done on it (Or hot glue for the rednecks).

There is a Maxim 1987 chip next to the CPU, under the board that has a very cheap soft soldering job done to it, and overtime, the soldering begins to have hairline cracks to it, and once that's done, the CPU Vcore (1.4V) is lost, which technically powers down the CPU (where the system freezes and becomes hard to start).

This is the chip in question:
maxim.jpg


What I've done is to tap my soldering iron on the connectors and to finish the job, I've applied a blob of hot glue, so that it would make a constant pression, if ever the chip solder were to break again. Once that is done, the laptop will be stable again. I've tested it, and even did some light bangs towards that place and it didn't even freeze one me once.


You can charge the guy/girl an easy $30 to $50 for that, or if you are given one of these, and it has that symptom, then you'll know what to do.


Just thought I'd share :)
 
Hey, no problems! I share what I learn ;)
Wow... What is up with HP lately? It seems they botch the soldering on every other model they release.

Well, these models were released in 2004 around. The other models well known to fail were the DV9000 series laptops. They're horrible.
 
My parent's old DV-series laptop has been problem-free so far, I hope it stays this way.
 
The DV3000 and DV6000 lines were also notorious for failures. And some of the DV5s are starting to show the issue.

Yep, very true. I made a good amount of income fixing the DV2000, 6000 and 9000 series laptops. So, for those owners..

If your DV series laptop powers on with lights, fans, etc. but produces no display your GPU has the same solder issue. It's a pretty easy fix really, pull the laptop apart and use a heatgun to apply heat to the bottom of the GPU. After you put everything back together it should work good as new. I fixed 10 of these laptops with this same issue, haven't heard from the buyers so I assume they're still working fine :)
 
lhuser >
Well, these models were released in 2004 around. The other models well known to fail were the DV9000 series laptops. They're horrible.
It would be better next time to put that in your opening post. The way you made it sound was like it was a current model having an issue.

foothead >
The DV3000 and DV6000 lines were also notorious for failures. And some of the DV5s are starting to show the issue.
I have a DV6205us going on 4 years old and other than the battery, it's still purring like a kitten.

To all of you > ALL mass produced items will have bad batches get loose from time to time. Other brand name lap and desk tops have mass production issues.
But to bring up a 6 year old product? All of you need to clarify how old the product line is. Just because HP and other brands names had issues in the past doesn't mean the current line is bad. The product lines mentioned in this thread have some age on them.
Start up, shut down. Blocked vents and overheating. Left in hot or cold places. Dropped. Slammed on. Abuse comes in many forms and over time can make SMC component's break the solder joints.
Please think before you put your fingers to your keyboard.
 
My friend has an HP from 2007 I think, can't remember the model, think it would be this same issue? His resets constantly every 5 seconds, sometimes it will boot further though.

lhuser >
It would be better next time to put that in your opening post. The way you made it sound was like it was a current model having an issue.

foothead >
I have a DV6205us going on 4 years old and other than the battery, it's still purring like a kitten.

To all of you > ALL mass produced items will have bad batches get loose from time to time. Other brand name lap and desk tops have mass production issues.
But to bring up a 6 year old product? All of you need to clarify how old the product line is. Just because HP and other brands names had issues in the past doesn't mean the current line is bad. The product lines mentioned in this thread have some age on them.
Start up, shut down. Blocked vents and overheating. Left in hot or cold places. Dropped. Slammed on. Abuse comes in many forms and over time can make SMC component's break the solder joints.
Please think before you put your fingers to your keyboard.
Actually, 6 years ago was when HP was known for being good. From what I heard, the last 3 years is when they have really started to go downhill(as I type this on an HP desktop... lol)
 
They were more common for malfunctions lately, but again...if you take good care of your stuff and clean your laptop properly...the first thing in mind that could go out would be a HDD, then an LCD inverter and/or battery...but that's over time.

They used soft soldering, even though they shouldn't of done that, but the laptops specified were business notebooks, so they were used in cars a lot...lots of banging with our great Quebec roads :p
 
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