Is there any alternative to the heat gun reflow? Will a hair dryer (1600 watts) do? What about a toaster oven?

Toaster oven maybe, but it's very delicate and you need to know how to handle the board - besides, toaster oven method has no real guide...
Hair dryer - no way - let me put it this way... if the temperature needed for hair to dry out would be around 1000F, then you could, but since it's not...
Buy a heat gun and follow one of the methods (YouTube or manual in this post) - it'll get the job done, trust me.

Thank you very much for this outline. However, I have repaired my T40's motherboard twice, the second try was successfull and after two weeks I have the same problem as in the beginning. What's wrong? Shall I have an another try or shall I buy new motherboard?

I just picked up one at Auto Zone for $19.99
It has a temp range from -35 to +365 C

It wasn't on sale or anything special.
It has a laser pointer and an 8:1 distance to spot ratio.
It even included the two AAA batteries.

For $10 more you could get one that is half the size that only goes to +220 C

Thanks for the great post on how to make this fix!!!

You're not doing something right - you probably need to heat the GPU some more, once you get to the max temperature (keep the temp constant, but try to heat it it up longer). I think that would do the trick...

I have to agree. If the guide was properly followed it would have easily lasted longer than that.

If you did follow it correctly there might be a secondary underlying issue.

Is there any reason this process will not work on a R51?

The reflow process will carry over to any laptop.

If your T40/41/42 is out of warranty, I used the following service I found on eBay to get the mainboard reballed:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0245381352

I met the man personally and from our conversation discovered he started up this service as a business after being downsized. He followed up the repair with an x-ray analysis of the board for other possible defects. For $50, including free return shipping, he did a fantastic job and saved my wife's T40. I just thought I'd pass this on for those who aren't as brave of heart trying to repair it on their own.

Moderator edit: Shortened URL to prevent horizontal scrolling

That's interesting. In the course of checking out suitable GPU repairers I did a google on "Superior Reball problems" and got quite a different picture.

However there is a member on this board who does GPU repairs and has had good feedback. I'm yet to make up my mind as to who I should use

Guys,

I just did the heat gun repair without removing the mainboard from the chassis. Not recommended!

I did remove the backup battery, WiFi card, HDD, DVD, KB, palmrest, and memory. And I did make a little cofferdam around the GPU with two layers of HD Al foil and then a full-size thermal shroud of same to cover the whole MB except the GPU. I still melted some of the plastics near the battery and HDD and some of the little raceways for the wiring.

Good news is, the sucker is working fine, for now. I had a little trouble getting a consistent reading on my IR thermometer but I went to 220-230 over about 8-10 minutes and then cooled it down a while.

RA

Hi,
yesterday I tried to follow the guide. My R51 went down as soon as I thought about moving it. I made the reflow according to the guidelines - in a controled manner with IR thremometer. After cooling down the motherboard for 30 minutes i reassembled the laptop. It gives me a bluescreen as soon as the ATI graphics driver is loaded. If I boot in safe mode it works fine. If i remove the ATI driver it also works fine in normal mode.

Tonight I will give the reflow a second chance. I used my SMD hotair rework station as the heating device. I will try with a normal hot air gun tonight. But has anyone experienced the above issue?

Don't do a second reflow. Remove you graphics drivers and re-install them.

I'm looking for a used T40 laptop to use as a backup machine.
A dude is selling this:

ThinkPad T40 2373-82S P M 1.5GHz, 256MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 24x-8x DVD(slim), Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), Intel 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 6 cell battery, WinXP Pro

For 150USD + Shipping. The machine he said would sometimes not power-up, alleging the problem is because the video would freeze up, that was the diagnosis he got when he got the laptop serviced.

I'm thinking this could be a deal, since I could reflow the GPU problem which is probably the only thing it's failing on the machine.

I don't have the IR sensor nor the heating gun, I could borrow the IR sensor for free.

Is this a good deal?

Dear all,

This is my first post: Jippie.

But it is not the first time that I'm here. It is a great site with lots of information. Using the tutorial in this topic I repaired already a couple of boards (mainly T40's) with the Radeon 7500 chip. Thanks so much! Now I will, high likely, get a T41 with a Radeon 9000 chip. The seller describes symptoms that exactly fit the loose GPU problem. But my first thought was that it was only the Radeon 7500 chip that was crooking.

Anywhere a list with board and GPU chipset that are successfully repaired or show that same symptom?

Thanks again!

Cheers

Jan

The problem is not limited to the ATI Radeon 7500. Most of the laptops with the problem are T40s. There are other T4x series laptops that have it too. Many GPUs suffering from broken solder connections can be fixed with this method. This method is not limited to a certain type of GPU or laptop. The reflow method is consistent for all boards.

My X31 is showing signs of loose GPU solder. Should I remove the thermal pad on the GPU before doing the reflow?

Yes you should.

Visionviper thanks. I will let you know if I get the beauty working

Cheers

Anyone in the greater Boston area have an IR thermometer and heat gun they want to lend/rent me?

Thanks... However, after the third reflowing my motherboard step by step stopped working, respectively booting. I think I heated it too much (I used another heating gun for each reflowing). And one guy, I am now buying some parts from, heated it up to 500°C --- bad luck. I have already bought new one.

Just tried this last night on a T41 with Radeon 9000 GPU. Had an IR thermometer and slowly brought the temps up to 230c then slowly let it cool off. After the board cooled to ~30c, I went ahead and reinstalled it. Now the machine no longer powers up. When I press the power button on the keyboard, the battery light on the LCD bezel lights up for a split second then goes back off. Fan doesn't come on either. Took the top off again to take a look and I don't notice anything funny. Nothing looks scorched and I'm pretty sure I put everything back together ok. Anyone have any ideas what I should look for?

Just bought one of these dead thinkpads hoping it would be a bad gpu solder. Doesn't post even when pressed on the gpu. BUT sometimes the LCD backlight turns on and sometimes not when starting. I think the pressure on gpu helps with this, so thumbs up. Have to try the heat gun reflow idea soon...

Any other ideas before it?

I tried this on my HP nc8230 with bad solder BGA chip.
First time I tried "Julian laptop repair" from youtube without success.I bought 2000w hot gun and Fluke laser thermometer.But I was wrong.I reflow it very long time.The plastic connectors was thermo broken and many smd componets around BGA chip was desoldered and blowed.Chip was exploded and black mass outflow underthrust.Totally brutal. Measurement of temperature is problematic.Measure place has a cylindric character depends of distance.I think sometimes is measured gun itself.So about 2-3 seconds is 40 degrees celsius difference.Going up and down.I got a 250 degrees max.I read about no succes reflowing so I tried it up second time from 150 degrees.I purchased cheap another problematic mobo from ebay I will tried it carefully,slowly with bigger distance.Maybe I was successfull.

My T41 finally failed after a couple of months without problems after adding a heatsink and pressure to the GPU.

This time I'm going to do the reflow. The heatgun and an IR thermometer are already on their way to me.

I have some questions concerning the procedure.

Is it better to do the reflow as slow as possible or do I have to follow the timings as close as possible? I would rather do it slower to ensure nothing breaks, I have time.

This guide says I should raise the temp to 230°C and then start cooling it down. But somewhere else I read that I should keep it at that temp for some time. Which one is better?

My laptop will work for hours if I'm not running GPU intensive software and don't let it bend. I can move it on the table, usually I can also pick it up (if I do it gently, using both hands of course). This looks like the problem is not as serious as some other people are having (works for couple of minutes or not at all). Should I alter the procedure somehow because of this?

The thermometer I bought has an error of ±2%, ±3°C. Is it ok for this job? Should I stop heating when it gets to 227°C?

TIA

The IR thermometer you bought will work just fine. As for following procedures you can choose to follow mine or follow a different set. FYI - mine has been running solid ever since. I would recommend using mine but if you want to use a different set that is ok.

I've just tried reflow soldering on T41, and got same outcome as horacelau: machine no longer powers up. When I press the power button on the keyboard, the battery light on the LCD bezel lights up for a split second then goes back off.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.[/quote]

Dear Thinkpadders…

My son has a T41 which started to show the GPU symptoms – it would freeze randomly… and it was getting worse and worse to the point where it wouldn’t boot unless I pushed on the GPU when I powered the machine up.

So we decided it was worth giving the GPU reflow a go – the machine had basically become useless so the risk/reward made sense.

I borrowed the following from work:

• Steinel HL2002LE heat gun (120-1100degF)
• K-type thermocouple
• Fluke 10 Multimeter
• Fluke 80TK thermocouple module with degC range
• A roll of narrow heat-resistant tape.

We did the whole procedure indoors – on a piece of bare concrete floor. Ambient temperature was about 27degC.

I placed a ceramic tile on the floor and placed a piece of turkey foil (ie the thicker consumer aluminum foil) over the tile.

I extracted the motherboard completely from the machine and double-wrapped the motherboard in the thick foil (not tightly). Then figured out where the GPU was and carefully ripped a hole in both sheets and fold it back to make a square hole around the GPU.

I placed the thermocouple on the large chip and placed a small piece of the heat resistant tape across it to keep it in place. There was a thin protective film around the thermocouple which I was afraid was going to get in the way of the airflow so I bent it and the lead up to leave as much heating surface as possible while keeping the thermocouple tip against the GPU.

We followed visionviper’s instructions for heating to 150 then 230 then cooled it down to 150degC slowly then let it cool on it’s own to 30degC. I used the middle fan setting on the heat gun (may have not been ideal) and found I had to bring the heat gun slowly closer to bring the GPU surface up to 230. I then backed it away slowly to cool it.

After another hour getting the machine back together again, it booted and is able to run the GPU diagnostics, boot Windows and everything.

Thanks visionviper… you’re a star!!

Something must have gone wrong during the reflow process. Check the components on the motherboard and look for anything that looks disconnected. That is really all I can think of.



Glad my guide was able to help a fellow Thinkpadder!

This rocks! I followed the instructions exactly and my T41 is back in action. Patience is key - as is having the right equipment! For those hesitating to purhcase an IR thermometer, you'll find lots of other uses for it so it's a good investment.
Thanks a million!! Great guide!!!