Thinkpads Forum

Hi. I have a broken w520 machine with quadro 2000m on it.
Right now I'm using another w520 too but with quadro 1000m.

Assumption the quadro 2000m chip on the broken w520 machine is still functioning, can I swap it with my current machine?

There are some qualified technician that can do vga chip swap reballing. But I'm afraid it won't work.

Can anyone help me here? thanks

1. To be honest, I'm more inclined to think that the Quadro 2000m GPU is the failing component in the first W520.
It's naive to assume that the GPU is in working condition, especially since there's no way to prove it without transferring it to another board.

2. Wouldn't it be better to try having the first board repaired, rather than perform a risky operation on the second one?

axur-delmeria wrote:1. To be honest, I'm more inclined to think that the Quadro 2000m GPU is the failing component in the first W520.
It's naive to assume that the GPU is in working condition, especially since there's no way to prove it without transferring it to another board.

2. Wouldn't it be better to try having the first board repaired, rather than perform a risky operation on the second one?

The first machine is broken physically. It got dropped on motorcycle accident. The lcd is tored and the mainboard is cracked a bit. Luckylu, the cpu and gpu part seems intact. That's why I try to made this decision.

nangryo wrote: The lcd is tored and the mainboard is cracked a bit. Luckylu, the cpu and gpu part seems intact.

Emphasis mine.

Unless you have a re-balling station and know what you're doing - along with being 101% OK with kissing the 1000M board goodbye - I'd advise you to stay away from such a venture.

Good luck. You'll need it.

You could contact Louis Rossmann @ Rossmann Group:
http://www.rossmanngroup.com/

He has a $7000 BGA rework station and all of the expertise to do it, but I cannot guarantee if he would accept to do it (since it's very much a pain to do), nor would it be cheap. He also wouldn't be able to provide you with any guarantees as it would be a chip swap and not a 'repair'.

In fact, it would just be cheaper & easier to buy a replacement motherboard. Or you can also purchase a $7000 BGA rework station, or a $5000 BGA rework bed. If you're interested in purchasing BGA rework equipment (which far exceeds the price of a replacement mobo), I can definitely provide you with some information on buying that equipment.

Any attempts to swap the chips *without* BGA rework stations will end up frying the BGA chips as you would have to concentrate too much heat on them for too long with the use of something like a hot air gun. That technique MIGHT work if you want to remove the GPU and deliberately kill it in the process, and then have a fresh one to put on that wasn't previously used. But then you'll have to buy a hot air station that can get that hot along with sufficient nozzles, so you're looking at $1000 MINIMUM for a hot air station to do something it was never designed to do.

well.. I do know some technician who is expert at replacing/reballing laptop chip.

The question is... if it indeed succeed physically. Does the thinkpad bios will accept it? Or will it reject it?.

Why not grab a BIOS dump of the W520 with the quadro 2000m, then flash it on the one with the 1000m? Better yet, get BIOS dumps of both, then do a binary compare. If they match, then you don't need to flash.

Try to look for the W520's schematic diagrams--you might find more clues or even proof that the 1000m and 2000m are pin- and bus-compatible. Try to find technical references for those GPUs as well.

Good luck.

axur-delmeria wrote:Why not grab a BIOS dump of the W520 with the quadro 2000m, then flash it on the one with the 1000m? Better yet, get BIOS dumps of both, then do a binary compare. If they match, then you don't need to flash.

Try to look for the W520's schematic diagrams--you might find more clues or even proof that the 1000m and 2000m are pin- and bus-compatible. Try to find technical references for those GPUs as well.

Good luck.

I don't meant the mainboard bios.. but the vga bios. I see in discrete graphic cards, they have their own bios. But I don't know about laptop.

About comparing binary... I think I'll pass.. I don't have the basic knowledge of that if any..

The GPU is built into the system board, so its VGA BIOS is included in the system BIOS.

Since your friend has a reflow oven, can I assume that he also has a SOIC clip and a flash/EEPROM chip programmer?
You can use that to read the BIOS from the dead W520, and flash it to the working one.

You can also try checking the BIOS update package from Lenovo's website. Who knows, maybe the W520 BIOS contains the VGA BIOS for both Quadro 1000m and 2000m and simply selects which one to load after checking the GPU's PCI ID.

axur-delmeria wrote:The GPU is built into the system board, so its VGA BIOS is included in the system BIOS.

Since your friend has a reflow oven, can I assume that he also has a SOIC clip and a flash/EEPROM chip programmer?
You can use that to read the BIOS from the dead W520, and flash it to the working one.

You can also try checking the BIOS update package from Lenovo's website. Who knows, maybe the W520 BIOS contains the VGA BIOS for both Quadro 1000m and 2000m and simply selects which one to load after checking the GPU's PCI ID.

Thx for the insight.

Well, he's more of electrician I think, I doubt he know anything bout programming. Thanks for the info. It really helps. I'll consult it with him