R40 problems - Loose GPU? *PICS*

[Mek]

Hello all members, I am new here and first of all I would like to thank you (the community) for posting here, one can find really interesting solutions here.
Okay, now here goes the problem: I am an owner of a ThinkPad R40 model 2681 (type 2681-CDG, serial no. KB3835Z, made in 2003). I bought it three months ago from one guy in an internet auction (it was really a low-cost). It is way long time out of warranty. I have put my 30GB HDD in there and installed WinXP SP2 with Kubuntu - in dualboot, using Grub.
After I bought it, it was running as it should, but after a week or so it started to refuse booting - the screen stayed blank when the notebook was turned on, even the ibm logo didn't appear. But then I realised how to fix it - I only flexed the case a little bit and it suddendly started booting, no restart was necessary. I put the notebook in the original posture and it worked without a problem then. This happened once-twice a week. I was using the notebook in the dormitory, where I encountered this one small problem. At the end of May, 2007, the school year ended for me so I moved home and laid the notebook in the shelf; I have my powerful desktop PC at home.
Now, I wanted to take my notebook with me for a holiday, but - what the heck - I realised that not only the small problem remained, but the screen gets garbled even when touching the case - this made it impossible to use, because even a small vibration of the table garbled my screen and the system went down. I cannot even type on the keyboard without fear that the error appears again. When the screen gets garbled, sometimes I am able to touch the notebook in a way that the screen goes back to normal, but only until I release my touch
It happens more often that when the screen gets garbled, I am not able to continue working, and I can twist and bend the notebook as I want, but nothing helps. It just shows some garbled graphics - lines, dots and so on.
The most important thing on this problem is, that this error mostly ends up with a white horizontal line on the top of screen. I am posting this thread in hope that anyone else had exactly this problem and that he eventually could help me.
I have found this forum on google, so I have searched for my problem, and surprise-surprise... I realised that I am not alone with this problem...
So, here is what I tried:

• Pressing the GPU cover manually with the notebook turned off, then turning it on - always worked as expected. But when I released my finger, the screen got garbled and ended up with the white line mentioned and pressing the GPU again does not help.

• Completely disassembling the notebook and then reassembling it back - didn't help, but at least I did not make it worse

• I have fixed some cold-soldered joints and I was glad that I found the error, but - this didn't help either.

• Putting one, (later two), layers of tin foil (see picture below) between the GPU cover and the GPU itself - no improvement either.

• Tried the post-it trick too (see picture). I don't have post-its of this size, so I cut paper to form this layer of paper. I guess it was the right size in height, as the keyboard was slightly (not much) flexed in the middle - where the paper was. The result here was no improvement too.

Sometimes, I got really desperate and was flexing and moving the notebook to find out the "good position", but no one seems good enough. Sometimes, when booted into Windows, I got a BSOD with MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION and sometimes I got a BSOD saying that ati2evxx.dll (don't remember the exact name) has stuck in an infinite loop. And sometimes, when the notebook does not boot at all, instead of being completely quiet, it beeps three times - one long and two short beeps. In the service manual it says that it is an error in system board or lcd assembly or something else, don't remember what. But, I was able to reproduce the beeps - I disconnected the connector leading to the LCD and then turned the laptop on.
So, I am pretty sure this is the loose GPU problem.
Now, the question is, how to solve it? I don't have a heat gun (but maybe I could get my hands on it), and the post-it trick did not work. However, I was able to run for 10 minutes with moving the notebook and twisting/turning it without the error appearing - when I put a folded A5 paper below the keyboard so it has put the pressure on the GPU cover. The keyboard was very flexed out, but it worked. I don't like the material the keyboard is made of, because it is very flexible, which makes it impossible to make any serious pressure force on the GPU.
I was thinking that maybe putting the mainboard into back oven (with all parts except the GPU covered with aluminium foil) would help? Crazy idea, but when I don't have the heat gun...
Anyway, this notebook costed me much money, and I want to sell it and buy a new one, but really a new one, so I don't have this kind of problems I don't want to invest any more money in this crappy R40, it has already a new battery and AC adapter-

I am attaching some pictures and youtube videos, so you can look and see it yourself (excuse my bad english in the first video)
Click on the thumbnails to see the picture in original size.

PHOTOS
A chip on the other side of the system board... it is covered too. I was wondering what it belongs to? (but now I doubt this chip is the source of the problem)

This is the GPU uncovered

Removed keyboard and the LCD connector

The GPU cover - front side

The GPU cover - back side

GPU cover and LCD connector put off

My implementation of the "post-it trick"

The tin foil I put two layers of between the GPU and its cover. I think without it the cover and the chip have no or very weak contact. Leave the foil there or not?


VIDEOS:
Part 1 - with my comment
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Well, this is a looong post I think I mentioned all facts that I came to... in case you need more information, feel free to ask. I can make more photos/videos for you to see. Thank you for reading my whole post, I appreciate all posts in this topic

Moderator edit: Please add "*PICS* or some such warning in subject line when including inline pictures. And thanks for keeping them small!

[jamiphar]

I had a loose video chip on my recently-acquired X21, and I was able to fix it using a heat gun.

I removed the motherboard from the laptop, and took out the RAM, MiniPCI card, and any wires on the board. I then folded some foil to make it 4 layers thick and about 5"x5", and I cut a video chip-sized hole in the middle of it. I fitted the foil around the chip and pressed it down around the surrounding parts. Make sure to clean the old thermal paste off to avoid cooking it.

I set my heat gun to the lower of the two settings and evenly heated the chip from about 2-3" away until I felt it was hot enough to melt the solder. I immediately pressed a 1" ratchet socket down on it and held it there until it cooled (The reason I used a socket was so I could get even pressure on the chip, and also keep from burning my fingers).

After the chip (and anything near it) had cooled enough, I reassembled the laptop and the issue was resolved!

Just an account of what worked for me. If you're up to it, that's what I would suggest trying.

[wearetheborg]

How much had you paid for the laptop ?

[Mek]

2 jamiphar: yeah, that's what would be worth trying if I had the heat gun
2 wearetheborg: 313.5 € after currency conversion. The notebook had an incompatible AC adapter and a not functional battery, so I had to do a little investment of around 130 € to buy a new adapter and battery. It's a shame that this error appeared, since I planned to upgrade the memory this holiday

[jamiphar]

2 jamiphar: yeah, that's what would be worth trying if I had the heat gun

Yeah, you would need the heat gun. Maybe someone you know would have one. If not, you could probably buy one for $35-$40US.

[wearetheborg]

2 jamiphar: yeah, that's what would be worth trying if I had the heat gun
2 wearetheborg: 313.5 € after currency conversion. The notebook had an incompatible AC adapter and a not functional battery, so I had to do a little investment of around 130 € to buy a new adapter and battery. It's a shame that this error appeared, since I planned to upgrade the memory this holiday

443 euros = $610

Thats expensive !!!!


So a temp that is hot enough to melt solders wont damage chips ?

[Mek]

I will get my hands on a heat gun, I have asked my father and he can borrow it from work

[jamiphar]

I will get my hands on a heat gun, I have asked my father and he can borrow it from work

Great, let us know how it turns out.

[gruurly]

I had this exact same problem with my R40. My 'easy' fix was to open up the laptop and place a bit of tinfoil over top of the item that was flexing. Worked like a charm, haven't had any problems since other than an occasional need to open it up and move it back into place again.

Hope it helps.

[Mek]

I had this exact same problem with my R40. My 'easy' fix was to open up the laptop and place a bit of tinfoil over top of the item that was flexing. Worked like a charm, haven't had any problems since other than an occasional need to open it up and move it back into place again.

Hope it helps.

what place exactly do you mean? Could you pls show me a photo?
If you meant the place between the chip and its cover (the one with the yellow exclamation mark), then I already placed two layers of that tin foil there (one layer didn't help either). You can see the tin foil in the last picture I posted in the first post

//EDIT: So I have the heat gun now, we have bought one because we could not borrow it (it was partially broken and I don't want to take the risk). It costed 509 Sk (almost 16 €) but does not have temperature regulation, only two heat levels - 350C and 550C. I think I may be able to use a regulable power source for it in order to regulate the temperature.

[Mek]

The heat gun trick worked for me, but only for the second time (I had to heat the chip up to 280 C for a little while), and now everything works like a charm! I can even put it on my lap (it's a laptop) lol
You guys here are great, I couldn't get it fixed without this forum, so THANK YOU again!
Seeya!

[jamiphar]

The heat gun trick worked for me, but only for the second time (I had to heat the chip up to 280 C for a little while), and now everything works like a charm! I can even put it on my lap (it's a laptop) lol
You guys here are great, I couldn't get it fixed without this forum, so THANK YOU again!
Seeya!

Awesome, great to hear! It's always nice to resurrect a problematic laptop.