My R61 8918 is dead

[rbi]

It is dead two days ago after I purchased it three years ago in May 2007 with three years warranty. I am still trying to find out the reason. We moved to a new house and are still sorting things out (no computer desk). So I placed the laptop on my couch (with the cover which is not cotton made). Every night for the past two months I watched the online HD movies for two hours a night. I could feel the bottom was hot but ignored it as there is no problem. In Sep, I bought a Seagate Momentum XT Hybrid 500GB and replaced my old 120GB. After that, there were quite a few times the system is frozen and blue screen. So I updated the BIOS to the latest one (April 2010 version). It seems no problem after that but this situation didn't last long. Two days agao I took it to my office and was trying to create a DVD-video (the machine has been run for the half day) and wanted to click to other programs. The screen became color streaking and no image appeared. I thought it will be the HD issue and replaced back the old one. It is still the same. I tried to connect it to the external LCD display and finally got the message HARDWARE MALFUNCTION. CALL YOUR HARDWARE VENDOR FOR SUPPORT.NMI:PARITY CHECK/MEMORY PARITY ERROR***THE SYSTEM HAS HALTED***

I talked to one of my IBM friend(programmer) and she said to me she has been using T60/T61 and three years elapsed and the unit is dead with the screen. She commented on 60 series has bugs.

So my question is

1. Is my putting the laptop on the couch (heating issue) contributing (accellerating) to the death of my R61?

2. Or my hard disk replacement?

3. Or BIOS upgrade?

4. Or Virus (I got my AVAST and Microsoft Security Essential and downloaded a Spyspot which found some unwelcome entries and I removed them without looking)?

5. Or really Lenovo quality problem (I still have my T23 running well although slow of course I treated that one as a baby)?

Thanks a lot and any suggestion to save my R61 will be highly appreciated.

[Harryc]

I think it's a bad GPU on the systemboard. What graphics chip does this machine have? There is a known problem with nVidia on T61 and R61's.

[rbi]

Thanks HarryC. It is really relief at least I won't be blamed by my wife for watching the video overnight.

So there is nothing I can do for saving this machine anyway? So sad. I am thinking of changing to a HP G60-123LC which is AMD CPU. What do you think of this old model? I can get it for free. Or should I get a new model HP pavilion DM4 or DV6 for a staff discounted price? I mostly use this machine for watching online videos and sometimes edit a little bit video taken from my Sony HDD DCR300. So stability is no more my concern (before I was studying but not now! I have to admit if I study again I will go for thinkpad X201 or T410).

[Harryc]

For free, I'd definitely go for the HP G60-123LC. It's not very light, so if you don't plan on carrying it around much it will do what you want it to.

[pianowizard]

I am thinking of changing to a HP G60-123LC which is AMD CPU. What do you think of this old model? I can get it for free.

It's actually newer than your R61, and if it's free, why not?

Or should I get a new model HP pavilion DM4 or DV6 for a staff discounted price?

Based on large-scale surveys from recent years, HP laptops are far less reliable than all other manufacturers'. If you can get a huge discount and if you back up your files frequently, go for it (for example I got the HP netbook listed in my signature because it was really cheap), but I would be very reluctant to shell out more than $500US for any HP laptop.

[rbi]

Thanks HarryC and Pianowizard. It is free because it is given by my father in law as my brother in law bought it for him and he doesn't used it a lot. This is back to 2008. Now the warranty should expire. Is it worthy to buy a further one? The unit is purchased in US and we are located in Autralia. Is there any global warranty for HP?

It is scary to hear that HP is far less reliable no wonder they are selling cheap. We just are going to plan to buy an Envy or DM4 or DV6. My old R61 GPU is 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M.

Appreciate it.

Leon

[RealBlackStuff]

If you don't need the horsepower from the nVidia GPU, get the equivalent (i.e. same size) mobo but with integrated Intel graphics. That should keep everything else alive for years to come.
And you wouldn't need the extra warranty for Intel graphics!

[rbi]

If you don't need the horsepower from the nVidia GPU, get the equivalent (i.e. same size) mobo but with integrated Intel graphics. That should keep everything else alive for years to come.
And you wouldn't need the extra warranty for Intel graphics!

Thanks RealBlackStuff. I am not sure my understanding is right. What you meant is to get another R61 15.4" equivalent but with the integrage Intel graphics video card and took the motherboard to replace my old dead R61 to make it live again? Would it work as the HDD will record my old motherboard BIOS?

[RealBlackStuff]

I mean: just get another motherboard by itself. Cheaper than buying a new laptop.
R61 come in different shapes, standard 14" and 15", plus widescreen versions thereof.
Your R61 8918 is a 15.4" widescreen.
You should look for a System board assembly with Intel GM965 integrated graphics: 42W7825, 42W7883, 42W7826 or 42W7884
There are 2 more with the (lower spec) GL960/GML960, but I wouldn't bother with them.
As to the 4 GM965 boards, the difference will be in support for CPU type (Penryn or lower), WWAN and maybe firewire, bluetooth and a few others.
One important thing though: the Intel gfx boards do not support DVI throughput via a docking station.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with more board differences.

[rbi]

Thanks RealBlackStuff. If I got one of these with the graphic card integrated motherboard, can it be compatible as my old hard drive won't recognise it? Can I take out my CPU to put into the new motherboard?

[RealBlackStuff]

You should be able to use all the old parts on the new mobo.
Make sure to remove the old and apply new thermal paste (Arctic Silver 5) between CPU and cooler.
You also need to verify if you need WWAN or not.
If you have no WWAN and no Penryn CPU, any of the 4 boards will do.

[rbi]

Oh it seems a big job then.
Is it 42W7884 or 42W7844 as I saw one on the ebay?

[RealBlackStuff]

The correct # is 42W7884.
If you get the HMM, and follow it to the letter, a 10-yr old could do the swap!
All you need is a decent small #1 Phillips screwdriver and a 5mm nut driver.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67859