X1000 video fix needed

[tns1]

My x1000 video stopped working last night. It happened in minutes. The 67Y trick did nothing. I could bring it back for a little while by slapping my hand on the top of the case. A couple of times when I rebooted it seemed that it was running normally but just not showing video, but other times it seemed locked up - I couldn't turn the wireless led on or off for instance. I want to be sure I have the same problem and not a new one. How have others seen it behave with this condition? Can you tell if it is failing to boot or does it seem to be running normally?. By coincidence I had run an overnight RAM test just a few days ago, so I know those parts are OK.

On rare occasions I had seen the screen go blank and not recover until I had hit a few keys or rebooted but this had always seemed to happen when I had closed the lid and moved the laptop from one place to another. I had always thought it had something to do with the power management SW, and not HW.

After taking it apart and examining the video card carefully, it looks like it is severly warped. If you sight along the two white male mating connectors on the video card itself, you can see the board and connectors are bowed. Also looking at the two white female mating connectors on the MB shows the walls of these are bowed out very slightly. The connectors do not engage very much anyway and all of this bowing/warping is preventing good contact.

I do not think there is any direct failure because of heat - my thermal pad looks fine and my problems never seemed heat related.  I think the heat is warping things for sure, but lack of electrical contact  is why it fails.  Because of this I don't think shimming is going to work because the force required to unbow the board is too much for the HS and screws to hold without bending. My plan is to get a new graphics card and possibly improve the heat dissapation if I can. A copper or aluminum spacer to replace the pad is probably the way to go. I have also managed to unbow the walls of the female connectors by carefully squeezing them together with thumbnails.

[tns1]

All those theories down the drain.
I replaced the video card but it behaves exactly the same. It seems to be locking up on boot - no control of wifi led or speaker led. I tried a linux boot CD which would normally generate lots of disk activity and it behaves the same - seems locked up. I plugged my HD into another machine and I can read the files OK. I didn't try booting though.

[romeon]

Hello tns1,

Where did you buy your card and has your new one this red glue around the corners at the chip?

Thank you.

[tns1]

I got my new card from laptoptek/ebay. It has the red glue and its working now.

I ended up re-using the old thermal pad with some added thermal paste, and just bent the heatsink slightly to insure contact. I was very careful and was confident I did everything correctly, but after re-assembly, my x1000 showed the exact same behavior - no bootup, no video. I took off the keyboard and switch cover so I could be sure the board and video cable connector were seated properly. After wiggling things around I managed to get the initial boot splash screen to show up, but I would get a crash-reboot during the OS boot (XP or Fedora). I then tried memtest86 on a CD and it found a bunch of memory errors. I swapped out memory cards until I could tell that one was definitely bad. This is puzzling since I tested the entire memory just a week ago. It seems very unlikely that I would have a bad video card and a bad memory stick at the same time. 

I have been using the laptop with only one 256MB card for a couple of days and it shows no problems (other than being slower).  I have ordered a single 1GB PC2700 card.  I wonder now if I needed to replace the video card at all. It sure behaved like a video problem, and the card was warped, but it now seems that a flakey memory can cause similar behavior.  I don't mind the extra $100 as long as the problem is fixed.

[romeon]

Thanks for your answer. Maybe your card still was ok, but it would have been only a matter of time. After 2-3 years every card failes.

[tns1]

As an update, I did get the 1GB stick and my x1000 is working fine.

[Vilhelm]

Update - I installed the fix from Whiteheat and everything seemed great. In the BIOS I changed the setting so that the fan would run constantly. Seems like that may be the underlying reason for the warpage. I was all set to reinstall the OS, but the video started going whacky again. I do believe I'm going to need a new video card.

I found the "Omega Drivers" that everyone's talking about, but there were three choices and would like to hear which one is recommended - 1) Radeon Omega Driver 2.6.42,  2) ATi Catalyst v5.6 (with Control Panel) or 3) ATi Catalyst v5.6 (with Catalyst Control Center). I figure that one of these has the preferred adjustment console.

Lastly, any hot leads for a great deal on a new video card. I'll check out the choices that are mentioned in this post.

Thanks!

[romeon]

Beware! Laptoptek doesn't sell new ones, mine was definitely a refurbished card! Maybe they work, maybe they don't. Mine came as DOA - dead on arrival. Laptoptek doesn't care about it, though they claim it on every auction. No mails regarding this will be answered!

Absolutely not recommended - take care!

[Mybookisdead]

You are right! The first card I got was obviously a used one. And it doesn't work

Although they replace one for me, but this "new" one just last one day.

So, never buy their cards.

Beware! Laptoptek doesn't sell new ones, mine was definitely a refurbished card! Maybe they work, maybe they don't. Mine came as DOA - dead on arrival. Laptoptek doesn't care about it, though they claim it on every auction. No mails regarding this will be answered!

Absolutely not recommended - take care!

[vm[pt]]

hello,
I've bought a sony SZ330P some time ago and I left the x1000 aside. But today I decided to fix the video problem and I did it successfully.

Basically you have to but a washer in the the video card support A and B.
In the video card Shield C put two washers behind the thermal pad and the shield.





Put some cooling past like artic silver 7 in the GPU.
Thigh all the screws and you're done.

[ehien]

Has anyone tried this? I'm struggling with my ZT3000 right now. Even with a new 64MB card, I have to press 6-7-y and often more keys around them to boot.

A big question in my head is- what does this extra pressure provide? Or say it another way, what does BIOS looks for but does't get unless these keys are pressed?

Could it be ground quality or certain contacts?

I don't think the boot issue is related to thermal as the chip is cold at startup. Extra pressure at the right place is needed when the chip is cool; but when chip is in operation, hot, and after boot up, such pressure is no longer needed. At least this is my case.

So I'm trying hard to figure out what exactly the extra pressure does. After reading so much (since old X1000 forum days) about video card issues, I don't think the real answer is found (or mentioned) yet.

Anyone?

Ehien

hello,
I've bought a sony SZ330P some time ago and I left the x1000 aside. But today I decided to fix the video problem and I did it successfully.

Basically you have to but a washer in the the video card support A and B.
In the video card Shield C put two washers behind the thermal pad and the shield.





Put some cooling past like artic silver 7 in the GPU.
Thigh all the screws and you're done.

[dj_evil]

Well, I had exactly the same problem.
According to the disassembling manual I took out the video card and inserted an extra pad (2mm) between the card and the metal cover.
Did this fix yesterday and so far the notebook just behaves like before the problem.

=> Worked for me, thanx for the instructions.

thomy

[ezgoldin]

1) Has anyone else tried the "washers fix"?

2) Can I simply replace out a 32 MB card with the 64 MB version?

Thanks.

[MacGyver]

I have tried the washers and the pad with no luck. My card is completely fried and I need a new one.

Yes you can replace a 32mb card with a 64mg card or vise versa.

[ezgoldin]

Same here.  I've tried 2 used ebay 32 MB cards, supposedly tested and working, which weren't.  I even (foolishly) followed one seller's recommendation that I suspect my motherboard, so I picked up a used one, swapped it out with mine and of course found that it was still the video card that was dead.  Now I have two good motherboards, and still need a video card!

The obvious question here is what is the point of diminishing returns with this laptop?  Do I spend another $100 and buy a new 64 MB card, which will most likely also fail in the next two years?  Do I call it a day and sell my X1010 as is along with the extra motherboard, and pick up something like a dv5000?  Thanks again!