Thursday, August 23, 2012

resurrecting an old laptop

You thought I was going to post another post about reviving a PC with Linux, didn't you? Actually it's already a Linux PC, lol. Let me tell the whole story.

A friend gave me two Dell M90 laptop, a good one and one for spare parts. Recently the good one's video card started displaying abstract art. Now I got two laptops in the same state. I did a Google search for replacements and fixes. In a forum some were saying about baking the video cards. Theory is that day to day stress causes micro fractures in the solder joints, enough to cause functional problems. The M90 are known for heat related problems, now this too. I read the same on other forums and watched a few videos on the procedure. They used the ovens in their kitchens but I was worried about gases and fumes of solder materials in my food oven. I used a oven not used for food at the art gallery. Well needless to say it all worked, I now have two working laptops. So I won't lay it all out but if you Google you'll find it.

My laptop is back and I have a working spare. Can you beat that? If you have moving parts, bang it on the side, if not bake it!! I can hardly believe it's working, but it is.

No comments: