Fixing another HP dv6000 with No Video (In Downtown)

Two days ago after work, I saw a email from a reader of my HUB page who lives in downtown Vancouver asking if I can do the same to bring the video back on his dv6000. He asked what is the fee. Since I have been doing it as hobby and haven't done this for another person. I don't know the fee. I replied that I can do it for his dv6000. If the video comes back, he pay what he is happy with. If video is not back, I will return the laptop to him with no fee.

We met yesterday evening in a public bus stop. He is a happy and nice young man. We chatted a short while. I told him that I run the Nvidia performance test to make sure the video chip can stand before finding a new owner for it. If he wants testing on his laptop, I will need to install program which may need his user password. As I work in a financial company, I know that data privacy is very important. So, I asked him first if he allows me to log in and run tests. He just wanted the video back and he can handle the rest. So, we have a service agreement. He passed me his laptop and I thanked for his trust that he only knows me from my HUB page here and my email address only.

When I returned to home, I took the laptop apart until getting the motherboard. I saw 4 empty slots for chip (see photos) which I never saw before. I thought the motherboard is bad. My mind seemed to be not clear after working a hectic day. I sent the photos to the young man and told him that the motherboard had missing chips. While I was trying to put the laptop back together, the owner emailed me back to hold and another email politely asking me isn't that the video chip under the heat sink. He is right. I recalled my dv6000 HUB page had photo that the video chip is under the heat sink which is different from the current IBM T41 that I am testing with. I am glad that I have a smart owner who studied his laptop and know it well. I also felt that my HUB page is not just sharing for others but also to myself later on.

I removed the heat sink and found the video chip. Once again, when I opened up the fan, its vent was fully clogged by dust that caused the overheat. I cleaned up the fan, heated the video chip to melt the solder underneath it, put the LCD on and powered on the laptop. Hooray! The HP logo displayed. I put the laptop back together and started the laptop again. It went to the Windows recovery screen, displayed in Korean that I don't know. I let it time out. The Windows crashed. For the 2nd time, I picked the first option. It went to the Windows logon screen with 2 user names. I didn't go further since it would go beyond the data privacy. It was 11:30 pm already. I emailed the young man that he could pick up his laptop the next day.

I cleaned up the laptop and met the young man again the next day at same time, same place to return the laptop back to him. He paid an amount that he was happy for the laptop and I was happy too because my accumulated deficit on fixing previous laptops can be reduced.