[SOLVED] Dell M5030 Bad CPU or Reflow?

[cyde_ePhex]

Hey all. I have a Dell M5030 with the 7 beeps. I know that "according to Dell", they say it's a bad CPU. How often do CPU's just go bad? AFAIK hardly ever. How about re-flowing the CPU and GPU chipsets as an option? If so, what would be the recommended temps, 350? And for how long would the chipsets need heating?

Oh, I already tried cleaning the heatsink and CPU and re-applying thermal paste. I wasn't happy with the way it looked (it seems that once power hit it, it warmed up and spread out to the point where it was metal on metal. I know this because when I took the heatsink off the CPU, there was no paste on the between the two. I then went to thermal tape. Still got the 7 beeps)

Thanks

 

[Boston Pro Comp Serv LLC]

Have you done the basic trouble shooting like kicking it down to a single stick of ram, and disconnecting everything not required to post? Of you've gone thru the basics than my guess would be the motherboard before the CPU. I myself have almost never seen a CPU fail, it's almost always the MB. Sounds like you may have to start by the numbers (basic trouble shooting first) before you can say with certainty where the problem lies.

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Every single one of these a reflow has solved for me

 

[cyde_ePhex]

Have you done the basic trouble shooting like kicking it down to a single stick of ram, and disconnecting everything not required to post? Of you've gone thru the basics than my guess would be the motherboard before the CPU. I myself have almost never seen a CPU fail, it's almost always the MB. Sounds like you may have to start by the numbers (basic trouble shooting first) before you can say with certainty where the problem lies.

Sorry, I should have stated that I have already done the basics. Stripped it down to just the essentials, out of the case, and hooked to the power button. All the with the same results and my gut tells me it is not the motherboard.

 

[sorcerer]

According to Dell, the '7 beeps of doom' means a CPU failure, so I looked on Ebay and got a secondhand one, guaranteed working, for £12 - reckoned it was worth a punt for that much. Installed it and still got the 7 beeps, as did loads of people according to various forums I've read, suggesting that it's a motherboard problem rather than CPU.

In my (very humble and very inexperienced) opinion, reflows/reballs just don't work. Yes, you may get a further 3 months, maybe 6, and on very rare ocassions perhaps even more, life out of it, but it's not a long-term solution and the customer would be better putting that money towards a new laptop - just not another M5030!!

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Reflows and reballs do work.

If you do a reball properly with leaded solder there is no reason it should ever come back. Only reason would be is if you warped the board or you didnt attach every solder ball properly when replacing the chip.

Leaded solder does not go brittle. It does not have the fail rate of lead free no matter what people say.

Replace the solder, do it properly and it wont ever come back. By replacing the board you are getting another known faulty chip which will eventually fail. If you replace the solder and do a good job, technically it's the better option.

I do always tell customers that a new laptop may be on the cards, but I charge £30 for data recovery, for an extra £15 they can have a reflow and back their data up themselves and get a temporarily working laptop or an extra £30 gets them a reball.

It's blindingly obvious why so many people I have the discussion with choose to go ahead with a reflow or reball.

 

[HawkinsPC]

I say GPU. I had the same model come in my shop Monday with the 7 beeps. I tried the usual stuff, but once I let it overheat, it would boot up just fine. I sent it to another shop to be reballed. The Dell forums are full of people having problems with that particular model.

 

[cyde_ePhex]

Thanks for the suggestions and pretty much confirming what my gut was telling me. I'll be contacting my client today and asking him if he wants the reflow.

 

[Go-To Gordon]

I just did a reflow on an HP dv7 (ati, not nvidia) and it worked great! I used flux so hopefully it will last a good while. I then used arctic silver with cooper shims on the gpu and arctic silver on the cpu.

cpu temps are great! not one tool I've tried can read the gpu temps though! so no idea how the heat factor is on it.

 

[Magic Miguel]

Reflows and reballs do work.

If you do a reball properly with leaded solder there is no reason it should ever come back. Only reason would be is if you warped the board or you didnt attach every solder ball properly when replacing the chip.

Leaded solder does not go brittle. It does not have the fail rate of lead free no matter what people say.

Replace the solder, do it properly and it wont ever come back. By replacing the board you are getting another known faulty chip which will eventually fail. If you replace the solder and do a good job, technically it's the better option.

I do always tell customers that a new laptop may be on the cards, but I charge £30 for data recovery, for an extra £15 they can have a reflow and back their data up themselves and get a temporarily working laptop or an extra £30 gets them a reball.

It's blindingly obvious why so many people I have the discussion with choose to go ahead with a reflow or reball.

Do you do these yourself? Curious what is your success rate or warranty rate? I have always wondered if reballing it with leaded solder would fix it but I've heard the nVidia chips have flaws within the actual chips and AFAIK it isn't possible to dissect the chips and fix where the problem lies.

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Do you do these yourself? Curious what is your success rate or warranty rate? I have always wondered if reballing it with leaded solder would fix it but I've heard the nVidia chips have flaws within the actual chips and AFAIK it isn't possible to dissect the chips and fix where the problem lies.

Yes, I do these myself.

It's true that on the old G92 chips that faulty solder balls aren't the only problem. The chip does eventually die.

Nowadays though, it's all good. I always urge customers to get back in touch if it does go again. I'll be honest, I reflow mostly, some do come back. If they do I offer the extra £15 to the customer for a reball. Reballs haven't failed me. It's just whether or not it's worth your time and effort learning.

I'm in a bit of a pickle myself at the moment, as i'm getting uneven heat from somewhere out of the blue, which is throwing my profiles off a bit. Even if you think you have the process down, ambient temperature, equipment wear (i.e thermocouples) all have an effect.

For example, last week I had a dead ps3, with the rsod. Rsx was fine so I wanted to take it off to reball to sell. The battery was low in my k-type thermocouple and read a lot lower than it actually was. Resulted in a popcorned chip as the temperature rose too high.

If you don't want the hassle, replace the board, but to be honest you're not repairing the problem as it will fail on the new board