HP Pavilion tx1000 Repair

I've inherited a broken HP Pavilion tx1000. It was suffering from the classic no WIFI detected problem. Meaning, that a WLAN mini PCIe adapter is installed and it works, but the computer doesn't detect it. Additionally, when I ran the Windows 7 experience score test, the notebook computer would blue screen. There were other problems such as the mouse pointer would disappear after prolonged use and the display would get staticy after a while.

All these issues were caused by the NVidia video processor solder joint being damaged from overheating.

You can find additional information about the HP Pavilion tx1000 here.

When I removed the HDD panel, I discovered a slot for a 2nd mini PCIe slot and a slot for a SIM card holder. I've purchased the following parts from mouser.com:

• C&K Components Memory Card Connectors Conn Smart Card Hinged 6Pin Smd , Mouser Part #611-CCM03-3013LFTR10
• Molex PCI Express / PCI Connectors MINI PCI EXP. 0.8MM PITCH, 9.90MM HEIGHT, Mouser Part #538-48338-0099

For the mini PCIe slot, I had to buy the tallest one I could find. The WLAN mini PCIe slot measured 10.1 mm high, so 9.90 was close enough. As for the SIM card holder, I got the hinged card holder because there's clearly not enough space for a sliding/push eject card holder here.

I'll be updating this blog post regarding the upgrade when I get the parts in.

Here you can see my original cooling mod attempt. Note that this cooling mod was put in when the no WIFI issue was already occurring and I didn't know that I needed to replace the board because the solder joint on the NVidia video processor had already been damaged.. I added a thermal pad an a copper shim on top of the heatpipe to help dissipate the heat. Note that the copper shim I added here was a thicker one so that it would touch the bottom of the case because the motherboard goes in upside down and I didn't want it falling off.

Here's a picture of my original HP Pavilion tx1000 motherboard. Notice the red epoxy holding the Nvidia Geforce Go 6150 in place.

And here's a picture of the replacement motherboard I bought off of eBay here. I purchased a repaired reballed motherboard. Notice that the plastic above the NVidia Geforce Go 6150 is slightly melted and the red epoxy has been removed. So far no complaints. It works.

When performing my cooling mod, I took a page out of this discussion thread. In the case of the HP Pavilion tx1000, only replacing the thermal compound and adding a copper shim isn't enough. I'm going to go ahead and guess it's because of the amount of heat the AMD Turion 64 X2 and NVidia Geforce Go 6150 combined generate and on top of that, the heatpipe is extremely short. The discussion thread on forum.tabletpcreview.com for the HP Pavilion tx1000 shows that the black paint covering the heatsink is preventing the heatsink from effectively dissipating the heat from itself. The user on forum.tabletpcreview.com used acetone to as a solvent to scrub the paint off, but I used high isopropanol alcohol and I definitely didn't do as good as a job as the forum user, but to date (2014-01-04), the temperature hasn't climbed past 70 C. I'll definitely be adding this trick to my collection of cooling mods from now on.

Here's a picture of my sink after all that scrubbing. Yuck.

Additionally, I've placed a thermal pad and copper shim on the NVidia chipset processor. You can tell the cooling mod is doing it's job. The copper shim gets hot to the touch when the computer is running.

Update 2014-01-11

With the repair complete, I've been testing the repair. Continuously playing video players overnight didn't do much to the heat profile of the repaired HP Pavilion tx1000. However, playing sustained flash video over a sustained period seemed to spike the CPU and GPU temperature.

Of all the software products available, the Windows 7 Gadget GPU Meter seems to be able to read the GPU temperature. Not sure if it's accurate, but it's useful. Together with the readings from HWMonitor, the system heat generates a lot of heat, but hasn't passed the 90 C mark yet. The GPU heat has maxed out at 86 C per my observation.

It is important to note that the HP Pavilion tx1000 is sitting on top of a cooling pad. In general, the system generates a significant amount of heat even with all the cooling mods. It's scary to think how much heat was actually generated when the original GPU solder joints were damaged. I'm guessing it was probably over 100 C.

Without the cooling pad, the GPU topped out at 91 C.