Grand Experiment (Putting is All Together!) - 7422 GX

Ok Folks,

We have been going on and on for a while about the random heat problems with the m6811 machines and we have had suggestions about bios updates and even a mod that actually modified the shape of the heat sinks.

Well, since I spilled coffee in my m6811 and went and bought a lovely GW7422GX so that I could slap the drive in and keep on stepping, I now have an experimental machine that that I am willing to use to come up with a "once and for all" solution to this heating problem for everybody. I have designed a modification to the heat sink that I feel is a little less obtrusive and more efficient and a couple of other things that I will add to my new "SUPER CHARGED" lappy. I also want to try adding a WUXGA screen but I have not gotten any response about connector compatability from Samsung yet.

But I want to involve all of you in this experiment as I step through the process and in the end, I plan on producing a document on how to fix the problem once and forall.

My replacement keyboard should arrive over the weekend and then we can get started.

If you have any other suggestions on upgrades or mods that you would like for me to try at this time post them on this thread! Just do not post anything silly like a water cooler (Dell Forum) because I won't do it!

I would like to hear some reasonable suggestions on what to do with the GPU and maybe processor upgrades. Also, while upgrading the bios to the 09 revision is on the table, I will entertain reasonable safe hacks if you have any!

Eunix

Problem Definition and Goals Statement

Day 0
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My Keyboard came in last night so I tested it out and loaded Windows XP64 on the machine. (I had spilled coffee on my m6811 lappy and went an purchased a GW 7422GX so that I could swap the hard drive and keep on working.) I only had to re-activate my Windows XP on the new machine but it seem odd that the GW OS on the new drive came up fine.

Although I had to do some extensive cleaning to the eMachine, it all worked. In trying to clean the keyboard, I removed it and washed it in warm sudsy water and used a hair drier on LOW LOW heat and left it to dry over an air vent for a bit. I then rinsed it in Alcohol to help remove any water from under the keys and left it to dry over night. Note: This method had worked many times before but this time the "M" key would not respond. I also had to use an exacto knife and a paper towel with alcohol and some electronics cleaner soaked on it to clean out the connector for the keyboard because it seemed that some coffee droplets had gotten in the connector when I removed it.

Well, I ordered a new keyboard to save time from ebay.

PROBLEM DEFINITION
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I have a eMachines m6811 that has the following problem :

• Instant shutdown on cold boot.
• Media Cards not reading

• Note : I have removed the heat sink and applied AS5 which worked for a while, but eventually came back at the worst possible moment.

GOALS
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To eliminate the SHUTDOWN problem once an for all, repair my card reader and apply some additional upgrades to the machine to turn this unpolished rock of a laptop into a real GEM.

The following is a list of items that I will be addressing in this thread:

• Improve the heat transfer and dissapation rate by applying a heatsink addition that I have designed for the main CPU and the GPU.
  
• Repair my partially working card reader.
  
• Upgrade the BIOS to one that eMachines does not offer.
  
• Attempt to upgrade my max memory to 4 Gig
  
• Attempt to upgrade my screen to WUXGA.

Note : As I attempt these upgrades, I encourage your suggestions. I will have pictures all along the way.!

Eunix

Ok, I may just pass on the memory upgrade due to the costs.

I picked up the copper flat and will cut it out this weekend and add the slots. While I was in the store, I saw some copper tubing that gave me a great idea of being able to thermally increase the air flow....

I will get to cutting and try to get some good pictures at the same time.

Eunix

UPDATE

I have gone out of order from my original plan and performed the TARGA BIOS FLASH update first to see if that will solve my problem with my M6811.

The additional updates that I had planned may not be needed but I will probably do them anyway. My main goal was to stop the overheating shutdown on boot up.

My 7422GX does not seem to have that problem yet, so I am using it at my main machine.

I will put the m6811 through a series of test and let it soak for a week to see if I can get the problem to come back.

Note : Once you download the TARGA update and burn the CD, the instructions will be in German so be careful.

Eunix

Targus Bios

I have upgraded the bios on my M6811 to the Targus one. It has not prevented the shut off problem, but it does seem more stable.

Previously when it started shutting off, it would do it several times in a row. Thus far, it has only does the shutoff one time and then it fires up and works from that point on.

I will keep testing and puttingin my additional mods to see if we can totally eliminate the shutoff problem.

Eunix

Back on Track

My apologies for being so long between post but I have been dealing with "Corporate Re-Alignmen" and I have not had the time to really work on this project.

After I upgraded the firmware to the Targus Bios, I found that it did not solve the problem. I then began to disassemble the maching and foud that there was still come cleanup that needed to be done on the bottom of the machine.

In the process of putting the heat sink back on, I broke off the #2 screw.
I just ordered a heatsink and screws that I found on eBay which should be here next week.

My 7422GX is running strong and I have not had a problem thus far. I also purchased a Dell D810 which is also a great machine.

Eunix

Disassembled : All of the Components

Well, I finally found the time to take the machine apart. I have to say that there are a lot more screws than in the Dell machines. No Pictures of the step-by-step disassembly but when I put it back you should be able to reverse it.

Cleaning the Card Reader

Lets start with cleaning the card reader.
The Pins in the Compact Flash socket were not the same length. That did concern me but as I inspected the solder joints on the whole board, everything looked well connected. I will need to put the meter to it to try an figure out why the card reader was not functioning properly but I definitely needed to clean it after the coffee spill.

1. Isopropyl Alcohol
2. Super Wash Cleaner Degreaser
3. Low Fiber Cleaning Towel
4. Razor Blade
5. A TEENY-TINY flat head screwdriver

You will need to remove the cover from the SDIO/Memory Stick reader.
There are three locking tabs that you will need to use the small screwdriver to gently pry up to release the cover.







Once you have the locking tabs disengaged, you will need the small screwdriver to gently pry the cover towards the front. The pencil in this next picture points to the back edge where you will need to pry from in the direction opposite of the pencil. Since I have already removed the cover, the photo may give you the impression that you need to pry in the direction that the pencil is pointing but the cover will NOT come off that way.



The Cover should slide forward just a few millimeters and you will need to lift the cover up from the back edge.



Once you have removed the cover, inspect the contacts for dust, and gunk.


Using the Alcohol,Super Wash, Razor blade, and Screwdriver, I clean the entire board. Some of the coffee had to be picked or scraped out.

The ejection mechanisms for the Card Readers did seem to have a lot of dust and were not working smoothly. You will need to take your time and manually manipulate the mechanism to expose the blades and clean them. My final rinse was with the super wash because it dries fast and leaves no residue. ( or so it says) You can still use a microfibre type of cloth to "polish the silver" after it is all dry.


Once you are done and everything is clean, you can put the cover back on the SDIO/Memory Stick reader by:

1. Gently pressing the locking tabs in. (just a lttle bit)
2. Place the cover over the top of the frame so that large part of the opening on the side are just above the tabs
3. Snap the cover straight down.
4. Slide it back until the locking tabs click

I will check my electrical connections later before I install the reader back into the machine.

Eunix

Broken Screw Update Notice

UPDATE : The next problem that I worked on was the broken screw in the Heat Sink. Sorry that it took a while but I will put up pictures tonight and instructions and move to the next phase of "LAPTOP RECONSTRUCTION"

Eunix

Stage 2 - Broken Screw Fix and Rebuilding

Broken Screw Problem
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Now that I have cleaned the main board and the card reader, I needed to fix the broken screw in the heat sink that I had inadverdently tightend to hard.
[center]
There are a couple of ways that you can handle this including using an easy out (If you can find one small enough!) or replace the entire mounting brace.

I could not find the mounting brace on ebay from someone who was parting out their machine so I chose to re-tap the hole. This can be done with a regular drill but I highly recommend a drill press.

Here are the tools that I used.

• 1 Small Flat Head Screwdriver
• 1 4/40 hand tap bit
• 1 Machined 4/40 screw
• 1 plastic sleeve
• 1 xxxxx metal drill bit
• 1 hand drill or drill press
• 1 flat washer

The first thing that I had to do was to drill a starter hole through the top of screw where it broke off. This is where the drill press comes in handy because you can drive a straight hole. Since you will be drilling metal on metal, you will need to be have the the brace secured on the table and take your time.

I chose to drill the hole through the entire screw which caused some flaking. I used WD4 in the hole while I was drilling because the screw will flake and I wanted to encourage as much of the old screw to flake away from the inside threads as possible.

I then used the small screwdrive to "pick" any pieces of the old screw away that needed a little encouraging.


Once the starter hole was complete, I was ready to re-tap the hole.

I used a 4/40 tapbit and a matching machined screw because it was the smallest that I could find. (ACE,Home Depot, Lowes etc).

Place the hand tap and the bit at the top in the hole and use a small hammer to gently force the bit into the hole to start it. (You just need to hammer it in enough to get the cutting threads started!).

Then you will need to just take your time and cut a new set of threads for the 4/40 screw.


Make sure that you tap all the way through to the other side so that you have a good amount of threads to hold the new screw securely.



The new 4/40 machined screw, the plastic sleve and washer will go together as in the next photo.


We will need to trim the sleve to fit but we will get to that in a minute. Lets check to make sure our newly tapped hole and screw are a perfect fit.


Now lets cut the sleve to the proper size so that we can supply good pressure. This is important because we will no longer have a spring to supply constant pressure.

NOTE:It is my belief that the spring in the original design is to allow for heat expansion, and the design of the spring/screw combindation allowed the screws to loosen over time. It may be a plus that this screw will be fixed because It may reduce the amount of expansion and prevent the other screws from loosening---Just a theory!



In order to measure the sleeve, I place it in the heat sink and marked it. This gave me an approximation of where I would need to cut it.


As you can see, we need to cut about a 3/8 inch piece of this plastic sleve.



Now that we have marked the sleve, you will need to score it and cut it. I used and Xacto knife to score it and a Box cutter to cut it. The plastic is hard so you will have to cut it by rolling around and applying pressure. The plastic is brittle and may pop but if you have scored it first it will break around the score line.




Lets, see how it fits together.





Now lets begin a partial reassembley in order to check the machine to see if we are working and that the heat sink fans are going to turn in properly.


There is a metal stand off that needs to be mounted to the main board that the back side of the card reader will screw on. A total of three screws will be used to mount the card reader to the machine (two tabs on the front and the rear).


Now we need to put the aluminum housing that encases the DVD drive back. If you removed the two mounting rails that are secured to motherboard, you will need to put them on before you mount the aluminum housing.


After I got the frame back mounted to the system, I replaced the battery, the DVD, reattached the screen and ribbon connectors so that I can power the machine up to see if it still worked.


I let the machine run for several minutes and the fans kicked in as they should. The heat sink has a nice tight seal so I am pleased with the re-thread.

3 Days Continuous Runnin - Perfect operations

Well Folks They system has been up an running for 3 days now. I am going to suspend work on this project for a couple of weeks because I have some other things to do and my limited project time will dissapear for a little while.

I have put the machine back together and it has been on the bench running test for 3 days

Can I get a sticky for this thread?

If anyone wants to comment, please go ahead and ask questions in this thread. Work will continue and I will get some assembly pictures up and will re-work the thread to clean it up.

The two things that I am going to work on for the last phase will be :

• Custom Copper Heat Sink Extention
• Replacement of Screen with WUXGA screen.

Peace
Eunix