MY 7700 is DEAD - Page 5

I don't know anything about the paste you mentioned. I've used AS5 once, on a desktop, but keep in mind the Pentium 4 chip in this particular laptop is desktop grade (prescott, not a mobile core). However, if it doesn't make contact then I'd advise you use a thermal pad, which you can buy at various computer stores. I've never done anything to my 7700 in terms of custom thermal padding or AS5. I'd say a local computer store should have the pads and then you can cut them to the size you need.

Got the new motherboard installed and it fired right up! Thanks again for the pics omagian, they were a lifesaver. Gonna monitor my temps and see how she is running after a clean install of the operating system. Also gonna look into a laptop cooler, though I have heard that the 6.2 version of the board runs a bit cooler.

Cheers!

The pics posted were great! I had my beast stashed away for a year and a half after a small spill into the keyboard. I tried to take it apart but couldnt but thanks to the pics posted i was able to find the couple screws that had me stumped in the past. time to clean it and put it together to be 100% sure its bad before getting a new one.

This is a great thread. Unfortunately I may be making some heavy use of all those great photos in the days to come...

Excellent Post!! Thank You omagian !!! I am hopefully going to get mine apart and back together now!!!

Thats awesome that you got it working on first boot.

Ive replaced the d900k mobo in my m7700 succesfully and it now boots, but when it gets to the windows splash screen it gets a BSOD that says irql issues, disable new hardware, stuff like that. I have a raid 0 array, everything shows up in bios and stuff as it should. Why am i having this issue, if something is working incorrectly I shouldnt get this far should I? Ive reseated all the connections, cleared cmos, and when i boot from cd to reinstall windows, it starts loading all the files and the raid driver just fine, then i get the same BSOD. Im not to familiar with raid arrays, but shouldnt my computer just boot up as if nothing ever changed?

I have a 7700 and my board has just died. I would like to ask if you recomend any sellers other then the ones I have found on ebay. So far I have found the 6.1 version for 329 $.

Thank You

P.S.

This site is the best post ive seen. I now have no
reason to ever call Alienware again THANK YOU!

Its getting harder and harder to find mobo's for the 7700. Honestly, I would strongly recommend you put that kinda of money towards a new computer. The 7700s have serious issues with frying motherboards, and truth be told you will be lucky to get 2 years out of a new mobo, but it could always die sooner.

My board just came in the mail today from ZTronics. Pretty fast service. I'll be switching out my motherboard tomorrow after I get some thermal paste.

Hi all,

I seem to be having a bit of a problem with my M7700 D900k, though from the sound of it this doesnt seem to be an uncommon occurance. Up till now I have actually not had much trouble with it except for heat, but I have a 30cm fan blowing on it which seem to help keep it cool ;-)

Last night while playing a game it suddenly blue screened and rebooted. On the reboot it said that the windows/system32/config/system file was corrupt and that I needed to run windows repair mode from the CD. After inserting the CD and rebooting, windows setup would go as far as the press f6 to install 3rd party drivers bit and then crash, this is when I had my first real uh-oh feeling. ( I also tried windows setup with no hard disk plugged in and it didnt crash)

I have since pulled the sata disk out and placed it in my brothers PC to see if it would boot there which it did not at first, however I could access it as a data disk so I got all my vitals off of it and wiped it with a fresh windows install just to make sure there was no corruption. I then put it back and when I booted the laptop it showed the windows loading progress bar a split second then a VERY fast blue screen and a reboot. It alternates randomly between these two boot problems. The fresh install on the hard drive does boot in my brothers PC just not on the laptop.

As the laptop can also boot from a hard disk on the USB I have also tried all of the above on it with the same results. I have also tried with my respawn kit. The bios and the respawn see the disks, they just wont boot and windows setup crashes as stated above. I also have a boot cd created by nero that has a version of dos it boots which I have used and it can see the hard disks.

Im leaning towards some sort of hard disk controller failure, though I dont understand why I can read the disks from the dos program and the Bios can see them.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated! If it is the controller that would mean a Mother board replacment wouldnt it?, If so is there another motherboard that will fit the chasis which is more reliable than a D900k or is that the only option?

Thank in advance!

I finished swapping out my motherboard SHEESHHHHH!!!!!!!!! It took forever!!!! I did it though. And its working like a charm. Booted right up with no problems. Acatually it defaulted to RAID settings and i hda to switch it back to ATA but other than that it booted up fine and its working like a charm after 1 hour of continuous use (testing). I'll be loading up some maintenaence programs to watch the temperatures and such but all in all mission accomplished.

Thanks for the tear down of your D900T, I used your pics as a basis to tear my D900K and I was able to replace my motherboard.

I have a 51-7700 MJ12. Recently my LCD started acting up, and black pixels are being displayed as green while white pixels are displaying as pinkish(or creating a pink effect).

I've tried updating drivers, static discharges(not sure if I did this right), aslo briefy tried out J Screen Fix but I think the problem is with a video cable of some sort perhaps? Or maybe my screen is just dying. I'm curious as to how to get inside the freakin thing to access the cables connecting the damned thing to the LCD screen. Any suggestions/input? I looked at Omni's pictures but I don't know how to get the key board off.

Okay I don't know if this has been addressed, I get frustrated trying to find things in threads so I usually just ask again. So any input would be greatly appreciated... I am worried and hope that it is not a MOBO issue with me...

I have had my AW Area 51-m 7700 for three years now, and it worked excelant for those three years, until about 3 days after my warranty went out... My DVD-RW drive will read and write CD's and it will write DVD's but it does not read them... and then not long after that my computer would just shut down for no reason. no BSOD nothing just as if it over heated... but it did not. My battery is toast so if I unplug the power cord it shuts off, so I figured maybe because the connection in the back is lose thats why it keep sshutting off. Well I have come to think thats not why either. So I have since ran White Canyons Wipe Drive software to completley wipe teh drives clean with a 3X pass. When I went to run my respawn disc it would not boot to it. Long story short, I was able to get windows to start installing with the OEM windows disc a few times, but I had not downloaded the promise RAID driveers to run (when you press F6 during windows install). So it errored out, but since I have downloaded them I can't get the computer to start the install again. Also, it will boot to the white canyon software every time, and to other disk/ram utilityes everytime, but not to my AW Respawn or Windows Xp boot... UGH! PLEASE HELP!!

I need schematic diagram for Area 51 766 motherboard installation. Previous one died. Not in manual, Help ASAP.

I found this: http://www.clevo.fr/spare/D900T.pdf

May help as well. I am so excited to finally find some good info I want to share it everywhere!

:-)

Like previous posts I was wondering about Ztronics experiences. My D900T just crapped out this weekend after having it since 12/2004. Four years isn't too bad a run from what I'm reading here. I hope I can spend the $209 on the v5.3 and not have to get the 6.x.

I too found the aforementioned teardown pics invaluable in opening mine up.

(((

Yes, those pictures were a big help in swapping and tearing down my m7700a. Unfortunately, a bad motherboard is not what my unit has. Something worse, a possible crapped out video card. None the less, I saved them for future reference if the time arises. To the poster asking about Ztronics.com, they're pretty good company. That's where I got my replacement (and un-used) motherboard for my d900k as well as a replacement cpu heatsink assembly. Fast shipping, good prices.