anyone have a toshiba 5105 'spare' geforce4 440 video card? - Page 16

hi. for the record, i fixed my satellite's nvidia 440 go 6 months ago with nothing more than a 15 quid generic heat gun from focus (uk diy store). it's worked since then.

1st 2 attempts failed as i was too frightened to do it for long enough. the 3rd time (after assembling and disassembling the damn thing for about the 10th time since i was conned into
buying it on ebay) i couldn't care less if it melted away to slag. consequently, i must have
heated it enough. at least, i attempted to reflow every inch of solder on the board.
(it's almost certainly the ball grid array causing the problem and i suspect it's the memory
not the cpu given the affect the problem has but i did everything anyway)

now i'm not suggesting that those people here that say you can't do it with a cheap heat gun or that it won't last long etc are deliberately misleading you but you should be aware that a simple once over a cheap heat gun *can* fix the problem for a long time.
(6 months of moderate use with the odd bit of UT in my case).

if the problem is down to the composition of the solder used on these cards then it
is likely to break again at some point. i imagine that the more you get the card hot
(games, 3d work) the shorter it will last. and so, i'll be holding on to my 15 quid heat gun.

cheers,
pete.

WoW.... This post is great!!! I have a 5105-s901 that's doing the exact same thing. I am in need of a replacement 64meg video card. I looked on ebay, no luck. I found one at spareparts warehouse for $400.00+ dollars... Sorry, but that's way way too much for a outdated video card that can't even play BF2!! Would anyone happen to have a used source available... Also, any luck with toshiba, in reguards to recogizing this problem where all having.

R.i.p. 5105

I was running my 5105 with the video card disabled for months but still got periods of unstable video (but no video card induced crashes). I discovered that rapping the machine near the video card would somtimes settle it down. But after months of sometimes too enthusiastic banging the hard drive gave up the ghost. So here I have a perfectly good laptop in want of a cheap hard drive.... and an unobtainable (at least for a reasonable price) video card. Well, the battery is worn out too. I guess I could get a small replacement HD and just load the system and IE7 to use as a light surfing station but not sure if I want to deal with it anymore. I'd like to say it served me well, but it didn't. So it is likely headed for the dump.

Ray

You can sell me the motherboard, if you are to dump it... Just PM me, Thanks.

While Iam waiting for my new laptop....

.... I am playing with the old 5105 some more. I have been running it with the vid card disabled but still have video issues. It will be stable for awhile then pixellate and otherwise get ugly, but not crash the OS at least like when the card is enabled. But the question is why does this happen when the card is disabled???

I did confirm that the machine will not work without the video card being plugged in. Why is that? and is there a way to simulate it with jumpers across some of the vid card socket pins or some such?

asked another way

From reading the thread I gather that our 5105s are locked via BIOS into the GeForce 440 Go vid card. But is this true even if I would want to run with the video card disabled in hardware manager? I am still having some artifact probles running like that with my bad Go 440 but could another more available variant of GeForce Go, even if it has the wrong graphics chip and VRAM for the BIOS, be used as a placeholder to run with the video card disabled, hopefully in a stable fashion?

Hey, I just thought I'd add my 2 cents for anyone reading here. I found this thread, while trying to replace the card in my 5105-S701, which started having video trouble a while ago.

After reading the last 8 or so pages of this thread, i decided cooking the chips on my card would'nd make the system any less useable. I drove over to Home Depot, and found something unexpected while looking at heat guns. Milwaukeee has this great Digital Heat Gun, which has a setting for 750 degrees, the exact temp someone recommended for getting the solder on the vram chips to reflow. I also found a nice little accessory kit that included a nozzle, narrowing the air stream down to almost the exact size of the VRAM chips on the vodeo card.

So, I removed the card, aimed the heat gun at each chip for 60 seconds at 750 degrees, and reinstalled the card. It was totally amazed to see all the problems go away as soon as i turned the laptop back on.

I don't know how long it will last, but I know how to fix it if i have to!

This might not work for everyone, but I think it's worth trying if you are good enough to remove the card, its worth trying to reflow the chips before you spend weeks, and gobs of money trying to replace the card!

wow thats a very good question. there were heaps of models made that were similar to this one with slightly different vid cards. maybe one of those could fill the slot, and while still disabled and slow as hell, at least fix the gobbledegook on screen so it could be usable as a basic web/email machine.

Well, I tried this. I don't recall the exact spec of the card but it was the geforce go for one of the other Tosh models. I got it from a web computer supplier in Long Island for $15. It had the exact same form factor as my old GeForce4 go 440 except that it had a different vieo chip and less vram. The connector looked identical.

But no joy. The computer wouldn't boot. The led just flashed a pattern (I don't remember the flash sequence) and nothing else.

I have a new Vista laptop these days. But it turns out that one of my key programs is incompatible with Vista. So now I have to deal with that. It's always something.....

I did that a couple of times with my 5105-s501 video card. It worked but was always temporary. I figured it was because the heat gun wasn't hot enough to truly flow the solder. So because I was waaaaay tired of disassembling and reassembling the computer I decided to try a torch. That flowed it alright... so much that the vram chips fell off the video card. Oh well, I was sick of messing with it anyway. If you really flow the solder you need some way to keep all the components in place until it resets.

I hope your repair lasts a while for you. I got a few months out of mine the first time i used the heat gun.

Well, after a bit my card started flaking out again. I decided i would try the recommendation I read the first time, and heat the VRAM chips for 3 minutes, instead of the 1 minute i appiled the first time.

The result was that the VRAM chip moved when i tried to press on it during cooling, and everything on the other side of the board from the chip i was heating got messed up. I was supporting the card so i could press on the spot where the chip is, and everything that my support touched was moved around. A few parts even fell off.

I thought i might try to put the pieces back, but i think the chance of a repair working now is almost 0%.

So, does anyone know where tou source new cards from? I would love if Toshiba sold a card, but it seems doubtful.

I have a "spare" 5105-s701 Video Card 64Mb (my mobo R.I.P.)....

The video card still work?

Yes

hi guys,

i am joining the club. i have a 5100-603 and the known gfx issues.

i put up a complaint at the BBB and somebody from toshiba answered very soon indeed. i guess it's a good chance to get help at least for the people in the usa. i am in europe, so the only thing they answered me is that i have to talk to toshiba europe, since they don't have anything to do with them. they didn't even give me any phone-number or email-adress of some contactperson at toshiba-europa.

well... i will try it with toshiba europe, but i don't see too much success coming.

cheers

Could you post or point to where there are close up photos of the area you are talking about re soldering?

Im fixing a friends Toshiba p25 for a Power jack problem and now this problem shows up..

I cant point to the area but this disassembly shows the removal off the affected part. Click on each photo to enlarge it
http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...a_remove_2.htm

Hi, Did you ever find a video card for the 5105 laptop?
I have a dead card and cannot find a replcement?
GEFORCE4 440 GO 32MB
thanks eric

search eBay? saw one here
http://item.express.ebay.com/_W0QQit...mdZExpressItem

cheers ...

or here (u must be a dealer though)
http://hypermicrosystems.trustpass.a..._200_PCS_.html

cheers ...