Dead dv6000? There's hope...

Well, I have had the same problems as many others with my dv6000 (6140) series notebook, purchased new in Feb. ‘07 ($1200) from Staples. The MB was replaced in July ‘08 through the HP secret warranty. The replacement MB was guaranteed for a year. So, 18 months later….. In Jan ‘10 the MB began acting up again; first symptoms: no sound, no microphone although the speaker and mic jacks work fine; next symptom: occasional WiFi disconnect; and in Sept ‘10 a more recent symptom: doesn’t always boot — all lights – no action and it goes through a series of auto re-starts until I finally hold the on/off button down to kill the sequence. It does fire up about once in 20 tries. I have called HP Help on several occasions, like others, and gotten the same stupid replies… “out of warranty”. As of last week, they won’t even fix it at MY expense. In other words, HP is completely distancing itself from this product. Spoke to a case manager last week… same stuff, although as a gesture of good faith, she extended the 1-year warranty on my 2 teenagers’ HP dv6’s for 2 years. Big deal, but considering HP’s track record, they might just need it! Bottom line… I removed the hard drive and transferred all my data files and folders to another computer (a non-HP desktop); saved all e-mail messages and contacts by e-mailing them to myself (using another e-address) as attachments; again sent to my in-box on the other computer. Then I began to do the research on dv6000 issues and have read dozens of threads like this one.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS..

THIS IS NOT A MOTHERBOARD PROBLEM -- IT'S A DESIGN PROBLEM. REPLACING THE MOTHERBOARD IS ONLY A TEMPORARY "FIX" -- THE ISSUE WILL COME BACK IN ABOUT A YEAR AFTER THE GPU OVERHEATS AGAIN, BUT THERE IS A PERMANENT SOLUTION.

My dv6140 has been completely fixed by “The PC Pitstop” located in AVON, NY (south of Rochester), for $75.00. Google for their web site. They also have a YouTube video: search "dv6000 reflow".

They “reflowed” the solder beneath the GPU, applied a better thermal bonding agent and installed small copper plates to diffuse the heat (and threw away the foam crap that was preventing the heat from being dispersed). They also replaced 2 of the inferior quality cables that had cracked (because of the heat) and, as a result, restored the audio and mic functions that had been “lost”. These guys are GREAT.

MY COST: $75, PLUS THE COST OF GAS AND TOLLS TO DRIVE FROM TORONTO AND BACK -- ABOUT $80. I DID THE TRIP YESTERDAY.