Presario V4000 lock-up...

Afternoon all (from UK)

Received a Presario V4000 laptop from dad's friend yesterday to fix a strange problem.

In order for it to load Windows, navigate Windows and be able to use it you have to push down on the left palmrest. If you don't the hard drive stops loading and the whole laptop appears to freeze.

I have had it apart today and set it up again outside of it's case and it was working flawlessy this way (not ideal obviously).

I heard somewhere that the southbridge is the cause of this problem, but the pressure you need to apply is nowhere near the southbridge.

Any suggestions on what to do next?

 

Here is a long thread that you might have already seen. The symptoms seem to match. Since you have it apart you may want to consider putting a washer over the chip to see if it works. (I only read one page of the thread so I am not familiar with all the reasons why that may be a bad idea. You may want to read the whole thing and then decide.)

 

The baking method is mentioned alot on that forum, but I will have to seek permission before baking the motherboard. :cool

 

Hmmm, I better go back and read that whole thread. I was thinking putting a rubber washer to put pressure on the board couldn't do too much more harm. Baking on the other hand...:eek

 

It seemed to work on my PS3 when it went kaput, probably not the "professional" way of repairing it but I am also considering reballing it myself when it breaks down again!

 

Well an oven bake made no difference so looks like it's going to have to be a new motherboard. Another reason why I only buy DELL laptops...