NskEMax

Hello, everybody!

About hаlf a year I bought a used Gateway M-6750 notebook from eBay. It was working fine for the past 6 months, but now something strange start to happen to it. I hope your expert opinion would help me to solve my problems.

First of all, the configuration of this notebook is: Intel GM965 chipset with Intel X3100 video, Intel C2D T5450 CPU, 3Gb RAM, SATA 250 GB WD HDD, Realtek PCIe FE series 10/100 LAN, Marvel TopDog EC85 PCIe 802.11n WiFi. The rest should not be important.

When I received it, first of all I updated its BIOS to the latest version 95.10. Then I installed Windows XP Professional SP3 on it and 4 hours of Google search brings me all drivers for custom hardware that Gateway didn't provide for it (Gateway supports only Vista on this computer). That includes chipset driver from Intel v9.0.0.1008, Intel ICH8M SATA driver v8.6.0.1007, Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller driver v5.724.423.2009 and Marvel TopDog PCIe 802.11n WiFi (EC85) driver v2.1.4.6. I guess other drivers are not related to my problems.

During last week I start to experiencing 2 different problems with this notebook:

1) Sometimes when I turn it on, it hangs detecting my HDD and DVD-RW. If I press F2 to go to BIOS, it shows BIOS screen after a huge delay without any HDD and DVD-RW detected. The problem solved if I turn it off and then back on. Sometimes it start to detect drives after a series of turn on and off procedures. When it detects devices, it detects both just fine, boots into Windows and works without any problem related to HDD and/or DVD-RW. Are there any ideas why it could happened and how to fix it?

2) Another problem appeared at the same time and relates to LAN/WiFi controllers. When I work in Windows - LAN and WiFi controllers start to disappear and then appear again. They disappear from the device manager. LAN adapter shows a yellow (!) sign sometimes, while WiFi is always disappears completely. When I choose "Scan for hardware changes" both adapters are detected again. Sometimes I need to press "Scan for hardware changes" several times to detect then again. Sometimes they disappear and then appear themselves. Also WiFi module appears sometimes with #2, #3, etc in its name. LAN also appeared with #2 a few times. Of course in this case all network settings are lost and all connections are dropped. I can't say it happens in the specific period of times. Sometimes it could work for hours, sometimes it happen every minute or two.

If you think it's a hardware problem, please suggest where we should look. Notebook is not on warranty anymore so I have to go to some local service center. I don't think they know where to look with such strange problems, so any suggestions would be a great PLUS!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ANY HELP YOU MIGHT PROVIDE!!!

Yours, Maxim.

An interesting investigation. After another try I figured out that DVD-RW was not recognized. Network controllers was also lost. HDD was working fine. I removed DVD-RW and now everything looks to be working. Don't know if it will case network controllers to be lost again, but right now (5 mins) without DVD-RW everything seems to work ok. Is that possible? Damaged DVD-RW could case such behaviour? I have so called NEC/Sony/Optiarc AD-7563A... Also could it be a problem of connector between DVD-RW and motherboard?

dai

a faulty dvd drive can cause the symptoms you have

the connections on the back of the drive could be dirty or the drive on it's way out

NskEMax

Unfortunately after 10 mins of working without DVD-RW both LAN and WiFi adapters disappeared from Device Manager, so even without DVD-RW the problems persist. My attemp to connect DVD-RW back bring no success. Now it's not recognized at all and system stuck for a huge delay trying to identify it... :-(

dai

try a cmos reset

NskEMax

I tried CMOS reset. Even removed CMOS battery connector inside of the notebook for a minute to completely clear CMOS. I afraid it's a microcrack or bad connection between some elements, maybe because of bad soldering.

I think so, because I installed DVD-RW today and it was recognized without any delays, NICs also worked fine. Then I start to think that it might be a microcrack or bad connection and I tried to press a little to the notebook body around keyboard and in some place it instantly lost the network. So I guess I have to go to a technical specialist to look for the problem on the motherboard. It seems even complex repair in local service center will cost me less then ordering a replacement motherboard.

I slightely pressed to the notebook body and its network disappeared.

dai

it looks like a bad connection or faulty solder joint

NskEMax

It seems like BGA chip was not soldered good enough. Will have to find some specialist who will resolder me this chip. My known repairmen checked it out and said it's soldering of BGA chip for sure, but he don't solder such chips, don't have required equipment.

dai

do you know any tv techs

NskEMax

Nope, but I found a service center for notebooks who promissed me to repair it for $30-$60 in case of no replacement chips will be required. Will give them notebook tomorrow. They promissed to take care of it in a week. So we will see then. Will post an update when they will return it to me. I found at least two other service centers localy who said they could do it for $120-$130, one of them are very well known. So if 1st one will fail, I still have an alternative. :-)

dai

will wait for your update

NskEMax

Update: my notebook returned from service center. They resoldered the BGA chip and it seems to work ok now. Will be testing it from now. They took ~US$65 for this job.

dai

glad you seem to have it sorted

tyl604

Can you tell me how to remove the DVD/CD drive? Vista does not recognize the drive now (nor My Computer) and I want to unplug the data and power cords, then plug them back in to see if Vista will recognize the drive.

Will admit that it sounds a lot like your problem which involved soldering a chip, but want to try this first.

Thanks