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Y400 - Random - Black Screen on Boot. Video issues, Lockup


divinitous

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Alright folks, looking for some opinions here.  This laptop was great back in 2012 when I traveled for work and enjoyed my WoW/Counterstrike sessions at the hotel.  I've since changed jobs and it got shelved for quite some time.  Eventually I got back into WoW with a coworker and the laptop was dusted off and brought out for some remote gaming at a friends house.  It did the job, but was nothing compared to my desktop at this point and the financial adviser (wife) was against me spending the money on something better.  So i went the route of the SSD, more ram, and found a SLI card on ebay for cheap.  Yes, dear, it'll only be $100   Oooo, it was nice,  But still, not what I wanted it.  So i went the route of overclocking... slightly.  Alright, now we're cooking, literally.  This isn't great but still on par with my friends aging desktop.

 

I mean cooking!  That laptop got HOT during some of the longer sessions.  I always kept it on a flat surface but never really thought to use a cooling pad or raising up the bottom of the laptop.  Yes, I did keep the fan clean and blow it out once a month or so.  Trying to alleviate the issue I replaced the heat sink pads that were kinda falling apart with new.  This helped some but really didn't do much.  The fan exhaust was blasting super heated air.

 

After some time I noticed that the video would get a little flaky with artifacts so i turned the overclocking down.  Problem is it still got pretty damn hot.  After about a month of 1-2 5 hour sessions a week I'm at the point where the laptop display will stay black unless the laptop sits for ~30 minutes on.  At which point I can restart the computer and i'll get the Lenovo screen and it'll boot as normal.  Problem is after a while the display locks up and craps out.  I've tried reinstalling windows, removing the second video card, installing new drivers, installing slightly older drivers, removing the SSD, installing the old ram and just about anything else.

 

My suspicion is the video chip got too hot and the BGA solder balls are messed up.  The laptop display "works" warm, but not cold and this this is why i suspect the BGA.

 

A replacement motherboard isn't in the options due to expenses, but trying a DIY "reflow" is something that I'm willing to do.  Any thoughts on this?  Is this the route I should take? m I'm really not in a position to buy a new laptop or really put any money into it.

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  • 1 month later...

I did the same thing overclocking my GT750 on my y510p because the stock performance wasn't very good on the games i was playing. I started to get some artefacts and after about 2 years my laptop refused to switch on - dead gpu.

 

I have had the laptop GPU re-flowed twice and both times it lasts about a month before it stops turning on again. In the end i bought a cheap second hand replacement motherboard. A repair shop told me that its not so much the solder balls getting damaged but the over-clocking combined with rubbish OEM cooling systems which shortens the GPU operating lifetime. i.e. if you do a reflow at low temperature e.g. 150 degrees this will bring the GPU back to life yet the melting point of the balls on the BGA package should be much closer to 200.

 

I will never overclock a notebook gpu again, on the desktop it doesn't matter because it is "relatively" cheap to replace and doesn't affect the motherboard.

 

 

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8 hours ago, philuk86 said:

I did the same thing overclocking my GT750 on my y510p because the stock performance wasn't very good on the games i was playing. I started to get some artefacts and after about 2 years my laptop refused to switch on - dead gpu.

 

I have had the laptop GPU re-flowed twice and both times it lasts about a month before it stops turning on again. In the end i bought a cheap second hand replacement motherboard. A repair shop told me that its not so much the solder balls getting damaged but the over-clocking combined with rubbish OEM cooling systems which shortens the GPU operating lifetime. i.e. if you do a reflow at low temperature e.g. 150 degrees this will bring the GPU back to life yet the melting point of the balls on the BGA package should be much closer to 200.

 

I will never overclock a notebook gpu again, on the desktop it doesn't matter because it is "relatively" cheap to replace and doesn't affect the motherboard.

 

 

Yes, this is unfortunately where i am at.  I tried a reflow but it failed.  The laptop won't boot now and a replacement motherboard is now my only way out.  Disheartening considering i have the GN35 sli graphics card and a msata drive that i cannot re-purpose.

 

I'm having a hard time putting the $150 into the computer when it's ultimately not able to keep up with todays games.  May endup scrapping it out on Ebay.

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