Solved I've got the Nvidia GeForce 7000m looping reboot problem

fafhrd

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I've NOT!!! got the Nvidia GeForce 7000m looping reboot problem

Acer Aspire 7520 laptop.

It's happened to me before, and it has righted itself somehow. It is said that the GFX processor overheats and becomes partly unsoldered due to a poor choice of solder alloy BGA in the original manufacture of the 7000m, and needs reballing or reflowing to fix the chip permanently to the m/b with new eutectic lead-free alloy.

I am not so sure of this explanation in my case, or how did the problem go away by itself? I have a feeling it is more to do with the following:

I am concerned that it is partly due to old thermal pads causing poor contact between the Heat sink and the chip surface. The reason I say this is that I can get the machine to boot and operate if I apply pressure to the GPU heatsink, despite everything getting rather hot. The temperatures appear to drop rapidly with applied pressure from values like 87 down to 73 degrees C in an instant. So tomorrow it is using a new thermal paste instead of the old thermal applied layer.

The temperatures hit the 80s, not the hundreds, way below the melting point of all but the coolest of solders.

I think what is happening is that the MCP (is this multi-chip-package or media-and-communications-processor?) -is simply overheating and cutting out, not just the graphics, but the other chipset functions too, due to poor thermal contact.

The initial manifestation was occasional freezing, noticeable on Ubuntu systems, and on 64-bit Windows 8, not other windows, at first. The thing is that it is Windows 8 x64 that seems to stress the chip more than W8 x86 or either x86 or x64 windows 7 versions. Once the problem gets going it affects everything of course. the freeze ups then happen at the bios if it gets that far, during chkdsk if windows manages to boot, or during a windows repair from USB or DVD. At worst, a reboot, power down, reboot cycle sets in, which is just horrible.

I wonder if a similar problem is affecting the other people with Laptops with their Nvidia MCPs, and frequent freeze-ups?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
Interesting observations to say the least.

A favorite method of H2SO4 (seriously seriously intelligent fellow) is to run a room fan pointed directly on the hardware and if that's fine, remove the fan from the mix and watch it immediately or eventually crash without it.

87 degrees C sounds high, yes, but I'm wondering if that's enough to make things not work well. The pressure you've applied to cool it and the results though, seem promising that you're on to something.

Good luck with it! In any case, I already know it will end up better than it is from your efforts.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8250 x86 + 7 SP1 x86 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86
    CPU
    P4 3.4 GHz HT
    Motherboard
    MSI-7211
    Memory
    OCZ 2 GB DDR @ 400 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    HIS AGP HD 3850 Turbo Ice-Q
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer x223w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Black 1 TB Sata II, WD 400 GB Sata I, WD 120 GB Sata I
    PSU
    300W generic
    Case
    Cybertron
    Keyboard
    Logitech Classic Keyboard 200, Dell RT7D20
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    2 MByte/sec Down, 250 KByte/sec Up
Well, I took the plunge, and dismantled the heat-pipe assembly. As expected, greyish thermal compound on the CPU, thickly buttered and crusted around the edges, and a pale blue pad on the MCP, which appeared to have a bubble of air on the chip-side. Scraped off the compound and lifted off the pad - almost like Blu-Tack, but tackier and less malleable. Cleaned off the stuff on the heat sink, set the old thermal compound aside, and polished the thermoconductive surfaces with a clean dry tissue till they shone.

I had some old silicone heat sink pads from power transistors and ICs I'd salvaged in the past, and cut them just oversize for each processor, put the tiniest drop of silicone lubricant on the chip and heat sink faces to displace any air pockets, and reassembled the cooling assembly. There are pads, clad in a metallic sheath with foam inside, which connect with the thermal cover for additional thermal transfer, and the foam was compressed, so I found a block of a rather stiffer black foam padding - came from an old LCD monitor - and cut a block to replace the deformed foam. I also cut another couple of blocks and superglued them to the copper pipe, and the heat exchanger block, to make sure there was pressure from the back cover on the cooling system when reassembled.

I had left the battery out and started up on the power supply. The fan immediately started to race on booting up, so I knew that all was not well. Could not boot consistently, and when I did manage, the temperatures of the ACPI and Core were vacillating wildly between cool and very hot as the fan cycled from its highest speed to rest.

Plan B time. Disassembly again.

I removed the silicone pads and reworked the old thermal paste to smoothness with a few drops of silicone lubricant. I used a tiny blob (what I could pick up with my tiniest watchmaker's screwdriver) on the processor faces, and a smear on the heat sink surfaces. Put the faces together, then separated again to make sure the surfaces were completely covered with paste - OK. Screwed it all back together.

This time, I put the battery back and left out the power adapter - just another variable I wanted to discount.

I booted up - silently. Only near the end of the post did the fan come on at low level, and it booted fine to Windows 7, going through chkdsk for all of my several volumes. It was really quiet compared to the time before.

Currently the gpu is running hot at around 75, but I can drop that to 70 or less instantly by applying pressure to the fascia just above the keyboard F5 key or thereabouts. I have not replaced the top bezel above the keyboard yet just for this reason. It really is a flimsy machine, but I bought it for low price and and a big screen, so it serves me right!

The ACPI is a little warm at 50, and the idle core temperature of the CPU is a cool 39.

At worst the ACPI and GPU can hit 91, with the CPU topping out at about 78.

Later, I'm going to do a little test - I have a couple of test apps that hang, and thus exercise the CPU.

I got them from here;

Download BadApp.zip - Free Download from www.ntwind.com

and here:

Index of /reactos/oldexebug.

and I've just found:

http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/Notmyfault.zip

But that's for later.

I really need something to make the fan kick in earlier when the GPU sensor reports it's over 70, not when the CPU is over 50.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
    CPU
    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
    Motherboard
    inbuilt
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI
    Sound Card
    High Definition Audio on-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    notebook
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    Seagate ST9500325AS
    Google drive 15GB
    Skydrive 25GB
    BT Cloud
    PSU
    external 20v
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    pretty good
    Keyboard
    inbuilt
    Mouse
    touchpad
    Internet Speed
    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
    Browser
    Chrome Canary usually
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender and Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
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