[coastie65]

My Sister was just over here and I told her to take the computer that my Brother-in-Law left for me to look at. She said that he said that he didn't want it and that I could have it to play with. It is an HP Dv9260nr and a pretty good laptop ( 17.3" ). Has a Core2Duo T7200 Processor and Go7600 Dedicated Graphics ( that is what has gone kaput ). This thing has dual 120Gb Hdds in it too. It seems to be pretty good package. I'll probably just get Windows 7 as it came with Vista and then I won't have to worry about matching the MOBO number for authorization. I think may only have 2 Gb of ram though, need to chaeck that, which I didn't when I was in it.

This post has been edited by coastie65: 18 April 2012 - 03:00 PM

[waldojim]

Well, if the video card is replaceable, it could be upgraded a great deal, if not, I see a baked lappy in your future!

[LiveBrianD]

How many computers do you have now?

[coastie65]

waldojim, on 18 April 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Well, if the video card is replaceable, it could be upgraded a great deal, if not, I see a baked lappy in your future!

Just ordered the MOBO for that thing. Npt too concerend about authorization as I'll probably move to Windows 7 anyway. I never got that far into it, but it says that it is dedicated, or at the least the memory is ( 256 MB ). It appears to get through post and the Hdd starts spinning, just nothing on the screen. I plugged into my monitor and got the same thing, so I would figure the GPU is shot. I was wondering why he never came back for it. Got lots of stuff in the bag to, including an extra battery ( not much good if I don't get it running ).

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 18 April 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

How many computers do you have now?

5 - Two Desktops and three Laptops.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

waldojim, on 18 April 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Well, if the video card is replaceable, it could be upgraded a great deal, if not, I see a baked lappy in your future!

Just ordered the MOBO for that thing. Npt too concerend about authorization as I'll probably move to Windows 7 anyway. I never got that far into it, but it says that it is dedicated, or at the least the memory is ( 256 MB ). It appears to get through post and the Hdd starts spinning, just nothing on the screen. I plugged into my monitor and got the same thing, so I would figure the GPU is shot. I was wondering why he never came back for it. Got lots of stuff in the bag to, including an extra battery ( not much good if I don't get it running ).

If you do use Vista on it, and it fails to activate, simply go to the activation screen and type in the key on the bottom of the laptop, and it should work. I've done this before with success.

[mjd420nova]

Adding another computer, gads, where would I put another one?? I've got one server, two desktops, three laptops and a notebook. I have two defunct units awaiting the next E-waste at the local high school. I've removed the hard drives and one had a sound card and 128MB Nvidia card, they'll go in the troubleshooting kit. The two latest additions were a Lenovo laptop and a Lenovo desktop, both outperform any of the others (naturallly) and eventually will go there way too. I've gotten six years out of all the units I've bought or built, so it'll be a while before any others get replaced and scrapped. Lately I've seen a rash of HP units taking the dive, no common causes. USB port driver chips are taking some abuse and mixed with SATA interface chips and memory buffers. The laptops have continued to suffer from the jammed adapter jacks, 6 out of ten faults there, mixed with shattered screens and balky touchpads.

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 18 April 2012 - 04:37 PM, said:

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

waldojim, on 18 April 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Well, if the video card is replaceable, it could be upgraded a great deal, if not, I see a baked lappy in your future!

Just ordered the MOBO for that thing. Npt too concerend about authorization as I'll probably move to Windows 7 anyway. I never got that far into it, but it says that it is dedicated, or at the least the memory is ( 256 MB ). It appears to get through post and the Hdd starts spinning, just nothing on the screen. I plugged into my monitor and got the same thing, so I would figure the GPU is shot. I was wondering why he never came back for it. Got lots of stuff in the bag to, including an extra battery ( not much good if I don't get it running ).

If you do use Vista on it, and it fails to activate, simply go to the activation screen and type in the key on the bottom of the laptop, and it should work. I've done this before with success.

I don't know how he left it in regards to passwords and such ( admin ). I can get them if need be I guess. I have one desktop and one laptop running Vista as it is. I gave my XP desktop to my sister. Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind.

[LiveBrianD]

If you don't know the passwords, try the recovery partition. You can also use a regular Vista disc (NOT a recovery disc) if you have one with the PC's license key.

[techie4fun]

I finally put Vista on this current Dell (it was running Windows XP which I was using as default, but I reinstalled Windows and found out the graphics drivers wouldn't load so I couldn't load normal resolution. Dell doesn't have drivers for XP). Vista's certainly an upgrade, but not by much. I like the built in stand-by power features and the added 3 gigs of RAM, but this OS has it's quirks. CertainlY NOT as bad as ME, though. This machine will run until I buy a Mac, or just a faster desktop, but I'll probably buy a better graphics card before buying a whole new system. AMD Athlon 3800+, integrated graphics, 3 gigs of Memory. Nothing fancy. It works.

[waldojim]

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

waldojim, on 18 April 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Well, if the video card is replaceable, it could be upgraded a great deal, if not, I see a baked lappy in your future!

Just ordered the MOBO for that thing. Npt too concerend about authorization as I'll probably move to Windows 7 anyway. I never got that far into it, but it says that it is dedicated, or at the least the memory is ( 256 MB ). It appears to get through post and the Hdd starts spinning, just nothing on the screen. I plugged into my monitor and got the same thing, so I would figure the GPU is shot. I was wondering why he never came back for it. Got lots of stuff in the bag to, including an extra battery ( not much good if I don't get it running ).

heat your oven to 350F, remove any stickers, and clean off all parts of the old board, then put the motherboard on a backing sheet (supported on something) so the gpu is hanging, and bake for 5 minutes. Worked for me...

This post has been edited by waldojim: 18 April 2012 - 09:25 PM

[coastie65]

waldojim, on 18 April 2012 - 09:24 PM, said:

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

waldojim, on 18 April 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

Well, if the video card is replaceable, it could be upgraded a great deal, if not, I see a baked lappy in your future!

Just ordered the MOBO for that thing. Npt too concerend about authorization as I'll probably move to Windows 7 anyway. I never got that far into it, but it says that it is dedicated, or at the least the memory is ( 256 MB ). It appears to get through post and the Hdd starts spinning, just nothing on the screen. I plugged into my monitor and got the same thing, so I would figure the GPU is shot. I was wondering why he never came back for it. Got lots of stuff in the bag to, including an extra battery ( not much good if I don't get it running ).

heat your oven to 350F, remove any stickers, and clean off all parts of the old board, then put the motherboard on a backing sheet (supported on something) so the gpu is hanging, and bake for 5 minutes. Worked for me...

I've heard of that. I won't be tearing into again until the MOBO I ordered gets here.

[coastie65]

Just went back and ordered a Fan / heatsink for that thing. Not sure if it needs it or not, but the fan seems to work initially then cut off and I don't want to take any chances. The Computer never shut down though as it went through post and then the hdd kicked in and started loading stuff, so don't realy know if that is an issue or not. I do know the MOBO is which has been ordered although i guess i could have tried the old bake treatment.

[waldojim]

The way I see it: You now have an OPEN BOX MOTHERBOARD! Bake it, install the old fan on it, and see what it does!!

Using it like a desktop with an external monitor of course.

[rain18]

wow! cool! you collections are nice unlike mine XD

[coastie65]

The MOBO arrived this morning, but I have a lot to do around here before i strt trying to tackle that thing again.

[coastie65]

waldojim, on 22 April 2012 - 06:56 PM, said:

The way I see it: You now have an OPEN BOX MOTHERBOARD! Bake it, install the old fan on it, and see what it does!!

Using it like a desktop with an external monitor of course.

Well, the first challenge will be getting to it. I was on the way the last time I went in to it, but had a problem removing the part with the touch pad.

[Szczecinianin]

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 18 April 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

How many computers do you have now?

5 - Two Desktops and three Laptops.

Gee, a few more and you can start a business. Do you use ALL of them? I keep my Amiga 1200 but it's kind of sentimental and it's not used. There's nothing wrong with this computer, though.

[coastie65]

Szczecinianin, on 24 April 2012 - 01:40 AM, said:

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 18 April 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

How many computers do you have now?

5 - Two Desktops and three Laptops.

Gee, a few more and you can start a business. Do you use ALL of them? I keep my Amiga 1200 but it's kind of sentimental and it's not used. There's nothing wrong with this computer, though.

Hi. Yep, I use them at all at at some point. My Mom usually uses one of the laptops and the one laptop needs a new Motherboard which I have, but haven't replaced as yet. I hook up the other desktop from time to time and gey it's updates and get into a couple of games I have on it for a while. WOW!!! you still have an Amiga ? I have a Commodore 128 system and a boat load of software on 5 1/4" floppies. I haven't used it in years though.

[techie4fun]

coastie65, on 24 April 2012 - 06:19 AM, said:

Szczecinianin, on 24 April 2012 - 01:40 AM, said:

coastie65, on 18 April 2012 - 04:29 PM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 18 April 2012 - 03:59 PM, said:

How many computers do you have now?

5 - Two Desktops and three Laptops.

Gee, a few more and you can start a business. Do you use ALL of them? I keep my Amiga 1200 but it's kind of sentimental and it's not used. There's nothing wrong with this computer, though.

Hi. Yep, I use them at all at at some point. My Mom usually uses one of the laptops and the one laptop needs a new Motherboard which I have, but haven't replaced as yet. I hook up the other desktop from time to time and gey it's updates and get into a couple of games I have on it for a while. WOW!!! you still have an Amiga ? I have a Commodore 128 system and a boat load of software on 5 1/4" floppies. I haven't used it in years though.

Man I saw one of the Tomb Raiders by Atari released in the early 90s for 12 inch disk (big disk, large floppy it's been so long since I've used em) at Arc Thrift Store but passed on the offer. The graphics were indeed poor, but back then they were what we had.