wrote:
I just tried to turn the darn thing on again and had my digital camera
with me. Here is what I captured. (Sorry for the poor quality):

http://abrau.durso.googlepages.com/IMG_2309.JPG
http://abrau.durso.googlepages.com/MVI_2310.AVI

You can see the BIOS and the "Red heart" and "Question Mark" symbols.
They should not be there.

The computer is unresponsive.

Then I snapped this at the next restart:
http://abrau.durso.googlepages.com/IMG_2311.JPG

Maybe it is a RAM problem?
I have no idea what can screw up the BIOS this way.


The problem could be with the RAM, or with the Northbridge
(because it interfaces to the RAM). A freezing machine could
be an overheated Northbridge. The graphics artifacts (the hearts in
the BIOS screen), could be an overheated GPU (the 9700) or whatever
it uses for RAM (may or may not have video RAM soldered to it.

There are a couple pictures of Mobility 9700 here.

http://www.clubic.com/article-15880-...lity-9700.html

This gives an example of what to expect if you open it up. The
bezel has to be pried off. There are delicate flat cables that you
have to put back, the way you found them. Cooling is via heatpipes.
The heatpipes have a copper colored finish, and move the heat to a
heatsink/fan combo nearer to the edge of the unit. Heatpipes can fail,
if for example, the tiny quantity of working fluid escapes from the
inside. But I expect in that case, that your fans would go up to high
speed pretty quickly.

http://www.bay-wolf.com/8500video.htm

If you decide to take yours apart, take pictures with your camera as
you go. Sort the screws and store them in a way so that they go back
in the right places later. You have to be methodical, if you expect
to get it back together in one piece.

Before opening it up, I'd pick up a tube of Arctic Ceramique, which
is a thermal paste. Ceramique has stuff like boron nitride in it, and
there isn't any silver in it, like Arctic Silver. It may be marginally
safer than Arctic Silver. Don't go overboard with the stuff, if
reapplying paste on any heatsinks you happen to remove and inspect.
You especially don't want to get it into any socket pins, as that
could cause intermittent contact. Even fingerprints in the wrong
places can mess things up in the long term (salt on fingerprints
can attack metal plating). Pros probably wear gloves of some sort,
when working on these.

Good luck,
Paul