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The machine came to us in an inoperative state. We were also unable to get into the bios due to a lost password. We diagnosed the problem to a bad hard drive. Most laptop hard drives fail due to being dropped.

After we installed a new hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, another problem reared its ugly head. Most Averatec laptops have overheating issue’s, our machine was no exception. After running for a short period of time the machine would just shut down. The processor was reaching its thermal limit and shutting down, Very Bad! After thoroughly cleaning the heat sinks, fans, and underneath the keyboard, we applied a fresh coat of Arctic Silver heat sink compound to the CPU cooler. After reassembling the computer the problem was still there.

The next logical step was to flash the Bios. We first flashed the Bios with the latest version, R101Z dated 3/31/2005. It’s always best to get the latest version of your Bios, with the exception of Beta Release. We restarted the machine and hoped for the best. Unfortunately this version of Bios seemed to aggravate our overheating issue. We had one more option, use an older version of Bios listed on Averatec’s website. After updating the Bios to, RD09 dated 6/30/2004, the machine runs rock solid at 40C. The temperature problem was due to a combination of dust filled heat sinks and bad Bios.

The next problem we needed to address was the lack of a Bios password. We had hoped that flashing the Bios would remove the password, but no such luck. It took us awhile to even find the CMOS battery, and after we found it we realized it was soldered to the motherboard. We then used a soldering iron to remove one of the battery leads, and shorted the contacts on the motherboard. We then re-soldered the lead and reassembled the machine. It worked like a charm, and now were able to modify the Bios.

We finished off the Averatec with a few of our recommended free software titles, and viola our customers got a like new machine.

Update:

We’ve received quite a bit of interest regarding this repair. Apparently many of our users are having the same issue and have inquired about our repair. The first question is “where can I find the bios update”. It can be found here. The second question is “what utility do you use to read computer temperatures”. We use a utility called SpeedFan. You can download it here.

Thanks for reading our posts, and please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 3:02 am and is filed under Computer Repair and Networks.