zwaldowski Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 I recently bought a Dell Wireless 1505 (Draft-N, miniPCI) card for my HP dv6654us (comes with an Intel 4965 that's accessible by the same place you get to the memory). The day I bought it, I flashed my HP's BIOS with the one available here floating around on the forums. Everything worked okay until the day I finally got the new card in the mail. I removed the three wires/antennae (in colors black, silver, and gray), unscrewed the two screws, and slowly removed the card and put it in a safe spot. I then installed the Dell 1505 by pushing it back in the same slot, installing the screws, and attaching only the first and second antennae (they were numbered; they matched numbered slots on the Intel card) to the two holes on the Dell card. I taped up the third remaining wire with masking tape and then sealed up my computer. Booted into Vista and installed the Dell Wireless driver that had been pre-extracted to C:\Dell, it initialized the wireless card and worked flawlessly for a while. I then took the plunge and rebooted into Leopard. It was beautiful, I just removed and re-added the Wireless card in the Network preferences and the AirPort Utility started glowing with heavenly light (naw, it just blinked) in the corner. Okay, flash to two hours later. I had rebooted Leopard once to refresh the driver cache after getting rid of the kexts relating to the RealTek USB WiFi I used before. My laptop sat at the desktop, doing nothing; I was doing my homework. Suddenly, my laptop goes off with a "pop". Thinking it just tried to go into sleep and/or hibernation, I hit the power button. Nothing happened. I'll skip over the next half-hour (me screaming and yelling, futile removal of the battery, holding down the power button for minutes on end), but long story short, my laptop was dead. I swapped the Intel and Dell WiFi cards back out. I Googled around, and it turns out that this is a PROBLEM with the HP dv6000 series. HP even expanded the warranty to 24 months for some of the laptops in the dv6000 line (dv6600's were not included; luckily, I bought my laptop in Nov 07 and am still in my 12-month). Even longer story short, I'm typing this away on a borrowed Dell, with my laptop sitting in a special warranty box from HP waiting to be shipped out. They said they're going to fix it for free (even shipping costs). Hidden in their warranty's service agreement was a clause about them holding my laptop hostage until I pay them if they find any part of it was my fault. So, I have one question... is this my fault, or was this just a coincidence? Did I kill my laptop? Even better of a question: if it is my fault, would HP notice it or would they simply replace the motherboard/CPU as with any other dv6000? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadcrash1 Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 i'm not an expert but usually companies know if you tamper with they're hardware you already did the obvious of swapping the wifi out just hope 4 the best best of luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doktaphex Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 They will know that you have been messing with it. All laptop screws have either red or blue paint on them that comes off when you screw them back in. Also you say you flashed your BIOS with one from here, is this an official HP bios or a modded one? Hopefully all will be well, but I thought I'd tell you what I know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zwaldowski Posted October 20, 2008 Author Share Posted October 20, 2008 Right, I know about the blue/red paint thing. However, the WiFi card in the HP is located right next to the RAM (under the same panel). HP had previously (on an unrelated issue) told to me to reseat my RAM; they profusely explained that it wouldn't break my warranty. I've also taken my hard drive out at their recommendation so as to back up my data before sending it off. The WiFi card's screws also have no paint under them Edit: The BIOS (a modded one from here with no WiFi whitelist) can't be the problem, as it worked for a week beforehand. Either way, HP systematically replaces the motherboard on the laptops with this issue, as it's a documented problem with the dv6000 series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doktaphex Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 in that case mate, I would say you shouldn't worry. My only issue about the BIOS was that hey may check the chip, but if it's a well documented issue that these boards are crappy, then I doubt that they would check. Good luck dude, hope all goes well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHJ Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 the blue or red painting isn't painting it's a liquid product also used in the mechanical industry to "glue" the screws to avoid the "auto-removal" caused by vibrations. that product comes in three colours indicating the resistance of the product, the industry has no time to check if the bios is the original one or any thing like that, your laptop will most likely receive a new mainboard including a fix and sent back to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts