~Toughbooktalk~

I have a CF-52GUN touchscreen model that has a problem, no picture. All I get is the Panasonic name at startup and that's it and only on the external monitor. The 52 does startup and goes into windows because I can hear the window startup sound. Now my guess it's the video that is shot. Anyone got any other idea's ?

How clear is the Panasonic Logo on start up? Is the back light still on when it shows nothing?

^ +1 for back light issues. A lot of the "other brand" computers we use at work (rhymes with HELL) had this issue. I got to the point of having users hold a flashlight at an off angle to the screen. Most of the time they could see the image that way and confirm that it was not the display portion of the LCD or graphics card.

ADOR wrote:How clear is the Panasonic Logo on start up? Is the back light still on when it shows nothing?

On 52 screen
Can't see nothing at all

On external monitor
The logo is very faint and it is just a flicker and then its dark. This is why I think I have bigger problems because I should be seeing something on the external monitor if it was just a bad back light in the 52 LCD..

Yup, sounds like the onboard graphics. Couldn't hurt to try and heat the chip and redneck reflow it. I haven't heard of Panasonics having this issue, but it was pretty common for the era.

Yep, you need to google the "oven trick" for reflowing motherboards and GPU's. I have done this on a alienware 7600go card and it worked daily for two months. Some times it will work for a lot longer, the reflow station is better but if you don't have one.........................................

No offence, but I would not bother w/the reflow. I have done about half dozen video cards and system boards from laptops. Most all of them worked again but only for a limited time . They all failed eventually. I think the heat required to reflow the solder shortens the life of the chip significantly.

Keep it for parts, part it out or buy another system board (the video system is surface mounted on the system board, correct?) would be my recommendation, for what it's worth.

In my case I was just trying to see if the card was all the way dead, or just needed work. I am sure the removable card that alienware had would work after a pro reflow, but a 7600 go just isn't worth the money it would take it to do it right anymore.

Most of the units I tried to reflow were dell xps 1710 models w/7950GTX video cards. Back then it was going to cost about $500/card to have them pro reflowed.

Last time I asked it was going to be around 75 for that card, 100 to 150 per motherboard.