Dead TC1100 But Still Kicking- Video or Fan?

[Stokell1N]

I have a great 1100 - 2Gb, 80Gb Disk, 802.11a/b/g, etc etc and I love it! Had it since new for about 4 years.

About a month ago, started experience problems on boot - sometimes just wouldn't come on. Over time problems got more severe until now dead (ish)! When on ac power, led power light and charge light on OK. When slide power switch, 99 times out of 100, switch goes green but no screen or sound etc. 1 time out of 100, switch goes green and get screen to bios (purposefully) but then, after about 2 mins, bios menus appear where they shouldn't, screen doesn't refresh and bit by bit gets strange lines, blocks etc until after about 5 mins - screen dead again! - By the way, this is also the situation if when I drop out HD, mini PCI, memory, battery and disconnect RTC battery.

Now for the interesting bit!:

Noticed today that, when left switched on (even though 'dead' 1100 was getting incredibly. Stripped machine bare and noticed the heat coming from the heat sink over the fan/processor/video chip. Turned off the 1100 and let it cool then, placed one of those ice-pack things from the freezer directly over heat sink covering processor/fan/video chip and - hey presto - machine booted perfectly for first time since problem became severe. When I shut it down and removed ice pack, back to same problem. At no time when it was 'live' did I hear or see the fan come on.

My question for all the deep techies out there (hopefully) - is this a problem with a dead fan and the video chip cutting output because of heat or is it a problem with a fried video chip that will only work when 'covered in ice'?!?

I have concentrated on the video chip because of the screen problems I have previously described. This is really important to me as, if it's the fan, I can source one from the States for about $30 but if it's the video chip (hence motherboard) then it'll be bye bye 1100 - and I really really really don't want that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[broadband2]

I basically had the same problem with my TC1000 that you described. I have had my TC1000 for over three years and on a trip about one month ago it would not turn on or it would start to boot and then nothing or it would start and then shut off almost immediately.

I disassembled the TC1000 and took the motherboard out and started checking around the board for anything that looked like a problem. I could not find anything. So I partially re-assembled everything so I could power it up and check things as it tried to run. On the third or fourth try I noticed the center of the heatsink that is directly over the cpu was stone cold, no indication of any heat at all. That was odd considering the Transmeta cpu does nomally run warm. I took the heatsink off and found that what was left of the thermal paste under heatsink/fan assembly had turned to a solid mass. I took some pressure indicator paper and placed it under the heatsink where it contacts the cpu, this will show you what kind of contact you are getting with the cpu for heat dissipation. There were only a few very small contact areas on the cpu cooler pad with the cpu; about 35%.

I block sanded the underside of the cpu heat sink until smooth with 600 minus sandpaper and then took a Dremel with a buffing wheel and buffed it smooth so it had a mirror finish on it.

I then very carefully buffed the hard dry heatsink compound from the top of the cpu where it mates with the heatsink, cleaned everything with a couple of alcohol wipes and put a thin coating of Arctic 7 Thermal compound on the cpu and exteded the Arctic 7 about 3/16" around the heatsink mating surface, put it all back together and presto it now boots and idles at 98F and bursts to 127F under full load and then goes back almost to 100F at idle.

I have not had the start problem since I did this. You might want to investigate yours for the same issue.