Old Dell laptop boot loop fixed with a hair dryer

I was swapping a hard drive on a 2012 Dell Latitude that kept restarting before Windows loaded. After 4 hours of driver checks and swap tests, a guy on a forum said to heat the motherboard chipset with a hair dryer for 30 seconds. It booted right up and has been stable for two weeks now. Anyone else ever used heat to fix a cold solder joint on a motherboard?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakotawells28d ago

That two week stable period is the part that gets me. Did you check the temps after the hair dryer trick, because I gotta wonder if that chipset is now running hotter than it used to and the reflow just bought you time. I tried something similar on an old Xbox 360 years ago with a heat gun, worked for maybe a month before the solder cracked again and took the whole board with it. So are you religious about shutting it down and letting it cool off, or are you just using it like normal and hoping for the best.

danielmartinez28d ago

Wait, you're saying your laptop was totally bricked and you fixed it with a hair dryer? Like a literal hair dryer you use on your head after a shower? Did you at least feel like a total idiot holding it up to the motherboard while it was running? I've seen people try all kinds of wacky tricks to revive old electronics, but using heat on purpose is a new one to me. Honestly though, if it worked and held up for two weeks, that's kind of genius in a desperate sort of way. Just don't melt any plastic clips or caps while you're at it.