Mates asked me to look at his laptop that has a nVidia 9300m graphics card, after being off for ages it'll boot up fine, use for 30mins etc and then it'll turn off. When turning back on the screen shows fine vertical balck/white lines. If I use an external monitor it sometimes displays stuff and but most the time doesn't boot. He has admitted to having used the laptop in bed on the kwilt and on opening and checking vents found alot of fluff so I suspect somethings overheated and buggered. Question is will changing the graphics card be a possible fix? If so, are other cards compatible like PC cards? What do I ebay for? Thanks
You need to tell us what laptop it is. Most laptop GPU's are soldered onto the main motherboard and are therefore not changeable. In this case you would have to source a brand new motherboard or buy a new laptop! Some come on a daughterboard which can be swapped out but are often costly.
Had a quick look on ebay for 5520g graphics cards. Only one I could find was £50! Have you considered heat gunning/ovening it? Worth a shot rather than spending money lol
sounds like the graphics is cooked. There is the possibility of changing the TIM and cleaning out the fans etc but it sounds like the damage is done if you are getting corrupted screen. Personally the cost of replacing the the motherboard isn't worth the value of the laptop. Cost will be around £150-200 maybe even more so id get it on ebay as laptop for spares and buy a new one.
The GPU has probably gotten a little hot, and the BGA has buggered. Baking it in the oven as mentioned above could fix it for a while again.
Changed TIM and cleaning up the fans etc and no real help other than fan's not on all the time. Considered baking as last resort The cost of a new card is too high for a maybe fix
a New GPU (if it is replaceble) is not a maybe fix though is it. Its a faulty GPU so replacing it with a working one is a definite fix.
