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#1
repairing a laptop graphics card
2 weeks ago i bought an XPS M1710 laptop off Ebay with a faulty gfx card quite cheaply with the intention of swapping out the card in my I9400 . The card is a GF 7900GTX with 512mb ram ,now the 7 series of laptop cards are notorious for failing due to heat , so after a little research on the matter it appearred there was a little trick you could perform to get these cards working
Well i thought i had got nothing to lose so why not give it ago, heres how
1: remove card from laptop
2: remove the heatsink and backing plate by undoing the retaining screws and gently prising apart
3: remove all traces of thermal paste from gfx and ram chips using 99% rubbing alcohol
4: Place in a pre heated (150 degrees C) oven , on a stiff piece of card for 3 mins only per side ( 6 mins total)
5: turn oven off and leave oven door half open (or half closed) for 30 mins
6: refit heatsink, backing plate and thermal paste, i used as5 and replace in laptop
7: the test , i used prime95 to stress the card + a few swear words thrown in to make it more stressed and it passed
So i was sceptical at first thinking what a stupid thing to do, but it works
The laptop has been running now for 78 hrs continuos with no probs, the temp is 43 degrees C using I8Kgui fan controller
so if anyone wants to try this method, i say give it ago you have nothing to lose :)
Last edited by Dwarf; 04 Apr 2010 at 03:47.