Dell Inspiron 9400 - 7900Go GS Overheated?

Daaaveee

Daaaveee

Daaaveee

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Dell Inspiron 9400 - 7800Go GS Overheated?

Hey all,

So I have a problem with the graphics card in my laptop, heres what happened.

I was in the middle of a raid in WoW when certain textures started flickering, then from the centre of the screen there was loads on different colours etc shooting out towards the edge, then locked up and had to restart. On the windows loading screens, there were random lines running across, and then when you would expect to see your desktop, nothing, just black.

I rebooted in safe mode, and rolled back the video drivers, rebooted, and all was fine. This was on Thursday. Yesterday no problems, all working fine. Today, the same happens again, flickering textures, splurges of colour shooting out from the middle, and lock up.

I went into safe mode again, but I could not roll back the video drivers.

I then dis-assembled my laptop, and found nearly 2 years of gunk had more or less completely blocked the heat sink on the gfx card side, and half blocked it on the cpu side. So I cleaned out all the gunk, put it back together, but I still have the lines up and down the screen on boot, and it will not boot normally, only in safe mode where I am posting this from.

I also ran the Dell diagnostics on start up, and it produced Error Code 5300:0119 while testing the video memory.

Googling this error code seems to show that the gfx card has overheated, and that Dell would just replace the gfx card in this circumstance if I were to send it off to them.

So basically, do I need to replace the graphics card? I read also something about flashing BIOS? Something I have no idea about.

If I do need to replace the graphics card, is there an upgrade I can use instead?

Thanks for reading and any help would be appreciated :)
 
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Yup, GPU memory sounds b0rked. If it's within warranty, you can get a replacement, but then again you might have invalidated the warranty by taking it apart :(

Upgrading the card is fairly easy, but AFAIK there isn't anything better than a 7900GS that will go in there. It was my understanding that people had tried flashing XPS bios' to the 9400, in an attempt to fit the 7900GTX, but no dice.

That was a while ago though - things may have changed since then.
 
Any tips on where to find a replacement card?

Dell phone support are closed at the moment (though their prices for new batteries etc is extortionate!).
 
Daaaveee said:
Cheer reflux, the laptop is nearly 2 years old now, and out of warranty, so no worries there :)

Thanks for confirmation on the b0rkedness, just had a read of this:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Case-S...ard-of-a-Dell-Inspiron-E1705-9400.4187.0.html

Looks like I might be able to make a half decent upgrade anyway :) now to troll the net for a well priced one!
Click to expand...

Ahh, that's interesting - good find!!

I suggest you have a look in the For Sale section of www.notebookforums.com - that's where I got the 7800GTX I bought for my old XPS, but the guy does also sell on eBay. You could contact a few of the sellers on there and ask if they can get hold of what you want. It will be quite pricey though - £200-300.
 
Great guide that. Dell also have an XPS M1710 service manual available online (just google it)

I followed it when upgrading my 7900GS to a 7950 GTX. Time consuming, but quite straight forward.

I currently have my 7900GS for sale if you are interested. Mail in trust

Rob
 
I snipped out the left riser in the chassis and upgraded my single heatpipe 7800go to a 512mb 7900GTX, is one of the simplest things to upgrade.

Mental prices on the cards now though, good luck finding one at a reasonable price. :(
 
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