A friends laptop has broke. She took it into the shop and they said the GFX chip has melted and they could fix and weld it back for £150. It is a two year old Dell, presume it will be integrated. Does this sound plausible and is the price ok?
Laptop GFX question.
- Thread starter doodah
- Start date
As I understand it, laptops can have a dedicated graphics chip which is soldered to the motherboard, so in that respect it should technically be possible to solder a replacement chip. However it would be a very difficult, fiddly job that I would not recommend as it would carry a high risk of damaging the motherboard. A few laptops can also have a kind of mini PCI-e slot with a mini separate gfx card that can be replaced but these are few and far between.
If the laptop has just integrated gfx as you suspect then that is a case of replacing the main board.
At any rate if the chip really has melted then I wouldn't expect them to be able to 'fix' it at all, it will need replacing.
Regarding the price, it wouldn't hurt to ask around elsewhere if possible, (I am assuming the laptop is already out of warranty given they are charging you for the repair) but your friend needs to ask herself what the laptop is worth to her and how much it would cost to buy a replacement.
If the laptop has just integrated gfx as you suspect then that is a case of replacing the main board.
At any rate if the chip really has melted then I wouldn't expect them to be able to 'fix' it at all, it will need replacing.
Regarding the price, it wouldn't hurt to ask around elsewhere if possible, (I am assuming the laptop is already out of warranty given they are charging you for the repair) but your friend needs to ask herself what the laptop is worth to her and how much it would cost to buy a replacement.