GPU for M90

My Bro-in-law works for an Engineer Company, mechanical. His businnes recently had an auction for some old PCs/Notebooks, so he asked me to look at the list and basically, I told yeah, these are okay computers for basic computing. Nothing fancy, mostly P4 and PM. One notebook caught my eye, an M90, mobile workstation. So he won a couple of notebooks and desktop and asked my reformat them, about 5 in total, and I could have the M90, I said sure, I can just set them all to run and check eash one with one monitor. Anyways...the issue with the M90 was the GPU.

I have looked around and found a few 7950GTX that could fit this notebook, but it is running a Core Duo, T2300E, 1.66ghz. Would it be worth the effort and money to repair it?? I was actually hoping it has a fast CPU, 2.0Ghz.

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

It is not worth it to buy a new GPU for this machine. All of the GPU options available are overpriced and plagued with the Nvidia BGA issue. Even if you find a good deal on a 7950, it'll probably go bad within a few months.

You can get a Radeon X1400 (originally for the E1705/9400) that isn't liable to BGA failure, but still expensive for what you're getting.

 

I agree.

Details on the 'BGA issue'? A link would be fine if it is documented elsewhere.

Typing this on a 5 year old M90, on its second motherboard and third Quadro FX2500M.

 

The soldering issue is a commonly known issue of NVIDIA GPU's of that time. They used a solder that was unable to handle the high temperatures present in notebooks and the solder literally cracks apart under the GPU core, causing all types of issues. The earliest symptoms are lots of BSOD's and extreme temperatures. Later on you get scrambled video and eventually complete failure.

 

Try this, might help:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/385973-how-repair-your-dead-graphics-card-your-alienware.html

 

Yes you can reflow it yourself, but I haven't had a reflow (on this machine) last more than a few months. I've found the track record to be even worse for 8xxx series derivative chips.

What you really need to do is reball the thing, but that is definitely a more involved procedure that you can't do with your home oven.

 

Yes Commander Wolf has the right idea. It'd be best if you look physically on your GPU. If it has bubbles, game over you'd be better off saving time by buying a new GPU. If you have an infrared solder station and a professional reballing station, you can do it, but combined cost is nearly 5 grand...

 

Thanks for all the reply, I am a serious Hardware Junkie/Fixer. I will do my research and find out about how to resolve the issue. Which is why I ask questions. I realize the cost would run me into about $300 to fix it, I looked at some GPU for this notebook and found them to be about $170, yeah that is a lot, I am also thinking about replacing the CPU. I have read that it will take Core 2 Duo, thinking the 2.3Ghz, found one for $100. I did think about the oven cooking, would not hurt, saw some vids on Utube. If you review my old post, I had a D900T, 17in that had the same issue. That one cost me too much to repair. Any other comments or suggestion would be appreciated. I would to get this repaired and used as a extra house notebook.

 

I think you're missing the point. I'm asserting that you should not buy a "new" GPU because it will just die again. It is not worthwhile to repair/upgrade this machine, unless you really want to put $200 to $300 (and more when the GPU dies again) into a unit that is hardly worth more than that in it's entirety.

The baking thing was presented as the cheaper, more ghetto alternative to buying a "new" part; the end result here is effectively the same as buying a "new" GPU - you will get something that works for some period of time, and then it will die again.

Reballing, the "correct" solution, is definitely uneconomical if you want to do it yourself, but will (hopefully, if done properly) result in a card that lasts longer than the rest of the laptop. If you can find someone who can reball for $100 to $150 and guarantee the longevity of that repair, then maybe, just maybe a repair is worthwhile.

 

Even if you are a serious hardware guy, it still costs $$$ for such an old platform, literally it isn't worth it. Plus getting a T7600? Very minimal gains again for such an old platform. You would be better off getting like a used M6400 Precision that is still in warranty, 2nd gen Penryn Core 2 Duo/Quads have dropped to the point where it would be worth upgrading. You can find M6400's in warranty as low as 700-750 for the dual cores.

If you are serious about repairing it, I would avoid anything Nvidia and bite the bullet on an X1400 Mobility which is the best card that won't go melty in 6 months.