ACER 5290G - white screen while starting

Hi guys, my old companion, my beloved 5290g broke yesterday morning. after switching on, checking my emails and viewing some forums I decided to give old Silent Hunter 4 a go and then IT happened. Screen went pitch black, I could hear game's background music for few seconds and then all froze. After reset instead of ACER start screen I got white screen with some vertical stripes. I can hear HDD working, after a while I can see colours of my logging screen but everything is still a mess: after putting my password in screen is divided to 2 parts - one with my wallpaper colours and one black with single dots of different colours.

First suspicion was of course graphic card, but after opening the laptop I couldn't smell anything. So maybe it's LCD screen itself. I'm trying to borrow LCD monitor and check if the video-out socket is working to eliminate the graphic card.

My question is:

1. Did anybody had same experience with 5290g?
2. Can you recommend any decent online shop selling MMX graphic cards or LCD screens - UK only pls.
3. Any tips to improve cooling in this type of Acer?

tnx tnx tnx !!!

 

Dyabel, that might indeed be your GPU imploding.
Just a quick correction - they're called MXM graphics cards, and the 5920G in particular requires an MXM-II card.
eBay would be your best bet, or maybe MXM-Upgrade.

 

go to ebay.co.uk
videocards
and search for "MXM"

I have a total black screen death syndrome on my 5920G... no fix for me so far - looking, reading, trying stuff.

 

TechSuigi, do you think I can install better card into my 5290g? now it's halfdead 8600M GS - will 8800 fit my laptop without flashing bios?

 

Er no - the 8800 series are MXM-III cards at least, and will not fit into your MXM-II slot.
Check the MXM thread to get some ideas and see what other people have upgraded to.
But if you've got an 8600M GS, you can always go to an 8600M G T and improve your performance by quite a bit.

(and it's TehSuigi, an intentional misspelling of "The," not TechSuigi)

 

thanks for advise, T! misspelled nick of yours cuz now I have to use my old PSP to check the net. if the g card is my problem I am going to put GT inside. once again big big thanx!

 

OK - just ordered new 8600M GT for my Acer. I took my laptop to work and checked it with LCD monitor in my office. couldn't switch it on by pressing Fn-F5 so it's definitely something fried on my graphic card. Now I'm preparing myself mentally for Operation SWAP ;-) if you have any practical advice regarding the process of changing the graphic card in laptop, please share it !!!

for ex. which thermal paste is the most effective? any tips how to clean heatsink surface effectively? etc.

thanks in advance !!!

 

Personally MX-2 is the most fuss free but good performance.
Don't need to spread the paste nicely.
Clean surface with Rubbing Alcohol.

 

I found very nice price for the kit with Arctic5, Arctic Cleaning solvent 1&2 and some LF cloths for polishing - now the most demanding part of Operation S - waiting ;-) I think I'll got my stuff on Tue or Wed, so just in the middle of my working schedule. So I think I will put everything together next weekend - will take some pictures and try to share my experiences. Thanks again for help and advise !!!

 

I wonder what to do with thermal pads on the graphics cards heat-sink - they are used and in my case already a bit dirty from disassembling. It is nearly impossible to buy new ones, so I can:
1- cover the pads with extra thermal paste (I read that it is a bad idea in Arctic silver's manual, but perhaps it is not really bad)
2- peel off all pads and hope that fresh thermal paste will be enough for filling all gaps on all 5 chips which need to be in contact with the heat-sink (I honestly think this is the most risky option)
3- leave the old pads with no extra paste and hope for the best

Any experience someone?

 

during my research I found quite a lot of eBay sellers with thermal pads on offer - and I believe that to be on a safe side you should try to remove old pad, clean and polish the surface of the heatsink and chip itself and then to apply the new pad.

 

Finally !!! after few days I was finnaly able to sit down and fix my laptop. replacing graphic card is really easy. I found that original card installed had no thermopaste at all. I carefully cleaned and dusted all interior and installed new card apllying small drop of Arctic Cooler spread over the chip on my new card. For now it keeps temp between 47-56 C while net browsing/watching movies and around 80-87 while playing Empire Total War. Next week I will test it with Massive Effect 2 for really serious graphic performance.

Thanks all for your help and advice - special regards to TehSuigi for his support.

 

People here will tell you not to use a pad.
I removed the pad and the temps dropped.

 

Glad to be of help, and even more glad that you're back up and running.

 

@weinter:

I used thermopaste for GPU - but memory chips are thinner and contact with heatsink is provided via litlle white thermopads - I was not sure if to remove it or not.

@TehSuigi:

I'm up, running and even polishing my resurrected 5920G! I'm updating all drivers, installed new BIOS and now I'm thinking about new, faster HDD and more RAM - checked it with ME2 and new Silent Hunter and it's working really well as for ancient apparratus