M17x R3, yet another GPU died, best next move?

Hi everyone,

Well, long story short, yet another GPU died on my M17x R3 [i7-2720QM 3.3GHz 8GB]

This time the 7970M AMD died (went into permanent short circuit, had to remove it to boot the system back up with internal intel card). The 7970M was a replacement for original nvidia 580M that died a few years ago (in 2014, laptop itself is from 2011).

Ok, so here comes the question: what seems like the most reasonable next move?

I mean, the way I see it, I can:
0) Try to repair the 7970M? (No idea where to start, honestly.)
1) Get a replacement internal GPU (580M, 7970M, or whatever I can get off ebay for reasonable price, suggestions welcomed).
2) Try to attach eGPU somehow (does not seem all that easy without ePCI port, but maybe I'm wrong here?)
3) Get a new laptop, this one is 6 years old anyway. (Again, suggestions welcomed here.)

To clarify, other than the GPU and a CD/DVD-drive (also died quite some time ago, just removed it) the laptop is in good condition (well, performance-wise, anyway, the housing has quite a few scratches by now).
I'm generally happy with the run this machine had (6 years in rather harsh conditions) and I can probably afford a new laptop at this point, but looking at what the market has to offer it really feels like my i7-2720QM is still VERY solid, and 17' screens don't seem to have gotten any better from 2011 either.

Any suggestions would be welcomed here, I really was not paying all that much attention to the hardware scene over the last years.

 

Personally I,d rage at ur notebook for having glossy screen, but that's obviously prefrence.

You're kinda unlucky with the GPU choices, as far as I heard the fermi series just loves to die and the 6xxx / 7xxxM series love to die as well. I've had many of those cards sent to me, while I notcied that the fermi cards mostly short themselves and AMD cards used cheap solder in their GPU, which causes the infamous "Black screen".

0.) I wouldn't recommend it, they simply die to fast.
1.) Try to either get a M290X/HD 8970M or GTX 870M, they will last longer.
2.) Drop that idea, eGPU don't always give full performance and can cause all kinds of issues, not only that but another power source etc. is needed, in the end it's annoying to deal with.
3.) You seem to like ur Aliwnware and u don't seem to need any more performance, so you should probably keep it and upgrade it.

 

Meh, matte screens make me a sad panda. Glossy is just fine since I use it out of the dark damp basement anyway.

So do I need just the card and I can re-use heat-sink from 580M or do I need a new heat-sink for 870M as well?

 

Good you pointed that out. Yeah, you need to mod ur heatsink and I would strongly recommend that you update ur BIOS to the newest version or even a modded version. There are also upgrade kits which include a new heatsink.

The layout of the cards from fermi to kepler are slighty different.

Here are some cards I could find on Ebay:
UK GTX: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-GTX-...766439?hash=item1ecdae3aa7:g:Ru0AAOSwMw1Zlgoj
China GTX: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLEVO-Nvidi...295661?hash=item1c7ef8722d:g:miIAAOSwXYtYwXEB
USA AMD: http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-ALIENW...783010?hash=item5b3c2fb362:g:VL4AAOSwGhFZfMM7

Also, little neat trick which probably works in ur case. Take ur AMD and do the "oventrick" or use a hairdryer. It might work, since I already pointed out that the solder inside the GPU is really cheap and can get fixed by heating it, even tho It usually won't last longer than a couple of weeks - months. So i'd still buy a new GPU.



Check out the vid to possibly temporarily fix ur current CPU. (starts at 7min 11seconds with instructions etc.)

 

The 7970M is literally causing a short-circuit in power supply module when installed, can you really fix THAT by oventrick? I was under the impression short-circuit would imply something somewhere is connected to something it should NOT be connected to, not something LOSING the connection from bad soldering.

 

The GPU has tiny solderballs inside the chip (0.1mm), if one of those balls cracks and later melts connecting 2 solderballs together, then a short can easily happen. You can be lucky and basicially due to the reflow of the oven you can melt the connection away by letting the melted line get into either side.

I have seen insane stuff myself. Actually one of the insane stuff that I've seen was this:

I have legit no idea how in the world the solderballs could melt at that point. If the whole card was under high heat that the balls would melt, then all chips would have melted, but ONLY that one chip had ONLY melted in that corner.

I'm not saying the oventrick will work, I'm saying it can work. Trying won't hurt since it's already broken as it is. Also before u put it into the oven, can you make a picture of the graphicscard (front and back) so I can look at the PCB and see if the PCB is ok or not?

 

Ok, here the 7970M (did not remove some of the thermal pads, but whatever).
Also the old 580M.

For some reason forum engine does not want to show the image, so here's the link to the folder:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yv4ilf188xgskwp/AADd0y9wKwCH01zX3z8Heh_Ka?dl=0

 

Alright, the AMD is dead but I couldn't find aything wrong with ur 580M, i'd oven it and see what happens. It should probably work after that. I assume it's either the GPU or the Vram that has some issues on ur GTX 580M, which both can be fixed in the oven.

 

I ovened it 3 years ago, did not help much, heh.

I mean, unlike 7970M, 580M is not "dead-dead", it was (and I assume still is) just giving a BSOD somewhat randomly within a few mining after powering up.

 

Guess you might have done it wrong. When looking at the 2nd picture of the GTX 580M i can see some metal color on the first vram chip next to the "made in china". You might have ruined the vram chips in the oven. Meh..

Where do u live? If u happen to live in the same city as me I might be able to reball it for you. ( i know it's VERY unlikely but who knows, mb u're lucky)

 

Again, the thing was never really 100% dead, just BSODing all over the place.

Moscow. As in "Russia". But I have a few friends in PA who go back and forth, so they can grab me a new GPU off ebay rather quickly.

 

Yeah, that's far away.

I think it would be to much work to try and make it worth in the end, so i'd just order a new card and go for onboard graphics for now.

 

I guess that's the plan. So any reason to pick GTX 870M over 8970M? AMD seems about 20% cheaper...

 

None, to be honest I think the AMD drivers are better so i'd go for AMD personally. I had a M290X myself and it ran pretty good. Never was really hot, was very overclockable etc.

Here is a video of me playing witcher 3 when I had the M290x aka 8970M,both are the exact same graphicscard. m290x is literally just rebranded 8970M.:

 

Is the heat sink for 8970M any different from 7970M, or can i just re-use the old one?

 

Should be the same.

 

Ok, so I've checked my local Craigslist-type site and there are, in fact, 3 people willing to sell 8970M locally (perks of 12M+ city, I guess).
Most would even be ok with allowing me to test it. So is there anything in particular I should double-check visually before I buy, any particular test or something?

 

Nah, just go ahead and test it and see if it works, run benchmarks like heaven and 3dmark, once they passed without any issues then take it with u.

 

Ok, so an update on what happened.

I found a guy locally (who is sort of enthusiast) with numerous GPU's (that can fit R3 MB) for sale.

We tried the R9 version of 8970M with custom bios. It worked OK, run the benchmark for minute or two at around 40-50 PFS, everything was fine. Until we turned it off and tried turning it back on. This was pretty bricked at that point. Nobody knows what happened, but we think that cooler fan feedback loop malfunctioned for this R9 for some reason and it overheated itself within a minute it was bench-marked.

So I ended up getting a 7970M instead, same as I used to have. Works fine so far, temperature within normal parameters. Funny thing, bench-marked FPS are not any different from 8970M. (Ended up paying 300$ for everything, but it seem only fair since we actually did pretty extensive testing with several cards).

 

Hey yall! I do kinda ve the same struggle. My beloved m17xr3 died a week ago (gpu 6990 got fried) now I m looking for the next level up, which would be the 7970m (~200bucks on ebay). I m just questioning myself, if it is still worth it. I ve played a lot of hours on it and I would deifnitely stick on it, but what if the cpu or other parts wont work in the really near future, because of the massive use of it? Kinda paranoid, I know, but as a noobie in IT and poor student I cant afford a new gaming laptop. What is your guys experience/advise?

Sorry for my weak english and crashing your thread haha ;D

 

First thing, notebook should still be perfectly active even without a card, it should not be "dead". Just the FPS in games will be super-low.
Well, 200$-300$ for a new card seems like an actual option (double-check if your heat sink will fit).
WIth any luck it will work for several years.
What OTHER options do you have, anyway, if you can't afford a new one?

 

Well, I ran the diagnostis and it said that there is only a problem with the gpu (already did the oventrick, which last for about two Months). Did reinstall the drivers several times before aswell, but it didnt work. In the bios my AMD 6990m is just recognized as ATI GFX, but in the manager its called amd 6990m.
Ah, and I forgot to mention that there is no integrated gpu in the bios idk why, so its like a 10% chance that I get on the desktop depending on the mood of the gpu I think haha. He boots up fine and fast but its kiinda a Lucky thing to get a picture. Then, depending on what i m doing it crashes by giving me a black screen

 

I was pretty sure integrated intel GPU is part of R3 MB and is, thus, ALWAYS there and active by default if you remove the discrete GPU...

 

Ye, for some reason it doesnt find the internal one in bios. Idk why :x so i removed the gpu now and started it (didnt came to that idea, thanks!) and baboom, it works haha but kinda superslow

 

Ok, then it's just a question of whether you want to spend 200-300$ to get it back up to "normal" speed.

 

The 6990M needs to be replaced, the cards life expectency is already at its limit. Most notebooks I get which are dead due to GPU are mostly Nvidia fermi, first gen kelper and AMD's HD 6xxx / HD 7xxx cards. All those cards seem to drop like flies, so I'd personally be careful.

Interestingly I've never had any newer keplers nor HD 8xxx+ yet, which is interesting considering that I have seen a fair share of broken Maxwells already. Interestingly enough the fermi cards are the ones that break "the hardest", while the HD 6xxx series mostly dies due to bad solder inside the GPU, the fermi cards just love to short themselves, which makes me wonder if they lack protection features or that those features just malfunction.

 

EDIT: Wish I could delete this post, doublepost caused by bad brower ;_;

 

I do ve one more little question! What thermal pads should I use? Is there any special brand and what thickness fits best for my system?

 

just use whatever, make sure the thickness is good, it doesn't really matter if u use cheap or high quality pads, there really isnt much difference.

 

alright, thanks dude!