Fixing my Machine

Hello All,

I have a three year old M11X R2, i7- 640Um and Windows Ultimate 64 bit. I am pretty savvy but far from a know it all with computers. I have had some spillage on the keyboard curtesy of my kids and myself (just that once). I sent it in to get the hinges fixed and Dell informed me of the spillage damage to the motherboard and recommended it be replaced, which would also help with the slow performance, overheating and BSOD's I requested they troubleshoot as well. A year ago they quoted me $700 just to replace the motherboard (spillage was NOT covered under the all inclusive warranty I have till 2015). I would like to replace my motherboard with the highest end board and graphics card as well as address the over heating issues and top out the RAM. I love to play my games but also need a functioning laptop for school. I just need help in finding the right motherboard and graphics card. If anyone has suggestions on the hard drive as well, that would be cool too. I'd rather do the work myself and learning something. So couple of questions

The bios is on the motherboard correct?
Would I need to upgrade the hard drive for anything if I upgrade the motherboard?
I have windows 7 Ultimate - 64bit installed. Will I need to load it up again?
Do I need to replace anything regarding the cooling system or wait till new motherboard is installed. The overheating issues predates the spillages, it has always had that problem since I bought it. It is a refurb system.

I appreciate all suggestions! Thanks Gang!

 

BIOS is on the motherboard, yes.
Upgrading the HDD shouldn't have any relation with replacing the mobo. Do it if you want better loading times, more consistent performance etc. A momentus xt hybrid for example.
There's a possibility you may need to reinstall, or at least boot into safe mode and clear chipset drivers and reinstall. However you may get lucky and it would be able to re-install drivers by just rebooting.
Cleaning the cooling system is important anyway. Make sure you have a cooling system that is in spec with the CPU/GPU TDP you'll be using.
If the cooling on the refurb was bad, could have been a defective heatpipe (if it wasn't just bad paste job / poor core contact).

Good luck

 

give us full specs please.

Also, i had spilled a whole cup of tea on mine (right side of lappy) i must say m11x is really well designed as i had no damage at all, just washed my sound doughter board and keyboard then dried them... most of the spill was stopped by keyboard/plastic under keyboard... if i had left it, it might have made its way there, but it didn't.

I do doubt that spillage on mobo would cause system to be slow, more likely it would short something out and it wouldn't boot up. CANNOT cause heat issues either, that is more likely heatsink being clogged up/thermal paste, i replaced mine, stock application is horrid, its just a blob of paste, a lot of excess. get a flash light if you don't want to take it apart and point it from bottom of laptop into the fan and have a look from the back how much crap is there...

for BSODs run a ram check, could be windows too, have you reinstalled them, or are they still running for 2 years now? its more likely drivers or other crapware that is causing BSODs than once again, spillage.

For upgrading get an SSD, massively boosts performance, also if you're rocking 2 or 4gb ram that is most likely whats causing slowness instead of well... spillage. lol

if you need further help let me know, been taking apart my m11x to care for it since i got it gotta love alienware/dell for not putting void warranty stickers on every god damned screw. *cough* asus *cough*

 

This answers pretty much all the questions. Make sure you get a compatible motherboard with your system and you should be good to go.