Which Broke: LCD, Inverter, or Graphics Card??

Hey all,

I had my m15x for around 2 years and has worked quite well. Here are the quick stats:
i7 CPU (Q 720)
8GB RAM
500GB HD
Windows 7 64-bit
Nvidia 240M Card

So about a year ago, I was getting the Nvidia crashing blue screen and screen flickering error so I opened up the laptop and applied some thermal paste and it worked again fine for a few months. Now, I have a worse issue, I am suffering from screen artifacts all over the screen and they start from the boot (alienware logo) and dont go away. I use to be connected to an external monitor but cannot anymore and only use the laptop screen.

-I uninstalled the drivers and but still the screen artifacts; I can still play videos, etc. but it is not pleasant

-If I reinstall the drivers (tried numerous beta/public releases) the system crashes and I have to boot into safe mode and uninstall/disable the drivers to use the laptop again

-I reapplied the thermal to GPU and CPU and nothing helps.

So.. what is the problem? Should i replace the gpu? Can I take out the GPU and boot the system to see if the artifacts persists? Is it the LCD or inverter problem?

I would really appreciate any help, I am quite good with laptops but this has really tested my abilities

 

Not sure which broke first but 240m man that is really old.
A little bit of nvidia m15x user has upgraded to 460m or 560m long time..
560m costs ca 200 usd on eBay, when I ordered it, it was even cheaper than 460m..

 

That sounds like a dying graphics card, definitely not an LCD or inverter problem.

Taking it out to see if the system boots won't work as the M15x doesn't have an integrated graphics card.

 

I think you are both right. The graphics card is pretty old and has been a source of pain in the past. If anything, I have been looking to upgrade my graphic card.

Which graphics card would be best for my needs (I dont want to spend more than I have to). Essentially, I never game on the laptop. I use it with an external monitor and usually have something playing on the external monitor while I do most of my work on the other monitor. I also would like a card without much heating issues. Any ideas which card is best for my use? Thanks!!

 

Since u won't gaming much, 460m or 560m should be good i think...

 

or if you are an ati fan you can get the 5850m

 

Thanks again all, I got the Nvidia 460M graphics card to replace the 240M that I think is causing all the screen problems coming in 3 or so days..

I will update how it works but will also probably do a clean install of windows because I think there are too many processes running. I will also clean the insides and fans, etc.. hope it works

 

Good news... It was the freakin graphics card that was causing the artifacts on the screen! The Nvidia 460m installation was a success and everything is now crisp. However, I have one question since it still did not reformat...

It seems like the Fans are always On, even when I am just typing and browsing with no video on - they go on a off but not really a loud sound like when its on max but a fan sound nonetheless. I checked HWinFo64 and I get temperatures of 40 C (when i am using the laptop screen only and using no video card drivers installed), 50 C (when using the laptop with nvidia drivers installed), and around 60 C (when the nvidia drivers are installed and using an external monitor). All this temperatures are when doing very light browsing (no videos or multimedia, etc.). The laptop is on high performance settings btw on an external/wired power).

Does this make much sense, or should I be worried? Thanks all!