alienware area 51 m5550 graphics card broken?

Can I just buy a new graphics card and replace it, or is the graphics card on this notebook integrated... which basically means that i need to buy a new motherboard?

I'm pretty darn sure it's the graphics card. It gets a 1/5 of the points (obvious exaggeration) it should from the 3dmark games, and it can't even play half life 2. It can only play up to like.... Warcraft III.

 

I just replaced the graphics card on my 5500. I think it should be the same for you. Look on e-bay. one should show up.

 

yup i would check ebay what graphics card do you have in there i will help look

 

Most likely the 7600go. Are you sure it's the video card though? Do you get any artifacts or anything like that?

 

check out ebay if you ened a new card

 

what do you mean artifacts? And I'm fairly certain it's the graphics card. I'm actually in Seoul right now... not that it matters, my one year warranty is gone. It was broken ever since i first got the laptop; i was pissed, but not like i'm much of a gamer, and i didn't want to part with my laptop for 2+ weeks when i had no other computing device on hand. But I still called to make sure, and even alienware customer support's fairly sure there's something wrong with the video card: ANd yeah, it's a 256 mb, geforce go 7600. They had me go through 3dmark nearly 6-7 times, before giving me the go to send the comp. back to them. Is there a better graphics card i can get though? I thought 7600 was the best i could get?

I've tried 3dmark 03 and 05, and i remember the numbers were about significantly lower than those posted by others with the same specs. Like... a 1000 points lower.


I'm pretty pissed not because of games, but because i hooked up my laptop to my samsung lcd, and it wouldn't work. I even had 2 samsung engineers come over, and they were absolutely flabbergasted why it wouldn't work. Seriously, one of them stayed for 2 hours saying he was getting kind of obsessed with making it work. It's like my computer recognizes that it's being hooked up to a samsung lcd, but the screen just isn't replicated on the tv. We've FOR SURE ruled out that it's not the TV, and they did mention that it's probably my graphics card (I didn't mention that my graphics card was probably broken to them though, to make sure they arrived to that conclusion themselves).

Bought a dvi-hdmi cable, and was excited to finally see movies and .... NOTHING. I'm pretty much buying a new graphics card to do that.


And any help locating a geforce go7600 or better graphics card for the laptop would be great; i need a bunch of stuff shipped to me from LA, so ebay will be fine. Thanks a lot guys. Can't find one on ebay btw.

 

I have a 5550... a laptop. Yours is a 5500 a desktop, so of course you'd be able to switch out graphics card. My question is... can I?

 

If you can help me find out if it is my graphics card then any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm sort of a tech-idiot, and I'd definitely like some confirmation before i blow some money on a new graphics card.

Once again though, isn't my graphics card integrated onto my motherboard or are alienware laptops an exception.

 

not all laptops are and yes your laptop can take a new graphic card . you just take ou the old and put in the new

 

hurray. thanks.

 

So do you have any idea what you'll replace it with? Maybe an ATI 3650?

 

Yaa I'd also suggest ATI 3650

 

Not sure about this one...here are a few questions:

1. When last did you do a re-install. Maybe your OS is cluttered and you need to re-format.
2. When last have you updated your drivers? Try re-installing new drivers.
3. Are you getting artifacts?(Google Artifacts for a detailed description of what this is).
4. Have you tried opening up the laptop, re-seating the card and giving it a good clean?

It really doesnt sound like your card is going but if you have tried all the above then you could also get in touch with www.mxm-upgrade.com as they supply GRFX Cards for the m5550 and can offer you the best upgrade advice.

And YES you can replace the GRFX card.

 

like i said, my laptop was broken since i first got it. I asked for a new one, and of course, alienware support wanted evidence, so we seriously went through tests for 3 hours, doing countless 3dmarks, driver updates, and they even sent an engineer who replaced my heat sink to see if that was the problem. Nada..... the problem still remains. It plays starcraft and warcraft III fine (i know, why bother even including that, these are some OLD games), but there are some noticeable artifact issues as well as massive frame rate issues when i for instance played half life 2... hardly a graphics consuming game. Basically, I can't play any games that require any level of real graphics power, i think i couldn't even play max payne 2.


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=radeon+3650&x=0&y=0

which ONE? I know i'm a tech-tard. -_- There seems to be a lot of 3650's.

 

you need a mobile 3650 named 3650m

 

Here found one on ebay for you.

http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-MXM-Graphics-Card_W0QQitemZ180311755299QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item180311755299&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1234|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

great. is there anyway to confirm my laptop's mxm, or are all alienware m5550's mxm? I bought it way back in 06

just wondering

 

I used to have an AW m5550 and my 7600go GPU was an MXM Type III.

Check out this page if you are unsure, it's been done!

http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Fujitsu.html

 

Got a 2782 on 3dmark05 after fully updated drivers and completely reformatted with no programs running on the background. This guy got a 3542. Is this enough evidence that it's my graphics card. Kinda getting paranoid about sending a sizable chunk of change on a graphics when i'm not 100% sure it's the problem.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3165&review=Alienware+Area+51+m5550

My obsession with this problem primarily started when i realized that my new lcd tv was incapable of connecting with my tv. 2 hours with 2 samsung engineers later, it's obvious the tv wasn't at fault, and they pointed to the graphics card in my laptop as a possible problem even though i never told them i thought it was broken ever since i bought. Heck, Alienware thinks it's the graphics card.

 

ah, screw it, i'll just go to a tech. store and have them test it out.

 

lol, that "guy" is Chaz, the forum moderator. 2 questions are you on XP? and also are you running 3dmark05 at the same resolution that he ran it at?

 

nope, vista basic. uh... i'm not sure about the resolution. Let me check.

 

ok good luck and report back and let us know

vista and xp can score alot differnt depending what you have enabled

 

I'm going to be honest here and say that my 7600go did NOT behave nicely with Vista and never did. The score that you got looks normal for a Vista score.

Try installing XP and see if there is a difference.

I bought an 8600GS card off e-bay for my m5550i and I have never looked back....That 3650 card sure looks tempting though...

 

I'm thinking that you probably had normal scores along for Vista. And that all this worry isn't worth it.

 

but i can't play half life 2??? Even if vista is stopping it from fulfilling its full potential, it's pretty ludicrous that it couldn't even play half life 2, when my friend's computer with a worse graphics and vista was playing much more graphics intensive games. I'm telling you half life 2 was unplayable.

And it still doesn't explain why my tv can't become a monitor. It's for sure not the TV. Samsung engineers replaced everything first, then brought in another TV. It's the computer for sure... probably the graphics card. Honestly, I love my laptop. It's dope outside of graphics related things.

It's not about worrying; it's about somehow getting my laptop fixed so i can use a dual monitor with my TV. I'll get back to you on the resolution

 

so should i first burn a cd of xp and try it with that? Dang, is vista really that messed up? Are all of you with roughly the same specs as me with windows vista basic unable to make your lcd a dual monitor or can't play games it should be able to play with ease? Sorry, can't say i'm too convinced that changing to xp will solve all my problems.

 

Before you do anything...What drivers are you running?

 

the latest ones? I updated them again just 2 days ago.

 

So, it's not the drivers. Have you made sure what resolution you are running 3dmark05 at? It makes a big difference.