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    Laptop GPU replaceable?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by satan194p, Jul 21, 2010.

  1. satan194p

    satan194p Notebook Guru

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    Yesterday I went for repair of my friend's laptop. My friends is having dell XPS M1530 with T8100 proc and 8600M GT. He was not having any display at all. The repair guy after taking some time for diagnostics told us that GPU is at fault and he will simply replace GPU for 3.5K INR.
    I was surprised as all these years I thought that laptop's GPU is soldered and whole motherboard is replaced if GPU fails. But he replaced GPU for 3.5k and even showed us that Nvidia chip which he replaced. But he told us that it can only be replaced with same GPU. Now laptop is working fine without any problems.
    So my question is why do people say that one has to replace whole mobo if GPU dies?
     
    satan194p, Jul 21, 2010
    #1
  2. mrbee33

    mrbee33 Notebook Evangelist

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    Its because with most dell laptops, the gpu is soldered directly onto the mobo. therefore, in order to take the gpu out, the entire mobo must be taken out.
     
    mrbee33, Jul 21, 2010
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  3. Brendanmurphy

    Brendanmurphy Your Worst Nightmare

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    This is not just Dell. 90% of laptops on the market have soldered gpus. The only ones that will not are mainly gaming laptops.
     
    Brendanmurphy, Jul 21, 2010
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  4. satan194p

    satan194p Notebook Guru

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    But my question is how he replaced just GPU and not whole mobo?
     
    satan194p, Jul 21, 2010
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  5. Brendanmurphy

    Brendanmurphy Your Worst Nightmare

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    He wouldn't have. He would have replaced the whole motherboard
     
    Brendanmurphy, Jul 21, 2010
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  6. satan194p

    satan194p Notebook Guru

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    No he hasn't. Mobo costs a lot more than 3.5k here. He told us he had just replaced modo and also showed Nvidia chip which he has replaced.
     
    satan194p, Jul 21, 2010
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  7. Brendanmurphy

    Brendanmurphy Your Worst Nightmare

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    It is not possible. Flat out. You cannot remove the gpu. You need to replace the motherboard
     
    Brendanmurphy, Jul 21, 2010
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  8. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    How big was the chip he showed you?
     
    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
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  9. Muscle Master

    Muscle Master Notebook Consultant

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    :rolleyes:
     
    Muscle Master, Jul 21, 2010
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  10. satan194p

    satan194p Notebook Guru

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    satan194p, Jul 21, 2010
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  11. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
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  12. bipul_fx

    bipul_fx Notebook Evangelist

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    Lets get this straight friends. The laptop he has is a M1530 and this laptop had a graphics card that was not soldered to the motherboard. Now a similar specs laptop was Inspiron 1520. Both 1520 and M1530 had the option for nvidia geforce 8400gs and 8600gt. At that time just the design of the laptop was different otherwise everything was same. Both laptop didnt have graphics card soldered to its motherboard. Check its service manual at support.dell.com.
     
    bipul_fx, Jul 21, 2010
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  13. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Its soldered in, I just looked for the m1530 video cards on eBay ad nothing came up. Then I search for an m1530 motherboard( http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c289/adrock_1000/firstXPS.jpg) as you can see in the picture, one of the chips soldered to the motherboard is the Nvidia GPU.

    Here's a thread where they talk about it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/322407-dell-xps-m1530-best-graphics-card.html
     
    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
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  14. bipul_fx

    bipul_fx Notebook Evangelist

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    bipul_fx, Jul 21, 2010
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  15. bipul_fx

    bipul_fx Notebook Evangelist

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    bipul_fx, Jul 21, 2010
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  16. satan194p

    satan194p Notebook Guru

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    He holded that chip right in his hand. Seriously
     
    satan194p, Jul 21, 2010
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  17. satan194p

    satan194p Notebook Guru

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    @tHE j0KER Isn't it possible to remove soldering and resolder it if one has sufficient equipments and skillfull person. That shop is only for repairing laptops and heck I even saw an alienware 2 years back to change its display to hi- res screen when alienware was not even launched in India.
     
    satan194p, Jul 21, 2010
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  18. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Thats nothing big, a 3rd grader can change out a laptop screen.
     
    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
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  19. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    That is the S-Video board, you know the port that you use to output your screen to a TV. Almost nothing to do with the video card.
     
    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
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  20. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Yes, the 1520's video card isn't soldered in, but the XPS m1530's video card is.

    **Lets get back on topic. We're talking about the XPS m1530.**
     
    Nick, Jul 21, 2010
    #20