Mostly dead Go 7900 GS in E1705

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and I don't know what the general etiquette is for starting new threads versus continuing others on a similar topic, but since I have a hardware failure related question and each such situation is a bit different and I don't want to take attention away from anyone else asking for specific help, I figured I'd start a new thread. If it would be better to post in an existing one please let me know.

With that out of the way, last week my go 7900 gs video card died - I got a blue screen memory parity error followed by artifacts at the Windows loading screen and a blank screen instead of the being able to actually go into Windows. However, the card is not totally dead, because I did manage to boot into safe mode, and after I disabled the video card in device manager I've managed to boot and run normally, except with the minimal graphics available with the card "disabled" (I assume that it's still being used only with some minimal driver, not that there's some other backup graphics hardware being used). I was hoping for advice on what my options are for getting this fixed or how feasible it would be to find a replacement card and repair it myself, and I'm also curious whether this might be related to the Nvidia card failure news that just came out and whether there might be any chance of getting them or Dell to cover the repair. If anybody has experience dealing with the same issue or advice about what to do or where to find a replacement card, I'd really appreciate it.

 

Welcome to NBR, BirdLauncher.
A new thread for this problem is fine.

I don't think this has anything to do with the rcent news on nVidia cards having problems. The Go 7900 GS has already established itself as quite a reliable graphics card. Since you have an E1705, replacing the card is a very simple procedure. If you have some basic skills and a screwdriver, you can do it. I think its likely that the card has failed. Replacement cards should be available on the internet.

The E1705/9400 has lots of service manuals on the Internet, and even Dell has one. Theirs is the best to use, as it details the replacing of a graphics card very well.

 

--> Here <-- is a link to the service manual.

 

Got some bad & good news on this issue.

I had the exact same problem. After some work I figured out the problem was caused by long-term video card overheating. I found that when I installed & ran I8kfangui ( http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html) and put both fans on high, the crashes decreased in frequency (and the GPU ran much cooler).

Later on I learned the real cause of the overheating. The laptop heat sinks (CPU and GPU) end in a set of "fingers" right in back of the laptop fans and they collect dust. Mine were totally clogged with dust, preventing the fans from doing their job: cooling the CPU and GPU. When my Go 7900GS was replaced by a Dell tech (I bought it from Dell and my warranty was still good), the tech showed me the mess and I cleaned both of the heat sinks. Easy.

You could do this yourself, if you're comfortable with cracking open the case. If not, take the laptop to a decent repair shop and prepare to shell out about $90-120 for a "tune-up," during which they will clean the interior of the laptop, etc.

I replaced the original Go 7800GS with the Go 7900GS myself. It was a tedious job (about an hour of effort) and if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have pulled the CPU heat sink and cleaned it too.

Recommendations: get your Go 7900GS card replaced (it's probably damaged by now). Either clean the heat sinks once a year or have it done for you. This would go a long way in preventing the problem from happening again. Download & use I8kfanGUI and set it to "Force fans to high speed." I'd much rather burn up my fans and replace a couple of cheap parts than overheat my video card and have an expensive replacement.