General Laptop/Gfx card question :)

Hello everyone

I know that in general upgrading/replacing the existing video card on your laptop is not possible - although I have kept a small glimmer of hope. I've sent this question to HP as well and I'm waiting on a response (which may never come).
I love to take my laptop with me on business trips and I often play games when I've got down time, but the gfx card just can't handle most of anything that was produced after 2004. The specs on the laptop generally exceed system requirements for most of the games I enjoy, all except the video card.

I would like to know if it is possible to upgrade the video card on my HP pavillion zd7188cl from the 64mb Nvidia GeForce FX go5600 version to the 128mb version - or possibly to an even newer video card. I understand the laptop was originally available with both 64 and 128 mb versions of the go5600. Is it possible and if so what steps should I take to start the process? Will HP even do that?

Cheers,

Kraz

 

Nope. HP's discrete graphics chips are soldered directly to the PCB. Any attempt to remove it would simply damage the system board.

 

R4000 is right...you really cannot upgrade it. Memory isn't as important as the GPU core anyway, so that upgrade is just going to leave you short of cash with little to show for it.

Save the $$$ and put it towards a new notebook.

 

As I thought. Thanks for the quick response fellas

EDIT: Got an email back from HP:

"I understand from your mail that you want to upgrade the graphics card
of your HP Pavilion notebook.

I realize the importance of the issue and will make sure that I give you
appropriate information.

Jeremy, it is not usually possible to upgrade graphics cards in
Notebooks. The system board is so tightly integrated that its
prohibitively expensive, consequently never done. So, to upgrade the
Graphics card, you need to upgrade the Motherboard.


However, as your Notebook goes with the PCI slots, you can definitely
use any external Graphics card and you can disable the internal graphics
card and then connect an external graphics card to your notebook PC.


Please follow the steps given below to disable the built-in graphics
card:

1. Click Start >> Run
2. Type devmgmt.msc and click on Ok
3. Expand the (+) sign next to the "Display Adapters"
4. Right-click on the item listed below the Display Adapters and select
"Disable"

You can get the external graphics card for your notebook PC at any of
the local computer shops. Please get a PCMCIA graphics card with pixel
shader and insert it on your notebook PC.

Note: There is a PCMCIA slot on your notebook PC.

After inserting the PCMCIA graphics card on your notebook PC, install
the driver software from the installation disk provided by the
manufacturer."

Seriously? That sounds awfully bizarre. Is there like a PCMCIA -> PCI adapter I can buy or something? How does that even work?

*Scratches head*

 

That is rubbish...

 

Uh ... that person at HP must be crazy

I've never heard of anyone doing that with an "external" graphics card. The Asus XG station isn't even out yet.

 

And XG Station is not for the PCMCIA it's for the ExpressCard Slot.

-source:wikipedia