Question on videocard replacement.

So my toshiba qosmio laptop died and out of warranty. Toshiba after warranty service was unable to repair it. They told me it needs videocard replacement and they cannot find 670m via their suppliers. I couldn't find 670m either, but I found 770m salvaged from qosmio laptop on ebay. Since they use the same MXM slot I decided to give it a try.
Unfortunately, replacing my old videocard with a new one didn't solve the issue. But there is a difference.
When I press power button with my old videocard (670m) installed, nothing happens at all.
When I press power button with new one (770m) installed, the power button lights on, but the system doesn't start: the screen is black and even fan isn't working.
What do you think could be wrong? Is toshiba misdiagnosed the faulty part or the 770m card is incompatible with my laptop( the latter seems unlikely to me since it also comes from Toshiba laptop and should have compatible vBios ).

 

M/B is dead (effectively) and I am guessing Toshiba knows it (that is why they don't carry any 670M's as they won't fix the problem as you have seen).

Cut your losses, sell it as is for parts and start shopping for a new(er) platform.

 

Could it be that the card I bought on ebay is also faulty and MB is fine? I'm asking because since its 3d laptop and they don't make those anymore, I'd really like to revive it. I can see motherboards for sale on ebay shipped from china for a reasonable cost. Not sure if it worth a try.

 

Your time, your $$$$, your call. But what you see as 'reasonable' sounds like too much work for little potential benefit to me.

Is there a reason they don't make 3D notebooks anymore? I have never used one and can't see the attraction even at IMAX or larger sizes. At notebook sized monitors, 3D is just a checkmark that doesn't need to be ticked off anymore.

 

Possible, yes, that card is faulty (or incompatible) and motherboard is fine.

But what are you going to do? Find ANOTHER known-working video card to test that idea? And even if you do drop a few hundred bucks on that known-working video card, it could very well just tell you that it actually IS your motherboard that's dead. And then you'd be stuck with an unusable laptop with a defective motherboard, three video cards, and being out of a few $100's for that effort.

The alternative is that you try and buy a replacement motherboard. Again, it very well may be the video cards that are defective, still leaving you with a non-functioning laptop. And you'd still be out a few $100's (because laptop motherboards are not cheap).

Even in the best case scenario, and you buy either a video card or motherboard that fixes the problem, you would've spent a few $100's and still be stuck with an old, slow laptop that's out of warranty, that may develop some other faulty component in the future that you need to repair at your own cost.

So, I agree with Tillerofearth. It's not worth trying to salvage this thing. You're going to sink more time and money into diagnosing / repairing this thing than it is worth. And even then, you'd be stuck with an old slow laptop. Take the loss, sell it as-is for parts, and start shopping for a new laptop (that's faster, and has a fresh warranty).

 

Thanks a lot! Appreciate your responses.

 

Agreed, not worth it, sell for parts and get a new one...