Upgrading laptop cooling (sony vaio - older model)

Hi, I have this laptop sony vaio vgn-fz21m and it has the nvidia 8400m gt video card. The issue is that the video card broke (screen artifacts at bootup and stuck at startup screen) like any other laptop with this video card, googling my laptop model shows only broken laptops in the first links..
So anyway, I managed to "repair" it by turning on the laptop without the radiator, this fixed it for a while, but then it would get stuck if I played a game for 5minutes. I used it only for movies and browsing till yesterday night when I left it on over the night and in the morning it was stuck again with the same problem.

Now I did the heat thingy again, it works, I left it open, put a very large computer cooler beneath it and stressed it a little in a game with very high details for 15minutes and it didn't crash, so I'm wondering what can I do to make it stable.

The gpu was reaching 80-90 temperatures before it broke (wasn't playing that much to be honest) and now with the cooler beneath it, it stays at 60-70, so I must reach this temperature somehow while having it closed.

The warranty is out of discussion as it expired 20 february this year ..

here's a picture of how the setup looks
http://i.imgur.com/JixNI.jpg

just out of curiosity, why are there 2 graphic chips beneath the radiator?
thanks in advance.

 

Basically you're looking for some way to prevent your Nvidia chip from failing again?

Short answer: buy a new laptop. For the most part extra cooling and similar precautions can reduce the risk of failure, but especially if your chip has already kicked the bucket once, it's basically inevitable that it's going to go again.

The second chip under the heatsink is probably the NB.

 

I'm pleased with it's performance for now, so I'd rather continue using it until it fails..

 

there are some companies i saw while perusing parts for the xps m1210(same nvidia BGA issue) that will repair the mobo for a fair amount. i spent $350 replacing the mobo in my machine because i didnt know about the class action suit in time.

do a search on ebay for your laptop and see if they offer the same service.

that being said, i would think cooling is going to make the bga act up again faster than running it hot but im probably wrong

if you want lower temps take out the heartsinks, lap em till you can see yourself and apply better paste.

 

You should get it checked with the warranty. This should not happen to a new laptop. Nvidia graphic cards does not seem to fail that easily.

 

I wrote in my op that warranty's out

so I guess I'll try to put a more expensive paste on it

 

More expensive paste is not going to help a poor cooling system design, especially HP's from 2005-2008. Likely you'll need to mod the cooling system, IF at all possible. I managed to modify my ASUS G71GX cooling system by thermal epoxying on VRAM heatsinks, and with about 10 of them stuck on, it dropped my 260M's temperatures a good 11C on load. Also dropped CPU temperatures a good 2-3C without repasting it.

 

What is thermal apoxying?

 

Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive

Thermal Epoxy, the VRAM heatsinks didn't have adhesive on them. This is what motherboard manufacturers use to "glue" down heatsinks to Northbridge.

 

I experienced the same problem with my hp dv2000. i think this came about when HP and nvidia tried to be ROHS compliant where they used lead-free solders. First thing you should do is find a technician that will reball your gpu ( and i mean remove and replace the gpu balls with a leaded solder which has higher heat tolerance). Next thing you should do is get a more efficient thermal paste, get the best one you can afford, i myself tried arctic silver, then shin etsu 751, then IC Diamond, along with a copper shim to dissipate the heat more effectively.