Video Card for Alienware M5500i-R3 series laptop

My laptop started having some serious texture issues and has now become useless for anything other than draining battery power

The video card is a nVidia GeForce 7600 GO

I was told by friends, and Best Buy, that it was the video card that was causing the problem. After talking to an Alienware representative he said I could replace the card manually.

I was wondering... where is the card at? I opened up the laptop as much as I could, but I don't recognize it. I could spot it in an instant if it was my desktop, but I'm not experienced with laptops at all.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...editAlbumPhoto&albumID=34155&imageID=19700141

(sorry for the link being on my myspace... I've used photobucket a few times and never remember the usernames/passwords because I very rarely ever log on, so I forget about them if you have any problems viewing the picture let me know... the folder should be open to the public)

Also... would it be best to just replace the card with the same model? or should I upgrade? If I upgrade, how will I know it will be compatible with my motherboard?

 

After a little searching it appears that your laptop can use the x1400, go6600, go7600, x1800, x1900 (listed from lowest to highest performance) but I also read that anything above the go7600 will run hot and will likely lead to the same problems you are having. Another thread stated they upgraded to a 8600m gs and since I'm not familiar with the computer I can't confirm or deny.

Here are a couple of threads to read through and one even has pictures for installing a new gpu albeit the author used a different computer than yours.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=66745&highlight=3438
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=265078&highlight=video+replacement
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=274410&highlight=video+replacement

I think the go7600 was the most popular card for the m5500 and that is personally what I would replace it with. Search on ebay, google, and the buy/sell section here to find one. If it costs more than $200 I would just invest in a new computer.

Here is another article I just found.

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3292&article=MXM+Upgrade+Graphics+Cards

Check this out also, not at this site but looks like alot of info.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/67-official-mxm-upgrade-com-forum/

Also your link lead me to the myspace homepage so I never saw the picture but your video card should be the only thing in your laptop under a heatsink thats not a cpu.

Edit: front page at that last link I found this.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/23285-area-51-m5550-please-need-all-the-help-i-can-get/

 

Thanks a lot! I'll read over these links some more, but I think you got me the answers I was seeking

That pic I tried linking was just a picture of my laptop opened up, I wasn't sure if it would help any, but I'm sorry that it didn't work