Is the graphic card on my T500 dead?

Hi, I bought a Lenovo T500 around 2.5 years ago. I was playing Heroes of Newerth one day and my laptop froze up. After that, my laptop was unstable and decided to RMA my SSD. However, it could also be that my discrete graphic card may have been damaged too.

I bought thermal paste and applied it to the heat sink.

I decided to run ubuntu on my laptop via a flash drive. after two minutes into bios, the monitor turned purple and pink, and a reboot was done. I then reapply thermal paste but there were no difference.

However, I went into bios and quickly changed the setting so that it only runs on the integrated graphics. After that, I ran ubuntu just fine for about an hr before i turned the computer off.

So my questions are, are there anyway ways of confirming that my discrete graphic card is dead due to over heating? and is it safe to assume that I can use the laptop with the integrated graphics without problems?(I would like to keep computer problems to a minimum since school is starting.). Also, does this justify a new laptop? xD

 

This problem comes up quite frequently with the switchable T400, T500 and W500. The problem is caused by the the ATI GPU solder cracking for some reason (thermal cycling? mechanical stress?).

Using the integrated GPU is the only way to use the motherboard.

 

Ah ok. Thank you for that kind sir. Rep for you.

Just want to make sure, the laptop would run stable using the integrated graphics right?

 

Really??? I thought it was only nvidia that suffered from those issues. I'm really surprised.

 

nvidia problem is with the bump material within the gpu package. This problem is more like the t4x where reflow could potentially fix the issue.

 

Was the T4xp series issues just due to heat stress? We had a T42 or T43 with ATi FireGL graphics come back twice for the same issue.

 

the t4x gpu problem was the result of mechanical stress cracking the solder material between the motherboard and the you. It is not the result of thermal stresses per se. Reballing or reflow usually fixes the problem. This is why the T60 had the collage, to reduce mechanical stress on the motherboard when you holding the laptop by the corner.

 

What exactly is reballing/reflow?

 

@Roger, i think the easiest way to understand those is for you to look on Youtube, which has extensive amount of video on this subject.