How to: Replace your broken (8600M GT) graphics card (in the [I]FL90)

No idea, really. You might try flashing the vBIOS to one of a 3650 DDR2 ... but I do no know if that breaks it totally ...

Sorry that I can't be of more help ...

 

but how can i flash bios or vbios with a black screen??

 

there a guides around - just search for "blind flash vbios".

Basically, you create a bootable medium (USB drive) with a tool on it, and the vBIOS you want. The tools takes care of all itself - obviously, as you do not see any output, this method is inherently "dangerous" - do it at your own risk.

 

Some of these do not have an EEPROM, so there is NO way to put a BIOS on them (at least I am pretty sure).
But I think I can see the eeprom in the listing you showed.
My advice would be to make sure and compare the card you received to the picture and exchange it if its missing some chips. Then at least you know that it is possible to flash the vBIOS.

Make sure to get a ddr3 vBIOS when you flash, ddr2 probably is not a good idea.

 

Got a ATI 3470 working in the FL90.

Cheap replacement, no upgrade for sure.

I still have problems botting Windos 7 normally - I get only black screen, but I didn't test much yet. Maybe drivers, I don't know. Any clues?

Windows loading screen works, do does POST etc. Only when entering Windows login phase, the screen tursn black just before that.

Safe mode works without problems, 640 x 480 has some problem as above.

Maybe someone can comment on this - I will do furthr tests and repost, but not befefore 'after-weekend'.

Cheers

 

Hello, everyone I'm about to change my broken 8600GT:/. Can anyone tell me with offer is best for my compal fl90:

HD3650 MXM-II items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

thanks in advance.

 

The one from the seller mokkin worked for me, that's all I can tell you - but as he's the cheapest, I would go ahead and buy from him.

I was lucky enough to get mine for a bit over 50€ four month ago - since then, prices went up like crazy - don't know why.

Good luck!

 

Hello all,

I've encountered a problem with my IFL90. After the original gpu failed, I baked it successfully and it worked for about a month until it failed again. I ordered a new HD 3650 ddr3 from ebay and after 6 weeks of waiting, I got it and installed the card. When I assembled everything back up and booted, the screen was black and the fan/cd drive starts up. I'm at a loss of what to do now, do you think it is the card or did I do something wrong while installing it?

 

niffcreature is into the DDR3 3650s. Maybe PM him or hope he posts here soon enough.

It maybe a vBIOS incompatibility. Got it from china thru ebay?

I'd resell it, and get one from here.

Worked for me.

Where do you live, if I may ask ..?

 

I did buy the card off of ebay- from a seller called Original Source. I have no clue about how to fix the vbios problem, is it even fixable?

 

I can't tell you if it is fixable. Return it if you can, or resell it and buy from the ebay seller mokkin (see above), that worked for me - I am not biased in any form, I am just telling about my experience.

Good luck

 

I just took my IFL90 apart and reassembled extra carefully and it now boots up (I can hear the windows sounds), but I get a black screen and the vga/svideo outputs do not work. I'm guessing the card was DOA so I will be sending it back unless someone has a suggestion for me

 

It is not dead, I guess it is incompatible. Be it the vBIOS or whatever. But I agree, send it back, get it from the seller I suggested - or any other you think is best.

Good luck

 

Okay, I got a replacement for the original 3470, and now it works.

I got it in this auction from this seller.

Again, this is just a mere replacement, not an upgrade. But I got the FL90 with its T9300 back up running!

Also, as I said, the first card has a fault. The process of getting an replacement from the seller went without any trouble.

A good buy for someone who only wants a working machine, without any gaming.

EDIT: The foto shows Windows Device Manager, Display settings, and GPU-Z output. I used modded drivers from driver heaven. I didn't to any benchmarks nor heat tests. Does the 3470 have temperature sensors? GPU-Z has no readings. The heat sink fitted perfectly!

If you have any questions, post here or PM.

EDIT: external monitor works without problems, too - didn't try S-video yet ... and won't ever, I guess.

Cheers

 

You can also try to hook up your laptop to an external monitor and then boot it - some folks reported that the replacement card booted into external monitor rather than the built-in display out of the box.

 

Got a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 working in a Compal FL90.

I got the card from ebay, from this seller.

So far, not too much testing was done, but looks good, and is by far the cheapest way to get your aptop back to working - not gaming

 

Hi!

Last week my 8600m gt died so I ordered a new laptop. Recently, I found this forum. I gave it a trie and baked my 8600m gt.. and.. it worked!! My laptop is alive again. Now I have two laptops

 

It won't work for too long, I guess.

I would disassemble the FL90, get the "repaired" 8600M GT out, sell it on ebay, and get a cheap replacement like the 3400 or 3470.

It's an hour of work, and you actually can earn some money, doing so.

I sold "repaired" 8600M GTs on ebay for 100€. I didn't fool the buyers, I said in the auction that they were repair-ware, and still got a good price. You can get a ATI 3400 on ebay for 60€ including shipping from Taiwan (see post above).

After that you can either keep or sell the FL90, it's worth a least another 200€ - 250€ if you are lucky.

Good luck

 

Hi there,

I made the replacement of my 8600GT by ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650. I followed every step you suggested on your tutorial and everything worked well.
The external monitor and the sound are working perfectly.
I just have on problem. I installed the CPU-Z software and it says that my normal idle temps are 60º and when playing L4D2 it goes up to 110º :S
I have Spire coolness notebook cooler.
One thing I noticed is that the fan doesn't speed up with the heating of GPU...
My CPU temps are around 35º~45º...
Thanks for your help and congrats for the great tutorial.

 

Yes, there is this problem that the fan speed is only linked to CPU and not to GPU temps. But still, your GPU temps are far to high, I doubt a working fan could lower it to "normal" values.

So, option 1 is to try a tool called "Notebook Hardware Control" - I never used it, but it is capable of setting fan speeds. You could try to set it to full speed all the time, and then monitor temps again.

As said above, I think the problem is not related to your fan. I think the heat of your GPU chip is not transfered correctly.

Most common is, that your heat sink is not making proper contact. Did you double check that the heat sink really makes good contact with the card?

Did you make modifications to your heat sink?

Did you use thermal paste? If so, how much?

I think you need to reopen your laptop! Tough luck, but otherwise, wou will to, to remove your fried video card ...

Also, how long does it take the card to reach the 110°? 30 seconds, 1 Minute, 5 Minutes, 50 Minutes?

Cheers & good luck!

 

Thanks for Your quick response
I have W7 x64 installed, the "Notebook Hardware Control" still doesn't have for this OS version.
I didn't made the modifications to the heat sink (this maybe the problem) because I used thermal paste and used thermal pads on the RAM. I checked and it seemed that the contact is correct.
Regarding the thermal paste I used a very good amount of it...
According to the log file it rose from 58º to 105º on 5min

I will open the laptop again and check if the contact is good.

One additional question: The spacer that was on the 8600GT, I removed it and placed it on the new ATI but I didn't use nothing to stick it. Did you use some material (some kind of glue, thermal pads... something) or just the screws?

Thanks

 

Yep, that's true - too bad.

I did have to do modifications on my heat sink to make proper contact. It's doable easy, you can do it with a Dremel if you have one, but a screw driver will do, too. Just check my tutorial. Thermal paste will not compensate if the heat sink does not make proper contact ...

... not even when you apply more of it - more is not always better, which is very true for thermal paste, too!

Recheck Again, have a look into my tutorial, point "3.5 Modifying the heat sink" does show it all.

Another indicator for a low heat transfer. This could also be due to too much heat paste. I got Zalman ZM-STG1, which comes with a little brush - that should tell you, you only need a thin layer of paste.

Yeah, too bad, but I think you have no option.

Screws only, but mine still was sticky, so that it did stick on its own. You do not need to have it sticky with glue, but be sure that there is still a plastic cover on it, to have it isolated from the metal frame - I guess you have that, cause otherweise you won't have heat issues, but death issues

You are welcome - may you FL90 live long!

 

First of all, thank you for Your help and reply

How do I could know when I applied the right amount of heat paste? The heat paste I bought didn't come with a brush :S

This is another problem I have Actually my installation is without the spacer, the graphics card is stuck to the heat sink using only the thermal pads.
Do you suggest any kind of isolation I can put between the spacer and the graphics card? Something I can buy?

Thanks for Your help

 

You are welcome!

Obviously you tried google already, otherwise you wouldn't be asking, right?

So I advise you to just try again, hehe. Google for "thermal paste gpu", even some videos will pop up. I either apply a small drop in the middle of the chip and spread it with the tube, or I just apply the drop in the middle of the chip and put the heat sink on, hoping the drop will spread evenly on the chip.

Ehhhm, I am a bit confused. So you use the spacer or not? Normally, the screws go into the heat sink, "thru" the card and back into the spacer.
I am sure you will need the spacer so that the card is attached firmly to the heat sink.

So your spacer is bare metal? I am not sure if you might create shorts when using it unisolated, but I could imagine so.

I would either buy a new spacer with isolation - Where to get? Good question, don't know - you don't happen to live in Germany/Europe, do you? I still have two that I would sell ...

Apart of that, any piece of plastic would do the trick, I guess. The back side of the card doesn't get hot (like in real hot) I think, so the anti-static foil in which electric devices are shipped might just work ... but now guarantee on that!

Good luck!

 

Ok, you caught me when I asked I haven't google it

That's the catch, I'm not using the spacer, because it was creating shorts.
That's why I asked You for a suggestion on how to isolate the spacer.

I'm from Portugal. I will try putting the anti-static foil on the oven with the temperature set on 150º to see if it resists.
I already disassembled the laptop, so I saw that it was making good contact without the modding. Also, after seeing some videos of thermal paste applying , I saw that I had put allot of thermal paster so next time I will only apply the necessary.

Thanks once again for the response and for the continuous help You are giving me.

Cumpz

 

Okay, as said above, I am quite sure you need the spacer, as the screws from the heat sink go into it and then press the card firmly onto the heat sink once the screws are tightened.

This and too much paste could cause the excess heat you were facing.

Hopefully this resolves the problems and you can start using your laptop again.

Would be great if you could post if you indeed were successful.

Btw, you do not need to reassemble your laptop completely to monitor the temps. Check my tutorial, I did so, too. But, always leave the battery out. Reassembling just partially and running it with the battery might kill your battery or mainboard! Only run it with the main power supply, leaving the battery out! It's good practise anyway to keep the battery out all the time - you might forget it once and get your mainboard damaged fatally when keeping it in.

Cheers

 

Hey Dr. got a few questions here:

the programs on the screenshot show the card as HD 3450, is this the expected behavior for HD 3470 s?

also when you say the heat sink fits perfectly, do you mean the stock heatsink or the heatsink you modified in the first post to fit the HD 3650?

finally im thinking of buying this HD 3470 from this seller. $80 looks like a pretty good deal to me. what do you think?

Thanks

 

I don't get it, guys.

We got the HP "v700" working, didn't we?

Those are 3650 ddr3... and they're still around for sale at about 50$

80$ is a good deal for no less than a 9600m GT DDR3

 

Yeah, I think there are some folks that were successful with the 3650 DDR3 - but that's nothing like a guarantee.

The difference should not be that high in terms of gaming experience - after all, we are talking about middle range cards from 3 years ago.

May I ask from where you buy?

And again, benchmark results don't tell that much - cards are tailored towards some benchmarks, real live performance is something different!

Ahh, and don't forget to sell you old 8600M GT on ebay - maybe put it in the oven before, that might make it works again - put it back in, try it, then dump it on ebay, marking it as defective - that's at least worth a 40$!

So, go for the 3650 DDR3, if it does not work (ebay again), go for the DDR2 version.

And don't worry about asking, if you have more concerns, just ask again - after all, you can't force me to reply, I do it voluntarily!

Good luck!

 

Agreed, 80$ is good if you live in Europe, because that is 60€, hehe. For US, that is a bit steep for a low performing card like the 3470.

niff, can you link to where the 3650 DDR3 problem was solved? I can't recall any solution I would capable of performing. Thanks!

... and Cheers

 

I'm not 100% certain but I should just try it myself....

The vbios was given to me by a user Ayle who I really think has an HP card. He says hes not sure but I think I linked it to him.

CKnappsalesinc has some good prices, so do a lot of others right now but their ATI cards don't have the EEPROM (great deal on the fx 770m for 70$ tho).

502337-001 Refurb HP 8530w ATI 256MB Graphics Card | eBay

 

So, all you did was flashing vBIOS and it worked?

I have an 3650 DDR3 that does not bring a signal to the external monitor - tested on FL90 and Acer 7520G and FS Amilo Pi1556 I think- not sure on last on.

Cheers

 

Hi there Dr.Colossos,

I finally reopened the laptop and applies the spacer and the correct amount of paster
1 - I didn't find any material that isolated from the metal frame and sustained temperatures between 100º and 130º;
2 - The spacer from the 8600GT didn't match the place designed for the spacer on the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 so, in order to prevent the "death" issue on my new card, I decided to cut the spacer. So that I had only the screw holes to place on the other side of the card;
3 - I applied the termal paste just like the videos (and you said;
4 - Now I have a laptop with temp near 55º~59º on idle If I put the SPIRE CoolNess laptop base cooler, i have temp near 52º~55º

Thanks Dr

 

I am not sure, Windows shows them as 3400 series, I think. Doesn't matter to me, there is no real difference between the 3400, 3450 and 3470. The have barely enough power to bring the image to the display, hehe - no gaming, just working!

The original, unmodded heat sink is a perfect fit.

Already said so before, I know, but just to be clear - you can get better deals on ebay, I think.

Cheers

 

You are welcome!

I would check, bes via GPU-Z and logging to file enabled, how the temperatures behave when gaming, or running FurMark for example.

It should not get above 90 degree. While 90 is not really a problem just yet (it gets problematic I'd say at 100 degree), it should just not exceed it, to ensure a longer live.

Anyway, good to hear you made it work.

Cheers

 

I saw this while browsing through ebay today. Sort of god excited at the prospect of fixing my FL90.

Seems like it would work from the advertisement at least.

Also what is the difference between

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...940373&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_4057wt_920

And

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...952648&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_4057wt_920

 

The 4570 is rather slow, the 3650 DDR3 is quite good, better than 8600M GT at least, but I had trouble with mine and used a 3650 DDR2 instead.

No one can give you a guarantee, try it, if it works, you are lucky, if not, back on ebay with it.

Sorry for not being more of a help or more reassuring, but if I were, I'd be lying at you.

Cheers & good luck

 

I got a broken Acer Aspire 6530G with a ATI 4650.

Removed the 4650 and put it into one of my FL90s (not the one with the ATI 3650 from this tutorial, but practically the same).

It worked without problems. However, I needed to modify the heat sink a bit, same with the ATI 3650 shown in this tutorial. I uased a thermal pad (had one over from MXM upgrade) instead of thermal paste, and I am getting good temps - max of 88° during gaming, but normally in lower 80s during games.

I tried thermal paste before, but it was overheating. Before going with the thermal pad, I also cleaned the vents and grill, so I am not sure if the thermal paste would not have been enough. But the thermal pad does a real good job.

I didn't see any PCI-E throtteling, I get great performance all the time.

 

Crap!

I installed Win7 on my FL90 with the 3650 DDR II 512MB - I did that before already, but only for testing.

Now I wanted to do the switch finally, and I now got screen freezes when gaming. This happens on a total clean install of Win7 SP1 32Bit, both with default and AMD drivers.

The screen freezes during gaming, quite soon, maybe 5 to 15 minutes into the game. Temps look good, not more than mid 80s for the GPU, CPU much lower, maybe 60s.

I still sometimes can go back to desktop thru ctrl+alt+del, but getting back to work or even restarting/shuting down does not work - it just hangs then, but still accepts key strokes like CAPS LOCK or NUM LOCK, but no "real" response.

BIOS version is 1.18, it worked without problems for years in WinXP Pro.

I do not expect anyone to solve that problem, but a pointer where to look would be nice - Win7 event log did not really uncover something.

2D works without problems as far as I can tell, I just let it run thru the day in, idle on desktop, and check back when I am back from work.

Any pointers are welcome! Man, how I hate these kind of errors ...

Cheers

 

Solved! I put in a "new". i.e. other/old hard disk when I changed to Win7, which seems to have trouble with AHCI mode enabled.

I am back on IDE, now the machine runs great again.

 

Hello again
I have baked my card third time today, and that sucks.

niffcreature wrote:
"I'm not 100% certain but I should just try it myself....

The vbios was given to me by a user Ayle who I really think has an HP card. He says hes not sure but I think I linked it to him.

CKnappsalesinc has some good prices, so do a lot of others right now but their ATI cards don't have the EEPROM (great deal on the fx 770m for 70$ tho).

502337-001 Refurb HP 8530w ATI 256MB Graphics Card | eBay"

Can anybody confirm that those cheap cards works? I am able to change Vbios, even if I would need to desolder eeprom.

And second question: what are you thinking about to replace just chipset
nVIDIA G84-600-A2 8600M BGA Chipset ICs with Balls | eBay

Are they tend to die too, or maybe manufacturer changed something?

 

Check out this, even cheaper.

But I doubt any of these will work. I tried a ATI HD 2600 from that is for a HP 8510p/w. Didnt work for me.

29$ is a great deal, you could try that, you won't loose much if you resell it on ebay if it does not work.

Otherwise, I'd re-bake the 8600M, verify it is working, dump it on ebay, mark it clearly as defective "repair ware", get your 30$, and invest that in a *real* ATI 3650 - case closed (no pun intented).

I think they did a revision, but who knows if they worked, or if that is a revised version ...

Good luck!

 

I tried this NVidia FX 570M from this seller on ebay.

The idea/rumor was, that this card also comes without a vBIOS, just as the 8600M GT of the FL90, so I gave it a shot.

No luck - black screen.

 

Dr.Collosus! I need help

I recently replaced my dead 8600m gt with a new 4570 ddr3 512mb in my fl90
However all i get is a black screen with the solid blue led still on. I have tested it a couple times and this is what happens.

with 4570 - Fans spin for a sec then off. Lights stay on. Some lights blink. No screen display.

with old 8600- lights stay on for a sec then everything shuts down immediately

with replacement 8600- fans spin up for a sec, lights on for a sec, then shuts down after 5 secs

with no card- fans spin up stay up, lights blink and stay on, hdd spins and runs.

any advice? it seems the laptop runs with no card in, but any card i put in stops it from running.

 

Sounds bad.

First off, do you know that the replacement 8600M GT is from a Compal FL90? If it is not, I am 100% sure it will not work.

Second, did you try baking your old card? If not, so do.

Turn on the oven, heating it up to 180° C. Once it reaches 180° C,put in the card for 10 minutes, with the chip facing up! Let it cool of in the oven(!), may be60 minutes, shorter works to, but just to be safe. It is important to leave it in the oven for a bit, so that the melted solder leaves its liquid state again, so that it does not flow around when taking it out of the oven.

Put it in again, for me it survived a FurMark and a complete 3DMark06 run. I removed it afterwards, so I can't tell on how long it would survive ...

You also can do this with a heat gun, but people normally don't have this equipment ...

This normally brings your card back to live for some time.

Report back when you are done.

 

Yes, yes, and yes. I bought the 4570 because you reported success with one. I contacted the seller and he said its probably compatability problems should i settle for a 3650?

 

Hi, please, be a bit more precise when answering.

So, it works with the "repaired" 8600M GT?

Well, the DDR3 memory is nice - but without getting any output, it's quite useless ...

Did you try an external display? I once had the problem that I only got a signal on the internal LCD, but not on external display, but I know one other case, where it was the other way round.

Anyway, neither of us could figure out how to make it work ...

You could also try updating BIOS to 1.18 (not 1.19!), in case you are not on that version yet. That fixed a problem or two for me so far.

If nothing of these things improve the situation, go for an ATI 3650 512MB DDR2, the safest choice.

I have mine running great on a ATI 4650 DDR2 1024MB - gets more performance, but some people report dropping of the PCI-E bus to factor 1 instead of 16, leading to bad performance.

I witnessed this problem once with another FL90, while it worked in a third one. I never knew what would cause it, as both had the very same motherboard revision.

I did not investigate any further ...

Report back.

Good luck & Cheers

 

Is there any person in the world, who has a working HD3650 GDDR3 graphic card in his FL90, which works on internal and external monitor?

 

I do think the DDR3 version worked to full extent for some - but I do not have any references.

It did for me, too, but not with an external monitor.

 

@Dr.Colossos
That is the question, about external monitor. Because i use my FL90 like desktop computer 90% of time

So... can anyone confirm with certainty that DDR3 HD3650 may work with external monitor?? I don't want to waste money...