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

I know the card is old
But the core clock should be high 500 and memory 600.
Test game fps,

 

You can load the BIOS into the RBE-tool RBE - Radeon BIOS editor, change clocks there, save the new BIOS to file and reflash it with the atiflash.exe tool.

I do not give details here explicitly. With the information provided, you can browse here or the web to gather the info. Reflashing is somehwat dangerous, as you can brick your card. Most of the time, this does not happen, but still I do not want to take any responsibility if it does happen.

I did it myself a couple of weeks ago, several times, all went great, but a bad timed power outage [are there well timed one ?!!? ], and you are out of luck.

Good luck

 

I will use batery xD

 

Okay, as I told, the new replacement ATI 4650 of my broken replacement ATI 4650 that replaced my broken 8600M GT had too high temps.

I already tried (old) heat paste from mxm-upgrade, tried an heat-pad from ebay, and finally tried Zalman ZM-STG1 paste again.

All showed pretty much the same performance, getting temps of close to 100° under load. The heat pad from ebay was the worst as far as I remember.

Okay, I now got a thermal pad from mxm-upgrade, 5€ plus 7,50€ for shipping (I assume that is shipping plus handling). 12,50€ for a heat pad, that's quite steep, but it was, what I thought, my last resort.

When I, once again, disassembled my laptop, I noticed that the heat paste barely touched the heat sink, so I guess the Zalman ZM-STG1 would have performed far better. The reason why the heat sink was not making proper contact was due to the fact, that I also have slightly thicker pads on the memory blocks that don't compress that well as the original ones ... so there was half a millimeter air in between I guess.

Anyway, I then put in the pad from mxm-upgrade. Here is the first benefit - it's about 1mm thick, compared to 0.2mm you get with a cover of thermal paste. So you sure get contact between heat sink and heat source.

I reassembled, and now have, after undervolting, very good temps. It idles at 60°, I ran Furmark in 960 x 600 and it peeked at 80° after around 5 minutes.

In a short gaming session, around 15 minutes, it peeked at 78°.

So in summary: for 12,50€, the pad from mxm-upgrade is VERY expensive (mainly due to shipping & handling), but it has two advantages. First, you get a high quality heat pad that gets the job done, especially compared to stuff you get from ebay. Second, despite always getting good results with Zalman ZM-STG1, applying to less of it will be bad, so is applying too much. Especially with the FL90, where trying different amounts of heat-paste means a lot of assembly and disassembly, this is very time consuming. With a heat pad, unless you have a huge gap between heat sink and heat source, this is a one-time thing.

 

HD 3650 new bios, testing temperature in 3d using.

Edit: the fan dont work why ????

Edit 2: I know the anwser: controled by CPU temp .... How can i encreases the speed ?

 

You cannot really control the fan in the FL90.

I tried notbook hardware control, but it did not work good for me.

How high are your temps? Maybe try undervolting, this will gain you up to 10°.

Good luck

 

Hi!

... and thank you for the Information in this Thread!

At the moment im trying to find a mxm-II card for my IFL...

Problem is: I tried a 3650 (512mb) some time ago which did not work. The notebook did hang up during post (as it did with the broken 8600m gt before). After that i gave my 8600 to a reballing service (dont do it, it doesnt fix the problem for a long time). Even after that the Notebook didnt post!
I tried some crazy stuff then... Flashed NB bios with the Crisis tool... Same behaviour... BUT THEN: I plugged in my external monitor when the NB was hanging at post... And it suddenly started! Everything worked. Until now.
Now i have white artifactal screen with stripes etc. and external Monitor works. NB is booting normal. I guess the 8600 is broken again (i heard the reballing doesnt fix anything cause its the balls on the chip not between the Card and the piece the chip sits on). The problem disappeared one time when the NB was running a longer time with the wite screen but it came back again and is now permanently.

So... long story (i hope you can understand everything i try to say btw.)
Could it be possible that the 3650 didnt work cause of the same reason my "repaired" 8600m gt did not work at the beginning?
Should i try another 3650 again?

OR: Is it possible to use a 9600m gt? Anyone tried it?

Do i have to avoid acer bios or is it ok (cant find anything else on ebay)

 

I also would assume your graphics card is dead again.

You have two options:
1) put it on ebay as it is, and get around 50 - 100€/$. Put it there in parts, you get a bit more, normally.
2) get an ATI 3400/3450/3470 (cheaper, but not intended for games) or an ATI 3650 DDR2 512 MB (more pricey, but capable for light to medium gaming) and give it a try. This will cost 50 - 100€/$.

Keep in mind. You FL90 is not very new anymore, so maybe it's not that wise to keep investing money.

Of course, I still have mine after years and two graphic card failures, so who am I to play the wise guy

Good luck!

 

Hello people. First of all I am a newbie and this guide has been very helpful. Congratulations.
My fl90 had a gt 8600m which died and I tried the oven trick and it worked. Right now I want to buy a new card and I was thinking about the ATI Mobility radeon 4570 which as I read in this post works fine. I asked the seller who said that it is brand new and he also said "it is preload Acer BIOS . if use on FL90 , maybe you need to update the BIOS". Does anyone know if this card will work on my laptop and what do i have to do in case i buy it ? Dr Colossos I am really counting on you
And one last question. I have my laptop connected to an external monitor and I want to play League of Legends at high resolution with high quality graphics. Does anyone know if this card can do the trick ? Thank you in advance.

 

Yeah, somehow right... But i always have in mind that its not a bad NB at all. And if those NVIDIA issues (damn nvidia WHY!?) wouldnt be, it would do the job.
I dont like to (and cant) pay 400€-500€ (which gives me a new NB thats about as powerful as the FL90) though my old one is perfectly fine -besides that NVIDIA thing-.

Can you here me NVIDIA? Send me a new card!
But i have to say mine lasted pretty long. About 4 years. And then my GF tortured it with ridicioulusly resource-wasting flash browsergames (but dont tell her)


I guess i will give it one last try...

 

If serious gaming is not needed, then go for the 3400 series, like 3400/3450,3470.

You can get them used for 50€/$, maybe even cheaper, from China new for 70€/$.

They can handle flash browser games, too, without getting fried.

Good luck!

 

Little Update:
I attached my external Monitor, started FurMark in BurnIn Mode and let it run up to 92°C (The card starts throttling there and doesnt get hotter! Cooling slots were blocked for getting over 80° and CPU temperature was monitored all the time). Left it a while there and the Notebook screen came back again!

Its working since about two weeks now without Problems...
But its clear that it is still a Nvidia-Issue after Reballing. And my little experiment clearly doesnt resolder anything or so. It was just a last try before buying a new card (life or die, damn 8600 )

 

Hi guys!

I've been reading this topic for the last days, because my 8600GT also broke down
Anyone have already tried to replace by an ATI HD 4570 512MB DDR3? I have some concerns about the compatibility of my FL90 with this card, specially because it is DDR3.
I'd want to ask if this card works fine in FL90, with DDR3, and also about its performance related to 8600GT and to HD 3650 512MB DDR2. Is it better (and safer) to try an HD3560 512MB DDR2?

Thank you!

 

In the first posting all the way down he has written that a 4570 did work without issues. But its true that there is no information wether it is ddr2 or ddr3.

My 8600 (see post number 312) broke down again last week. Now its like the first time: Notebook doesnt post!

I would go for a 3650 as replacement. You will not make a "Gamer Notebook" (for todays games) out of this thing. Not even with a 4570. But it might be a little bit better.

But i dont know if i should try that again (i tried one before and it did not work...) or buy a new NB and forget about that.

 

I doubt the 4570 with DDR3 will work out of the box - I think this is a Toshiba model, and they do not work unless you do some soldering!

You could post a link, maybe I could be more precise with my answer.

Of course DDR3 would be better, but then, you compare a decent card (3650) with a bit better one (4570), but each of them is +5 years old, and hence, are out-dated anyway.

I'd go for the safe option, being the 3650 DDR2.

Good luck!

 

George, if you do not want a gaming laptop, go for the 3400/3450/3470 series. No heat problems, no heat sink modding, no compatibility issues ... no really gaming, but cheap and good.

I used this card around 10 times in FL90s, never ever had an issue.

Cheers

 

Yah, but the problem is: I cant get any of the "cheaper" cards here. I can only find 3650 (ddr2 and ddr3) for around 90$/€.
And for the chinese ones i will have to pay taxes so they arent cheap anymore.

 

Thank you a lot for your answer!

I've found the DDR3 in a used sales website, so I cannot guarantee if the graphic card is from a Toshiba or not.
Anyway, also considering the price of both options, I'll buy a 3650 DDR I've found in here: MXM II Graphic Card VG.86M06.003 ATI HD3650 DDR2 512MB [VG.86M06.003] - $71.99- laptop-ac-adapter.org It will be a safe option, indeed.

Once again, thank you! :thumbsup: As soon as I've the card and installed it, I'll post here the result.

 

Yes master_r, this is a safe bet. Good luck!

 

George, you can get a 3400/3450/3470 used from ebay - no need to get a new one.

Another option is to buy some Acer laptop with a faulty mainboard or a broken screen that has a 3470 installed. Pull it, put it in yours, and sell the rest of the laptop.

This might even be cheaper, but also a bit more risky, esp. when the mainboard is dead ... afterall, you never can be sure that the graphics are not dead, too.

I did this a couple of times to get my hands on a ATI 3400 and 4650, always was lucky.

 

Good day everyone,
I have a Compal IFT00, It has been dead for 2 years or so, it has a dead Nvidia 8600M GS. I've heard that the IFL90 and the IFT00 has the same specs, I want to buy a mobile graphics card from ebay and I'm not sure on what should I buy since in this thread you started you have a lot of choices, I want to have a one time purchase since it will be troublesome for me to purchase the wrong card, since my place is in the Philippines. Dr. Colussus So far, what card can you certify me that will work out of the box. Thanks.

These are my choices so far:
New 100 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 MXM II 256MB DDR3 VGA Video Card Acer 5720G | eBay
New ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 MXM II 512MB DDR2 Graphics VGA Card Acer 6530G | eBay

Thanks,
Hoping for your reply

 

In your case, Iif I'd had to choose from the two cards, I'd go with the 4570 - cards with DDR3 RAM do not always work in the Compals.

HOWEVER: I am NOT familiar with the FT00! As always, proceed at your own risk.

The forum has a bit information about the FT00 - but you have to find that yourself, using the forum search.

Good luck!

 

Thanks man, so the 4570 card is a must buy than the other one right? Thanks. I asked the seller about the card and he said that the card has Preloaded Acer Bios, will that still work on a compal machine?

Thanks,

 

Will this also be a great alternative?

New NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT Graphics Card Green | eBay

Thanks,

 

As I said, I know my stuff when talking about the FL90, I am not very sure about the IFL00.

But I'd go for the 4570, yes.

Do NOT buy an NVidia card like the one above. Although, your laptop came with an 8600M GT Nvidia, one NOT from Compal will not work. So I am 99% sure the one above WILL NOT WORK.

Go with the ATI 4570, instead. Again, I am NOT SURE if it will work. You have to find out yourself.

Good luck!

 

BUMP

ive recently come into 2 compal fl90s both with bad 8600 gt cards... ive seen everything avalible for the compal fl90/ifl90, sager np2090... im aware that the easy fix is to get the ati card... but im looking into working on this 9300/9400 gs but modeled for a fl90...

ive not done ANYTHING with the laptops as i only want to have to open either of them once...

also im wondering about using the jhl model 8600 gt seeing as how its "supposedly" the redone chispet and pcb which is to be less faulty (going on the fact the the jhl models where released about 1yr after the i/fl)...



any thoughts... please respond soon... thank you

 

My Compal FL90's 8600M GT died as well. Baking extended its life for 3 months.

I don't do much gaming, but I use the laptop with Photoshop/Premiere, so should I also get the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 or this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-ATI-Mob...914?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item41671304da

Thanks,
hoping for your reply

 

Sorry, never ever used anything other than ATI cards as replacement, so I can't help.

For photo processing, this should do by far, no matter if 3650 or 4570. Maybe get one with only 512MB RAM - this should do for photo editing, and might be cheaper ... not sure tough.

Good luck

 

ok... after spending 2 days going through phone tag ive learned that ANY compal fl90/jfl92 video card will work... both of these models included the on-motherboard vbios, are mxm II, and are the smaller footprint(unlike the extra 1.5" that the IFL mb has)... to answer my own question yes i can do the 9400... however they (compal mfgr) said that the jfl92 had 8600m gt 256 ddr2, 9400 gs 256 ddr2, or 9600m gt 256 ddr2 options... and of course they no longer have anyway to send out the cards...


my question this time is this: as long as its a DDR2 card there isnt any throttling issues with the ati cards or just the one card (4650) has the problem...


i know that might sound annoying about this but id really like to make sure that i only have to go through this once on each system.... both systems will be used for gaming... i know im not going to make it on par to play crysis 2 on high with 90fps... but i want to make sure that atleast borderlands, bioshock 2 and some of the other games like playable...and i know that none of the cards will be on par with desktop counter parts... but id really like to have a decent laptop to take to my lan sessions instead of ripping my desktop apart every wknd........ lol...

 

As far as I know, NO ONE EVERY got an Nvidia card, other then the original ones from Compal working in an FL90, so nobody can help you on that.

All I can tell you is stuff about ATI cards. If you are looking for an ATI card to play games, go for the 3650, 4570 or 4650. In that order, the get more powerful, more expensive, and are more trouble to get them working.

If you plan to get an NVidia card, you are by yourself. Try it if you want, but I do not see any point in doing so. Isn't the NVIDIA 9400 a piece of garbage?

For that price, you can even get an ATI 4650 if you are lucky, for 150$, you sure can get one.

Good luck

 

Hello!
I'm glad I found this forum. There are still people who upgrade their oldies. And I'm one of them.
I have Ordi Enduro 7290BF with Compal IFL90 mainboard, Core 2 Duo T7250, GeForce 8600M GT, 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 667Mhz.
I want upgrade my system. Instead T7250 i think set Core 2 Duo T9300/T9500 or Core 2 Extreme X7800/X7900. GeForce 8600M GT is good videocard, but i need a more powerful GPU. Mobility Radeon HD 36XX series does not give a performance boost, but Mobility Radeon HD 4650/4670 is a worthy replacement. Still not bad ranking has Nvidia GeForce 96XX series but worse than Mobility HD 46XX. RAM will increased up to 4GB.
What you thik about my thoughts. What are the challenges I have to face?

PS: Sorry for my English! =)

 

Popped in a 3650 ddr3 (256MB) today. Goes really fast if you opened that thing several times before... Had to modify the heatsink but that is done fast with a "dremel" (the aluminium is really soft)

It works!
External Monitor works also! Not with the Fn Shortcut on the keyboard but if i open the catalyst control-center's Display section and choose "Detect Displays" it finds the external Monitor...

@DaMiz
Nvidia cards that arent originally from compal might not work out of the box (in fact i dont know any information on the web that anyone made it work)

 

T9300 = 50€
4GB DDR2 RAM = 40€
ATI 4650 = 100€, including trouble with heat
= ~ 200€ danger of damaging the system

If you sell your laptop as it is, this will give you ~150€, so you are at ~350€ when selling and not upgrading.

+150€ = 500€ and you get a decent gaming desktop, and do not run 5 year old hardware.

I never upgraded my FL90 for the upgrades sake, but it had damaged GPU.

I am not sure if it's worth the trouble to upgrade the laptop. But if this is the better option for you, go ahead. It sure is fun! But also a danger, of course. and you won't be able to run the lastest games.

Good luck!

 

Thank you for answer! Yes, I do it more for fun. I never pay 200Eur for upgrade IFL90. Watching auctions where I can buy inexpensive components. To be honest, I'm waiting Haswell and HD 8XXX, and i will assemble a computer. Now in fact I need to do something. =)))

 

Ok... as an update... hoping not being annoying.... im looking at these 2 cards:

step-son (web browsing, chatting, mild game play[pop-cap/reflexive]) or HD 3850 512M... ** thoughts and opinions welcome **

self (web browsing, chatting, moderate game play[CnC3, CoH, Supreme Commander, Dawn Of War 2, R.U.S.E.])


id figure id go with the 45xx instead of the 46xx cause i dont want to have to take the chance on the throttling issue.......


^^^^^^^ will this end up cutting my throat in the end or am i better off to bite the bullet and try for the 46xx ^^^^^^^

also kinda curious about battery life with the different cards....

my full plan is to pull the cards one system at a time, test both "new" cards(gpu-z, 3dMark, temps), install the 3650 first, make sure laptop boots, bake first 8600, reassemble first laptop, repeat process with testing(gpu-z, 3dMark, temps) the 8600s to make sure they work after baking, install 4570, test and reassemble second laptop and then sell the 8600s either here or e-bay...




also might you know anyone reliable/cheaper to get the cards from.... i live in the united states.... so id prefer someone in north america... but all i seem to find are toshiba or hp model cards which ive been reading/understanding are a crap shoot if itll work fully... i have no issues with having to wait to recive the card from over seas... ive been down this long... a bit longer wont hurt me....

i hope.....


would be nice to get the mxm ii 9600 gt DDR3 512 working in it... i might try some of the other "theories" ive seen elsewhere about trying to "fake" the on-board vbios... but thall be on a different comp... and ill make sure to give full "accounts" on my progress on that project... but thatll be sometime when i have a working one first... and spare money to play with...... lol...

 

3650 and 4570 should work without problem

I'D be surprised if the 3850 would work. It's from ASUS, so that's bad news. Also heat and power consumption are a problem, for sure.

4650 would work and be a performance boost, but as you said, you might get throttling. It's related to the mainboard, not the card, so you can only tell when installing.

Do not get into battery life. That's not worth the discussion.

The cheapest I got were all from China through ebay. Reliable? Well, you never know ...

NVidia 9600 DDR3 would be nice. Again, heat could be an issue, and first of all, you have to get it running first, which might actually be impossible.

Good luck

 

k... ty very much... ordering the 4570 today... ill let ya all know how well it goes...

i completely forgot about the asus issue... thanks for pointing it out to me...

and i know it the 9600 ddr3 idea wont work... but if i could find a ddr2 version theres a chance that we might get somewhere... but thats a pet project sometime... im kinda partial to nvidia myself so itd be nice to see it with a good nvidia card again...


but ill follow the guide and keep ya updated on my results....

 

I've already put my questions about the video cards, but when I was reading the last comments, it comes a new doubt.
As I've posted, I will buy from here MXM II Graphic Card VG.86M06.003 ATI HD3650 DDR2 512MB [VG.86M06.003] - $71.99- laptop-ac-adapter.org (sorry for posting it again). It refers Acer models as compatible ones, but, at the page bottom, it says that the model is manufactured by Asus. Is there any problem?
By the way, anyone have already bought something in there? Is it reliable? It seems to be, but I'd want have an opinion.

Thank you

 

True, the say ASUS there. Never bought from them.

You never know, but I guess it should work.

Good luck

 

Hi Dr. Colossus,
I will be ordering today this card from here: New ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 MXM II 512MB DDR2 Graphics VGA Card Acer 6530G | eBay , It is a ATI 4570 card, I have one last question, is this card okay? I'm told that this card is preloaded with ACER vBios.

 

Looks fine to me. But as I said a thousand times: No way you can say for sure it will work. In 99% of cases it will work, but there is this 1% of failure ... You have to try it out, the only way you can know for sure.

But it looks good to me, so go for it!

Good luck

 

Thanks Dr. Colossos, will swnd you updates when I get it

 

Hi Guys,
I know I'm a bit off topic but, may I know how to update Compal BIOS? Its Phoenix BIOS, I want to upgrade it to 1.18.

Thanks

 

I always used the one from here -> Compal FL90 BIOS disc | Marcin Wilk Homesite

Be sure to take 1.18 and NOT 1.19.

Also, do not upgrade unless you have a good reason to do so! If there's no benefit, then there's no reason to risk the update.

Cheers

 

Hi guys.
I had the same problem as you with my Compal FL90 and its nvidia 8600m GT. I baked and it worked for another 3.5 months so I decided to buy a new one. I bought the exact same card as kolai321 from the same seller on ebay. I paid 100 dollars and I received the card which was not working because it was damaged. So I sent it back and had it replaced with a new one which arrived today.
It worked at first when I assembled the laptop and reinstalled Windows 7 but after an hour or so the laptop shut down. I switched it on and 15 minutes later it shut down AGAIN. When I tried to reboot the screen was black and although the HDD seemed to work the screen stayed black as if the GPU failed again.
Any clues of what happened ? I am really getting tired of this and I want my laptop to come back to life because everything else besides the gpu works perfectly. Please help.
Thank you in advance.

 

Did you check GPU temperature with, e.g., GPU-Z?

Maybe you didn't properly apply heat paste, or the heat sink did not make proper contact, leading to heat problems.

Good luck

 

ok all... thank you 10000 times over...

because of you guys one of the laptops is up and going....


running great with the 4570... took about 3hrs to get the d@mn thing apart...... but hey... its working great... no issues... kinda.... windows 7 says that there is an unknown device after all my updates where done... im wondering if its the WOW a/v buttons... but its running great at 2.1ghz and 2gb ram with a 750gb hd... its nice to be on my own system again... i havnt baked the 8600 i pulled yet so i cant give my experience on that yet... but our ovens not wanting to work right so id rather do it elsewhere anyway... but atleast im up...


again thanks a million for doing this so that we can all know what to and not to do...

 

Congrats!

Monitor temperatures with GPU-Z, also with CoreTemp for CPU. You don't want your "new" system to overheat and die on you again!

 

all my temps looked good... even after 2hrs of playing bioshock infinite gpu never broke 85C and cpu 57C... long live artic silver 5...

im surprised that i can do BSI... system requirements labs said that i was below min but i played at around 45-50(guessing, game was playable) fps at 1920x800 at med without AA... only real 'stutter' i had was in bulletstorm when destroying Ulysses... but my 9800 gx2 did a lil slowdown on it on my tower so im satisfied....

still no idea on the missing driver though... but this wknd i have to reopen it cause u didnt plug my other usb board back in... and ubuntu doesnt want to see the fact that i already have a partition made on my drive so i guess ill redo and start with linux instead of win 7...

but otherwise im more than pleased with my investment... thank you again for the walkthrough and all the help...

im working on getting the tv tuner card and an upgraded network card... mine only came with the a/g not the n wireless... so i have a n with wi-max card on the way so i might have a few other parts for sale by the end of nxt mo... ill make a post when i do the other one and put the spare parts up on e-bay... thanks again... glad you guys did this...

 

The other device might be HD Audio, which is integrated with the graphics card - I think I also had that with the 4570.

If I am right, that you can happily ignore it.