IFL90. GeForce 8600M died. How do I update with a Radeon HD 3650?

Dear All,

I have a ILF90 machine since summer 2007. A couple of weeks ago its Graphics Chip NVIDIA NB8P (= GeForce 8600M GS) 512MB GDDR 2 died.
I am sure that it is the GPU which died because I borrowed a similar card from another ILF90 machine, tried it on my one, and everything worked fine again.

So, I run into the well know Nvidia defect
(see at http://www.nvidiadefect.com/ , and http://www.nvidiadefect.com/dozens-of-links-of-evidence-very-helpful-information-t237.html).

I took my laptop to the guy who sold it to me, but he seems to be a little confused on what to do. He tried a couple of different Nvidia chips, but he claims they are not working on the IFL90. Moreover, we are not able to find exactly a G84-600-A2 around here (I am writing from Italy).

Anyway, I do not want to replace my dead chip with a new NVIDIA one, since I am not going to trust them for a while.
So the question is: which video card+GPU could I use instead?

I am looking for the a good card and - most important- something which can be installed with any hassle.

On this forum and elsewhere, it is suggested to update by a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 MXM II Graphics Card 512MB.
Is it indeed a good choice? I would be happy to read a success story.
Or shoud I look for a different Radeon card?
Also, is there any issue to update the bios? If so, how do you suggest to go, if my screen would not be working yet?

Any advise is very welcome
Thanks so much
Best wishes
mario

 

Hi Mario.
I had the same problem so, I would recommend you to buy either HD3650 512Mb DDRII or HD3650 256Mb DDRIII (which is better but also almost double expensive).
If it doesn't come with any manufacturer v-bios, you will only have to plug it into you MXM slot, and everything will be fine (+ installing drivers).
I have just recently done that and It goes very well.

 

Hi henxu,

thanks very much for the prompt reply.
I have to speak with the guy who sold the machine to me. I let you know what we decide to do.
I would like to hear a couple more success stories.
my best wishes
mario

 

Ok.
Btw, can you ask him, if he sold you your compal ifl90, ask him if he has another ifl90 motherboard or the webcam cable which connects the motherboard and the camera module.
I think dh and ayle have the HD3650 on their IFL90 too.

 

Hi,

I'll ask about motherboard and webcam cable, but why?

We are looking for the ATI card on the italian market.
On ebay.nl/.de there are sellers from the far east. Do you know any one from within .eu?

I let you know
my best wishes
thks
mario

 

Hey,

I just ran into a similar problem: My GT8600M on IFL90 (rebranded as Bullman) became faulty something like 4 weeks back. It shows shuffled characters in the Linux console, no graphics adapter at all in Windows and absolutely no 3D acceleration. Fortunately it still works between 10 seconds and 4 days. But more than 4 days, no way. The OS will crash and the graphics will not be there for a day or 2.

Actually I did that. I bought exactly the same nVidia model with 512MB RAM from China, because Bullman wants to have EUR242 including shipping within Germany for that spare part (and I am currently in India). If it is the same faulty model, who cares, if it runs for another 2 years?

My experience: It does not work at all. I mean, not even the lamp of the screen is powered up. Absolutely nothing comes when you built in the "new" graphics adapter. I tried BIOS version 1.03 and 1.18. In my opinion there are some few laptop manufactures. Acer, Dell etc they just rebrand their products. I have the strong feeling that especially the graphics adapters are manufactured for one of the lines only. If you try to run a graphics card that is designed for one manufacturer, it will not work for the 2 others. Btw, the main manufacturer are Compal (that's where the IFL90 comes from), Quanta and Wistron. I bed that my chinese graphics card works for an Acer or Compaq.

Any luck with your ATI Radeon? It would be a shame, if I have to dispose my beloved notebook because of that. Let me know your experience.

Cheers,
Jägermeister

 

I don't think you can find a Europe ATI HD3650 seller.
I bought my card on eBay, seller was pccentre-com. My card was this (not exactly the same ad) http://cgi.ebay.es/ATI-Mobility-Rad...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW?hash=item20aef64805
It cost me around 54€ and Free shipping cost.
I plugged in and It worked at once.

 

There is another problem, especially for Mario.
Many far-east-sellers do not ship to Italy due to some customs issue. Do not ask me why.

Jägermeister

 

Hello All,

thanks for your advises.
I got a reply from ebay seller pc-best-buy-store , but it is not a clear cut one:
>>>Q: Hello Sir, I want to upgrade [an : ILF90 ] Is it possible? do you know any success story? Thanks so much My best wishes mario
A: Hi my friend, Theoretically your notebook can be upgraded by this card. But we can not 100% guaranty because we don’t have this notebook for a test. Best Regards, Sean
Feb 10, 2010<<<

I'll keep you updated
best wishes
mario

 

just bake it. its worth a shot

 

@Mario
I bought an ATI Radeon 3650 on ebay yesterday. It might take 2 weeks or so to reach my place in India. I'll keep you updated, if it works on my IFL90. If it does not work than it was worth a try.

Baking the graphics adapter might also work. something like 105C and 30mins. after that cool down phase for another 30 minutes. I'll do that as soon as the Radeon arrived and I figured out, if that works. Currently the GT8600 works still a little bit and I do not want to fry it. in case i'll brick it, i dont have anything left

Oh, if you bake it (since you dont have anything to loose), keep the windows open. Fortunately there is a vacuum oven in our institute and I reserved a slot for the experiment in 2 weeks.

Jaegermeister

 

What I've read is about 200ºС (about 390ºF), for 7-10 minutes. But it appears there are a number of recipes. The Graphics section here at NBR definitely has a thread on GPU-baking, and Google comes up with several results, too.

I agree with Jaegermeister, I wouldn't try that unless the GPU really is cooked. But if it is, and it sounds like mario60's is, then it can't hurt to bake it. If it goes well, you've got it working again. Worst case, it still doesn't work (unless you manage to burn the house down or something of that sort, but if you keep an eye on things that shouldn't be any more of a risk than with most cooking).

 

Here's thread about it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=437683

 

Hi,
do you have your ATI in your FL90. Does it work without problems?

 

Yeah, it works. Have a look at laptop and mxm graphics adapter | Jitu (update from 07/03/2010)

Jaegermeister

 

Hi,

I have the same problem, nVidia 8600M GT on a Compal FL90 (Spanish, PC-BOX branded). It happened a year ago, and now it happened again: it doesn't even boot up, when I power it I just can hear the disc and optical drive powering on, but the screen doesn't light up. The difference is that then the laptop was on guarantee, and now it isn't.

I'd like to get another nVidia (ATI drivers AFAIK still aren't good enough on Linux), is there any MXM II nVidia model known not to die on me every year?

However, before spending any big money, I'd like to make sure the nVidia is the only problem, or if the motherboard is fried too, or the RAM modules, etc. Is there any way of telling what's failing? I've seen this stuff: stuff1, stuff2; but I'm not sure they will be compatible with my FL90. Doesn anyone know?

 

Hello, so you're Spanish also.
First, those link you have provided won't work with the motherboard (or I think so) since they're mini-pci (I'm not really sure).
8600M GT tends to last less than 2-3 years like mine did, so it's common, I mean, this will happen to you sooner or later. So I would buy another one if you don't want to get the 3650.

The problem I got was if not the same, something like that. I ended up hearing the Windows melody but nothing seen on the screen. GPU fail -> 95% sure.

 

That's a rumor. With the open source drivers of radeon and radeonhd, it became a lot painless to install the drivers in Linux. The nVidia kernel modul always needed to be recompiled and with every new major kernel version, it was a pain, since something caused the compilation to break (e.g. from 2.6.32 to 2.6.33). Then the search starts to find a patch etc.

I am currently using radeon and do not have to manually compile any module at all anymore. Even compiz etc. runs, if you really need the fancy stuff.

Jaegermeister