Nvidia Died and Ati doesn't light up. Now what??

I have a Compal FL90 and my nvidia 8600 died after 6 years. I looked at the forum and I bought a ATI radeon 3650 as most people suggested it. Today I installed the new graphic card and booted up. Black screen. I am so disappointed. Please help. I read about some vbios flash but since the screen doesn't light up and the external monitor doesnt work either i dont know what to do!!

 

Did you get the new card from a reliable source? Do you know that it works? Do you still have the dead NVidia card?

Please reply, so that I can suggest a few pointers.

Good luck!

 

I bought the new card from ebay. It is brand new. You think it may be faulty? I hope not! Yes I do have the previous nvidia but i dont think it can help much. Also I tried to boot the system again this morning and the screen goes pure white. I dont know if that helps.

Also I didn't do the heatt sink modification that people were saying cause my ati fitted perfectly with the heat sink. Though i did have to remove the metalic bolts from the old nvidia cause the ati didn't have them.

 

1) Okay. Do you have a heat gun, or an oven?
If so, you might try to "repair" the NVidia card - at least temporarily.
Then you could check, if it works with that.
Please first answer again, then I can give you instructions.

2) Now it's pure white ... hmmm, sure better than all black.
Please provide a link to the ATI card auction from ebay, so that I can have a look which one it exactly is.
If it was black before and is white now, I'd assume something is not connected properly.

Okay, just answer the questions, we go from there.

Good Luck!

 

Screen again pure black. Not exactly pure. Actually its like there is a dim light black..like the one you see the first second you boot your computer.Is it possible that it is a bios problem? As soon as I find the link with the card I will post it.

And one more thing I noticed. The fan is not working so the heat sink rises temperature in less than 5 minutes. It burns.

Here is the link : AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 MXM II DDR2 512MB Graphics VGA Video Card | eBay

 

Okay, this card should work.

Black again you say ... strange.

Okay, here's what you should do.
If you have an oven, bake your old NVidia card. Bake? Yes! Check this out -> Oven Baking Fix Acer Aspire 5920G Nvidia Geforce 8600m GT Graphics Card GPU - YouTube
Pre-Heat to 180°, then put it in for around 10 minutes, chip side facing UP! Let it cool of for 30 minutes or so.

Before you try that, remove all add-ins, like WLAN, HDD, etc.
Also, if you have two RAMs, try with only one RAM. And try each one in a different slot, and boot each time. See what happens.

If you have no luck, take the laptop apart again, down to the graphic card. If you come across a wire that seems loose, be sure to connect it properly afterwards (for video to work, the FL90 needs two connetors - top left).

Work your way down to the gfx, and put in the Nvidia again. Reassemble, maybe only partially (see my post here) and try again.
If you reboot when reassembled only partially - be sure to never have the battery in there, when reassembling just partially, it might destroy your mainboard and/or battery!

Then report back, if it works with the NVidia.

If that does not work either, something else is wrong. The "repair job" with the oven is not professional, but works quite well for a short time.

If it works, put back the ATI, and try again.

Always double check each connector when reassebling.

Good luck!

 

I don't think I have forgotten any connectors. I doubles check everything while reassemblying to make sure everything was connected. Now I tried the thing about the Rams and the strange thing I discovered. I took the first one (I have 2 of 1Gb each) and put it alone. I had black screen as usual. Then I used the other one alone and in each of the 2 ways I tried her (on each slot) the screen was white. Now with both of them together the screen blinks white for a second and then its all black. Any ideas? As for the links sorry I didn't recognize your name from the start. I've been following your guides from the very beggining. Thats the reason I picked the 3650 as a replacement and I did everything your post said. Oh one difference (beside the heat sink fitting perfectly without any mod) is that tha 3650 didn't have the screw stands. What I mean is that it didn't have the small metal stands where the heat sink screws lock on to the gpu. I had to remove the metalic stands from my 8600 which were glued on. I think i was careful enough not to damage any further the nvidia chip. So lets just say the nvidia doesn't work either, then what? Is their any other option? Could it be that suddenly also the ram decided to die?

I really appreciate the time your are taking to help me. Thank you.

 

Weird.

Sure, the RAM could have died - both at once .. well, also possible ... less likely, but possible.
I assume you disconnected the power and the battery at all times, right?

Anyway, also try putting one in the one slot, then in the other.
Also try booting with no RAM in - this of course will not work, but you'll see either black, white, or short blink - maybe we can derive some information from that.

Do you have a chance to test the RAM in another machine? If so, maybe also take the RAM from another machine and test yours in that other machine.

Also, check, with the ATI card in, if you get anything on an external monitor. Or did you check that already?

One more thing you didn't reply to. Do you have an oven, or heat gun?

If the NVidia is dead, and cannot be "repaired" ... hmmm, well, let's first see what your further tests bring up before we extend on that.

Good luck!

 

The option of the oven or the heat gun is off the table for the time being unfortunatelly. One of the few misfortunes of studying at a university far from home. I tried putting the rams on different slots as I said before. One of them makes the screen black no matter the slot and the other one makes the screen white again no matter the slot. I don't have any other machine to test the rams. I want to ask if I can put a new ram with higher frequency than the one I have now. I think it won't be supported but will the screen at least open or nothing will happen? As for the nvidia its not completely destroyed. Pixels where flying here and there but I could make a few things out. If I can still use should I do some bios update? If yes do you have a link perhaps for the Fl90 and Ati 3650? Also I just tried booting up with no ram at all. Pure white screen. Thats it.

 

Okay, I'd try to put in the NVidia again, and check if you get any output ... like scrambled pixels as you told, you had before. If you get any output, other than all black and white, this would mean that it still "works" as before - and possibly the ATI card is faulty ... or you really need a BIOS update ... but I would not go down the path to do a BIOS update as of now - this is you last option, always.

Faster RAM might work, I am not sure - I think I got 800MHz in mine. Maybe ask a student colleague to lend you one ..?
how much ram do you have anyway, 1, 2, 3, 4GB?

So put in the NVidia again - ehhm, and you have thermal paste, right?
Good luck!

 

Yeah a Bios update is the last option. I will try putting the old back one and I hope something comes out. I have 2 Gb of ram (2 x 1Gb). Also can I use a faster Ram? Is that possible? I mean will the motherboard be able to take it? I haven't researched it yet but what is the max frequency the FL90 can take? As for thermal paste I bought the TX-4 so I think I've covered that.

 

Often times you can use faster RAM, but it gets down-clocked. I don't remember how it was for the FL90, sorry.

Which type of thermal paste does not matter for now - it's just important to have something.

Report back if you have any luck with the Nvidia card.

Good luck!

 

I have got 3 old Nvidia cards (10+ years) and none of them want show sign of live either. I've pulled them as good cards many years ago, fortunately the ATI Radeon 7500 32MB still working.