Please help me determine the cheapest solution for fixing my IFL90

I have a Compal IFL90 that I purchased from someone off of craigslist back in November. This laptop has worked great and been incredibly stable until recently. I closed it and it went into suspend mode, then it sat in my truck for a few days. When I took it out of my truck, the battery was dead, so I plugged it into AC power and when I pressed the power button, the power lights turned on. The fan and access light turned on for a second. The LCD never came on and the computer never posted or booted up. I messed with it for a while, replacing the 4GB RAM with the original 1GB, replacing the 320GB hard drive with the original 120GB drive, removing and replacing the battery, unplugging and plugging the AC adapter, holding down the power button for extended periods, etc, and finally after about an hour, the laptop booted up. I then shut it down and put my replacement RAM and hard drive back in and used the laptop for a few hours with absolutely no problems.

I assumed it was a fluke problem, but after leaving the laptop in my car again overnight, I am now having the same problem and after messing with it for many hours and completely disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling it, have been unable to fix it. After searching through many internet posts, I'm guessing the problem is my 8600GT video card or the motherboard and I'm trying to figure out the cheapest solution to my problem. I can get a FL92 motherboard or an 8600GT for about $200, but I'm hesitant to replace the video card or the motherboard, since I have no means of testing either one before purchasing and I'm also not 100% sure about how to know if these parts will be compatible. I can get a new FL90 for about $450 and I can get a new JFL92 for $500, but again, I'm worried about compatibility (IFL90 vs FL90/FL92/JFL92).

I just recently bought an extra battery for this laptop and up until this point, I've been absolutely in love with it, so unless the price is right, I'd prefer not to switch platforms. Anyone have any thoughts or advice on what I should do here?

UPDATE - I left the laptop turned on (but dead), sitting on my hot leather sofa, plugged into AC power for a couple of hours. When I tried booting again, it worked. It shuts down and comes back on, and everything functions perfectly now, leading me to guess that the problem might stem from bad solder joints on the NVidia 8600GT that don't work correctly until they're warm. I'm sure this problem will come back as soon as I let it sit and cool down though, so I'm still up for suggestions as to how I can turn it back into a reliable laptop. Anyone near Atlanta, GA that would be willing to temporarily mix and match parts with me?

 

i have the same problem but i think it is a motherboard problem, but my laptop doesnt turn on in any way

 

Replace the 8600m by a hd3650, it's cheaper than buying a new laptop and the card is much better to boot. But that's only if you are sure that it's your GPU that is being capricious. The IFL90/FL90/FL92/JFL92 are the exact same thing. The only difference is that the 92 series has an updated motherboard to accommodate T8xxx and T9xxx Penryn CPUs.

 

I am having similiar issues.

• Could someone post a link on the actual product for hd3650?
• Is it hard to replace the video card?

 

i still have my 2 year old sager 2090 that i put a t8300 in it. it works just fine and dandy. the only problem with it the bad temp reading on it and the fan doesn't seem to work properly, it's stuck on high all the time. but i can you that it works just fine. but i replaced that cpu and put in a t7500, the t8300 went to my gateway.

 

The 2092 has a new thermal probe. That is the only that changed on the motherboard compared to the 2090.

 

I finally got the guts to disassemble the IFL90 laptop to extract the GPU in order to get a replacement. I will let everyone know how I make out. The disassembly guide was quite good except I couldn't get the top piece off (upper logic thingy)

I did notice an insane amount of dust/dibris on the exhaust fan vents. No wonder the GPU probably fried itself.