D900T bad MoBrd Worth Replacing or get new?

I have a D900T and it just started to have the 3 flashing LED's on startup, it will post and start loading the OS but then will shut down. I have done the following to isolate the issue:

Checked the thermal compound on both CPU and GPU..for good measure I cleaned them off and reapplied A.S. 5 and replaced..

Cleaned out all vents and cooling blocks (not that dirty to begin with)

Still had the same issue of LED's blinking on and off then shutting down.

Next I pulled the Memory and replaced with proven working modules..still same problem.

Next I pulled out the HD's and attempt to boot from USB or CD..same problem.

Next pulled out the GPU completely just to see if it could make it to posting bfr shutting down...still the same as soon as I hit the power button the 3 LED's start blinking on and off and shortly after laptop shuts down.

After all that I have concluded that it is a MoBo issue and it will need to be replaced...unless someone has any other suggestions?

This leaves me with the question of is it worth me getting a new MoBo for the laptop (currently costing $480) or should I look at getting a barebones laptop and adding the mem, HD's i already have to it...?

I'm having a hard time trying to compare the performance of a new (granted lower end laptop by today's standards) laptop performance of something like :

http://mivasecure.abac.com/rjtech/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=JHL90

This runs a nVidia 9600M GT 512MB Video Card and is $489 w/out CPU (p8700 CPU will add ~$250) but i'm willing to pay a few 100 more if performance will be better than my old laptop.

granted I still need to get a CPU for it...assuming i add the p8700 CPU..will this blow away my older 2005 D900T? Or am I better off replacing the Mobo?

Specs on my current broken laptop:

3.8 P4
GeForce 6800 go ultra
3 GB Mem
2 7500 HD's

Thanks for any input..

 

That new CPU would probably blow that P4 away, however for gaming, on older games there won't be much difference, but for new games the 9600m will be ~2x faster than the 6800.

However, if you're willing to spend ~$739 on a new laptop, you might be better off filling out the What should I buy? FAQ and posting it in the What laptop should I buy? forum for better suggestions.

 

Thanks for the info...I'm assuming the grfx card will also blow away my old 6800 ultra from what I have seen on benchmark tests.

Any heat issues with this type of laptop/grfx card that need to be aware of? I know on my old D900T it was like a space heater..I kept it up on small blocks just to make sure it got enough air to keep cool.

 

the 9600m is 23 watts and the 6800 ultra is 89 watts. technically the 9600m should run cooler, but it mainly depends on the the laptop chassis it's put into.. my 9600m runs up to 97C at times...

 

The D900T is a fairly old system. I recommend scrapping it and selling the working parts to fund a new laptop. It is honestly not even worth $100 to fix it, because it will only let you down again.

AS far as temperature goes, the 6800 will run cooler than a 9600mgt, mainly because the heatsink in the D900T for the graphics card weighs nearly 1lb, and can effectively cool 90 watt graphics cards. Most new laptops have a single heatsink which cools the processor and graphics card, which ultimately causes the temperatures for both to be much higher.

As far as your motherboard goes, have you tried resetting the BIOS, by removing the BIOS battery. It is located underneath the keyboard.

Have you tried solely booting from battery?

K-TRON

 

I have not reset the BIOS..will try this when I get home..

As for scrapping it ..thats what I was thinking about doing...I hate to see a +$4000 laptop sold off for parts..what kills me is it stll ran perfect (till now ) and it looks like new still (love the red paint job they did for me). I'm hoping the reset will work..

Thanks for the info!

Oh..yes I tried just the bat. boot still the same..also I have two power supplies and swapped them out just to make sure it was not that..still no-go.

What puzzles me is I was thinking it was a heat related issue but even from a "cold" start after letting it sit for a day or two it will start the blinking 3 LED lights as soon as I turn it on..then shut down 10 sec or so later...when this first started it did it right in the middle of me gaming or just web surfing (let me have enough time to boot fully into the OS)...but now its right at the beginning of boot-up (still will get the the mem check part etc..then just shuts off).