Fried Video Card?

Hey there Sager owners,

I reviewed my laptop a little over a year ago and its been running beautifully since. However, as eventually expected, it decided to die a couple weeks ago. My laptop made this loud "pop" sound and just turned off and refused to turn back on. When connected to AC power, the little charging led does not light up, and the AC power brick makes this beeping sound, leading me to believe the computer is just rejecting the current from the block.

Some searching, inspecting, and self-troubleshooting later, I was almost certain I had a short on the motherboard. I sent it in for RMA and heard back recently. I was told there is something wrong with my video card and it needs to be replaced.

Now I'm no laptop build expert, but could a fried video card connected to the motherboard prevent the computer from turning on, or prevent it from even charging? I would assume a fried pipeline/connection would give me artifacts, and a fried video card would just kill the connection between the computer & display, but not totally prevent the computer from turning on or even charging. I'm sure the service tech's know far more about the issue than I could figure out, but a video card problem makes me skeptical, especially when I almost surely ruled that out as a possibility.

 

I would be very strange for a bad video card to prevent the laptop from powering on and even getting to POST.. At the very least it should power on.

My guess is that the power brick is bad, and whatever happened, damaged your video card. That's assuming you're choosing to believe the tech, and that they're not trying to get you to buy a new video card.

I'd ask them if they were able to power the laptop on. If they were, your power brick most likely needs replacing too. Did you send that to them as well, or just the laptop?

 

If the video card has a chip or discrete device that is actually shorted, then most definitely, this can keep your laptop from powering up. Even something as simple as a shorted capacitor can do this. Based on the pop sound you heard it is likely that something shorted out. In fact an electrolytic capacitor will make a loud pop when it goes.
But, nobody actually seems to repair boards down to the component level anymore. They just swap out the entire sub-assembly.

 

I agree, pops are usually electrolytic capacitors, but given his power brick problems, I was thinking it was a smoothing capacitor in his brick that went.

I would be surprised if a short in a dedicated graphics card prevented powering up. Integrated, I could understand, but the bios should get to post with a dedicated video card. Just my 0.02.

 

It does seem odd that a dedicated video card would keep the system from at least doing a POST.

The only thing I can think is that it may be some sort of protection for the other hardware components. Maybe there is some logic that will keep unsafe voltages or currents from reaching other components.

I really do not know, I'm just kind of throwing this out there. But, if this is not a feature that is currently implemented in all computer hardware, it seems like a decent idea, no?

 

This is exactly what happened to mine. The video card died due to (what I think) was heat stress and the manufacturing flaw in the soldering of the card's casing. A pop, it shut off, the power brick beeped, and it stopped working completely. I'm probably wrong but isn't the 9800M GT very similar to the 8800M GTX? Could be the same problem...anyway, you can try to find my old post about my own identical situation. I think that was last summer...

 

Same thing happened to my 9262 with SLI 8800M GTX.
One of the video cards died, the whole system would not power up.
I did not know that the video card was the problem, until after I got it back from repairs.
Got an RMA, sent it in. I later called and was told that the video card was replaced.

 

My notebook made a pop and shut off earlier this year, when I spilled a few ounces of water on the keyboard. The next day, after it was completely dried, I turned it back on and it still works great. I will never buy anything but a Clevo ever again. Ever.

 

Wow, well I stand corrected then. I would've thought it would get to POST, but it sounds like that's not the case. Sounds like the tech guys were straight with you.

 

I was told, on another discussion on this forum, that the 8800s had some problems from just dying. I'm surprised that there aren't any more complaints.
All in all, Sagers are top notch systems. Can't place blame on Sager for the 8800s being bad, no one knew, and it seems that these die out after a year of so on the systems.

 

Mine's still going strong after 2 years, so they're not all bad.

 

My second GTX8800m died after exactly one year, the first card is still dong fine. I wonder who to contact at NVDIA for a replacement or repair though.

 

So, after hearing back from tech support and from the previous posts, it seems it is possible for a graphics cards to knock out power to the whole system as a safety measure.

It also seems the repair is going to cost $600~, which hurts. And that got me thinking: is it possible to pull out all the parts from a laptop and stick them into a desktop? I no longer need the portability (it literally hasn't left my desk in a couple months). I can get an equivalent desktop graphics card for $200, and a case+PSU for <$100. I realize the point of laptop components is minimum power/size to maximum performance ratio, defeating the purpose of sticking them into a desktop arrangement, but I'd like to keep this computer alive for as long and cheap as possible. If its unrealistic or too much work, I guess I'll bite it and pay for the repair, but I'd like to see my options.

 

I think you'll hit compatibility issues at that point. Your notebook motherboard won't accept desktop parts (at least not without some hacking/connector conversions), and your notebook components (CPU, memory) won't fit in a desktop motherboard (which you'd also have to buy). The only major parts relatively easily switchable from notebook to desktop are the HDD and possibly the optical drive.

The other thing is, for that price, you could probably buy a barebones M770SUN from RJTech, which has a 105M graphics card (not really sure how that compares to the 9800M GT), and stuff all your old components into that one.

 

You saying it will cost 600usd to repair the video card? if so; first I didn't know the can be repaired. second; last time i checked at eurocom it was 570CAD (540USD) for a new 8800m gtx + shipping.