Having Laptop Problems (gray screen on start up)

So I bought a Sager NP2090 laptop (which is a Compal IFL-90 varient) about two years ago from xoticpc.com. I have listed the specs of it down below. So last night I turn on my laptop and a gray screen comes up. This laptop worked fine yesterday morning and I didn't drop it or spill anything on in between those two times of use. In fact I've never dropped it or spilled on it and I rarely even take it off my desk. Now the disk drive works, I can see the hard drive icon light light up and hear the hard drive spin. My mouse lights up when I turn on the laptop. I can adjust the brightness of the screen with the keyboard, but it always stays gray. The computer realizes when it's under battery power and when it is charging. The only thing is that it wont output to my second monitor and the screen will not do anything but stay gray. This leaves me to believe that the GPU, which is one of the famed nVidia 8600m GT GPUs has failed. Is this the case? If it is I realize that there is not much I can do to fix this, short of replacing the motherboard, but can I get any compensation from nVidia as they have admitted to knowing their graphics cards are faulty? Could I possibly get compensation from xoticpc.com? The laptop is not under warrenty, by the way. Or am I to late and am basically screwed? I'll try to keep an eye on this thread, but as of right now I'm stuck to using library computers so there is no guarantee as to when I will reply next. Thanks for the help guys.


Sager NP2090

CPU: intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7300 (4M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
GPU: nVidia 8600m GT 512mb GDDR2
Memory: 2gb DDR2
OS: Windows XP SP3
HDD: 160GB 5400RPM
Screen: 1680 x 1050 matte

 

Anybody know what is going on??

 

Have you ever opened it and cleaned it out like you're supposed to over the two years it has been under your ownership?

Anyway, my prognosis is either the video cable on the back of your panel has come loose, or your GPU is fried.

 

Yes. I've cleaned it out twice with some air-in-a-can type stuff. That sucks to hear that the video card might be fried. Do you know if I can get any money back from nVidia or somebody because nVidia addmitted that their chips were faulty? Or am I too late because my warranty expired about a year ago?

 

Unfortunately, you're left in the dust. You can always bake your card to try to bring it back to life if you want. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385857

 

Awesome. Thanks for the link. I'm going to order some thermal paste and try that once it arrives.

 

THE OVEN TRICK WORKED!

I was actually pretty lucky to be able to do this as most graphics cards are soldered into the mother board. So normally I would have to have put the whole motherboard in the oven which might melt the plastic around the CPU. But my graphics card was MXM II based so I could take it out from the motherboard. Now because its MXM II based I can replace it with a different card. Now I don't know whether to get another 8600m GT or to try to upgrade to a 9600m GT. I don't really want to get another 8600m GT because they all are faulty. I would much rather get a 9600m GT for the same price. The bad thing about this is it would most likely not work and I don't really want to flash my BIOS to get it to work. But while my computer is still working I have time to decide.

 

Very, very nice animal_chin. Glad to hear you're a certified computer baker now.