Help with upgrading a D900C video card.

ok so I actually have a few main questions.

Lets get to the history first. So i recently cleaned my case out and took everything apart and cleaned the thermal compound and removed the thermal foil from the video card. The video card I have is a GeForce 8800m GTX card. After removing all the old stuff and removing dust I realized I threw away the thermal pads that were there before. I decided to use thermal paste instead. I use the arctic silver thermal compound and that seems to work great. Now after putting everything back together everything turns on but when I try to use graphic intense programs the screen starts to flicker and then BSOD with a GRAPHIC_DRIVER_FAULT. so here goes.

First Question: The video card seems to work and it's not a driver problem since i've uninstalled, cleaned drivers and then reinstalled. I've run chkdsk /r to fix maybe corrupted sectors. I have run FurMark and it seems to run fine for awhile until the card hit ~67C. This makes me think something is overheating and causing the card to become unresponsive due to overheating protection. Now I read a thread about replacing the pads and there seem to be two darker looking pads in the pictures that I never had originally on my heat sink. Would those over-heating possibly cause the issue I'm seeing when trying to run games/movies/etc.? Also, I checked the connection for the thermal paste for all areas and the contact is good.

Second Question: Now assuming the card has permanent heat damage I'm probably going to replace it by upgrading to the GTX 280m as stated at this website. Clevo D901c. Now at the very top they mention upgrading the bios if i'm upgrading from an 8800m GTX. Does anyone know where or what bios I need in order to make this upgrade work? I assume it's motherboard bios.

 

Your D900C is of later revision,so you have quite a few choice.

Cheap replacement: FX2700M/FX3600M(under $140) They are weaker than your 8800MGTX

Good Price/performance ratio: FX3700M($200~$300) Just a little weaker and hotter than GTX280M.

Best performance: GTX280M MXM2.1 version(more than $500) Rare and overpriced.

Temporary solution: Bake your 8800MGTX.

Complicated solution: Buy a G92-751-B1/G92-761-B1/N10E-GLM3-B2/N11E-GTX1-B1 chip to replace your 8800MGTX's G92-720-A2 one. It needs BGA resoldering.

 

Thermal pads are sometimes used when they want a quicker solution than applying a thermal paste, and sometimes used when the heatsink isn't properly mated to the GPU, and there is a gap - the pad is less efficient than good paste at transferring heat, but much better than air - so if the gap is going to be too large so it would require a massive glob of paste - a pad is applied.

In this case, reapplying paste could mean that something isn't making proper contact - thus the overheating? It should be visible if the case. I know it might feel like a decent time to upgrade, but given the choices Saltius has mentioned, it sounds like there are no cheap/effective upgrades available.

 

I checked all the areas that had pads before. the contacts with the paste are pretty good. I don't think that's the problem.

firstly I would buy a used card from ebay. I'm in no need of a brand new $500 video card. It seems I can get a GTX 280M for around $280 US.

Does my D900C not allow me to upgrade to that card? Don't I just need to upgrade the motherboard bios?

I was also thinking of trying the baking method to see if I get results.

 

The baking methos is only a temporary fix. It will go south again eventually. Probably sooner than later.

 

I know it's temporary but with holiday season upon us it seems like the more cost friendly solution. Lets hope it lasts long enough for me to buy a new replacement card.

Also, I can't really find the card that saltius listed on his post around the price listed. There seem to be a lot of inflated card prices out there right now. Maybe i'm looking in the wrong place.

 

so I baked the card and I can now run graphic intense programs again. At least for now. I have yet to use it for a long period of time but let hope it lasts.

Thank you all for your input with this issue. I will end up upgrading as well but at least now I have time to do more research for better deals.

 

nVidia GeForce GTX 280M N10E-GTX DDR3 1GB MXM B 3.0 VGA Video Card BD Module | eBay

Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M 1GB DDR3 MXM B UK | eBay

These GTX280m are MXM 3.0 version, they don't fit your D900C which uses MXM 2.1 slot.
BTW: The difference between MXM 2.1 and 3.0 makes GTX280M MXM2.1 version crazily overpriced exactly.

 

ok Thanks. I thought that might be the case but wasn't sure.