M860TU/Sager NP8660 Dead Video Card?

I wasn't entirely sure which forum to post this in, but since it's a Sager computer, I figured I'd start here.

This morning when I tried to turn on my computer, the screen was just.. well, colourful, but no picture. (see Attachment).

I think the video card has died. It has a Nvidia M9800 GT I believe (I can't remember exactly now, but it was the top end card available at the time, and I can't exactly check the specs now) The reason I think it's the video card and not just the monitor is that my external screen won't load anything up either? I know it works perfectly, but It won't show the windows screen on it when I log in.

I know it's not the hard drive or motherboard because I can still log into windows 7. It makes all the regular windows sounds when it boots up, and I can still log into windows via fingerprint login.

So.. this brings me back to.. the video card is dead? I would love a second opinion.

if this is the case, supposedly the video card in the machine is user replaceable, and if that's what I'm going to have to do, what video card should I be looking at getting to replace it?


One thing to note, that I don't think is the cause: Last night windows 7 installed a number of updates. I believe it was 11. However, the issue begins as soon as I start up the computer, bios or loading screens or anything, just the colours. So I don't think it's the updates that did it, besides, Windows is still working.

 

sadly that does look like the gpu. the 9800GT is what ive got so if you bought yours round about 2 years ago then its either the GT or GTS.
the 9800GT is like gold dust now and on ebay they are asking for silly money for one.
the most important question is did you take out the extended warranty.

the 260M does fit in the updated version of the m860tu but im not sure about the earlier model.
if its defo the graphics card then as a last option have you read about baking the card in the oven. this has worked for many people but you need to know what you are doing. i will try and find the guide for you.

 

heres the walkthrough guide for baking a graphics card back to life.
only use this method if its determined the card is dead

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r-your-dead-graphics-card-your-alienware.html

i know the link says AW but i guess its the same method for most laptops.

 

I might give that a shot because at this point, it can't get a lot worse.

 

The worse is if it's the LCD cable caused the problem then you would probably bake your good GPU dead.....But bake first.

 

My first thought was that it might be the connection from the screen to the computer. However, if that was the problem, my 2nd monitor should still run fine, but it's not, which leads me to the graphics card.

 

en... should be the vram problem, just bake it.

 

So, what are the chances someone out there has a 9800gt they would be willing to sell?

 

I would try one of these:
HP nVidia Quadro FX 3700M 1 GB Video Card NEW NB9E-GLM3 - eBay (item 390270894546 end time Dec-17-10 11:02:31 PST)

Better than a 9800m GT (and cheaper).

 

Sager says the only compatible cards are the 9800GT w/512mb of ram or the GTX260M w/1gb?

 

Well kaltmonds sig shows different

 

Yea and mine, well, did. I've tested 5 HP and 1 Lenovo card in my m860tu all 3700m.

The Lenovo cards sometimes have issues with compatibility, actually Kalmond should say whether my VBIOS fixed his issues.
But the thing is with the Lenovo cards is that they are a lot better. Its a different board which is better for overclocking and a few of the HP cards have failed for reasons other than the Nvidia solder problem.
NEW Lenovo ThinkPad W700 1GB Video Card QuadroFX 3700M - eBay (item 120654055256 end time Dec-29-10 16:15:05 PST)
Mainly the overclocking is not going to be a good idea unless you are into cooling mods tho.

 

Well, it's in the oven right now, here's hoping I get lucky.

 

IT WORKED!

I can't believe it.. but it actually worked. I baked it, and now it works again.

Thanks so much MrDJ, you are my hero!

 

Remember, its only a temp. solution.

 

Here's hoping it a long temporary

 

Agreed. Best of luck.

 

great news. glad to be of service.

 

my friend got the same laptop model, the same gpu, and the same problem. i think i will help him with this since he does not know squat about computers. is there anything i would do good on knowing before undergoing this baking? i cant say i'm an expert on gpu baking, so any tip is welcome. removing all the thermal paste, and all the stickers, and just shove it in the oven on four balls of aluminium? thats it? what side of the gpu should go up or does it matter? id like to not screw up on something stupid like this. also, did you take any pics? would be nice to see

 

Hehe, i tried this myself, as my friend did not dare.

it worked for me too baking @ 200c for 8-9 minutes did the trick. oh i bet he will be happy

 

SO how have you used the notebook?

w w/o cooler? what avg temps did you have?

 

seems the fix did not last forever. will try to bake his card again, but should probably start looking for a new card.

seems people have gotten both the fx 3700 and the gtx 280m to work, so ill see what i can do about it. think a flash of the bios is needed at least.

 

after advising on this back in 2010 my card died this year in march on the day crysis 2 was released. luckily i had taken out the extra year warranty so my card was upgraded to a 260GTX the same day.

sadly the baking method is only a temporary fix but people have done it 4 or 5 times and it still works.

 

I have a FX3700 in mine, It works with the original bios/vbios so an update isn't "mandatory"


with a e3350(t9600) I get a stock 3dmark06 score of 11.2k, with a little video OC I get 11.5K




I might flash it to a GTX280/whatever, but IDK...