NP9262 9800M GT video card failure

I purchased my NP9262 from XoticPC in July of 08. Recently, while playing Mass Effect, it froze, and upon rebooting, the bios hardware diagnostic screen (even the Sager logo picture) was covered in short vertical and horizontal lines. These lines persisted in the BIOS setup screen as well.

I was able to boot into Windows, where there don't appear to be any graphical artifacts. Unfortunately, the Device Manager now says that 'Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)' when viewing the properties of the 9800M GT. It seems Windows no longer thinks I have a 3D accelerator, and is using the generic vga drivers.

Thinking this might be heat related, I popped the heat sink off and applied some new Arctic Silver, to no avail. The inside of the case was already clean, as I regularly clean it out with compressed air.

I have reflashed the BIOS with the same version it was currently running (.20).

I have run out of ideas as to what the problem could be. I am currently living in the UK (was in the US when I purchased it) and don't relish the idea of sending it back to Xotic, nor paying $7XX they quoted me for a replacement 9800M GT, as the system is out of warranty.

Before I spring for a 260M GTX from mxm-upgrade, I wanted to see if anyone here had any ideas as to what my problem might be.

Thanks for reading.

 

i had the same problem with my old 8800 card
it was only a drivers problem

now i have a GTX 260V2 and our days drivers and it works like a charm

so just update drivers or use some modificated ones

 

I forgot to mention I am running the latest mobile drivers from Nvidia's site (197.16) on Win7 x64. I'm not sure how drivers would cause graphical artifacts on the BIOS screens though.

 

Your GPU is dying. This is a common occurrence of the 8800m GTX/9800m GT GPUs as of late.

You should perhaps consider baking your GPU as a temporary solution.

 

ive had a lot of bsod using 197.16 so ive reverted back to which i think has been the best driver nvidia has released in a long while 186.81 and no problems ever since.

ive also got the 9800GT 512 graphics card.

with the lines you mentioned it does sound like your card could be on the way out so trying drivers first could save you a lot of money. did you ever overclock at all?

 

Thanks for the replies. I haven't overclocked anything in the machine, but I'll try the 186.81 drivers when I get home later tonight.

What do you mean by 'bake' my GPU? I should literally put it into the oven?

I've attached a picture of the BIOS screen to better illustrate the issue.

 

Were the 9800's part of the Nvidia defect? I had an Asus with a 8600m gt that fried due to the defect. A few good companies extended warranties on these cards, Asus wasn't one of them.

The problem is bumps that appear in the die which causes the gfx chip to warp in the middle or sides and lift from the motherboard. Baking it would reflow the bumps and so temporarily solve the problem until it occurs again.

Usually they use a hot air gun to heat the graphics card.

 

YUP oven with it !

There are several threads about it.
Short Version:
Take your Graphic card out of the mobo, you must be takeout any thermal paste, cooler, heat sink... anything that doesn’t make part of the Graphic card. Pre-heat the oven to 180-200ºC, put the GC inside, don't let it touch the oven (you can make 4 foots with aluminum paper). Keep ‘it there for 8-10 minutes. After that turn the oven off and let the door open for 30 minutes. Take the card out connect to the mobo and "voilá" is working again (I can't guarantee that, but already tried a couple of times and it always worked.

 

Thanks dhs and ettornio for the great suggestion, as it worked! 8 minutes at 200c and the weird artifacts are all gone and Windows recognizes it again. Any idea how long this will last?

 

Could last for 2 weeks or 6 months. The basic idea is that the bumps under the GPU die connecting it to the chip package crack due to thermal cycling and expansion rate mismatch with the underfill. When you bake it the solder gets reflowed to some extent and fixes the problem temporarily. This picture illustrates the problem that occurs.

 

It can work "forever" or a few weeks, months... I have an old 6800M that already went 2 times to the oven. The first time it worked for 3 weeks, the second time is still working (I think for 9 months now)

 

There's a good article why the Nvidia 8800/9800 cards are failing, read on at http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...vidia-laptop-cards-fail-after-2-year-use.html

 

Hey guys, I want to try the oven method or fixing my card but I can't get it out of the heat sink casing...like I pulled the card out and everything but the card itself is still in the metal casing...anyone know how I can get it out? I am pretty sure I'm not supposed to put the whole casing into the oven...thanks in advance

 

Aren't there screws on the back that attach it to the card?