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    any hope for saving my 7970m?

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by chuckles87, Oct 2, 2014.

  1. chuckles87

    chuckles87 Notebook Consultant

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    my 7970m died recently , somehow the repair guy was able to resurrect it for couple of days of functioning by heating the 7970m with somesort of hot air blower for couple of minutes . it would breakdown and he would repeat the process and it would get repaired again, does that mean the card can be fixed or it is gone for good ?
     
    chuckles87, Oct 2, 2014
    #1
  2. Support.1@XOTIC PC

    Support.1@XOTIC PC Company Representative

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    He's basically baking the card for you which reflows the solder joints a bit to re-establish connections. Eventually your card will be gone for good and this is more to bide time than as a fix. I'd definitely plan to buy a replacement GPU or new machine in the near future when it goes bottom up.
     
    Support.1@XOTIC PC, Oct 2, 2014
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  3. TR2N

    TR2N Notebook Deity

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    OP,

    Follow this guide and good luck :)
     
    TR2N, Oct 2, 2014
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  4. chuckles87

    chuckles87 Notebook Consultant

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    would that work also for my 7970m ?
     
    chuckles87, Oct 3, 2014
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  5. TR2N

    TR2N Notebook Deity

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    Yes...
    You can also follow this guide for GPU
    Should be similar if not the same.
    Good luck.
     
    TR2N, Oct 4, 2014
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  6. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    ugh, im starting to see a trend of failing 7970m cards....
     
    jaybee83, Oct 4, 2014
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  7. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    As Derek made mention of, reflowing the card is a very temporal means of 'reviving' it. It does not exactly fix the problem for the long haul. At some point, the card will likely need to be replaced.
     
    Prostar Computer, Oct 6, 2014
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  8. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    A proper fix would involve replacing the bga chip of the core itself.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 7, 2014
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  9. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    Which few local shop technicians, let alone resellers, will/can do, unfortunately. :(
     
    Prostar Computer, Oct 8, 2014
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  10. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    It's a specialist service yes, you would track down a place online that does it specifically since it requires expensive equipment to do it properly.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 8, 2014
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  11. TR2N

    TR2N Notebook Deity

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    Nope.. I still have my 6990m working and the 7970m is excellent GPu with low cache die at 28nm.
    If you cool it scrupulously (check for fluff, crap every 3-6 months, etc) then it should last indefinitely.
     
    TR2N, Oct 10, 2014
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  12. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    in theory yes. in reality no... ive always been very caring and loving concerning my hardware, cleaning out vents/fans, repasting, checking the correct alignment of heatpads, etc. my gf can attest to that, having witnessed countless "cleaning days" :D still, my 7970m died on me just like that, without any warning signs beforehand and most probably took the mainboard with it.... :( lets hope the repair shop guys can revive my HM in order to last me until i sell it / get a new rig...
     
    jaybee83, Oct 10, 2014
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  13. TR2N

    TR2N Notebook Deity

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    Wow... It went just like that no warning signs aiiiii caramba!!
    Very sorry to hear that.... :(

    Hope you can salvage what you can jb..
    Terrible news...
    Thnx 4 the warning...
     
    TR2N, Oct 11, 2014
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  14. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    yeah well, s**t happens! placed an order for a p651sg last night and looking forward to it like a lil kid now :D still hope ill be able to use my trusty ol hm until the new rig arrives though, since ill have to wait at least until the end of november :p
     
    jaybee83, Oct 11, 2014
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  15. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    That will be a nice upgrade. Do you plan on doing a re-pad/paste yourself?
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 11, 2014
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  16. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    yes definitely, thatll be the first thing i do, aside from slapping in my 850 pro and the corsair ram i recently bought. ill watch out for those cpu temps after seeing the notebookcheck review on it, but im confident ill be able to handle them just fine :)

    looking forward to seeing how well that soldered 980M will handle an OC ;)
     
    jaybee83, Oct 11, 2014
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  17. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    Looks like it gets 3 power phases so similar to the mxm setup.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 11, 2014
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  18. wingman4ever

    wingman4ever Notebook Consultant

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    How can you know it took the mainboard with it?
    I have the 7970m too. I am kinda scared to play heavy games now, with all these 7970m fail threads.
     
    wingman4ever, Oct 11, 2014
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  19. TR2N

    TR2N Notebook Deity

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    I put the 7970m through 20hrs+ of Alien Isolation hitting peaks of 87C this weekend.
    She holding on like ripley in the nostromo i think...hehehe :thumbsup:
     
    TR2N, Oct 12, 2014
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  20. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    weeeeell, my 7970m died on me just after an extensive benchmarking round that lasted several days. few days after that is just "popped" and bam, couldnt boot anymore. if u wanna know all the details go ahead and check out my "help!" thread :D

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=762535
     
    jaybee83, Oct 12, 2014
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  21. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    You have to treat the VRMs like little babies when really pushing a card, this is why I adjust all my thermal pads even down to 0.5mm when going in for a hearty session :)
     
    Meaker@Sager, Oct 12, 2014
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  22. Blacky

    Blacky Notebook Prophet

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    Meaker is correct. Although my old 280M had a die failure while everything else is still fine. I went to repair shop and they strapped a 260M die on it and it worked.
     
    Blacky, Oct 12, 2014
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  23. jaybee83

    jaybee83 Biotech-Doc

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    trust me meaker, my gpu heatsink is basically covered in thermal tape, made sure to cover every lil vrm, capacitor and whatnot that i could discern :D didnt even really stress my card that much! for gaming i always sticked to stock clocks and most of the time in everyday usage i forced the clocks to half idle via CCC...
     
    jaybee83, Oct 12, 2014
    #23