Replace/upgrade burnt out laptop GPU on Inspiron 9400

[Deceptoid]

Yo,
I cooked the Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS card on my Dell Inspiron 9400. In order to save money I would like to try replace it myself. I know it is possible as there are how-to tutorials around
It looks pretty easy to go to a 7900 GTX or some such but they are not easy to find. Preferably I would go to something like this 8600M GT. It is PCI-e / MXM II so should fit as far as I can tell. If I update BIOS, etc, is there any reason why a DX10 card will not work with my Intel 945GM board? Is the MXM II backwards compatible with MXM?
Can you think of any other problems I may encounter such as the fans being too large?
Thanks for any help you can offer.

[pam123]

This is a link to the Dell Support forum : http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19251040.aspx

You have to replace the card with another of the same.

[jdeb]

If I recall correctly there was a year extension to the warranty on that laptop for the video, give Dell a call.

[Deceptoid]

OK, I'll give Dell a call and see what they say. Don't like my chances though.

Either way, thanks for your help.

[Deceptoid]

If anyone's interested, it seems I may have found a potential alternative to ordering an new card.

Bake the card in the oven.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...ight=card+oven

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792

Found lots of people claiming it works. Sounds a little bizarre but if the card is dead what can I lose?

[pam123]

That sounds seriously strange but let us know what happens.

[Deceptoid]

Thats what I thought but I'll give it a shot this weekend and let you know

[Deceptoid]

OK here's the word.

This works. Seriously, its completely fixed. When I put the card back in there were a few odd coloured pixels here an there but after an hour of running it was completely back to normal. I've even played a little Crysis.

So, the only cost involved was for a set of screwdrivers. Amazing!

[pam123]

Originally Posted by Deceptoid OK here's the word. This works. Seriously, its completely fixed. When I put the card back in there were a few odd coloured pixels here an there but after an hour of running it was completely back to normal. I've even played a little Crysis. So, the only cost involved was for a set of screwdrivers. Amazing!

OK, I am amazed

The only question I have now is how long will it continue to work.

[David M]

I have read of this as well. Nobody seems to know why. The real question is, who the hell thought of doing this in the first place...and why?

Its like putting a dead poodle in the microwave thinking it will bring it back to life.

[glc]

Its like putting a dead poodle in the microwave thinking it will bring it back to life.

Don't let your mom read that...........

[Iamjosh]

NVidia released the 8 and 9 series GPU/chipsets and they have a large failure rate. I have seen a few of these and unless it's under warranty, HP refuses to extend any "good-will' gesture. My company does not buy any HP equipment any longer.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/HP-...sues,7669.html