woodpigeon4

Hi there,
I was playing GRID on my Dell XPS M1710, and got a load of corruption and lines on the screen, and the laptop shut went into a kind of safe mode. It has never been overclocked, and dust has been cleaned recently. Now, when I turn it on, I get artifacts and corruption even at the BIOS screen. I've tried reseating and reinstalling the drivers, but it hasn't worked. I'm going to call dell tomorrow, but as it's out of warranty, I don't expect much help. There's no way I'm buying a new GPU, (they cost more than the laptop is worth), so I'm going to try and fix it. I'm going to use the oven fix as a last resort, and would appreciate advice on anything else I can do to fix it, as well as any tips when performing the oven trick.
Pictures of the graphics card, (geforce go 7900GTX) are here, and a pic of the motherboard is at the bottom :


Thanks

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________

L3gacy

Just make sure to put it in the oven for 8-10 minutes and put foil balls under it so its suspended in the air a few inches above grill so it evenly melts all the solder points and let cool of slowly for around 20 mins

L3gacy

If you cool it fast the solder points will get brittle and break

Funcrazy1

I would not do that. That is alot of screws to keep track on.

By chance does it have a warranty ?

__________________

Team Fortress 2 Club

Mygaffer

You are going to need a new card and it is going to cost you about $300-400 dollars.

__________________
http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/606947.png

Vantage: P10024
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1504945

woodpigeon4

It doesn't have a warranty, so I can't get it replaced. The oven trick has worked for lots of people wit the same card and problem, so I'll probably try it.

__________________

woodpigeon4

Sorry for the double post, but I've had another idea. What if I buy a warranty with dell, and as soon as it's activated send the laptop in for repairs? I know it seems a bit dishonest, but it really is there fault, so IMO they deserve it.

__________________

cccccc

If the GPU is not removable I would use a heat gun to heat it up.

Set the heat gun to 300C and a few mins should be enough.

You can watch some youtube vids about BGA reworking/reballing.

It doesn't always work, but if you're going to throw the motherboard out, you may as well try this first.

The warrenty idea sounds like it could work, maybe worth a try. But read the fine print.

woodpigeon4

It is removable, so the oven would work. However, the laptop seems to be working OK now, although I'm sure it will die if I try a game. So, my plan is to buy a warranty, take some photos of it working, then run a game and say "my laptop's broken" and if they question it say "it was working fine a few days ago and here's the proof"

__________________

cccccc

Hopefully you will work it out

If you do end up doing the oven trick, you should increase the fan speed.
Maybe connect it to usb power to keep it spinning at it's max all the time, otherwise it will just break again.

Undervolting the GPU may be a good idea (if you haven't done it yet).