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Looks like my video card kicked the bucket m5700

post #1 of 10
9/24/08 at 1:57pm
Thread Starter 
while playing WoW last week, the game froze and crahsed the system twice. the third time, there was some very strange pixelation before the crash. after that, upon startup there are these blue and orange lines everywhere on the screen (even in BIOS). CPU would only start up in safe mode.

This did start after Win SP3 came out so I system restored. Didnt work. Tried using the Alienware respawn dvd, but the dvd drive wont read it (comical). I disabled the video drivers and tried reinstalling them, rolling back, and downloading new ones. Each time during the installation, the screen would go crazy into a jumbled mesh of random colors and then crash the system.

So it looks like i need a new video card and dvd drive.

Any ideas?
I was lookin for a reason to buy a new cpu anyway.
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post #2 of 10
9/24/08 at 2:15pm
Ask http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/ if he has any suitable available (Kris Verbeek, Belgium) - you belong to the hundreds of failing go6800 owners
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post #3 of 10
9/24/08 at 5:32pm
It does sound like the vid card blew up. If you can get into windows in safe mode, that means it's running the video in 2d mode, or vga. When you try to get into 3d mode, the video is showing artifacts... If it starts up in safe mode, your cpu is probably fine.

You can try to apply new thermal grease to the vid card, the old pad probably dried out and cracked leading to overheating. If you're getting problems right away though in normal startup, the card is probably fried. If it was still good, it would probably run fine for a short while before showing artifacts.

If you're the original owner, I'd contact Alienware and see if they can't either source you a new card, or tell you where you can get a replacement.
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post #4 of 10
9/24/08 at 5:36pm
Thread Starter 
yeah card is fried, alienware said they'd send me a ati x1900 for ~$430, since they dont have nvidia in stock anymore.

of course, it still is an excuse to at least shop around for cpus
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post #5 of 10
9/24/08 at 8:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by UbiquitousFlow View Post
yeah card is fried, alienware said they'd send me a ati x1900 for ~$430, since they dont have nvidia in stock anymore.

of course, it still is an excuse to at least shop around for cpus
$430? Ouch!

Hopefully you can find something that'll work for less than that. At least the cpu department should be a little less expensive if you're gonna upgrade. Prices on the older stuff has really come down in desktops anyway...
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post #6 of 10
9/24/08 at 8:42pm
Thread Starter 
AW is sold out. Gonna try ebay, but im leanin toward just gettin a new system.
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post #7 of 10
9/25/08 at 3:59am
Somebody has managed to fix his 6800 card by baking it in an owen to reflow the solders - can't remember the site where it was described.
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post #8 of 10
9/25/08 at 9:29pm
If the card is dead you might as well try it but I doubt its going to fix it by soldering it back together...
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post #9 of 10
9/26/08 at 10:26am
Is that an MXM 2 or 3 card? You may be able to install an 8600m GS or GT. They are going for pretty cheap on ebay. $159.00 for the GS and around $239.00 for a GT.

These guys are quite helpful: http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/
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post #10 of 10
9/29/08 at 3:53pm
The 5700 series AW are MXM Type III and its really hard to find any replacement plug and play GPU.

My X1800 has been artifacts as well when I play anything that requires graphics Oh well time to clean it out and try to buy some new thermal pads..
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