NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Notebook Forums - General › Replacement graphics card doesn't fit?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Replacement graphics card doesn't fit?

post #1 of 5
12/17/09 at 4:53am
Thread Starter 
Hi, I'm traveling in Vietnam with my MSI 1036, and it's developed a serious graphics problem. Basically, anything involving hi-res graphics freezes the computer, but I can still boot in text-only mode and everything works fine. I'm running Ubuntu, and I've tried reinstalling, but the problem still occurs.

So it would seem to be the graphics card, right?

Someone who came highly recommended is looking at the computer, and he says he's having trouble finding a replacement graphics card that will fit the slot in the motherboard.

Here are the specs for my laptop, now a few years old (full specs here):

Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon X700
Chipset: ATI RS 480M + ATI SB 450

Does it make sense that it would be difficult to find a replacement graphics card? What slot does my motherboard have that makes it hard to fit?

Thank you for your help, and sorry if these are basic questions. It's all a bit over my head...
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 5
12/17/09 at 8:14am
I don't think that you can swap out the GPU on this MSI "barebone" model other than replacing the whole board.

How about try "baking" it? Search our forum for inputs regarding this project.

cheers ...
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 5
12/18/09 at 11:09am
Thread Starter 
Thanks, ghn. I may be just desperate enough to try baking... I'll post back if I do. Thanks for your response!
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 5
12/23/09 at 7:25am
Give the laptop a good internal clean (strip it down) esp the heatfins and heatpipe assembly and round the CPU and GPU.. It looks like that is overheating when under stress... Also update your drivers for thre chipset and video if you can...
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 5
12/23/09 at 4:09pm
Before you subject it to any form of baking - I would like to suggest you check the GPU and CPU temperatures during (if you can't reach that in the GUI for any period of time, use some CMDline utils). Try changing to a more lightweight window manager (e.g. switch off Compiz Fusion if you have it on) or a lower graphics resolution like VGA. An abnormally warm temperature could be telling...

(then if needed, reseat/re-TIM the CPU/GPU, dust heatsinks and check whether their fans are spinning at the appropriate RPMs)
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Notebook Forums - General
NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Notebook Forums - General › Replacement graphics card doesn't fit?