m15x nv4_disp error: my laptop tanked :( - Page 2

Thanks for the continued help guys, I guess I have two questions at this point, both relating to separate solutions...

The first relates to baking the 8800M GTX, since it seems like the "quicker" fix (though it's most likely temporary). I still have it with me, but even after looking up tons of guides, I've found them all contradictory (some say bake with GPU down and some say bake with GPU up, some say remove heat bracket, others say leave it in) probably because the people who baked their cards were baking different models... Does anybody know how to go about baking the 8800M GTX for the m15x specifically? I'm not sure how to remove the special screw-like bolts on the heat bracket...they're sort of like inverted screws.



And I guess the second question is regarding the 260m; in the guide a few posts ago, the company that installed the 260m (or 280m?) said it wasn't a recommended upgrade due to the fact that it tends to overheat. And would it be compatible with a windows XP system by any chance?

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies! Unfortunately my electronics lingo isn't quite up to par...

qhn:
GPU side up would mean that the little square sticking out should face the top, right? But when you mean cover it in foil, do you mean that I should literally wrap it, or lay it flat on foil that has been placed beneath it? Is there no need for the little foil balls because it is a mobile video card, I wonder?

Cretin3:
I see, I'm glad that your explanation agrees with qhn's, when time comes to bake it, I will make sure that the GPU is facing upwards. Your explanation was really helpful! Although I'm comfortable with using well-known methods to fix my computer, it makes me feel that much more confident to know why a solution works (and why it wouldn't be permanent).

As a general update, I have decided to post my 8800m GTX card. Something I find strange is the presence of a thin black sheet of plastic (?) paper covering the GPU (which has the thermal grease on top of it), and I'm not sure what it's for, and if that should also be removed before I try attempting to bake the card. Here are some pictures of my card in case anybody is interested:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1066/chipe.jpg
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3817/chip3.jpg
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/266/chip2g.jpg

Anyway, the screws I was wondering about are located outside each corner of the GPU, between the sticker labels, haha.

EDIT:
Oh yeah! And I contacted mxm-upgrade and asked about whether the 260M GTX that they sell is compatible with the Windows XP operating system, and they said they weren't sure yet, but might know soon... Does anybody here have any idea if the 260M GTX would be possible to replace on a Windows XP OS m15x? It sure does look almost exactly like the 8800m GTX...

Thanks again,

Ugh... sorry for hurling all these questions one after another; I hope I'm not being too much of a nuisance. Mxm-upgrade has yet to respond on whether their GTX260 is compatible with a Windows XP OS m15x (hopefully it will turn out to be an alright result), but in the meantime I've been looking carefully at the burned-out 8800M GTX I have now.

I found that I could take the metal heat bracket off by gently pushing the little inverted-screw like bases, so the last two issues I have to take care of are the thermal paste and the strange little brown plastic-paper-like cover that's sort of stuck atop the GPU... I haven't seen this little cover (which should be viewable in the pictures I posted in my last reply, I think?) on video cards in the pictures online, so I was wondering if this is also something I should remove prior to baking (I sort of want to find out if it's something I could put back in after the whole process is done).

After that, all I have to do is ask a friend to use their oven, and adjust farenheit to celsius before I give the baking a try! I'm hoping that I'll be able to successfully revive the card (if only temporarily) until I could find a permanent replacement... at this point, I'm pretty sure the general life of this computer won't last too much longer, but it would be nice if I could at least get 2 or 3 more years out of it.

The super-duper disappointing part is that I did order an ATI 3870 (since I would GLADLY take a 10% graphics hit for a working card again), the money was transferred... but about 3 weeks later I realized they still hadn't sent it. I ended up having to call back around a dozen times within the week and finally they admitted that it was no longer available except to those under warranty, and even then they probably didn't have enough.

I asked them if it was possible for them to have any graphics cards compatible with my m15x anytime soon, and the customer reps flatly told me "no", and to make things short, that they wouldn't help me and that I should go somewhere else.

Thanks, Alienware.

darkloki:

Thanks! I wasn't able to nab those, but I really appreciate your effort!

At this moment, I'm planning on baking the card I have, and if that doesn't work, then to order the 260M GTX card and seat it in my Alienware (through e-mails the mxm-upgrade customer support was very helpful and mentioned they would help create an m15x windows XP OS driver for me if they had to)... though I'm hoping to avoid that because it's a staggering $450.00 solution (and I don't even know if it is a viable permanent solution).

Anyway, I just have to find a way to safely remove the dried thermal paste, get some more of that, and then ask one of my friends at a homestay if I could borrow their oven (and remember the right temperature to cook the card at).

UPDATE!:

The good news is, I finally baked my card (10 minutes at 200 Celsius). Upon finishing me and my friend noted that a little clear fluid had dripped onto the tin foil underneath.

The bad news is, I tentatively tried gaming again with Prototype, and after a few hours worth of play I'm up to a point where if I try to play ANYTHING that uses 3D graphics over barely a minute, the entire picture freezes (with rainbow colors, mostly pink and green and sometimes flashing) and I have to restart manually.

Fortunately, I can still use it to watch movies and whatnot... but is this the end of the line for my video card? I was hoping to get at least 4 or 5 more months of usage out of it until I returned to the United States, but it seems like at this point that I won't be able to do anything. =/ Maybe I put on a little too much thermal grease? But that doesn't seem to be it... I'm betting I just screwed up the baking.