How to: Replace your broken (8600M GT) graphics card (in the [I]FL90)

[Dr.Colossos]

No, you are left with checking at ebay and MXM Upgrade Home Page.

I do not know any other source ...

The 4570 is indeed not very powerful, but a DDR3 version might not be that bad ...

Good luck!

[Dusiata]

Hello eweryone.
I have problem with my FL90 and 8600 card. I installed Win7 and tried to install video drivers from NVidia offiial site and when I restarted my notebook screen won't work anymore.
I connected to it by remote desktop and find out that system won't recognize video card anymore (there are no video cards at all in device manager).
The worst thing that I can't see even DOS and can not change anything in bios.
Things that I have tried:
* pull out and install again video card.
* reset bios by shorting CMOS battery (the clock vas reseted)
* reflash bios (firstly the same 1,18 version, after that I tried older 1,16)
Non of those tryings work for me.

I think drivers changed something in vbios and now system won't recognise it (because you told that all nvidia cards don't work on this laptop)

I don't think my video card is faulty, because it worked fine since that drivers restart. (I think those video cards fails when you play games or something. right?)

maybe someone have original compal FL90 8600M GT vbios? and maybe someone knows on which laptops those video cards work? (I think it would be possible to reflash vbios on other laptops which would recognise it. right?)
Sorry for my english

[piphansdk]

hello. i am having some problems with my compal fl90.
After reading this article and some more on the internet, i thourght that it ,y 8600m that was dead, there is just some things, that i dont relly understand.
I have posted some videos here, they are showing how my computer starts the light on the mainboard, and after some time it starts the backlight's on the screen. but notice that the cpu cooler spins up at max "i think", when i prees power buttom, but after 1 sec, it stops totaly, but the rest of the computer is still running.
is this really the gfx thats dead? or is it maby the cpu or the motherboard?
i hope that some 1 can give a good anwser, and maby some one can tell whats happening, when you are baking the card, because, i dont think that is magic that is repairing the card when you bake it

[Dr.Colossos]

@Dusiata: I doubt that the Win7 drivers would find their way into the vBIOS. I would not say it's impossible, but if Microsoft woulddo that, I would finally declare them lunatics!

Maybe you are just very unlucky and it is a co-incidence that the card died just with installing Win7.

Maybe try WinXP again ..? Do you see anything on the screen, like the POST messages when booting?

@piphansdk: I would guess your gfx is dead. But remove the HDD and all RAM chips first, and put only one RAM chip back in, then the other (in case you have more than one), and see if it works.

If it does not, my money is on the gfx. The fact that the GPU cooler starts up at first is totally normal, I think it is part of the POST to check if the fan works okay.

About the baking. You put the card in the oven, heated to around 180° Celsius and let it in there for about 10 minutes. What happens is that some soldering melt, and "broken" connections are "fixed". It may work, and may not, but you have nothing to loose. For me it worked with one of two cards.

Good luck to both of you!

[piphansdk]

yeah, but why cant it boot with a dead gfx? when you have a desktop, and you start your pc, it will boot the os, and if you can navigate to some sound, you can see that it is working, bur the gfx is dead, why cant i do that? and is there any 1, thats having a card too much, that i can buy?

[Dusiata]

Dr. Colossos:
that happened when I tried to update drivers from official nvidia page, till then everything worked fine on win7, except my video card was listed as "plug and play VGA adapter" or something like that, and those games which need good video card didn't work.
maybe anyone have Vbios from compal FL90 or can do a copy for me, that would be my last chance.

[Dr.Colossos]

yeah, but why cant it boot with a dead gfx? when you have a desktop, and you start your pc, it will boot the os, and if you can navigate to some sound, you can see that it is working, bur the gfx is dead, why cant i do that? and is there any 1, thats having a card too much, that i can buy?

Some FL90s do boot into OS and you can hear the Windows sound for example - but some do not. It may be related to "how much" your card is fried, don't know.

You can get a replacement from ebay - the ATI 3650 DDR2 512MB is your best bet!

@Dusiata: that might be an indication that your card was damaged before. Where did you get the laptop? Did you buy it all new? I still doubt the NVdia drivers "damaged" the card or vBios.

All I can tell you is to try to get a replacement (see above) or dump the laptop. Before, you could try to remove the drivers via your remote desktop connection - but as I said before, I still doubt it's drivers related.

Good luck!

[Dr.Colossos]

[...]
and is there any 1, thats having a card too much, that i can buy?
[...]

I hope I do not interfer with forum rules, but I am selling my old 8600M GT - it is working.

It is listed here, in case you want that.

I also tried one of the ATI X1400 ... it didn't work in my FL90.

[...]
that happened when I tried to update drivers from official nvidia page,
[...]
maybe anyone have Vbios from compal FL90 or can do a copy for me, that would be my last chance.
[...]

I tried the 8600M GT that I am selling with Win7 and drivers from NVIDA site - no problems what so ever ... do you still need a vBios? I am not sure if I can give you one, because GPU-Z says "no vbios found" for the 8600M GT.

I still could try to dump it for you in case you still need it ...

[Daniel Hahn]

Hello eweryone.
I have problem with my FL90 and 8600 card. I installed Win7 and tried to install video drivers from NVidia offiial site and when I restarted my notebook screen won't work anymore.
I connected to it by remote desktop and find out that system won't recognize video card anymore (there are no video cards at all in device manager).
The worst thing that I can't see even DOS and can not change anything in bios.
Things that I have tried:
* pull out and install again video card.
* reset bios by shorting CMOS battery (the clock vas reseted)
* reflash bios (firstly the same 1,18 version, after that I tried older 1,16)
Non of those tryings work for me.

I think drivers changed something in vbios and now system won't recognise it (because you told that all nvidia cards don't work on this laptop)

I don't think my video card is faulty, because it worked fine since that drivers restart. (I think those video cards fails when you play games or something. right?)

maybe someone have original compal FL90 8600M GT vbios? and maybe someone knows on which laptops those video cards work? (I think it would be possible to reflash vbios on other laptops which would recognise it. right?)
Sorry for my english

The 8600M GT has no vbios. The vbios is stored in the system bios. Thas is why you cannot put any other Nvidia card into the FL90. Maybe the card simply died on you? Basically all 8600M GTs are faulty. With some drivers I would get more errors than with others. In the end my card failed. I guess your card just failed. Try baking it.

[Dusiata]

The 8600M GT has no vbios. The vbios is stored in the system bios. Thas is why you cannot put any other Nvidia card into the FL90. Maybe the card simply died on you? Basically all 8600M GTs are faulty. With some drivers I would get more errors than with others. In the end my card failed. I guess your card just failed. Try baking it.

I tried to bake it, and it works again I know that this isn't for long, so I will search replacement ATI card. maybe someone know which ATI cards would fit my laptop? I know that best replacement would be 3650, but it costs half of my laptop price