Graphics card died a 2nd time. Can I switch?

Hi everyone. A year and a half ago, in this thread, I wrote about the slow death of the NVIDIA NVS 135M graphics card in my Dell Latitude D630. I had to send in the computer to have the card replaced only a week after I purchased it.

The card has died a second time and I am about to send it in for a replacement. Based on experience, I expect this new card to die within a year. The computer will still be under warranty then, so I will be able to send it in to get fixed.

There's a problem here. If the graphics card dies all the time, why would I want Dell to replace it with another lemon of a graphics card? Is there any possibility for me to complain my way into another graphics card, either NVIDIA or Intel, without paying for the switch? Are there other cards that would technically fit into the D630? And should I get one that has a better track record than the 135M?

 

Do you need the dedicated GPU? if not you might be able to ask for a D630 with the Intel X3100 IGP as an replacement. Nvidia have really made a good'ol mess with this.

 

My partner would probably get upset if I couldn't play Civ 4 with my laptop after work, so if the Intel 3100 can play it, that would be a possibility.

 

That I am not 100% sure. You can try asking here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=265773

 

The hardware demands on the Civ 4 site aren't very onorous. Minimum requirements DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with Hardware T&L support ( GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better). The X3100 more than meets the requirements.

John