M9750 Video Card Dead again?

Hi everyone,

Ive had my m9750 for 7 years now..I fried the original video card and replaced the 7950s with a single ATI 3870 which has been working perfectly.
The laptop went to sleep the other day but seemed to have crashed by the time i went back to it. Now it wont post or boot or anything...Just a black screen.
The hd spins a little and the hd activity light stays on for few seconds but thats it. I've tried pulling the battery and holding the power button down, Ive pulled and reseated the ram, hds video card but still no joy.

Is it possible that the 3870 card has now failed? I'm guessing its either that or the mobo? My battery is long since dead so i have to be plugged in to power and I've noticed that the machine powers up as soo a I plug the jack in. If i hold the power button down to shut her down then it comes back on after a couple of seconds by itself.
I'm trying to determine whether there is anything else i can do to narrow down the issue or whether to try a new video card or just call it quits?
Anybody got any suggestions or advice? I know it an old machine but it still runs pretty damn quick...
thanks
Timmo

 

You try all of the obvious?

• Remove power cord, battery, and CMOS battery if you can. Hold power button down for 20 seconds. Put CMOS battery back in and wall charger but NOT the regular battery and power on?
• Remove one stick of ram and try booting. Repeat with the other if no luck?
• A stretch but booting with the HDD, CD Drive, and all USB devices removed?
• Any other old mxm cards you can try kicking around?

 

Thanks for the reply..I've tried all but removing CD drive as i didnt see easy way to do that.....Unfortunately i dont have another video card to try in it either....Its kinda frustrating.....

 

At this point it's either the card or the motherboard if you tried everything else. Got another mxm laptop to try the card in?

You'll either need to test the card in another laptop or another card in your laptop.

 

Unfortunately I don't have another mxm laptop to play around with....I did try putting back my old 7950 daughter card to see if i got any different results and still the same...I have notice that when i shut the laptop down after it gets stuck before post it stays off for a few seconds and then comes back on again....is this a sign that the motherboard is actually the problem? Is there ay evidence of the 3870 vid cards going bad...ever since i put mine in I've been running with a zalman laptop cooler underneath the laptop to help with cooling...Any other options or thoughts?

 

The 3870's are usually pretty stable but it's either that or the motherboard based on all the other tests you have done. What if you just remove the mxm card all together and try to boot? I know you won't see anything but does the power on/off behavior stay the same? Does it stay the same with the 7950 in?

Also when you shut down before it posts how are you doing so? Just holding the power button down?

 

I tried that a day or so a go and the screen flashed white before going blank....does that mean anything? I'll try it again shortly to check what happens with the power...Thanks

 

same behaviour with 7950....nothing on screen, no post.....I am shutting down by holding down the power button and when its shut down disconnect the power before it can boot up again...

 

Well I just confirmed that it does go through the same restarting after shutting down with the video card removed...I plug in the power and it comes on without me needing to press the power button and then the screen flashes white very briefly and then thats it...I hold down the power button for 4 or 5 seconds to shut it down and then after its shut down it will come back on after 2 or 3 seconds providing there is power attached....?

 

It's odd the behavior does this with the card out but still your next step is to find a working card. Looks like there are some cheap ones on ebay for under $20 if you just want one to test ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-A...309?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f45a55efd ) or get another 3870. You'll probably be able to resell it for what you paid. You could try to flash this with a master VBIOS ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALIENWARE-M...821?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58b79109dd ) if you are familiar with that process or just grab this ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alienware-M...169?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c919fd549 )

 

Thanks..I'm in Canada now so I have to watch out for the shipping costs..That $20 card will cost me an additional $50 on shipping....But I'll keep an eye out for something similar and reasonable...I'm just worried it might be the mobo..But thanks for your help, much appreciated..

 

The M9750 has another common fault which can cause this issue - the glue which holds the bracket in place which you screw the card into can become loose and prevent the card sitting properly in the socket. Try applying pressure to the top of the card whilst turning on and see if it works ok - if it does then you know that this is the problem.

 

Glue inside a laptop sounds scary haha, did they really use glue to hold a bracket down in the m9750? Which bracket?

 

Theres a metal bracket which the graphics card screws into. These brackets are glued with double sided tape and can come loose causing the card not to make good contact in the socket.