Motherboard or Graphics Card?

Hi newbie to Alienware

I have an area 51 9750 MB Ver-C500 Nvidia Graphics with a strange problem.

The machine works (it's currently on at the moment) but it has an intermittent crash problem. It will just suddenly shut down and when it does it may start up after a few minutes or it can take hours. It may then only run for a few minutes and crash again or it may run fine for several hours.

It has been to our local Computer (Catastrophe) Clinic who supposedly reflowed the GPU (They obviously didn't - sorry I'm an experienced PC/Laptop repair tech though haven't had the pleasure of working on Alienware's before, mainly the mainstream models). Also said that a memory module had gone awol and replaced (After the owner kicked up a fuss) with a replacement (They originally just removed a 2 gig module and were gonna leave it at that).

I examined the thermal paste etc and that had been incorrectly applied and after an hour cleaning up and re-applying thermal paste and re-seating the heat-sinks correctly, it is sitting running without any load applied. (I'll stress test it tomorrow as that's when the problem mainly shows up apparently [which would be obvious])..

The owner thinks it could be a motherboard problem though I'm more inclined to believe it's the graphics card (Nvidia chip - 2 years old - they had major problems with there chips at that time research shows - some of which I found on these forums btw) .

I've also recently had in a whole load of HP's all with Nvidia GPU probs and had a MAC Book Pro in with same thing (They actually have a note up on there site saying any MBP with an 8400Nvidia will be repaired free of charge for the next 4years).

So anyone come across similar problems? Is this Motherboard or Graphics Card related?

If motherboard can it be replaced with the 40GAB0420-C800 as opposed to the 40GAB0420-C500 which it currently has fitted? ( Suspecting that the 40GAB0420-C800 is a revision of the C500 version board? if I'm correct yes/no?)

if it indicates the Graphics Card is at fault can this be replaced with a newer model? or indeed a different type of Graphics card? ATI for instance?

The machine is running Vista (I know I will be advising to upgrade to windows 7). has currently been running for 3 hours without any problem but not under any major load.

Apologies for the long post but wanted to give as much detail as possible..

thanks in advance

 

**Update on This**

Shut the machine down after running no problem for 3+hrs. Switched it on this morning and after 15 minutes (Running without any load) it's cooling fans went into over drive and system shut down.

As of yet about an hour after it won't start. press power button, it makes as if to post and then shuts down again....(This is part of the issue btw)

It'll be another couple of hours before it will start again and it may run without a problem or may crash within minutes...

Thanks again for any help/ideas

 

Same problem with me ... rapid shutdowns .. no startups etc etc,

in my case, I opened the system .. removed the heat sink for processor .. cleaned and reapplied the thermal paste .. everything was back to normal.

Try HWmonitor and you might some idea

 

yeah I've tried replacing the thermal twice now on both the cpu and Graphics card. If I can get it to run for long enough I was going to test it with SiSoft tools but HW Monitor I may try as well (Actually I'd forgotten about that tool - used to use it a year or so back - good software for basic benchmarking)..

Managed to get it to turn on and got to login screen and then crashed. Haven't had chance to get back to it yet to have another look.

thanks for the reply any other ideas anyone?

 

which specific nvidia gpu is it? The only ones that had the problem were the 8600m GT and the 8400m. If the card in the laptop is a 8700m GT it might be suffering from that issue because the 8700m GT is based off of the 8600m GT. If it is a 8800m GTX then I highly doubt it is a bad video card due to a bad batch.

Doesn't rule out the video card though.

Next time you boot it up, I'd check the temps on the cpu and gpu until it shuts down again. Maybe one or the other is overheating. You have cleaned out the fan/radiator etc right?

When it shuts down, does it blue screen or does it just die instantly? If it blue screens, what the error report say? It could be a faulty cpu, gpu or north bridge. You can easily try the cpu in another laptop. I'd do that to rule out the cpu. If you have another laptop with an MXM slot, I'd try swapping the gpu's and see if that rules out the problem. If the problem still persists, then it's most likely a motherboard issue.

If the gpu is a 8800m GTX and you aren't getting any artifacts or anything like that then my gut tells me it's the motherboard.

Also has the laptop been overclocked at all? A poor overclock might have damaged some stuff.

 

I'll double check but I do believe it's the 8700m GT

last time I did manage to get some core temp readings. It does have a miss match on the core temps on the CPU but only by 1 degree so nothing really to worry about temps were 42c/43c - which is relatively normal. GPU temp I'll need to double check.

Fans etc were cleaned (First thing I did)..

Nope no blue screen - I'd be thankful if it did BSOD as that normally means software and is easily (And cheaply) fixed.

It just switches of. leave a moment/try to power up/it goes as if to post and switches of again. Leave a few hours and it may start and run for a few minutes or it may run for an hour but then will just crash again...

Personally I'm inclined to think thats the MB but wanted to double check first.

Don't know if machine has been over clocked - possible but doubtful maybe unintentionally.

-------------------------------------

I'm inclined to lean towards the MB which brings me back to the question about 40GAB0420-C500 vs 40GAB0420-C800 -Is there any difference? From teh specs i've looked at and from viewing both boards there seems to be no difference??

I'm inclined to think that the C800 is a revision of the C500.. Could anyone confirm whether this is the case?

Many thanks for the help - much appreciated

 

Just an update on this issue (For anyone with a similar problem in future)

The owner decided to go with it being a Motherboard problem, (Against my advice) and a replacement motherboard was sourced, (I actually got a good deal - complete base chassis&Board).

Put it all together last night and started the machine up and it ran for hours with no problem. Started her this morning and the same fault back again - crashing within minutes.

So, I have would to say based on that evidence that it is a faulty graphics card causing the issue...

Thanks for the replies and help