Beware the GTX 680M!

So about 2 months ago or so I installed the GTX 680m to replace my GTX 260M. Well when a new patch came out for the 680M about 3 weeks ago, I installed it with no issues. I was playing the expansion pack of Starcraft that I had just bought also with no issues. But, when it tried to load a new level, a bunch of blue, blurry lines came across the screen, then the whole thing went black. I could do nothing. No external monitor would come up, and I could get nothing except a black screen. Went through all the trouble shooting steps with Dell, so eventually they sent me a pre paid box to send it in to their repair shop. Well I just got it back today, and in order to make the computer work again, they had to replace the video card. They installed the GTX 260m. So after everything I bought to upgrade the card (About 500 dollars worth or more), the card went bad and it had to be replaced back to what I had anyways. I will never, ever try and upgrade a computer again. That was the biggest waste of money I have ever spent. All the time and effort to install it, flash the bios, figure out the inf mod for the driver, all for nothing. I am beyond furious. It was a hard lesson learned, but like I said, I will never ever try that again. The risk is not worth it by any means.

 

Did you buy the 680M from Dell?

 

Not from Dell directly. It was a refurbished card. Like I said it worked perfect for a while, then it fried apparently.

 

A "refurbished" graphics card had warning signs all over it.

 

That can tend to happen, just really unlucky is all. I would still recommend upgrading the card vs buying a whole new system, in your case i would of purchased a new system since it is 4 generations old now.

 

Yep, it was probably a faulty card that was baked.

That's beside the point tho, any piece of hardware can fail. Don't let that stop you from doing things in the future.

 

Upgrading the gpu is a cinch. Try doing a voltmod. I just stuck a piece of metal into my cpu socket and it works too...

HOWEVER why are you complaining here! Guilty conscience? You buy a refurbished mobile GPU and you are asking for trouble! You could have found a new 680M for way less than $500 here at NBR most probably!

Perhaps learn to treat your hardware with respect and understand what logically the "do's" and "don'ts" are when you upgrade your laptop. Then perhaps you can moan on here if things go wrong!

 

im surprised dell even helped you trouble shoot even after they knew you had changed the gpu to one that is not rated to be used in a M15x........ when upgrading to the newer high end cards you need to be very careful and constantly observe the hardware's behavior, it could have been a faulty card or it could of fried in your machine just like my 6990m did on my M15x. Perhaps a new system would suit your needs over any hardware upgrade in the future. Im pretty happy with my AW 17

 

Yes my next option will be to just buy a new computer. Perhaps the card was faulty, just seems like it would have failed much quicker than after a couple months.

 

Not if they baked it in an oven to fix it. It can work for a year or two before it dies again.

 

That's true
Going for a new PC seems like a good route, you can still get good cash from the m15x