LG R405-SP22A3 video card problem and upgrade!

I have an LG R405-SP22A3 notebook using Windows Vista.
The BIOS version is LHOSSF0B, 17.1D.

The video card is an Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS 128 MB.
I'm having problems with the video card. When I play a DVD or connect to an external LCD monitor for some time (usually just a few minutes), the display is distorted and freezes. The drivers are the latest version 258.96. However, I also face this problem with version 186.81.

I brought it to the authorized service centre (not LG service centre) by the computer seller. They said they repaired the mainboard (I'm not sure what they actually did here) and replaced the hard disk, however the problem still occurs! And my warranty is expiring in 2 days' time!

Does anybody know what slot this video card uses and what Nvidia cards can I upgrade to ? And whether I need to flash to a newer BIOS ?

Thanks!

 

hey thomas. There's an F20 version of your bios which can be found here:
http://www.lg.com/cn/support/produc...=documents&targetPage=support-product-profile

I'd call LG immediately and tell them your issues. Despite your warranty expiring in 2 days time, the fact is you've already taken it into a service center for a problem for which they didn't fix the issue. Thus you should still be covered under warranty until they have fixed this issue for you.

If they fixed the motherboard, I'm not sure what they did. Motherboards aren't really fixable in a sense. They just get replaced. Might be good to find out if yours was replaced or not. As far as your video card goes, I don't know enough about your laptop to know if it's a separate component connected to the motherboard, or is soldered in and thus you can't change it.

Whereabouts are you located? Is this authorized service center close by to you?

 

More likely than not the 8400 cannot be replaced. It is probably soldered onto the motherboard. To fix it you would have to swap the entire motherboard, and if your laptop was only sold with the 8400 then that is all you'll be able to get.

The GPU is definitely failing.

 

Thanks for both your replies.
I'm from Singapore so the service center is near. The notebook is under extended warranty now, and for the 2nd and 3rd year warranty, it is under the authorized service center by the computer seller.

I downloaded this program called CUDAMemTest and ran it to test the video card RAM for errors. I got some errors as shown below and I brought it back to the service center again today. I also showed them the screenshots of the errors.




Hopefully it can be solved this time.

While searching for problems about my video card, I found reports that said many 8400M and 8600M cards are faulty. I wonder if it is related to my problem, so if the card can be upgraded, I would probably do so.

 

Thomas, that's interesting for sure. Good news your notebook has an extended warranty though, so if you keep at it, it will get fixed eventually. I tried sending you a PM, but for some reason it wouldn't let me. What's your email addy? mine is darren.francitti at yahoo dot com

 

The service center told me they ran their own program to test the video card and did not get any errors.

I told them to play a DVD and also to connect to an external monitor, as this is when I experience the system hanging during normal usage. But they say if they still get no errors/hanging, I can collect the notebook after a day.