PC Problem...

[Animeniax]

If you're not getting video on the laptop display or an external display, the videocard is toast.

[Kraco]

Yeah. If you aren't seeing even the bios screen or anything, it doesn't bode well for your video card. Maybe the TV drew too much power from the HDMI or short circuited it.

[Buffalobiian]

Yeah. If you aren't seeing even the bios screen or anything, it doesn't bode well for your video card. Maybe the TV drew too much power from the HDMI or short circuited it.

It could also just be a badly made product.

Take it back to warranty if you can.

@Ani: It could also be the mobo, but in the end it doesn't really matter with a laptop.

[Kraco]

Haha, yeah. It's indeed highly possible it's not the TV's fault at all. My post was in that sense certainly too one-sided.

[Killa-Eyez]

I've already checked the graphics card and that looks good. Guess I'll check the mobo next. I tried finding me a analog monitor cable I thought I had laying around, but it seems I don't. When I press the function key (Fn) with the ext. display key it does switch cause the laptop screen turns off. It doesn't work with the HDMI though. I'll go to my moms later and try it since I have lots of stuff lying there.

Yeah. If you aren't seeing even the bios screen or anything, it doesn't bode well for your video card. Maybe the TV drew too much power from the HDMI or short circuited it.

My initial toughts also. It switches, but not to the HDMI.

It could also just be a badly made product.

Take it back to warranty if you can.

I have this badly made product for around 4 to 5 years and it worked without error. It's the same laptop that had the heating issue, so no warranty.

Thanks, I'll keep you guys posted.

[depthcharge]

Did you use your laptop with its lid/screen down? That is extremely bad for heat dissipation. Graphic card/chip might be fried causing that graphic anomaly.

Preferred way is to leave the screen up even if you are using external display.

[Killa-Eyez]

So I took apart my laptop almost completely. Couldn't find anything, no burn marks, no components popped, not even a burn smell. Nothing out of the ordinary except for one plastic fitting that broke off of the casing, but I glued that back on.

Did you use your laptop with its lid/screen down? That is extremely bad for heat dissipation. Graphic card/chip might be fried causing that graphic anomaly.

Preferred way is to leave the screen up even if you are using external display.

Wow, did not know that. Though it sounds logical. I always kept the lid closed because the resolution setting would be automaticcally set correctly. Guess that did it then. I'll maybe check for another graphics card depending on how expensive it will be. Otherwise I'll save up and buy another. Sucks though. Good thing I have a spare ext hd casing.

[Animeniax]

Laptops have replaceable videocards? I think only some older Alienware or other highend laptops had that option. Most laptops have videocards integrated into the mainboard, which means you have to replace the entire mainboard to replace the videocard.

[Kraco]

If the laptop is already 4-5 years old, you better buy a new one. Even if you somehow fix the video card, something else will break soon. It'll be an endless cycle of repairing, very quickly more expensive than getting an entirely new one.

[Animeniax]

Another tip: don't buy Acer. They are poor quality. Also stay away from HP laptops.

Best bets: Asus, Toshiba.

[Killa-Eyez]

Laptops have replaceable videocards? I think only some older Alienware or other highend laptops had that option. Most laptops have videocards integrated into the mainboard, which means you have to replace the entire mainboard to replace the videocard.

The NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS GPU is located on a removable card on the mainboard. All connectors (Analog VGA, S-VHS, HDMI) are located on the mainboard.

Letter "D" shows the MXM module.

If the laptop is already 4-5 years old, you better buy a new one. Even if you somehow fix the video card, something else will break soon. It'll be an endless cycle of repairing, very quickly more expensive than getting an entirely new one.

What is the life expectancy of the average laptop?

Another tip: don't buy Acer. They are poor quality. Also stay away from HP laptops.

Best bets: Asus, Toshiba.

Kinda already knew that, the Acer was for a cheap price back then, wasn't even planning on getting one.

Edit: I've seen MXM graphics card ranging from 30 to 130 bucks. I think I'll go to some hardware tester experienced with notebooks to find out where the problem lies.

[Buffalobiian]

What is the life expectancy of the average laptop?

I'd say 5 years. It depends on what you mean by life expectancy too.

In "legal" terms, the life expectancy would be equal to the warranty.

As for the screen-down problem, what you do is push the lid down to the point where the screen thinks it's closed and turns off, but not so much that it locks, leaving room for ventilation.

[Killa-Eyez]

I'd say 5 years. It depends on what you mean by life expectancy too.

In "legal" terms, the life expectancy would be equal to the warranty.

As for the screen-down problem, what you do is push the lid down to the point where the screen thinks it's closed and turns off, but not so much that it locks, leaving room for ventilation.

I understood that. And I didn't meant that in legal terms. My laptop is around that age, but I've searched around to what expectancies can be and found out, provided that you treat it properly, it can hold out for as long as you want. If I can fix it for not too big of costs, I'll do that and treat it with care. But if all goes according to what Kraco said, I'll save my cash further to buy a new laptop. Thanks all, really!

[depthcharge]

Or use duct tape or a piece of paper/card to wedge between the screen up/down detector pin.

One of the problem about notebooks/laptops is savaging it when it finally breaks. Pretty much only the harddrive is usable with some adapters. However some enterprising individual probably is running some recycling chop shop that can savage usable parts and put back a functioning computer. One good bet is to find a chop shop that will pay a decent scrap price.

[Killa-Eyez]

So a couple of days ago I conveniently () got in touch with an old classmate of mine. He owns the exact same laptop as I do as we bought them together and he came by today so I could swap the MXM cards to locate the problem. My laptop worked with his card so that means I'm off to buying a MXM module on ebay for around 70 bucks. Now this new card could cause a slight problem with the connection to the heatsink so I was also scoping around for a copper sheet to fill the gap, wich I also found on ebay. I have to wait till I actually recieve the new card to get the measurements down so I can order the correct size. I might also get in to overclocking to expand the laptops life span further. Soooo happy I won't have to buy a new laptop. Ohw yeah, a slight error as to when I bought this laptop. It seems it's closer to three years ago, not four.

Edit: I think I'll try this first, http://forum.notebookreview.com/alie...alienware.html.

Edit 2: HOLY JESUS' SPIRIT FINGERS!!! IT FUCKING WORKED!!!! Almost spend out 70 bucks for pork and beans. I actually managed to fix my VGA card!!! YAAHOOOOO!!!!!

[depthcharge]

Nice, very nice! Dont overclock it though. Notebooks for the most part does not tolerate overclocking.

[Killa-Eyez]

Nice, very nice! Dont overclock it though. Notebooks for the most part does not tolerate overclocking.

Yeah I don't mean overlcocking, more like underclocking. Lower voltages, same speed, less heat, longer duration.

Edit: Undervolting would be the correct term.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm reporting the cause of my WiFi woes since upgrading to W7 64bit from XP 32bit. (The issue's haunted me for over a year now, and the internet seems to know nothing about it).



Equipment: W7, Netgear WPN824v2 Rangemax Router, Netgear WPN311 PCI wireless card.

Issue: Since upgrading, the wireless card would not detect a wireless signal / access point. Nothing shows up.

Cause: When "location" is set to Australia in the router, thirteen channels become available (1-13) for the WiFi signal. W7 does not ask you for your location upon installing the card however, and is limited to detecting/using channels 1-11.

Solution: Use channel 1-11.

The exact same problem/fix applies to the DLINK DSL-G604T router, indicating a problem with either the WPN311 card, or Windows 7's way of handling wireless network configurations.

keywords: can not detect wireless network, AP, Access Point.


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Wireless is slow as hell though, so now I'm going to see if I can connect to my brother's computer directly when I get a cross-over cable so we can access the internet wirelessly but share files via cables at the same time.

[Buffalobiian]

I have two internal drives in my computer running W7 64. I recently enabled ACHI in my mobo and the HDDs have booted successfully.

What I've found though, is that the second disk fails to be detected by windows when it resumes from sleep.

Has anybody got 2 drives and found ACHI works with sleep?


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edit: Okay, I found the problem.

If your HDD (typically with larger HDDs that have multiple platters and longer spin-up time) takes longer than 10sec to spin up to full speed when resuming from sleep, Windows 7 ignores the drive and doesn't detect it.

If it happens to a secondary drive, it'll just disappear until you reboot/replug it. If it happens to your OS drive, you'll get a Stop Error.

Microsoft has a hotfix for it, detailed below. I'm not sure if the hotfix is included with SP1 or not.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977178

[Killa-Eyez]

I'm on the misses' laptop as we speak for the same problem reoccured on mine. I'm sticking the VGA-card in the oven again but this time with no-clean flux on the components solder to rehydrate it. Maybe it's still wise to buy another MXM module just in case the card dies permanently.

Edit: It's working again. Kinda. Everything that should be black or a darker tint shows up green. Pretty wierd. But it's really dying some I'm off to ebay to buy a new VGA.