Akkeb

Hey. I'll make this short, here are the specs for my laptop:

Alienware 51-m 5500
3.2 GHZ Processor Intel P4 1 gig ram
ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600/9700 Series 128 mb ram

Well, I was having connectivity problems from the screen (was just turning white and completley inaccessible), so I decided to take a look under the hood. Found another problem not relate dto the connectivity issue, the graphics card fan was dead. Once I booted the notebook on an external monitor, I found that the dead fan was nearly irrelevant, and that most of the times, the games worked fine. I've referred to using my notebook as a primary desktop, removing the back panel (allowing thorough ventilation from the vid card, hopefully helping with the dead fan), and propping it up (allowing someplace for the heat to go).

Anyways, my MAIN problem is, my vid card seems to have taken a turn for the worse. I noticed when trying to play simple games, it would overheat and crash. I noticed I was running on old Omega drivers, so I updated, deciding to use the ATI catalyst drivers. Plain and simple, I didn't like these at all, they seemed corrupt for my mobile and made things slow and choppy. I uninstalled those, and installed the latest Omega drivers. I thought this would fix my problem, but found out that it didn't. When trying to play Madden 06, even after only a short time, the graphics will just freak out (EX: The players will lose their facemasks, arms, legs, clothing, background changes, etc. all at the same time). This fixes itself normally shortly, but grows in strength and ends up crashing. I figured that this isn't good for my vid, and now I'm begging for anyone who knows how to deal with this issue. I've tried running other programs, like powerstrip, to UNDERCLOCK the speed of my vid card, but this doesn't seem to work either. I heard changing the AGP rate to x1 could work, but I can't seem to figure out HOW to do this.

I'm reverting to purchasing a new and hopefully upgraded vid card, but in the mean time (while I fork out the cash), I'd REALLY like to find a solution to this problem, so at least I can play Madden. Anyone? I heard this was a very awesome forum in support, so I thought I'd check it out.

Thanks so much!

Akkeb (Allen)

Vikingod

Welcome to DH Akkeb.

Well, it sounds like your graphics card it burned out. I've had the same problem with my notebook and had to have the whole mobo replaced. I don't know specifically for your board, but if you can swap in a new gpu, that should fix the problem (unless the heat cause mobo malfunction as well). You can try a cooling pad, but it is my experience they are more for preventative measures, and aren't miracle workers. Make sure no thermal dust is on the card by blowing it off with canned air. If there is damage to the card, no amount of underclocking is going to reverse that. In short, the best support I think anyone can give here is really no support at all, more of condolance. If the card is dead, its dead. It sounds like you've done everything in your power to diagnose and fix the problem. Hopefully you come up with the money soon to get your rig working right.

__________________

Akkeb

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I hope I can get this thing working too, it's been a real disappointment ever since purchase. My only thought for the card, or question that is, is that it's not entirely dead. I mean, I'm running on my mobile right now, see graphics and display fine. Only problem is when trying to play a game, it's as if it MASSIVELY overheats. And like I said, I've removed the back of the frame, I don't have a temp monitor, but simply by touch, can tell it's WAY overheated. And I'm really not sure what caused this sudden change, it never happened before, it was as if the card simply decided to malfuction, which again, could be the case. I read somewhere about taking apart the card and applying, I don't remember, perhaps thermal grease or Arctic Silver 5, on the vid card core, to help with association between the core and the card heat sinks. I'm really ready to try just about anything at this point.....

Akkeb (Allen)