Dead Mx 400 Go in Laptop

[Cheesypoofs]

Hi there

A while ago my video card on my laptop went all screwy and started having strange characters appear on the screen during bootup, as well as yellow lines appearing in windows, and then freezing soon after. I assume this means that the card is about to die, and I would like to purchase a replacement.

I took it to Toshiba and they said it would cost over $1000 just to fix, which I'm not prepared to pay. I was looking on Ebay and there seems to be the same model on there (mx 440 go 64m) for $38 canadian, but I was just wondering if there are different styles of the video card meant for different laptops, or is it one size fits all?

Thanks Alot

[nekrosoft13]

99% of laptop video cards are not replacebable. they are build in motherboards.

if you are that lucky 1% that can replace the video card, it would be in MXM format.

there are at least 3 different types/sizes of MXM cards. without knowing more about your laptop we can't help.

Make: Toshiba
Model: ????
Series: ????

[dxx]

Hold off until you've done a bit more troubleshooting. It might seem like a video issue, but it's not necessarily the case. Try troubleshooting memory issues by trying a known-good DIMM in each slot, try squirting a can of compressed air through the air vents to blow out dust and possibly fix an overheating issue, and try booting with a Ubuntu live CD. Try to rule things out.

[Cheesypoofs]

Thanks for the replies guy.

I've gone through all the troubleshooting steps already, and I'm positive that it's the video card, I had the same symptoms when my desktop's video card died.

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 5100, I've taken it all apart and removed the video card, but I'm just not sure what style of card it is. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

[nekrosoft13]

picture would help

[nekrosoft13]

shape wise, does it look like this?
http://www.janerob.com/rob/ts5100/disassembly/vidcard-top.jpg

this is not MXM card, you will have to look for toshiba replacement part.

[Cheesypoofs]

Yeah it's identical to that picture.... A Toshiba Replacement part you say? Blech, I guess that means I'd have to pay through the nose to get one. Unless you happen to know who sells those parts for cheap?

Thanks again

[CaptNKILL]

You could check ebay. Lots of people part out old laptops on there.

EDIT: I see you already found something similar on ebay, but I just did a search for " toshiba video card " (no quotes) and it brought up a ton of results, especially in ebay stores. You'd have to look through them to find the one for your specific system though. There may even be another model that is compatible with your laptop.

This is a geforce 4 MX 440 GO:
http://cgi.ebay.com/TOSHIBA-S5100-503-VIDEO-CARD-NVIDIA-G-FORCE-4-440-GO_W0QQitemZ230286473658QQihZ013QQcategoryZ177QQss PageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And it looks the same as the one nekro posted. Already has a bunch of bids and is almost $50...

[CaptNKILL]

I just stumbled across this too...
http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=48948&page=1&pp=15

People are saying that they are getting graphical corruption due to a bad fan that is causing things to overheat.

Might want to check out your fans.