Question My laptop's gpu seems to die, is it worth upgrading?

[imperial93]

Hello everyone, i opened this thread to ask for your guys suggestions.

TLDR: Is it worth to upgrade a crap laptop with broken gpu for 10% cost of a new laptop? Will be used only for office

I have Casper Nirvana NB 15.6 Laptop. Its specifications are
Pegatron A15 motherboard, i5-2450M 2.5ghz, 8GB of ram, intel hd3000 graphics, nvidia gt520m gpu and 300GB 5400rpm hdd.
It was and is used as office pc and it has been doing its job for a long time. 5 months ago some display issues were started. It is shown below. Its reversed i'm sorry.

I started to get this screen everyday, but this disrupted display was temporary. When i waited for 1-2 minutes, it was gone and display was fixed itself so i kept using computer.
While i used it for daily work, i was trying to find out why, i though it was gpu hardware problem, because i tried a fresh windows 10 install but i got black screen after i install the gpu driver. So i deleted nvidia drivers and went with internal gpu.
Now i haven't get any corrupted-distrupted display for 2 months with some odd solution i found. I installed nvidia gpu driver, i got black screen as i said before, then i was unable to see desktop because there was black screen after windows logo. So i closed laptops monitor and made it go to hibernation/sleep mode. After it went hibernation, i just reopened screen and pushed power button to wake it up, and it worked surprisingly (i didnt understand why). Now i just open my laptop, it sometimes opens normally (50-60% probability) and if i get a black screen, i just close the monitor and open it and it just works when it is awaken from hibernation.
Device manager shows nvidia card, nvidia control panel opens but i think i just use igpu still, because display is not really smooth. I don't know if i explain this well or not, resolution is fine but display just seems like hd graphics.
Now i want to buy an ssd to upgrade this crap instead of buying brand new laptop/desktop. Do you think its worth it?

 

[Math Geek]

what do you think an ssd is going to fix?

it won't do anything for the gpu issues. considering your minimal usage, a new laptop with just about any specs is good enough for you. should be able to get something for easily less than $300 with a pentium. will run office suite no problem and save you a lot of headaches messing with the old one that has such issues.

 

[imperial93]

what do you think an ssd is going to fix?

it won't do anything for the gpu issues. considering your minimal usage, a new laptop with just about any specs is good enough for you. should be able to get something for easily less than $300 with a pentium. will run office suite no problem and save you a lot of headaches messing with the old one that has such issues.

I tried to ask two different things but i failed it seems. Thanks for your advice, i'll stick with it

 

[Math Geek]

oh ok, that makes more sense

you combined, "can i fix it" with "should i add an ssd and get over it" at the end.

most laptop gpu's can't be removed and replaced, so despite the fact you could likely find another one of those with a broken screen or something, you'd not be likely to pull the gpu from it to put into yours.

 

[imperial93]

oh ok, that makes more sense

you combined, "can i fix it" with "should i add an ssd and get over it" at the end.

most laptop gpu's can't be removed and replaced, so despite the fact you could likely find another one of those with a broken screen or something, you'd not be likely to pull the gpu from it to put into yours.

Yes, my english is not good, i have hard time to explain myself sometimes. You say gpu is most likely soldered to motherboard so there is no way to fix it, you're right i agree with you

I hesitate to ask something in this forum, especially repairing or making something old useful again. Everyone tends to tell me to just buy a new one but i live in a country where average salary is around $350 and a low-end laptop costs $500 at least. I'm emberrassed to say but it is what it is. I considered just upgrading to ssd and use it until gpu completely dies. I even thought about getting a voltmeter to check transistors around gpu board to maybe find a broken one and hopefully fix it, i know i sound like a stargazer but anyway. Thanks for your help

 

[DSzymborski]

Unfortunately, replacement is usually the correct solution whether the cost of a replacement is easy or difficult to put together. We're talking quite sophisticated technology and far more often than not, there's just nothing to be done, even if you have a multimeter and a great deal of expertise. Boards have a lot of layers, it's not like fixing an old clock radio. Something specific like a bulging capacitor that hasn't yet had any consequence, that's something that one can frequently replace, but by the time a GPU is actually non-functional, more often than not it will always be that way.

 

[mortemas]

I’m wondering maybe the problem is a bad video cable connection because time (IE: heat) or closing and opening your laptop sometimes makes the problem go away. This action might nudge the cable just enough to make the connection work again. If you are comfortable with disassembling your laptop you can find the lcd cable connector and remove/reseat it to see if that fixes it. You’d need to search the web for the service manual or check YouTube for a dissassembly video.

 

[imperial93]

I’m wondering maybe the problem is a bad video cable connection because time (IE: heat) or closing and opening your laptop sometimes makes the problem go away. This action might nudge the cable just enough to make the connection work again. If you are comfortable with disassembling your laptop you can find the lcd cable connector and remove/reseat it to see if that fixes it. You’d need to search the web for the service manual or check YouTube for a dissassembly video.

I will try that before i decide to buy a new one.

 

[Math Geek]

I’m wondering maybe the problem is a bad video cable connection because time (IE: heat) or closing and opening your laptop sometimes makes the problem go away. This action might nudge the cable just enough to make the connection work again. If you are comfortable with disassembling your laptop you can find the lcd cable connector and remove/reseat it to see if that fixes it. You’d need to search the web for the service manual or check YouTube for a dissassembly video.

great idea there.
a quick test before taking it apart is to hook it to an external monitor and see what happens. if it works, then it may just be the connection and not gpu. or possibly even the laptop monitor which is not too hard to replace

good call

 

[imperial93]

Unfortunately, replacement is usually the correct solution whether the cost of a replacement is easy or difficult to put together. We're talking quite sophisticated technology and far more often than not, there's just nothing to be done, even if you have a multimeter and a great deal of expertise. Boards have a lot of layers, it's not like fixing an old clock radio. Something specific like a bulging capacitor that hasn't yet had any consequence, that's something that one can frequently replace, but by the time a GPU is actually non-functional, more often than not it will always be that way.

I agree with you, maybe i'm just delaying a new purchase despairingly. Thanks for your answer

 

[Stratos Gr]

I doubt that your nvidia is failing. Try to flash your bios to 303, many people claim it solves the black screen problem after installing windows 10.