Toshiba P105-S9339 Nvidia Go 7900 GS restarts in 3d mode

[ejengstrom]

Hi folks,

I have a P105-S9339 Vista notebook that I bought in 2007. Replaced hard drive with a fast disk, installed XP, found drivers despite nothing being available for XP on this vista model. Took about 2 days, ran great for two years. Played good games on the road, worked well. Only loss was the fingerprint scanner...

In October I started to have restarts whenever I launched a game, even those I had played successfully before. 2d works great, but any switch to discrete 3d mode and the computer restarts.

Pulled it apart, cleaned it, checked the fans and connections. All looked good. Put it back together, booted it, tested, 3d mode crashed.

Pretty sure the NVIDIA Go 7900 GS is fried. Been looking for a week for a replacement. Any ideas? Any ideas what may fit in that discrete PCI-E slot?

 

[VulcanTourist]

I'm also looking for a solution to a dying 7900 GS video module, this one in a P105-S9337. It displays repeating dots and dashes on the entire display, which makes me think it's VRAM problem. I had the problem "fixed" - for about a month - after I disassembled it and replaced the thermal paste, etc., but now it's back to doing the exact same thing. It's quite possibly one or more BGA contacts on the VRAM chips, and if so then they can probably be "reflowed". There are repair services that specialize in doing that, but some are better than others (some try to do cheaper hot-air reflowing and have less quality control).

These modules seem to be hard to find for the Toshibas, and Toshiba's parts service wants FIVE HUNDRED FIFTEEN DOLLARS for one! Like hell I'm paying that. And this on top of all the legendary stuttering and other problems caused by this particular video card?

There should be a class action lawsuit in here somewhere, and if anyone gets one started count me in!

 

[VulcanTourist]

FYI, I have now fixed the misbehavior of this card for a second time with the same dirty unconventional stunt:

I disconnected the power to the cooling fan for the video module and let it overheat for 5 or 10 minutes in Windows (7), until I rebooted and saw it behaving normally again, and then shut it off and let it fully cool down.

It's now fine again, with no artifacts at all... at least until the NEXT time one of the solder connections separates and I'm back to trying this a third time.

Whoever thought that using BGA and SMD components in laptops with inadequate cooling (ALL laptops these days) was a bright idea should be strung and quartered. I'd settle for suing the asses off the idiots who listened to him, though.