Laptop is dying, any help appreciated!

[Shengji]

Hey guys, I'm having a big problem at the moment with my laptop, at least one graphics card had fried it's memory!

Does anyone know anything about fixing this - I've had it opened up and unfortunately it doesn't seem to be possible to remove one and leave the other, so I'm either after someone who can advise me on [strike]getting open gl to run on integrated graphics [/strike] (turns out I don't have IG) or someone who can help me disable the dead card leaving the other one working.

I've tried the obvious solutions, both in windows and bios, I'll withhold from posting technical details beyond the following in this OP:

Laptop: M18x, dual 6970M's, Windows 8

For those who wonder why someone would buy a gaming laptop, take a look at my sig; the first and last ones are months, the others are countries I've had to travel to in between those months, this year! Even so, when I get home, in about a month, I'll be picking up a portable desktop, so frustrating being unable to repair this myself of just replace the faulty parts!

[Syruse]

I don't know very much about laptops. But, from what I understand once hardware goes bad in a laptop there's nothing you can do about it. As for disabling the dead GPU, you can either disable it through AMDs Catalyst Control Center, or through Window's Hardware Control Panel.

I highly recommend building your own computer, if you are going the desktop route. I know loads more about desktop hardware than I do about laptops, so I should be able to help you out there if you choose to build your own. :)

[Shengji]

I don't know very much about laptops. But, from what I understand once hardware goes bad in a laptop there's nothing you can do about it. As for disabling the dead GPU, you can either disable it through AMDs Catalyst Control Center, or through Window's Hardware Control Panel.

It seems this is the case - its such a pain, the motherboard is an upside down T shape, with two discrete graphics cards coming from the stalk of the T to the edge of the case, but removing the left one causes the machine to not boot and the right hand one to boot but with the issue - switching the cards does not allow the machine to boot either. I have a sneaking suspicion that the graphics memory is on the motherboard not the cards and that the issue is with the memory. I've changed the RAM, that didn't help!

I highly recommend building your own computer, if you are going the desktop route. I know loads more about desktop hardware than I do about laptops, so I should be able to help you out there if you choose to build your own. :)

Appreciate that - I used to build all my computers, but the last one I built was a 486-DX2 66!!! Must have been 20 years ago, and everything has moved on a ways! Still I'm looking at getting the following:

Spoiler

Show

Case: Undecided but due to my job it needs to be compact - It needs to be installed for me to use in the passenger seat of a (BMW 5-series) car (Mains generator is already installed). Also needs to go into the office and as I'm a wheelchair user must be manageable for me to lug about. Small, good handle but well cooled. If the coolermaster storm trooper was smaller, it would be perfect!

Processor: i7 4770K - Seems to be an ideal price/performance compromise for my needs. Cooled by a BeQuiet Dark Rock 2.

Motherboard: MSI Z87 MPower - Great baseline performance and a lot of toys!

Memory: Teamgroup Vulcan Gold 8Gb (2x4Gb) 2133MHz - Good balance of price-speed and in yellow to match the banana coloured motherboard. That will be hidden from view. But I'll know it matches. In my heart.

Graphics: KFA2 Geforce GTX 770 EX - I've had Radeons for the last couple of years and the drivers are driving (teeheehee) me mad. I know the grass is always greener on the other side, but this time around, it's NVidia for me. Also want to keep my Shield options open as I like to take my games around the house with me rather than hermitting in the office (Sony have killed the ability to do this on the vita). Only one card because quite frankly I'm fed up with crossfire (SLI?) issues but I'm more than happy to consider two in the future. I consider the graphics card the most temporary part and would rather spend more money elsewhere so in a year or two when I fancy an upgrade, I can replace the graphics card and the rest of the system won't need to be replaced along with it.

SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256Gb - Heard good things about it

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB - Will rack these up as needed when I need them!

Optical Drive: Given it will likely only be used a handful of times, I'll get the cheapest reader/writer which matches the case. No Blu Ray, have three players and a writer in the house as it is.

Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence STX - Music and game audio is very, very important to me. I'm no audiophile but for me, the sound is 80% to graphics 20% importance. I know the motherboard I have chosen has really good sound, and it's kind of a pity to not use it but I do want the very best within my budget. That being said, I will likely not but this for a week or two to see if the onboard sound is good enough for me! Am also interested in the Asus ROG Phoebus but can't find any solid info on it.

Power Supply: Corsair Professional Series 850w - should be enough, even if I get two graphics cards in a year or two.

Keyboard: Logitech G7 10 - Want mechanical, especially after years of laptop keyboards, like my media buttons enough to pay the extra for them!

Case Fans: Noiseblocker Black Silent Pros - Sometimes have to sleep in the same room as my computer (Due to shitty stairlift conking out every other day), which may have to be left on to render so quieter is better

Monitor: Dell U2413 - Heard very good things about it, don't need more than 24" but certainly may get a second at some point. (I don't need a monitor in the car). As my job involves processing images (of tyres) the extra colour space is necessary so I can visually see that my software is behaving itself.

[Syruse]

It seems this is the case - its such a pain, the motherboard is an upside down T shape, with two discrete graphics cards coming from the stalk of the T to the edge of the case, but removing the left one causes the machine to not boot and the right hand one to boot but with the issue - switching the cards does not allow the machine to boot either. I have a sneaking suspicion that the graphics memory is on the motherboard not the cards and that the issue is with the memory. I've changed the RAM, that didn't help!

Yeah, laptops are weird... really wish i could help you with that :s

As for your build, http://pcpartpicker.com/ is a good place to organize your build and keep track of the relative cost of it. Not all prices are up to date and they don't list everything in the world, but its a good start.
My input on your build. If i missed anything, or you have further questions, feel free to yell at me :)

Spoiler

Show

Case: You can build a pretty beefy system on an m-ITX motherboard, especially with what Asus is offering with the Maximus 6 Impact (still not out yet). It uses Intel's Z87 South bridge, and has integrated discrete caliber audio. And traditionally m-ITX cases are smaller than mATX cases. If you go with an ITX case you would have to change your motherboard and maybe your cooler, its kinda huge :P

CPU: I don't know what your occupation is but the if this rig is only going to be for gaming, stick with a 4670k it will save you some money. The 4770k offers no real world performance increase over the 4670k. But if you are into content creation (picture editing, video editing, rendering, 3D modeling, ect) 4770k is a better option.

MOBO: Motherboard is OK, I don't have any real complaints against MSI. But don't think the large amount of VRMs on the MOBO will help get your processor higher clock speeds, most Haswell chips I've seen only max out at 4.6GHz on any premium motherboard.

RAM: Fast RAM also has no real world performance gain in games. I can only recommend >1600Mz RAM for content creation or Virtual Machine work. Sticking with slower RAM will also save you some money.

GPU: GeForce GTX 770 is quite possibly the best priced GPU on the market right now. Faster than a GTX 680 with a price to compete with the Radeon 7970. The issues you may be having with AMD's crossfire (micro stutter) is something that's been plaguing the 7000 series for quite some time now. AMD has stated they will have a fix out be the end of the month. nVidia has a better track record with their GPUs and SLI, I have not seen the 600 or 700 seriesof nVidia GPUs suffering from micro stutter.

SSD: The 840 Pro is, from what I've seen, the fastest consumer grade SSD on the market. Also consider the standard 840, if you're into saving a little bit of money and don't care to have the absolute fastest storage available.

HDD: I've heard mixed things about the Seagate Barracuda, a Western Digital Blue or Black may be better suited.

Sound Card: Good idea, seeing if the on-board audio is good enough for you before you buy a discrete sound card. The big focus for most motherboard manufactures this generation seems to be higher caliber integrated audio. Asus looks to be on top of the sound card market these days, can't really go wrong with the Xonar STX. As for the ROG Phoebus, this video is an unboxing and overview on it, it may help.

Power Supply: Nearly anything designed or manufactured by SeaSonic is really the only thing you should be buying. Corsair PSUs are manufactured by SeaSonic, so you're good there. Another good choice would be SeaSonic themselves or XFX. 850w is plenty for a dual GPU system.

Keyboard: I was personally considering the G710 for some time. However, I decided upon the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2013. The switches used in my keyboard are Cherry MX Blue (50 grams actuation force, tactile, clicky) and the ones in the G710 are Cherry MX Brown (45 grams actuation force, tactile, not clicky) so it will be easier to depress the key, you can feel when the key has been actuated and its quieter than Cherry MX Blue. With my experience with the Blackwidow, you should enjoy the G710 just fine. :)

Case Fans: I see many people using Noiseblocker fans, so they must be doing something right. The best fans I can recommend are either the Noctua NF-F12 (120mm) or NF-A14 or NF-A15 (140mm). This review shows the performance of the Swiftech H220 All-in-one liquid cooler with stock fans and several others, including the NF-F12s.

Monitor: Monitors aren't really my thing either, I'm trying to learn as much as I can. But from what I do know, that monitor should be fine for gaming and color reproduction should be great being that its an IPS panel. IPS (or PLS) screens have better color reproduction and depth than LCDs, but normally have longer response times. The one you have listed has a 6ms response time, which is pretty good for an IPS, and should do just fine for gaming.

[Shengji]

Oooh, this is all fantastic information! I'm going to do some research into m-ITX boards, I'm really keen to cut down the physical size as much as possible!

Re: the CPU and memory speed - I make the bulk of my living from a piece of software I wrote which both needs and can use threads. If I could afford it, I would get the 3970X - 12 threads vs 8 would cut the time my software takes to do it's thing by almost 1/3 which is huge! Memory speed is not so critical but for £20 more, it just removes a potential bottleneck.

I'm going to come back to your post quite a few times, I'm sure my selections will change!

[Syruse]

I'm going to come back to your post quite a few times, I'm sure my selections will change!

Glad I could help. :)
Oh, one thing about ITX boards is that they only have one PCIe x16 slot. So that means you can only use one expansion card and nothing else. Which is why I mentioned the Asus Maximus 6 Impact for its on-board audio. So with ITX you may have to sacrifice functionality for space.

[Gormador]

Regarding your motherboard, I check the price : 250€.


I read a very good article a week ago in a hardware-specialized french magazine that said that with the recent generation of Intel processors, paying more than 100-150€ for a motherboard is non sens if you don't intend to seriously overclock your gear. Basically, it said that as what was refered to as "chipset" on the motherboard used to be the component thar make the difference between different motherboards. And as the new generation of proc integrates them (at least the part that made the difference), all motherboards above that price range are huge marketing traps.

I could check it again and tell you tomorrow if you're interested.

[Syruse]

Regarding your motherboard, I check the price : 250€.


I read a very good article a week ago in a hardware-specialized french magazine that said that with the recent generation of Intel processors, paying more than 100-150€ for a motherboard is non sens if you don't intend to seriously overclock your gear. Basically, it said that as what was refered to as "chipset" on the motherboard used to be the component thar make the difference between different motherboards. And as the new generation of proc integrates them (at least the part that made the difference), all motherboards above that price range are huge marketing traps.

I could check it again and tell you tomorrow if you're interested.

That's how it works, you pay more for more features on your board. Same goes for overclocking.
Traditionally, on Intel chipsets, you can only overclock with K series processors (i.e. 4770k) and a Z series motherboard south bridge chipset (i.e. the Z87 south bridge on the MSI M Power). You would also need a motherboard with a larger amount of and higher grade VRMs and voltage chokes, and a board that can handle the extra power draw that comes with overclocking. I think the M Power has a 32 phase VRM design with an 8+2 voltage choke design, more than enough for serious overclocking. With less VRMs and voltage chokes overclocking becomes more unstable in such was as; voltages delivered to the CPU are erratic and fluctuate (which can damage the CPU) and more stress is put on the VRMs of the motherboard causing more heat (sometimes causing the board to catch fire, I'm not kidding). But what has happened with Intel's Haswell is that it has an integrated VRM on the CPU die, which allows the processor to maintain stable voltages even on lower grade motherboards. Keep in mind, you still need a good PWM design for overclocking otherwise you run the risk of burning up your motherboard and/or processor. As of recent, it has been revealed that overclocking with Haswell is possible on certain 'non-z' motherboards, due to an oversight from Intel. Some manufacturers have announced the ability to overclock on select 'non-z' boards, such as Asus, Gigabyte, and ASRock. (you will still need an k series CPU).

[Shengji]

Re: Overclocking, I'll be looking for 4.4 out of the processor and will be paying a little extra to get one guaranteed for 2 years stability from a specialist overclocking retailer at that rate - trust me, if I wasn't going to do that, I wouldn't get the unlocked processor nor such a high end cooler!

[Syruse]

Re: Overclocking, I'll be looking for 4.4 out of the processor and will be paying a little extra to get one guaranteed for 2 years stability from a specialist overclocking retailer at that rate - trust me, if I wasn't going to do that, I wouldn't get the unlocked processor nor such a high end cooler!

There are guides available, text and video, for overclocking (like this one) Though it is VERY time consuming if you want it done right.

[Shengji]

Thanks for the video! It will be really helpful. That presenter is ever so good, very clear, concise and knowledgeable.

[Shengji]

And... I'm back - posting from my shiny new PC!!! OK, it's not quite complete yet most notably the graphics card has to go back on an RMA to be replaced - it arrived opened and with loose screws rattling around in the box and did not work at all. Also waiting on the monitor arm so I can mount it in the car when at work and right now I've got only an SSD in there as my HDD went back on an RMA too for constantly corrupting data.

So I ended up with:

Spoiler

Show

Coolermaster Cosmos 2 - gave up on the small form factor, it's getting a mount in the boot instead
ASUS Z87-Pro - Part of a bundle and selected with Gormadors advice in mind
8Gb Team Group gold 2133MHz DDR3 RAM - Part of a bundle
i7-4770K @4.8GHz - Part of a bundle
Corsair HX+ 850w Gold - needs to be able to handle a car generator
Samsung 840 Pro SSD 256Gb
Gigabyte Osmium Keyboard with Cherry Brown switches - tried red and hated them
ASUS PB278Q Monitor which I love more than any other component. I'll never buy a cheap monitor ever again, the difference is night and day!

The returned graphics card was an Inno3D GeForce GTX 770 iChill HerculeZ X3 Ultra 4Gb
The HDD was a Seagate Barracuda 7200 2Gb

The cantilever Arm I'll be buying will be the Ergotron LX desk mount as I can mount it to my car chassis and push it flat to the door when not in use but pull it right in front of my face when working. I know I said I didn't need one in the car, but when I'm sat in there for hours at a time, it's nice to have :)

Jury's out on the soundcard, I actually got to hear one and I prefer the Realtek that is built in to my motherboard. I'll be listening to a few before I make a decision.

A big thanks for all the help here, I've got 2 months worth of backlogged work to wade through but it's not so bad and I'm about to see id the integrated graphics will run minecraft - very excited to play the latest BTW versions, looks like a lot of changes have happened!

[FlowerChild]

very excited to play the latest BTW versions, looks like a lot of changes have happened!

Oh man, you don't know the half of it :)

The past couple of months has seen a flurry of development. I think you're in for a treat.

[Shengji]

The past couple of months has seen a flurry of development. I think you're in for a treat.

I've been resisting reading the spoiler threads so as to fully savour this weekend - It's going to be a BTW-a-thon!

[Syruse]

And... I'm back -

Yay! Congrats on the new build! :D
It sucks that the GPU was a lemon. Inno3D doesn't appear to be available in the USA and as a result I don't have any information on weather or not the cards are any good. Your best bets for a nVidia GPU (or really any GPU) would be, EVGA, Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte. That is, if you're interested in a different vendor.

[FlowerChild]

I've been resisting reading the spoiler threads so as to fully savour this weekend - It's going to be a BTW-a-thon!

Hehe...as a small spoiler, you may want to hold off until tomorrow evening before giving it a shot. I've got something rather special coming that I think puts the cherry on the cake of BTW's overall balance ;)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on everything man! Will be cool to have some fresh(ish) eyes on what I've been doing.