Comments on: Graphics card aka video board

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:26:03 +0000

I have benq joybook S41, my VGA is GeForce 8600m GS. Is my VGA card is integared with mainboard?

what the indicates / marks the VGA in laptop is integrated or Descrete ?

Thank’s

By: Yurik

Yurik — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:03:42 +0000

Hey there, I have a Toshiba Qosmio f45 av-425 and it shuts down after a few minutes when i start to play a game??? Not sure if its overheating or what?

By: Repair Man

Repair Man — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:00:42 +0000

mimi,

I have a Toshiba Qosmio F30. When it starts to boot up I get green blocks over the screen followed by white vertical dotted lines and then the screen goes totally black and I can go no further. I can boot it up in safe mode but I see faint red blocks all over the black screen too.
Can you please advise?

Sounds like the video card failure. Just in case, test your laptop with video on the external monitor.
Connect the monitor to the VGA port on the laptop and turn on the laptop. The external monitor should be detected automatically. If it shows garbled image, this is the video card failure.

Not sure about Satellite F30 but it’s a knows failure with Satellite G30/G35 models.

Check out this post: Toshiba Qosmio G30/G35 video failure.

Try calling Toshiba. Explain what’s going on. Maybe you can get a free repair.

By: mimi

mimi — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:54:55 +0000

I have a Toshiba Qosmio F30. When it starts to boot up I get green blocks over the screen followed by white vertical dotted lines and then the screen goes totally black and I can go no further. I can boot it up in safe mode but I see faint red blocks all over the black screen too.
Can you please advise?
Many thanks.

By: Charles

Charles — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:38:49 +0000

Hi repairman, it´s not so easy to get the X200-21X fixed. I bought now an identical model on ebay (working). I dissassembled this, and put the videocard from the bad x200 into the new one. Result: not booting. No beeps. Ok I tought, it´s the video board. I reassembled the new x200 and … holy sh..t, it was not booting too. What was wrong? I remembered your words, that memory could be a problem, so I put out the two memory banks and put in only one bank from the bad X200 and … tatata it was booting. So I have still no idea if the video board of the old X200 is bad or not. I will trie to find now a motherboard for the old machine, because I want to know whats wrong with this machine. I will you keep informed.Charles

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:46:54 +0000

THANKS A LOT! I will keep you informed.

By: Rik

Rik — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:05:49 +0000

Ok cool, thanks!

By: Repair Man

Repair Man — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:45:43 +0000

Rik,

If it is a discrete video card, will I find it in the same place as in that step-by-step guide?

Yes, it should be in the same location.

I was told by someone that my laptop has a separate vga board, and also the repair place overseas told me they intended to replace the gpu only, I hope that means its a discrete video card I can replace.

Again, you’ll have to disassemble the laptop to find out if it’s a discrete video card. Or find laptop specifications, maybe this info is available in the user’s manual.

If you have a discrete video card installed into the laptop, I think you can safely buy the video card you mentioned.

Also, what precautions must I take when opening my laptop up? I dont have anti-static gloves.

I don’t have anti-static gloves either.
If you don’t have anti-static wrist strap, at lease touch grounded metal equipment before touching parts inside the laptop. It should discharge you.

By: Rik

Rik — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:37:24 +0000

hi,
thanks for the advice. If it is a discrete video card, will I find it in the same place as in that step-by-step guide? I was told by someone that my laptop has a separate vga board, and also the repair place overseas told me they intended to replace the gpu only, I hope that means its a discrete video card I can replace. If it was that, then should I buy that part from http://laptopparts.com.au/toshiba-satellite-a200-a205-nvidia-video-graphic-card-v000100500-p-6566.html ?

Also, what precautions must I take when opening my laptop up? I dont have anti-static gloves.

By: Repair Man

Repair Man — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:09:26 +0000

Rik,

A few months back my laptop would shutdown unexpectedly. Then it became more frequent. Now, when I turn on the laptop I get random white lines on the screen and thats it. If I connect it to an external monitor, I get an image and it boots up (if I disable the GPU from device manager) but I still get a distorted image (red lines). I took it overseas to get it checked and they reckon it was the GPU as well but I didn’t get time to fix it.

Yep, sounds like the video card failure.

I was thinking of following this guide: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/toshiba-satellite-a205/laptop-disassembly-4.htm till the last step and replacing the thing that looks very much like the CPU

Some Satellite A200/A205 models come with integrated video cards. If that’s the case, you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard.
More expensive Satellite A200/A205 models might have a discrete video card. In this case you can replace just the video card.

I don’t know if your Toshiba Satellite A200 PSAFCA-01400J has a discrete video card. It’s not a US model and I cannot check the configuration.
You can open up the case and take a look inside to find out if you have a discrete card.