Hello everyone,
I've been googling around trying to find the solution to my problem myself, but without success, which is why I have come to you.
Here's the deal: a friend of mine gave away his 3 year-old Acer Aspire 5920G (5920-6642 to be exact) to me, because apparently it had a busted hard drive. I took it home, managed to fix the issue (the HDD was actually fine), then formatted and installed my own stuff on the laptop... Only to have the GPU fail 2 weeks later while I was using a music editing program (it froze with the audio looping for about 3-4 seconds before I shut the machine down by holding down the power button).
After I tried to reboot, there were artefacts all over the screen and Windows 7 wouldn't boot (froze at loading screen 3 times). After I unscrewed the GPU to look at it, then put it back in, then nothing. All I get is a black screen. Whenever I press power, he HDD light comes on, then the caps lock light and then the laptop goes "bah f**k it" and the fan stops spinning and nothing happens.
I'm fairly sure it's the video card that's at fault because I tried booting with just one RAM stick, then the other, then none of the two, and still I get a black screen. Same happens when I boot without the HDD. When I boot with the GPU removed however (and both RAM sticks in place), the back light turns on and after a brief moment the screen goes completely white - which it doesn't when the graphics card is in place.
After doing some research, I found out the video card that came with my laptop was an nVidia 8600m GS, but I also found out that other models of the 5920G came with other cards.
This website says some 5920G's came with the 9500m GS, which is the one I'm interested in buying because I found a rather good deal on eBay, but that listing says the 9500m is incompatible with the 5920G! Other sources seem to agree with the seller (this guy tried to install not one but three 9500m's with no success at all, just black screens like mine), however u6b36ef from this forum is convinced that it should work as long as the card isn't faulty.
I'm confused; is there specific sub-models of the 5920G that support the 9500m, and others don't? Do I have to have a specific BIOS version installed? Should I steer clear from that card and instead get the same one I already have? Any help is very much appreciated, and I apologise for the long post... :s
I've been googling around trying to find the solution to my problem myself, but without success, which is why I have come to you.
Here's the deal: a friend of mine gave away his 3 year-old Acer Aspire 5920G (5920-6642 to be exact) to me, because apparently it had a busted hard drive. I took it home, managed to fix the issue (the HDD was actually fine), then formatted and installed my own stuff on the laptop... Only to have the GPU fail 2 weeks later while I was using a music editing program (it froze with the audio looping for about 3-4 seconds before I shut the machine down by holding down the power button).
After I tried to reboot, there were artefacts all over the screen and Windows 7 wouldn't boot (froze at loading screen 3 times). After I unscrewed the GPU to look at it, then put it back in, then nothing. All I get is a black screen. Whenever I press power, he HDD light comes on, then the caps lock light and then the laptop goes "bah f**k it" and the fan stops spinning and nothing happens.
I'm fairly sure it's the video card that's at fault because I tried booting with just one RAM stick, then the other, then none of the two, and still I get a black screen. Same happens when I boot without the HDD. When I boot with the GPU removed however (and both RAM sticks in place), the back light turns on and after a brief moment the screen goes completely white - which it doesn't when the graphics card is in place.
After doing some research, I found out the video card that came with my laptop was an nVidia 8600m GS, but I also found out that other models of the 5920G came with other cards.
Linked website said:Aspire 5920G - MXM-II, 8600M GS, 8600M GT, 9500M GS, HD 3470
This website says some 5920G's came with the 9500m GS, which is the one I'm interested in buying because I found a rather good deal on eBay, but that listing says the 9500m is incompatible with the 5920G! Other sources seem to agree with the seller (this guy tried to install not one but three 9500m's with no success at all, just black screens like mine), however u6b36ef from this forum is convinced that it should work as long as the card isn't faulty.
I'm confused; is there specific sub-models of the 5920G that support the 9500m, and others don't? Do I have to have a specific BIOS version installed? Should I steer clear from that card and instead get the same one I already have? Any help is very much appreciated, and I apologise for the long post... :s