Upgrading video card for Dell M1710 - Dual link DVI-D possible?

[keliwah]

Hi, I'm trying to decide whether to sell my M1710 and buy the new M1730 or stick with my M1710 and upgrade it.

Recently I've occassionally been getting a blue screen of death when starting up a 3D game with the memory parity error which probably means my 256MB GeForce 7900 Go video card needs replacing.

I would love to be able to run a 30" external display. I know the new Dell M1730 can run them, but I was wondering whether it was possible to upgrade my system to a dual link DVI-D capable video card? What other parts might I need? Would it be cheaper simply to sell the laptop and buy a new one? I think I should get about £400 for my machine and the new one would cost about £1400. Surely I could upgrade for less than £1000?! How is the M1730 that much better? (apart from stepping up the ugliness factor one more notch).

Any advice would be really appreciated as I'm a complete computer noob.

 

[Lexluethar]

Can't upgrade a video card in a laptop. The video card is actually part of the motherboard, so in order to get a new video card you'd have to replace the motherboard, replace the motherboard and you'd probably ahve to replae the case since as you stated the new motherboard would have different connectors on the back... long story short either deal with the proplems associated with the M1710 or purchase a new laptop - you cannot upgrade a laptops video card.

 

[Nukem]

Dell will upgrade your card to a 7950GTX only. That is the best one you can put into a M1710. (As I own one myself) but you'll have to talk to them about replacement

 

[keliwah]

Ok, I see, thanks for that.

Just to update, I opted to forget about trying to run a 30" as it's just too expensive and today I took receipt of two Samsung 24" 2433BW for under £400 the pair which right now are running well with my M1710 and GeForce Go7900 GS 256MB - one off the VGA and one off the DVI.

Although I haven't yet figured out how to make the laptop screen work as well as the dual monitors and am not sure if this is possible with my video card - in Nvidia settings it gives me all the options of multiple monitors except running all three which is a bit disappointing as I read someone managed this with a Dell M90.

Also, if I play a video in iTunes or a DVD I have to just turn the second monitor off as the video will try to play full screen on the other screen no matter what I do, and then will start flickering and eventually go black. This isn't really a problem though as if I'm going to play a video I don't need the second monitor to work anyway. I suspect the problems are due to the 256MB card, but I really don't know.

 

[Nukem]

It sounds as if your GPU is going bad... I have a 36" LCD here at home that I watch movies on from my laptop with no problems... I cannot max out the resolution of the TV though... (The laptop won't handle it) but I can get pretty good res out of mine...

So yes... I would check your card out.