changing graphics card

[cornbread]

Hey guys,

My girlfriend has a Dell laptop, using a ATI Mobility 7500c for graphics. Is it possible to update a graphics card in a laptop very easily, I've never worked on a lappy.

[Vengance_01]

Sorry dude your G/F's laptop is stuck with what she has in it. untill Dell's new Centrino 17" Line, there was no laptop that you could upgrade you video card.

[jivetrky]

What he said! Sorry dude.

[cornbread]

Yeah I was afraid of that, thanks guys.

[freakdiablo]

dont be said. with a little modding (cooling pad, removing keyboard, using usb keyboard and installing some ram heatinks to vid card) I was able to get to 320 core 220 ram on my laptops 7500.

[cornbread]

Heh, I doubt she will let me mod her lappy, its her baby. :D

[jivetrky]

dont be said. with a little modding (cooling pad, removing keyboard, using usb keyboard and installing some ram heatinks to vid card) I was able to get to 320 core 220 ram on my laptops 7500.


Kinda makes it not a laptop anymore, eh?

[freakdiablo]

Kinda makes it not a laptop anymore, eh?
nope. well, it kindof is. its just that I cant close the screen all the way due to the heatsinks and I have to carry around my g15 :D

[damarble]

Sorry dude your G/F's laptop is stuck with what she has in it. untill Dell's new Centrino 17" Line, there was no laptop that you could upgrade you video card.

What? So you're saying I didn't upgrade my video card in my old Inspiron 4000? I guess I imagined it.

[cornbread]

What? So you're saying I didn't upgrade my video card in my old Inspiron 4000? I guess I imagined it.

I think hers is a 5100 or 5150, something like that, I'll need to check, but your saying it might be possible? I looked underneath, no place to slide out a graphics card like the memory, looks like you have to open the whole lappy to get to the gpu card.

I've worked on many desktops, but never a laptop, so excuse the newbness. :D

[jivetrky]

I think hers is a 5100 or 5150, something like that, I'll need to check, but your saying it might be possible? I looked underneath, no place to slide out a graphics card like the memory, looks like you have to open the whole lappy to get to the gpu card.

I've worked on many desktops, but never a laptop, so excuse the newbness. :D


If it is possible, you will have to take the whole thing apart Removing the top half, then keyboard, case and then you can see if your graphics is a seperate card or integrated.

[JP.MIGRAINE]

What is the laptop model? i have a dell 5100 and i replaced my video card on it. it is actually pretty easy. it is located right under the keyboard. i put in a card that had more memory on it. think i had a 32mb one and the one i replaced it with has 64 mb .

it can be done though .:beer:

[Charr]

Unless it is an MXM, there are more chances that you will not be able to replace it.

[cornbread]

Here is her model, Inspiron 5100, and again the graphics is a ATI Mobility 7500c. Also, is the graphics memory shared with her onboard?

Mainly she and I want to be able to play games every now and then, nothing like current games like Fear or Oblivion, nothing that demanding, but maybe Guild Wars, which she tried and it pretty much crawled :(. Also she has 512 onboard memory.

Edit....

Update, after a little more research I found out the graphics is integrated, bah.

[cornbread]

Hmm, weird, Dell is showing a refurbished 64mb card, so I would think that makes it replaceable?

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=5U104

Question is though, would going from 32 to 64 make that big of a difference?

[JP.MIGRAINE]

I have that same model , so you can replace the video card on it . it doesnt share the graphics memory it is on the card itself so that makes it pretty cool. i went from the 32 card to the 64 mb one and it helped out alot.

i was going to get a nvidia based card for it but , it was too hard to find. you wont be able to play demanding games on it , but you will be able to run games on there. i played age of empires on mine and mvp baseball when my desktop wasnt working.


good luck.

[cornbread]

Ok, I just opened it up and as you said it can be replace, but only with a 64mb model. The guy at Dell said it was integrated, which it isn't, cause I'm looking at the card now, girlfriend isn't around or she would kill me right now, lol, I have the keyboard and all off. I may upgrade the video and and some ram. Do you think upgrading to 64mb of video will make it possible to run games Guild Wars?

Edit...

Update....

Well I went ahead and bought the 64MB, it can't hurt anythng, going to upgrade her ram to. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. Thanks for the help.

[JP.MIGRAINE]

i'm not sure what the requirement's are for guild wars , but if you are close to the specs for it then maybe it can. how much ram is on the laptop now? i put a gig in mine and after that it ran alot faster.

it's pretty simple to replace stuff on this laptop so you shouldnt have any problems replacing thevideo card on it.

[cornbread]

It has 512 ram, I'm upgrading to 1gig.