[video=I3RhwmOt5bMMsjHb]My wife has gone through three laptops in as many years. We mothballed her aging Macbook Pro when it's screen would only display pinkscale, which is kind of like grayscale except in varying shades of pink. Her second laptop - a used, basic Dell - was terminated due to a failed experiment combining infants and poorly-placed coffee. Her latest laptop is a powerhouse Dell e1705.* It came with a dedicated Go 7900 GS video card and native HD display. The thing is a monster; except for the fact that it's video card is prone to dying.

Video artifacts and errors

Go ahead and ask Google, the issue is not isolated. The cooling system is inadequate, causing the memory chips on the video card to overheat and crack. This acuses video issues, problems booting into windows, and even the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). Thankfully this problem is salvagable: Bake the card in an oven!**

Video card + Cookie Sheet + Oven

If your video card is borked and your PC unusable, what have you got to lose, in the end? The oven causes solder on the card to reform in the cracks caused by the constant heating and cooling of the poorly-cooled card. Once you have identified that the issue is the video card disassemble your laptop or personal computer and remove the card. You will need tinfoil and a cookie sheet and, though not required, a tinfoil hat:

• Remove the heatsink from your video card and clean any thermal paste or grease from the GPU using rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. You will need to reapply thermal paste when you reassemble the video card, so be sure to have some on hand.
• Make four small balls of tinfoil to prop your video card above the cookie sheet. You do not want your card to actually contact the cookie sheet, which might cause irregular heating.
• Preheat the over to 390 degrees Fahrenheit (that's about 200 degrees Celsius for you freaks using the metric system)
• Bake the card for about 10 minutes
• Turn off the oven and allow the card to cool. Rapid cooling may cause additional cracking, so you might want to do this before bed and just let it cool overnight.
• Reinstall card
• Turn on PC: This is your moment of truth.

What are you doing, Dave?

If everything has gone according to plan and your video card is working again, shut off the computer immediately. Go invest in a superior cooling solution. Laptop coolers, additional case fans, or even replacement video card heat sinks may be in order, and are typically far less expensive than replacing the video card itself. Our laptop now sits on a nice Cooler Master laptop cooler that is powered off the laptop's USB port, and cost less than $20. The laptop has been running strong for over three months, and runs games without any issues.

The lesson here is: Never doubt the power of Google to solve all of your problems.

[video=K3Rlk2ao5bMMsjHY]

*Note that if you are hitting this site from a Google search and own an e1705, you can find disassembly instructions at Notebookcheck.net.

**Original sources include Overclockers.com and the HardOCP forums. Bozanimal, Gamespot, and any affiliate parties will not be held responsible for damage, injury, or financial loss incurred due to the actions of readers in response to the content of this entry.