Guide: How to Upgrade Your Laptop’s Graphics Card

The assembly diagram of the hardware of the laptop, the features of its components require special skills for servicing the product. However, some operations can be done independently. At the same time, it is enough to act carefully and thoughtfully. Such work includes replacing a video card on a laptop. Sometimes this is done in order to increase productivity. But often there is a need to change the Graphics Card or video card on a laptop because of its abnormal work, problems. Here how to change graphics card on laptop guide.

how to change graphics card on laptop

How to change graphics card on laptop?

Advice! How to get to a discrete graphics card in order to replace it with a more powerful one is worth a look on the Internet first. This will help to understand how to properly and in what order to remove the components of the hardware of the laptop.

In general, to upgrade integrated graphics card laptop, the process is as follows.

  1. Be sure to turn off the power adapter, pull out the battery.
  2. The power button is pressed for more than 20 seconds to neutralize the residual charge of the elements of the motherboard.
  3. The entire back cover is removed . It can be mounted on screws, some of which are located in the area of ​​the battery compartment, and sometimes fixed with latches. To find them, it is worth drawing a thin knife along the line connecting the parts, squeezing the fasteners at the detected points.
  4. The cooling system is dismantled . The fans are unscrewed or snapped off, before this operation you need to find the connection points of their cables and disconnect the connectors on the motherboard.
  5. Thermal cushions are removed.

After much work, you can usually see how to change the video card on a laptop. It is inserted into the connector on the motherboard and has a protective cover. To remove the card, you will need to unscrew the two fixing screws. The whole block is pulled out. After that, the protective cover is carefully removed from the card.

The rules for installing a new device are quite simple.

  1. The new card is placed in a regular place and inserted into the slot.
  2. The surface of the chips, CPU and main chips are cleaned with an alcohol wipe.
  3. Thermal grease is applied to the dry and clean surfaces of the chipset and CPU.

Important! On pasta is not worth saving. Cheap thermal grease has a thick consistency and forms a fairly thick layer under pressure. Or vice versa, a cheap product is extremely fluid and dries quickly. Expensive thermal grease forms a thin, uniform layer with a high service life.

After applying the heat-conducting layer to the card, a protective cover is installed. At the same time, you need to make sure that the thermal pillows fit exactly on the CPU and chips.

Thermal grease

Integrated Graphics Challenges

In most laptops, the display is served by a built-in (integrated) video card . This is a special chip, in case of malfunctions of which can be observed:

  • stripes on the screen;
  • color changing places;
  • errors when drawing, cubes or areas with artifacts.
Integrated Graphics Challenges

If the picture on the display has problems that indicate the failure of the graphic chip, it is worth replacing the video card on the laptop. Such work is recommended to be entrusted to professionals. There are two situations.

  1. The graphics chip is soldered to the motherboard . In this case, to extract the old and install a new one, a microscope and professional soldering stations are required.
  2. The chip is in a special MXM connector . To extract it, you need a special tool.

It is worth noting that, with some accuracy, you can replace the video card on a laptop, the chip of which is placed in the slot, yourself. In this case, a number of rules must be observed:

  • work in rubber gloves so that finger fat does not get on the contact group;
  • It is worth abandoning woolen clothing;
  • It is recommended to wear a special bracelet that diverts and neutralizes static charge.

When a similar upgrade or repair is done, excessive effort must not be made. The chip fits neatly into the socket and is set to the position by uniform pressure over the entire area. There are a lot of laptops with video cards made in this way. For example, some DNS models offer this feature. Other manufacturers have different tactics. In particular, in 99% of Lenovo laptops, changing a video card is difficult and expensive, since it is part of a multifunctional chip.

here is the solution to

Discrete graphics card

Graphics cards of this type are usually installed on a separate board in powerful gaming machines in addition to the integrated one. They have high performance and are ideal for displaying game images. Replacing a discrete graphics card on a laptop is an operation that will be available to most users. The main thing is to have sufficient screwdriver handling skills and accuracy. Required:

  • buy a new video card compatible with your laptop model;
  • disassemble the device;
  • remove the old card and replace it with a more powerful one;
  • to assemble a laptop properly.
Discrete Graphics Card

Important! The latter operation is crucial. The main thing is not only to put all the hardware components in regular places but also to provide heat removal from the video chip.

conclusion

Reassembling a laptop is usually straightforward. It is recommended to do preventive maintenance, clean and lubricate coolers, and remove dust and dirt from air ducts and other elements of the cooling system. It is also worth replacing the thermal paste on the CPU if a radiator is installed on it.

When assembling, they act in the reverse order. Having accuracy and remembering where everything was connected, everything can be completed quickly and with good results. It remains only to enjoy the stable operation of the serviced system with a new productive graphics card.

Hi, fellow tech enthusiasts! I’m Syed Kashif Shah, and I’m proud to be your go-to expert for all things like problems, suggestions, recommendations related to graphics cards. As a seasoned Technology Consultant and Hardware Enthusiast, I’ve spent years in the graphics card troubleshooting and repair field.

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