Use laptop with broken integrated graphics card

Mar 27, 2018
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I have an old Toshiba laptop (L645D-S4036) with integrated gpu on the motherboard. The gpu is broken, and the laptop is not able to boot.

Is there any way to use the laptop with an external graphics card or another alternative?

The idea is to use it as a "server" for development purposes, or a homemade NAS or something like that.

Thank you in advance.
 
Solution
Yes they all have drivers, but they can auto install from windows driver search.

The adapter won't work. You need mpcie, not pcie x1. You need an external psu. The sata on the cd drive is a slimline which is less power and not enough. You don't have any other sata ports. You don't have any other ports to provide enough power.

k1114

Distinguished
The igpu is on the mobo and has nothing to do with the cpu working or not. This is before igpus were on the cpu.

Replacement mobos are $60 so would be cheaper than an egpu but a usb adapter would be cheaper and simpler. These are around $20-30. I've suggested it to many people who had similar issues but you need to check reviews on the adapter to know if it'll work without manually installing a driver. An egpu could be as cheap if you already had a psu and gpu to use as the adapter is only $30 but it's still simpler to use usb than to take out the wifi card to use mpcie.
 
Mar 27, 2018
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Thank you all for your quick answers.

About booting with an usb adapter, I don't think it will work because all the adapters I've seen so far need drivers, so maybe the POST will fail and won't be able to boot.

I was wondering if I could use this adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GWMUK7W/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

With this lowend gpu:
https://www.amazon.com/0FM351-Dell-Radeon-Hd2400-Graphics/dp/B00I3FGM6U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522243685&sr=8-2

So now the question would be, can I connect the sata power cable of this adapter directly to the laptop without using an external psu? I mean, unplugging for instance the cd-rom and using its sata power to plug the adapter there.

Hope I was clear enough, and again thank you for your answers.
 

k1114

Distinguished
Yes they all have drivers, but they can auto install from windows driver search.

The adapter won't work. You need mpcie, not pcie x1. You need an external psu. The sata on the cd drive is a slimline which is less power and not enough. You don't have any other sata ports. You don't have any other ports to provide enough power.
 
Solution
Mar 27, 2018
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Got it, so the approach could be using for instace one of these usb adapters:

https://www.amazon.com/Supporting-2048X1152-Resolution-Multiple-Mac-Black/dp/B01CSEEYGQ/ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1522269341&sr=1-12

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-HDMI-Adapter-External/dp/B00H91BQ7Y/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1522269491&sr=1-1-spons

And the laptop will boot, then I will install the drivers, right?
 
Oct 17, 2018
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Have you solved the problem? Some of the usb adapters actually used the you laptop gpu for rendering so they won't help anyway. I haven't tried any of the usb adapters.

I have a AMD cpu with onboard nvidia gpu broken and am also looking for a way to reuse the laptop. I have a whole set of egpu with expresscard interface.