Can I replace my laptop's GPU duties with my CPU??

Sup ppl?
I got a Toshiba Qosmio G35 AV650. It has a Geforce 9600 Go onboard, but it died while playing Gears of War. There are some vertical lines on the screen from the instant the laptop boots up. I took it to a certified Toshiba service center, their conclusion was that the GPU is dead and cannot be replaced, so I will have to buy an entirely new motherboard for $70,000 (i'm in Jamaica, that's about US $700!!!)

That really isn't an option for me, so I was wondering, is it possible to let the CPU take over the GPU's work? It wouldn't be able to do anything graphically intensive, but atleast I would be able to use otherwise.

I know there are programs such as Swift Shader, that lets the CPU take over from the GPU for games, so, is it possible in any way for me to use my laptop with the CPU rendering graphics, and ignoring my GPU?

Any help/response appreciated. Thanks

 

No. The CPU is not physically capable of drawing any type of graphics, that why there's a GPU. The CPU computes equations which are sent to the GPU to be 'converted' in to actual graphics. Programs like "Swift Shader" (which I have never heard of but I'm familiar with others and the concept) just re-route some of the mathematical computations to take some of the load off of the GPU so it can use more of it's processing cycles to render graphics instead of computing mathematical equations. The graphics rendering does not (and can not) be re-routed to the CPU. However, there is an option that is much cheaper than Toshiba's solution. I have done some business with a company in California called Laptop Rescuer. They do excellent board-level repairs on laptops, and can probably just replace the GPU for less than half of what Toshiba quoted you. I have had them install new GPUs on several systems with great results, and if they can't fix it, you pay nothing. No 'diagnostic' fee, no 'administration' fee, no 'processing' fee. Swapping a GPU on a laptop is nothing like swapping one on a tower PC, it's a very involved process that involves the micro-soldering (and de-soldering) of really small chips, and these guys have the specialized gear to do the job. Anyway- I'm starting to ramble- too much coffee.... give 'em a shot, I think they'll be able to help you out! Good luck!
:-D

 

dlb, I thank you for your reply.
I think i exaggerated a bit when i said the GPU is dead. I can still use the laptop for a while, with green vertical lines on the screen, then after a period of time, more and more lines show up then the screen starts to get this white foggy effect.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5558/p1010034rk0.jpg
From immediate Boot: http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/9735/p1010031tq9.jpg

Just a few examples of the prob.

Anyways, consideration your post count and thanks earned, your reputation here will make me take your suggestion into consideration and probably try that place, after i call and explain my situation.
One more thing, I notice the site only lists motherboard repairs as the closest thing to my graphics prob, and nothing about soldering a non socket mounted GPU, so those laptops you said they repaired for you, were those high end machines?

 

Does your laptop's gpu have shared system memory or video memory?
If it has video memory then one of the chips might be going bad.
Years ago i had a s3 virge 2 or 3 meg video card and one of it's memory chips went bad (i would randomly get a screenfull of question marks).:cry

 

It has its own 64MB of dedicated VRAM. Tried troubleshooting that already, and also switching the RAM chips in the system, same problem. But, I did meet someone else on another site who had the same problem, he brought it to AZ Laptop Repair, and they said it was the Ball-Grid Array chip that was bad and needed replacing. Does that has to do with the VRAM? Because i've read around that a bad Video RAM chips can cause this kind of problem.

~Des

 

Why does posts 3 and 4 need to be right-scrolled to see everything???

 

Way to stay on topic. Apparently I posted the direct link to the images, so they don't automatically re-size to the browser...

 

Got my attention.

 

I googled ball array chip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_grid_array and it doesn't look like it's that but i could be wrong. but chances are it's a bad memory chip.