Replacement Video Card for HP 8760w!! And RAM Upgrade...Help Needed..

[8760WUser]

Hello All,
I am a non techie guy who happen to have an issue with his HP Elitebook Workstation 8760W. This machine has served me well in the past 6 years.

Its video card suddenly stopped working and needs to be replaced. The fan runs but screen stays blank....hooked up to an external monitor and nothing on the screen. I am wondering if I can get some advise from the more knowledgeable folks here.

Current Video Card: AMD FirePro M5950
HP forums and manuel for 8760w says there are 4 options for video card replacement:

1)AMD FirePro M5950 XT-GL 1GB GDDR5 (DP 1.2 and Eyefinity Plus support) 647176-001
2)NVIDIA Quadro 5010M, N12E-Q5 4 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory 647179-001
3)NVIDIA Quadro 4000M, N12E-Q3 2 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory 647178-001
4)NVIDIA Quadro 3000M, N12E-Q1 2 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory 647177-001

Other specs related to the process and RAM are below:
Intel 2.2 GHz Core i7 (quad core) Mobile Intel QM67 Express
8GB DDR3 SDRAM (expandable to 32GB)

I know I can buy pre-owned above mentioned video cards from ebay. Can someone please recommend which video card I should go with? I primarily use laptop for office work, no gaming and nothing else fancy. I typically hook up an external monitor with the laptop so I can have two screens for ease of work. I wouldn't want to spend alot of mnoney on a high video card.
Do I also need to replace the heat sink along with the video card?

Also, would like to upgrade the RAM to 16GB. Currently have 2x4GB sticks. Would like to buy an 8GB stick to get to 16GB. Any recommendations here are also welcome.

Thanks for your help. 

[banhien]

@8760WUser 

Firstly I need to say: 8760w is a series of many machines with different options/configurations therefore not all machines accept 32GB of RAM. Only machines with a quad-core processor have 4 banks of RAM which support 32GB (8GB x 4). Now back to your questions

1. Video card: Yes, for workstation class machines, we can replace/upgrade to new video card BUT still from a supported list. You can use one of 4 on the list above. More dedicated VRAM is  better therefore NVIDIA Quadro 5010M, N12E-Q5 4 GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory is my pick.

2. For RAM: As mentioned above, your machine MAY only have 2 slots of RAM therefore you can upgrade to 16GB using the following pairs

    https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/elitebook-8760w-%28quad-core-processor%29/CT2392276

  or

    https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/elitebook-8760w-%28quad-core-processor%29/CT7783636

If it does have 4 banks of RAM, you simply double the above sticks.

The following manual gives you more info and shows you how to do yourself.

     http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02847569.pdf

Regards.

[AK_44]

Hello,
I have the same problem with my laptop 8760W as @8760WUser.
By the way.... It is really hard do find replacements for video cards.
I want to replace AMD FIrePro M5950 with NVIDIA Quadro 3000M. And so that I have few questions:
1. Is it a good idea at all?
2. Will NVIDIA Quadro 3000M meet my needs if AMD FirePro M5950 did it very well? Overall, which one of these two cards is better for this laptop?
3. If I decided to replace AMD FirePro M5950 with NVIDIA Quadro 3000M would I need to replace heat sink as well? If yes, which heat sink should I use?
4. Let's suppose that I' ve bought NVIDIA Quadro 3000M. Is there anything else what I need in order to make my computer work fine?
5. Again, let's suppose that I' ve bought NVIDIA Quadro 3000M and I put it in my laptop. Do I need to do anything else? For instance, in BIOS?
I will be very grateful for your answer,
AK

[AK_44]

Gentlemen, excuse me, but does anyone know the answers to the above questions? I can't start repairing my laptop without them. 

First of all, I would like to know if I need to buy a new heat sink together with the NVIDIA QUADRO 3000m card.