My Laptop died :(

[welchbloke (OP)]

Just as I was really getting into my current campaign (so much so I was collecting screenshots so that I could do a write up), my laptop went and died on me  

Edit to add:
Have just discovered that my laptop (KP dv9000) has a known GPU issue that HP very quietly released a BIOS upgrade for last year. However, my onboard HP update software never picked this up and has never upgraded my BIOS   Any suggestions? The laptop is out of warranty (of course) so I'm looking for ideas right now.

[Beersatron]

if you have a desktop you could try ripping the HDD out of the laptop and plugging it into that and using it as a secondary hard drive. Just make sure the desktop doesn't try to boot the second HDD, although it may not be an issue.

Does the laptop boot? Do you remember if you have the folder that Aurora installed in set to 'shared'? If the laptop can boot and will automatically join a network then you may be able to access the files over the network, depends if you need to login to the laptop though.

[welchbloke (OP)]

It's almost certainly a GPU failure; I've done some researching and my symptoms match those of several other GPU failures of dv9000 laptops.  The laptop is configured to auto connect to my home network, so hopefully I wil be able to turn boot it up and connect to the network without the screen turning on.  Currently, several tousand miles from home so I won't be able to try this for about a week   I've also found a possible (interim) fix that I'll try when I get a chance, it involves putting the laptop in a very particular configuration (RAM removed, battery removed) and then doing a few other actions to try and clear the corrupted memory chip. It sounds a bit like dancing around a particular tree at midnight but at this point I'm pretty desperate.

[welchbloke (OP)]

if you have a desktop you could try ripping the HDD out of the laptop and plugging it into that and using it as a secondary hard drive. Just make sure the desktop doesn't try to boot the second HDD, although it may not be an issue.

I did this when my last desktop died unexpectedly; I'm going to try a few other things before I resort to this though.

[Erik L]

A number of years ago, they sold PCMCIA cards that were VGA adapters.

Or a more modern variation.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=467
USB to Video adapter.