Most laptop video chips are soldered directly on the motherboard. Without a video chip a laptop could not produce a display on its screen and is vulnerable to failure especially if the laptop is abused.

If you disassemble an average laptop you will often see a heat sink with fan covering two sizeable chips. One will always be the CPU chip the other the graphics chip. The CPU and graphics chip generate a lot of heat once the laptop is operating. The graphics chip though produces by far the most heat. The CPU is nearly always contained in a socket that allows it to be quickly extracted and replaced should it fail or require an upgrade. Unfortunately, upgrading or changing a faulty graphics chip is impossible or very difficult since it is directly soldered on the motherboard.

As a general rule, the hotter a chip works at, the shorter its life-span, when a failure can be expected. So any measures that can be taken to keep this chip cool will extend the life-span of the laptop.

With a little thought you should be able to keep your laptop running cool instead of hot and damaging the graphics chip. Always use the laptop on a tray or table, and not on a carpet, bed or on your knees as this will obstruct the cooling vents. If you notice that the air coming out of the exhaust outlet is slow or very hot then you will most likely have to have the fan and vents cleaned by a laptop repair agent. Different types of software programs result in different amounts of heat being generated by the graphics chip. Letting the laptop idle on the Internet will not cause the graphics chip to generate much heat, however, playing a game where advanced graphics are running will in most cases cause it to generate substantial heat. You will most likely be amazed to find out that playing a DVD film will cause the graphics chip to run incredibly hot, so potentially decreasing the life expectancy of the laptop particularly when this is done regularly.

If the wrong or an outdated graphics driver has been installed on the laptop then this may cause the graphics chip to overheat and will likely cause graphics intensive programs to judder or crash the laptop. The correct graphics drivers are often relatively easy to locate and can usually be downloaded free from the manufacturer's Web site.

Upgrading the graphics chip on a laptop is normally nearly impossible since it is very difficult to remove the old chip from the motherboard. You will discover though, some high specification laptops which have the graphics chip mounted on a separate sub assembly circuit board that connects to the main motherboard. This makes it easy, thought quiet costly, to upgrade or replace the graphics chip as required.

Always treat your laptop with care, knowing that if it is getting hot then the graphics chip might fail immediately or may have a reduced life. Look after your laptop's graphic chip since it is either very expensive or impossible to replace.