Dying Laptop Graphics Card?

[RobotBanana]

Last night I had my laptop on sitting on my desk with just a web browser open, when suddenly the screen bugged out. It looked like everything started to artifact. I held down the power button to shut it off, thinking it might have began to overheat or something.

This morning I tried booting it back up, and the first thing I noticed was the Windows XP loading screen (the bright light is the camera flash, just look at the blue lines):



After that, the screen went black. I eventually just powered it down again. Tried this a few times, and it never gets any further.

Then I tried booting into safe mode, and I can log in, but there are artifacts all over the place:



I also tried loading up a Ubuntu Live CD, and again, the only thing that shows is the text during bootup. As soon as Gnome begins to load, the screen goes black. If I try to boot it up in "graphics safe mode" everything is fine.

I take it the graphics card is nearly dead? The only thing I find odd is that it's still not completely gone; I can use it in safe mode, albeit with artifacts. I figured it just wouldn't work at all if it was dead. Is this normal?

[Trooper110]

You mean that's not the Matrix? I'd be inclined to guess that it's the graphics card going out or mostly gone. With safe mode it doesn't load the graphics drivers, it's just running on basic graphics, so there's no 3D acceleration or anything...which means you might eke a little usefulness out of it. Definitely sounds like it's going to me though.

[mapes]

You could check your memory. Some laptops use shared memory or some used to. Try resetting it.

[Duke{CLR}]

I had lines in my laptop screen and when I called tech support the tech guy had me plug in an external monitor to see if it was the screen or the video card. It turned out to be the screen. If its just the screen and you can't get it replaced you could always just use an external monitor with it.

[Zantheus]

I had lines in my laptop screen and when I called tech support the tech guy had me plug in an external monitor to see if it was the screen or the video card. It turned out to be the screen. If its just the screen and you can't get it replaced you could always just use an external monitor with it.

I agree with your assumption...to me by looking at it, seems like the screen is on its way out and not ur card

[RobotBanana]

I agree with your assumption...to me by looking at it, seems like the screen is on its way out and not ur card

I just connected the laptop to my desktop monitor, and the problem's still there. Right away I saw the blue lines on my monitor during the Windows loading screen. The lines were just a little more well-defined since my monitor didn't upscale it (it stayed at 1:1). Hehe.

mapes: Alrighty, I'll have to run memtest or something tomorrow.

[CarbonFire]

I just connected the laptop to my desktop monitor, and the problem's still there. Right away I saw the blue lines on my monitor during the Windows loading screen. The lines were just a little more well-defined since my monitor didn't upscale it (it stayed at 1:1). Hehe.

mapes: Alrighty, I'll have to run memtest or something tomorrow.

If it were faulty memory, I doubt the system would get that far in boot. Really does look like the graphics card I'm afraid, especially considering the external monitor suffered from the same artifacting. I had an old Toshiba Satellite laptop start doing that to me, it lasted a few months in that condition and then the screen/graphics card just died. I was still able to sell it on ebay for a couple of benjamins though, so not a total loss.

[Duke{CLR}]

I hope you can get it up and running if that's what you want. If you are interested there is a website www.notebookforums.com there you may find people that will know how to fix it and there may even be some parts for sale there.

[-IRC-MIKE]

I had an Nvidia Graphics card that did exactly the same thing. It would do it once or twice and finally clear up. After several more reboots, it quit completely. The display showed the exact same thing once or twice. When it died completely, there were glitches in the screen that covered the whole thing like in the first image. You couldn't see any logos but you could tell when the background changed or text was on the screen but none of it was recognizable.

[mapes]

If it were faulty memory, I doubt the system would get that far in boot. Really does look like the graphics card I'm afraid, especially considering the external monitor suffered from the same artifacting. I had an old Toshiba Satellite laptop start doing that to me, it lasted a few months in that condition and then the screen/graphics card just died. I was still able to sell it on ebay for a couple of benjamins though, so not a total loss.

I agree if it were memory thats system memory. Some laptops actually allocate memory from the system memory for the video card at the hardware level. So memtest won't find it either. This was a thing older laptops did. What type of laptop make and model is it?

[juneau]

Dead. And more than likely the GDDR is the cause.

[RobotBanana]

I agree if it were memory thats system memory. Some laptops actually allocate memory from the system memory for the video card at the hardware level. So memtest won't find it either. This was a thing older laptops did. What type of laptop make and model is it?

How old are we talking here?

It's a Toshiba Qosmio G30, around 2 years old.

Regarding memory, I do know that the graphics card is an NVIDIA 7600GS mobile.

[Duke{CLR}]

If it's still under warranty then maybe they will replace it. If not then call them anyway and see if you could buy one.

[WalkinTarget]

Bad video RAM ... its the RAM on the onboard that is failing. No way to correct that other than to hope that it is a removable unit and that you can find a replacement.

Thats why I won't ever sink big $$ into a lappy. There's no way you can repair it if it bites the dust. I have a dead gamer laptop that was given to me, but knowing it needs a new board, I can't even FIND that board for sale anywhere.

[CarbonFire]

Well, if it's under warranty, you might be able to get it replaced. If it's not, you may be able to get a replacement card.

Starting with the GeForce 6 Series, Nvidia starting making most of their discrete notebook graphics cards to fit into a standard (if proprietary) card socket, called MXM. Unfortunately, you still need to get the right card, and they are often near impossible to track down (because there are so many different sizes, few places are willing to sell them outside of authorized repair centers). If your laptop is newer and fairly powerful/expensive, it might be worth it to track down a replacement card (only if you are technically-minded enough to install it of course ).

Otherwise, might be time to go laptop shopping