Serious GPU problem - Vertical Lines from Boot

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by mod_desolator, Dec 7, 2007.

  1. mod_desolator

    mod_desolator Private E-2

    Sup ppl?
    I got a serious problem with my Toshiba Qosmio G35 AV650.
    After playing Crysis and CoD4 demos, I wanted to play Gears of War. I installed it successfully, and launched the game. After about a few seconds, ma laptop seized up, with some bright red colour boxes on the screen. I plugged it out and removed the battery, then turned it on again.

    Immediately as I booted, I saw some green vertical lines on the screen, but in the section where I can select Safe Mode and so on, didn't have the vertical lines, but some of the letters had a flashing white box around them. I tried to load windows normally, the boot screen with the scrolling thing had the vertical lines again, then after the boot screen, the BSOD flashed, then the laptop restarted.

    I tried to start in Safe Mode and it worked, but the vertical lines were still there. The Display Setting didn't have any information about my video card, but in the properties I saw VGASave. I went to I checked device manager and saw Standard VGA, I went to the properties and roll back drivers, then restart.

    The laptop started normally, with the lines. But strangely, I could still go up to 1900 x 1200 resolution at 32 bit, and I even played videos okay (I didn't try any games though), but in the Display Setting, it still showed VGASave enabled. I disabled it (my God) and restarted, Safe Mode or Normally wouldn't start, the BSOD just flashed. I connected it to an old monitor and boot up the laptop and it re-enabled VGASave.

    I tried booting without the two hard drives and the vertical lines were still there. I installed some newer nVidia drivers and the PC would boot normally, but after the boot screen, the entire screen is black with no lines, and it seems the PC isn't seized up. I still cleaned the drive and reinstalled XP, no help.

    I looked in the resources tab for VGASave and it showed some conflicts with what appears to be an Intel onboard video card, at Root Poor 27A. Maybe this is the problem, but I was thinking that maybe the video drivers in the CMOS got currupted somehow. Can you people help me out please? (assuming you've read this far)

    I assume Gears of War will have some probs, since it's a console port. If you need anything else just ask.
    Specs:
    Processor: Intel Core Duo T2500 / 2 GHz
    RAM: 1 GB DDR2
    Graphics: nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256 MB GDDR3, PCI Express x16
    Motherboard: Mobile Intel 945PM Express

    Thanks in advance guys. I hope I can get my awesome laptop working again :(

    -Des
     
  2. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    There's a chance that it may not be the GPU after all... it may be bad memory. If you have 2 RAM sticks, remove one and see if the problem goes away. If not, remove it and put the other in by itself. If the problem remains, see if you can borrow a RAM stick from a friend if you don't have an extra laying around. If the problems remain even after doing all the RAM swaps, then it may very well be a GPU problem. It may have overheated and been permanently damaged. Hopefully the PC is still under warranty....
     
  3. mod_desolator

    mod_desolator Private E-2

    Sup dlb?

    Well I got the laptop last November, so even if I had the warranty, it would be too late.
    I did play around with the RAM, I removed the two sticks, but the laptop just beeped and wouldn't start. I tried each of the sticks in each slot and started it up, but the lines were still present. I haven't gotten the chance to try a different RAM from those that were in the machine, but i'll try to do that soon.

    Shouldn't the laptop shut down if the GPU overheated?
    Also, I was wondering if the GPU's BIOS, or some form of onboard drivers, got corrupted some how.

    I don't think overheating was the problem, the machine just crashed right after I clicked the exe, it's not like I loaded a level and stressed the GPU. And I wasn't running anything graphically intensive before that.

    -Des
     
  4. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    OK... I misunderstood. I thought you were in mid-game when it crashed. So overheating probably wasn't the cause. I still think that maybe the RAM has gone out, but it may be the GPU, or possibly the LCD. These things can be hard to diagnose if you don't have extra parts. Have you tried hooking up an external monitor to the laptop? Most (if not all) laptops have a VGA port on the back. If you still get the lines on an external display, then you at least know that the laptop's display is OK....
     
  5. mod_desolator

    mod_desolator Private E-2

    I checked the LCD, the lines aren't dead pixels. I connected it to a Monitor and it showed the exact same way. I've seen tons of posts about vertical lines on their screen, especially on nVidia and computing.net's forums, but none of them has a definite solution. And i'm sure all of them didn't just abandoned their request for help and bought a new video card.

    One person on Computing.net replaced their video card, motherboard, hard drive and PSU! And still had the same problem! All that was left to do is change the CPU and RAM. And he ruled out the Monitor as the cause.

    -Des
     

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