Trouble with video card

[Septimus]

OK, so my laptop went kerblewie a few months back. The problem seemed to have been with the video card, so I got a replacement for it. I installed it and things worked for about a minute or so (ok, 3 or 4 hours), but then things crapped out on me again.

When I try to start the computer, little green distortion lines appear on the screen when it goes into the Windows loading screen, after a while, the screen goes dark. If I leave it on long enough it will restart and go through all of this all over again. I thought that it was another faulty video card, but on a lark tonight I started the computer up in safe mode. Safe mode ran without any graphical distortions and has been running for well over an hour now. Logically, it seems like the problem would be with the drivers, so I downloaded the latest version of the driver for that video card, but the same damn thing happened. (Graphic distortions, followed by black out, and then restart.)

So is this a driver issue? What can I do to fix this?

Specs as follow:

Spoiler: show

Alienware AREA 51-M 5700
Pentium M 760 2.0GHZ 2MB 533FSB
Alienware M5700 Nvidia GeForce Go 6800 256MB
2GB RAM
Windows XP SP3

Please help. Septimus and Atum really miss each other.

[Surealistic]

if its doing it before you get into windows, its not the drivers, it could be a corrupt install of windows, i know it sucks reinstalling windows, but thats where id start, especially if you havent since you put the new video card in

[Cephius]

Go into safe mode and uninstall your video cards so when you look in the device manager it comes up with "VGA Compatible Card" or something like that. Then download and run Driver Sweeper in safe mode. Have it take out the Nvidia drivers (not the chipset) then reboot into Windows and see if you get the same symptoms. Don't let Windows install drivers for you, make sure you get the latest drivers and install those.

Sometimes if a driver gets corrupted, it'll remain corrupted even if you try to overwrite with new drivers. Best practice is wiping out everything, then starting from scratch, so try that.

[sruon]

VGA cable might be the cause, on my laptop (which I'm too lazy to get replaced), the screen looks fine everywhere, BIOS, Windows etc, but the moment there is black on screen it goes fubar (movies...)

[Septimus]

OK, so I tried to wipe the driver, still had the problem. I reformatted and started to reinstall. Things were cool reinstalling XP, but when I finished with that and reinstalled the Chipset, shit hit the fan again. So, what the hell? Does this mean that the replacement that was sent to me was a different model than they said it was? What can I do?

Here are some pictures. (Sorry that they are a bit blurry.)

Upon start up, things are fine.
http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...s/StartUp1.JPG

When it switches to windows, these green things appear on the screen. (This even happened after I reinstalled, but went away when it went to the start up screen.)
http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...s/StartUp2.JPG

Windows logo vanishes, but the green junk is still there.
http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...s/StartUp3.JPG

The screen goes blank, then this happens.
http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...s/StartUp4.JPG

Then the screen goes kind of white, but if you look closely there are little vertical lines.
http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...s/StartUp5.JPG

Even when booting from CD or with F8 to choose boot mode, there are little distortions behind certain letters.
http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...istortion1.JPG http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...istortion2.JPG http://www.septimusprime.com/images/...istortion3.JPG

Once more, any help would be appreciated. If you have any questions or need more details, let me know.

[GentaiShinigami]

Perhaps it is a busted card and it happens like it does progressively getting worse as temps rise? Those kinds of graphical glitches and artifacts definitely look like a GPU problem to me though, but then again I'm an amateur and haven't owned a laptop. =X

Does the computer have integrated graphics as well as a mobile video card? If so perhaps try switching to integrated. Might be a stupid question idk how laptops are setup as I've never had the luxury of owning one and can't be assed to go reading about them. xD

Perhaps try turning it on and go into the BIOS and just let it sit there. For like an hour or something maybe, and see if it'll progressively get hotter and start to show more severe glitching. Seems a good plaec to check would be the BIOS since you don't seem to be having too much of an issue there aside from random glitching behind a few letters.

Not sure what else to recommend atm not knowing much about laptops, but figured I'd post anyway cause when shit breaks your looking for any posts usually. That, and I'm drinking tonight so...

Edit: Trying to google about your problem and party at the same time buzzed, but yeah it seems like alienware laptops run hot as shit, and tend to have these graphical cockups thanks to it. Is there any way you can put more cooling on it like turn a fan directly onto it or take part of the case off (idk how these things are put together I just know they are packed tight as hell and run scorching hot a lot >.>). Run it like usual for a while and see if being cooler does anything for it.

I wish you could get into windows and check what temps are running at, but looks like you haven't even gotten windows reinstalled yet? :/ Either way I'll be reading in my spare time seeing what I can dig up. Good luck!

[GentaiShinigami]

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hard...re-laptop.html

Last two posts in particular seem pretty relevant even though they are four years old. Looks like overheated/ing. Hopefully it's not damaged yet since it isn't showing the green lines from the start, and progressively gets worse. If it's not damaged yet maybe you can find a way to cool it during operation (perhaps redo the thermal paste on the hsf for the gpu with some good stuff and look into an aftermarket fan for it if they make such things for laptop gpus) and save it, but yeah it might be toast already from the scorching heat. ><

[Septimus]

Actually, I have been working with it through the night, after having to reformat and re-reinstall Windows XP after the chipset problem. There are no more graphic glitches when starting or distorted letters when booting from CD. Also, it has been running in windows for hours without any graphical issues.

This model of laptop generally does run hot, which is probably why the first video card died. When I installed the new card I put thermal paste on the video card chip and replaced the thermal paste on the CPU, it feels a lot cooler when it runs. Before the computer died, it was running a good 20 degrees cooler then before. (I always kept the temperature monitor running behind FFXI to see when I needed to turn on the auxiliary fan.)

Still going through windows updates right now. I am fairly certain that the issue was with the chipset controller, I have no idea what I can do to fix this. I am not sure why it ran for a few hours (even had FFXI running) when I first installed the video card then it decided to crap out instead of just dying immediately when I reinstalled the chipset controller this time. Once more, any insights would be very much appreciated.

[Icari]

the images you posted look very much like things did on my laptop before the graphics card died. it will work for a while [weeks or a month maybe] but then it will just die and not boot into the os due to the card not working anymore. Now i got a dead laptop [going on 11 months ] that needs a new graphics card but I am not paying about $500 for the card if i can find one.

[GentaiShinigami]

Hmmm maybe the heat from the first one baking itself to death scorched something else near it? Is the CPU anywhere close at all to the GPU or the south bridge (do laptop boards have these idk @_@)? Sorry I'm fail help such fail help. XD

Glad it's working good either way, and hopefully it won't have any more problems. Sounds like you know well enough what you are doing and how to keep it from hurting itself any further. I'd be careful celebrating just yet however as things have a way of seeming fixed and popping back up to spoil your fun. Just keep a real close eye on things and keep hardwaremonitor running full time I would guess until you get it stabilized. Guess you could stress test it since you can get into windows now too, and keep the HW monitor up to see if temps try to skyrocket on anything during the stress test.

Other than that at a loss since it's acting ok now. XD Wouldn't think those graphical artifacts would be CPU related, but PC's are a mysterious thing sometimes so anything is possible. I hope it is fixed though. Troubleshooting/fixing PC's is such a pain in the ass. ><

[GentaiShinigami]

that needs a new graphics card but I am not paying about $500 for the card if i can find one.

Jesus. I would think you could build most of a laptop yourself for $500. I suppose it wouldn't be omg awesome, but good enough for stuff like FFXI I'd think (actually I'm sure it would since shittier = better for ffxi it seems >.>).

Btw, Septimus, do you have integrated graphics as well you can switch to for stability testing if the problem returns? Gonna guess not cause you probably would have done that already, but didn't see a response and it was worth asking.

[Septimus]

Hmmm maybe the heat from the first one baking itself to death scorched something else near it? Is the CPU anywhere close at all to the GPU or the south bridge (do laptop boards have these idk @_@)? Sorry I'm fail help such fail help. XD

Glad it's working good either way, and hopefully it won't have any more problems. Sounds like you know well enough what you are doing and how to keep it from hurting itself any further. I'd be careful celebrating just yet however as things have a way of seeming fixed and popping back up to spoil your fun. Just keep a real close eye on things and keep hardwaremonitor running full time I would guess until you get it stabilized. Guess you could stress test it since you can get into windows now too, and keep the HW monitor up to see if temps try to skyrocket on anything during the stress test.

Other than that at a loss since it's acting ok now. XD Wouldn't think those graphical artifacts would be CPU related, but PC's are a mysterious thing sometimes so anything is possible. I hope it is fixed though. Troubleshooting/fixing PC's is such a pain in the ass. ><

From what I have read, the problem with the first video card is a fairly common occurrence these days due to low-quality solder being used in video cards and poor application of thermal paste. I am not so much worried about the hardware right now, since I was able to run the computer in safe mode it makes me think that this most likely is a software issue.

And believe me, there is no celebration going on here. Even cautious optimism is not happening. While I don't have the artifact issue anymore, I still don't have VGA graphics running. I am hoping that someone here will be able to help me out with a solution to my chipset problem before I even think to let my self have even the tiniest glimmer of hope that this is going to work. lol

[Icari]

Jesus. I would think you could build most of a laptop yourself for $500. I suppose it wouldn't be omg awesome, but good enough for stuff like FFXI I'd think (actually I'm sure it would since shittier = better for ffxi it seems >.>).

That is why I got a new desktop for about 1k which is much better then that laptop and that laptop may be in the nvidia settlement so I might end up getting a new card for it in the end anyway.

[Septimus]

I guess I should put this in. After wiping the hard drive and reinstalling several programs, things were fine. Until I installed the video card driver, then the same crap happened.

I am not sure if they sent me the wrong video card which is causing a conflict with the drivers, if the video card is just broken, or if there is another hardware issue.

[Kyata]

Nothing constructive to add, I'm afraid, but just wanted to say; doesn't Alienware provide lifetime warranty for their products usually? If that's the case, you may as well just save yourself the grief and get it fixed properly or replaced, if needed.

[Pikarya]

doesn't Alienware provide lifetime warranty for their products usually?

Nope