Possible graphics card hardware problem?

[GordonA]

Hi,

I wanted to run a problem past the wise folks here before calling support, just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Symptoms

- Windows either does not start or will not remain stable in 'normal' mode, but is fine in 'safe' mode.

- If Windows manages to boot at all in 'normal' mode there are usually a few "Display driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered" messages, which I believe is issued from Windows' Timeout Detection & Recover (TDR) facility. After seeing this message a few times, Windows will either crash or lock out.

- Sometimes it gives a BSOD pointing to nvlddmkm.sys.

- There are sometimes spurious characters and blocks of white on the screen.

- There are occasional bright green flashes on the screen.

- The BIOS boot screen sometimes contains fine red dotted lines, about 30 of them across the top of the screen.

What I've Tried That Doesn't Work

- Rolling back to each of the previous 3 restore points.

- Deleting and reinstalling the graphics drivers from the drivers & utilities disk.

- Installing the latest drivers from the NVidia web site.

- Uninstalling the Realtek audio drivers (based on a hint a picked up via a Google search).

What I've Tried That DOES Work

- If I uninstall the NVidia drivers completely and use the 'Standard VGA Graphics Adapter' I can use 'normal' Windows, but obviously at a much lower graphics resolution than the Nvidia used to give me.

Spec

Vortex Ultimate: 18.4" Full HD LCD Backlit (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-740QM (1.73GHz) 6MB Cache
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 480M - 2GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
3 x 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE(£129)


If anyone has any bright ideas I would be most grateful.

[Tom DWC]

The occurrences that you're seeing on the screen would suggest to me a hardware issue rather than driver fault, especially given the troubleshooting steps you've already carried out.

Probably best to give the PCS tech support team a call on this one.

[Meds]

I'd second Tom's comments I'm afraid. You've tried everything that could be suggested via the forums as there is very little which you can play with (hardware-wise) when it comes to laptops. I'd give Tech Support a call on 0844 499 4000.

[GordonA]

Thanks guys. Reported this to support this morning, so I'll see what happens from here.