Possible graphics card hardware problem?

GordonA

Member
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

Moderator
Moderator
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

Moderator
Moderator
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.
 
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