Odd display problem

FredSanford · 02-19-2008, 12:11 PM

I have a Toshiba Portege M200, the computer will power on and function normally, the only exception is the display outputs complete garbage. See: http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=527410
That is the screen right at power on. In the upper left you can see what looks like a cursor, this is the prompt to enter my bios password. If I enter my password, the computer will boot to windows, and while it does this the screen will flicker and display all kinds of random colors. I know it is booting properly because I can hear the windows start up sound, then I can press alt-f4 -> u and the computer will shut down. While in windows the display will generally be a solid color and the vertical lines will be much closer than in the above picture(probably 1 pixel separation). If I move the mouse the screen color will flicker rapidly.

As for the history of the error, yesterday I was playing a game(counterstrike) then in game the display did something crazy like it is doing now. When I saw the error, I powered down, waited about a minute, then restarted. Upon restart it was okay for a little while then once I restarted counterstrike the same error occurred and it's been as described above ever since.
Also, I had to replace the hard drive about a week ago. The old one was making really bad grinding noises. I really don't think it's related, but I figure it can't hurt to add information.

I will also add that it acts very consistently, during the boot sequence the same colors/patterns will be displayed in the same order (ie. for every loading screen there seems to be a corresponding pattern/color)

I tried using an external monitor and the results are exactly the same.

I'm guessing that something overheated, and my top guess would be the video card, but i'm not about that since most of the time when a video card goes bad I thought it would prevent the system from booting.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I don't have a problem with opening the laptop and taking pictures if anyone wants to see something.

loudnproud59 · 02-19-2008, 07:36 PM

Your problem look like it is the video card either the memory on the card is bad or the nvida 5200 chip is bad either way you can buy another card and it should work fine,it most likely over heated when you were playing the game,you could try ebay and see if you can find a card on there,keeps posted on what happens.

wintersnow · 02-20-2008, 04:51 AM

I guess that's something wrong with the video card.

02-19-2008, 12:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
FredSanford Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP Tablet SP2	Odd display problem I have a Toshiba Portege M200, the computer will power on and function normally, the only exception is the display outputs complete garbage. See: http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=527410 That is the screen right at power on. In the upper left you can see what looks like a cursor, this is the prompt to enter my bios password. If I enter my password, the computer will boot to windows, and while it does this the screen will flicker and display all kinds of random colors. I know it is booting properly because I can hear the windows start up sound, then I can press alt-f4 -> u and the computer will shut down. While in windows the display will generally be a solid color and the vertical lines will be much closer than in the above picture(probably 1 pixel separation). If I move the mouse the screen color will flicker rapidly. As for the history of the error, yesterday I was playing a game(counterstrike) then in game the display did something crazy like it is doing now. When I saw the error, I powered down, waited about a minute, then restarted. Upon restart it was okay for a little while then once I restarted counterstrike the same error occurred and it's been as described above ever since. Also, I had to replace the hard drive about a week ago. The old one was making really bad grinding noises. I really don't think it's related, but I figure it can't hurt to add information. I will also add that it acts very consistently, during the boot sequence the same colors/patterns will be displayed in the same order (ie. for every loading screen there seems to be a corresponding pattern/color) I tried using an external monitor and the results are exactly the same. I'm guessing that something overheated, and my top guess would be the video card, but i'm not about that since most of the time when a video card goes bad I thought it would prevent the system from booting. Any ideas would be appreciated. I don't have a problem with opening the laptop and taking pictures if anyone wants to see something. Last edited by FredSanford; 02-19-2008 at 12:12 PM.

02-19-2008, 07:36 PM	#2 (permalink)
loudnproud59 Registered User Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 140 OS: win xp pro	Re: Odd display problem Your problem look like it is the video card either the memory on the card is bad or the nvida 5200 chip is bad either way you can buy another card and it should work fine,it most likely over heated when you were playing the game,you could try ebay and see if you can find a card on there,keeps posted on what happens.

02-20-2008, 04:51 AM	#3 (permalink)
wintersnow Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 73 OS: XP	Re: Odd display problem I guess that's something wrong with the video card.