ocko22

Hi,
My display has become really difficult to look at. The colours constantly flicker and are not true, and tend to morph into one another.
Black on white is not too bad, but any image or photo or graphic is just a mess of colour.
This did not happen after any particular process, it just sort of occurred.
I have tried numerous things to fix this problem, but to no success.
Any ideas here would be most welcome.
Just to add that the display has gone back to being normal after start up on one or two occassions, but after 5 minutes or so, the same problem will occur. Therefore, my laptop has the capability of working normally, but I don't know what to do to make this happen.

TriggerFinger

Have you tried with an external monitor? If symptoms are the same, it could be your video card or video drivers. You can try using a linux live CD. If it runs OK in linux then you are sure it is drivers related.

satman

Hi Guys,. ocko22 I have exactly the same problem here with my x57. So far Ive been able to establish that the Philips version (x57) is a rebadged Optima Centoris v860 or Advent 7093. Having chased my tail over the last two months trying to resolve this problem with Philips (with no success) I'd all but given up till I read your post on here. Initially I was told that the on board NVidia 7400 graphics chipset had failed and since it was integrated to the motherboard the cost would be prohibitive £220 +vat, to repair the thing. BUT,. it seems this problem is definitely intermittency of some sort and nothing else. I wonder if it was a bad batch of units that weve had ours from ? The one I have here was bought new 15 months ago. Would appreciate your comments, and I'll post any further info I get as I pursue sorting this out !

ocko22

Hi Satman, you used the word intermittent, and that describes it correctly.
I had an engineer quickly check my x57 and found nothing obviously wrong. However, a few days later the screen returned to normal, and except for a brief return to the same problem, it has been ok since (over a week).
I think the problem may occur due to overheating....I'm not sure why, I think that the coolent fan was not coming on as often as was neccessary, or was not running as effectively as it should. When the engineer looked at my laptop, that alone may have just been enough to clean up the areas affected...all supposition.

I will say that when the screen returned to normal, I immediately shut it down and left it for a while, on start up it was still ok.... this may or may not have helped, but I wanted to start it up with the problem solved.
Hope the same thing happens to yours. I know that problems never quite just fix themselves, but, fingers crossed, mine has been ok for a while now.

satman

Hi Ocko and any others with the same problem.
Just a follow up to the last post, Ive over written windows xp pro with a full version of Vista Ultimate 64bit. This has now given me the flexibility to reinstall the majority of the original x57 drivers. Ok,. the downside is that the disc doesnt contain a suitable nVidia go 7400 driver and the Intel chipset drivers,. (Intel 64bit are probably available from intel website - which is my next step ) but all that aside, the laptop is now 90% functional and stable, which is the most important aspect at this time. Now considering that the x57 is, without its re-badging the same as the other two models I mentioned earlier I feel it can only be a matter of time (hopefully) before I resolve the rest !! Here's to it !!
As a matter of interest having lost a number of functions in Vista at earlier stages,. managers,. etc etc when the laptop wasn't showing any signs of graphics problems Im almost convinced that this is a hardcore case of intermittent malfunctions occouring through the Vista OS and nothing at all to do with faulty components. I suspect what Vista is doing is conducting its own private hatred campaign against the Intel and nVidia software (some incompatabilities I wouldnt wonder ?? ). I could be wrong but its pointing in that direction so far.

satman

Hi Ocko,. sorry first about the late update but this hopefully will help if youre still having problems.
If you remember I had exactly the same problem with my X57,. colours morphing, unstable display etc.
The fix was sucessful when the following was carried out.
1. Get the hard disc totally wiped so that all traces of data are completely destroyed, this means everything and not a simple overwrite as with a reinstallation.
2. The ORIGINAL version of Vista (32bit only !!!)for your machine (ultimate) needs to be reinstalled, so find a kind soul to assist (since youve now no back up of Vista on your HDD) You can use your own serial no on the base of your laptop since original vista software isnt sensitive disc/serial no.
3. Using the disc that came with the laptop reinstall all the necessary drivers that match up to your machine. 7400 graphics etc,.+ others
4. Get the machine running properly as per factory spec before installing more software.

It turns out that the X57 has a bad attitude problem with the 7400 graphix set up and vista combination, and some corruption occours which causes the screen instability,. its nothing more than that,.and if all goes well the above will definitely take it back to "out of the box" condition.

As a matter of interest there are no easy ways around using XP Pro with the X57, even though XP is the more favoured. The X57 was built specifically for Vista and thats why drivers for the graphics are as good as non existant.

Hope this helps

lee-earley

I'm having the same problems with my display-It just happened for no apparent reason and has been the same since.
I've tried all sorts to fix it and searched everywhere and yours sounds like the same problem to me and the best solution.
I would just like to ask what software did you use to wipe the HD? and also if I have the techguys recovery disk would it work as a boot disk with everything wiped? I have the drivers disk so that won't be a problem I just want to be sure to do it properly.
Sorry if they are obvious questions but I've only ever reinstalled using the Techguys recovery disk.
Thanks in advance for any more help and thanks for this thread as before I read here I thought my screen was dead but I'm now hoping it can be fixed- I bought the laptop in August 2007 so it sounds like the same batch.

options770

This has happened to me and seems to have occured after the installation of the Windows Vista Service pack, which happened automatically. I was beginning to believe that I had a video card failure, but you have given me hope of an inexpensive recovery. Thanks