Jeldim

So I've given my story/question in a short version and a long version, depending on how much detail people want to read. :P

SHORT STORY
My HP Pavilion 6500 laptop (2ish years old) has a Nvidia GeForce 8500 video card. Recently during online gaming it has started to shoot black horizontal lines across the screen, sometimes turn into pink and black static, and generally doesn't function in games (specifically World of Warcraft) anymore. This continues even after clean reformats of the whole computer.

Would these be symptoms of a hardware issue or a possibly-fixable software/driver issue?

LONG STORY
I have been using an HP Pavilion 6500 laptop for a bit over 2 years with a Nvidia GeForce 8500 video card. Besides basic internet and Microsoft Office programs, this computer has been used primarily for playing World of Warcraft (my sin of choice).

Last weekend, as I was in the game my performance shot to unprecedented lows until the game entirely locked up and several black, horizontal lines appeared across the screens. I knew this was not a good sign. I restarted the computer and tried to get in the game again, hoping this behavior was just a fluke. But I had no such luck and this happened again. My first inclination was to update the video card driver, which I did using the Vista driver interface, rather than going straight to the Nvidia site. After some time trying to fix the situation this way, my screen turned into a wash of pink and black static and I was at this point unable to properly shut my computer down.

At this point, I manually shut down the computer and upon turning it back on I was told that the video card driver software was preventing my computer from properly shutting down and that I had to run a startup recovery tool. I did this. My video card behavior continued to be erratic.

The next morning I decided to do a fresh reinstall of my OS, since the computer did say there was a software issue and I figured if anything can fix a software issue, a clean reformat can. :P During the reformat, while my computer was going through the "reinstalling new software" part, my computer went all black and pink static AGAIN. After a few reformat attempts, the best I can get my computer to perform is if I disable the video card drivers entirely which allows me to do basic internet, etc. However, it doesn't help my computer gaming to not have access to a video card.

My question is: Is this a video card gone irrevocably sour (what I believe is the case), or perhaps a software issue that has a chance of being redeemed (I seriously doubt it, but I might as well ask)? If this is a bad video card, I'll be forced to use my boyfriend's ancient Dell desktop until I have the money saved up to just build my own gaming desktop (a new adventure!). :-/

Snoopdogie187

hi, i would look into something else. it could possible be heat.

you could try using http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php to watch the temps.

also i would clean out all the fans the laptop has, and if you are up to it
(and at your own risk) take it apart and completely clean everything. compressed air work well for this, just be careful not to put too much force onto the fins of the fan or other parts that can break. computers/electronics should be cleaned once in awhile just to keep them manatained. i usually just put some air around my fan on my laptop and there are times i saw a lot of dust come out.

also check to make sure all the fans are spinning. if one of them died, this could cause some seriouse issues.

Also, its a laptop with a good graphics card (not just a standard all purpose one) and they can run hot, laptops already run hot (mines at 65 - 70 degrees C in a game and this is with holding it just right so it gets pretty good air flow). you can try letting more air under the laptop, fan on the laptop, cooling pad (if you already don't have one)

McNinja

we can see if the video card is sour with ATI tool
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

but before you do that try you should probably see if the fans are working and clean out the computer with a can of compressed air

a good laptop cooling pad is like this one

Antec with 200mm fan
$60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834997410

Jeldim

Thank you, I will try cleaning out the fans and using the tools suggested! I don't THINK this is the issue since the screen will go all wonky even after its been turned off for a significant amount of time and is still very cool, but its worth a shot.

I just might wait until the weekend to get to opening up the whole case to get to the fans, since the fans are REALLY deep in the computer and the last time I tried to get to it I spent over an hour unscrewing the whole thing.

@Mcninjaguy: Does the video card driver have to be enabled for that utility to work? I'm asking because my computer is only usable if I disable or uninstall the driver, and whenever I try to enable it my screen goes all static-ey before I can even load to the desktop (at which point I restart in safe mode and just disable the driver again).

McNinja

yes the the graphics card would need to be enabled for ATI tool to work I think but you can always try.

is this laptop under warranty still?

Jeldim

Hm, no its not under warranty anymore. Despite my better judgment, I only bought coverage for one year.

Jeldim

I'm still a bit of a novice with laptop hardware, but I was wondering something the other day.

I had always assumed that all laptop video cards were integrated into the motherboard and therefore not upgradable. Would this possibly not be the case? If I could actually upgrade the video card (if it is indeed an issue with the hardware itself, since I haven't had the time to investigate further) then that would be a fantastic way to get back to my gaming while I save up to build a desktop. :)

Thanks in advance for the help (and also for those who have already helped!).

-Lisa

McNinja

laptops have "discrete graphic cards" which means that are permanently soldered to the motherboard. There are very very few laptops than can swap out video cards

Jeldim

Well, shoot. :-/

Snoopdogie187

I heard that even if the video card is swappable, they are very hard to find anyway. Laptops just aren't meant for graphics really.

McNinja

and even if you get a 9800GT graphics card in a laptop they're not as powerful as the desktop version

did you try AIT tool I would think it would be a better test if the graphic card driver is enabled but if you're able to see the Laptop LCD screen than the graphic card is still working

Jeldim

I have not been able to try the tool yet because, since the time you suggested, I have not been able to finish a reformat of the computer (since I tried to see what would happen if I installed the OS without using the drivers disk) without the screen going squirrely. :-/ We'll see if I can get past that roadblock to try it.

It crossed my mind that the video card might still be functional (since I figured that without it there wouldn't be anything on my monitor, but maybe I'm misunderstanding something), but when I uninstalled the nvidia driver a while ago my driver list (in device manager) showed some generic-sounding name that was certainly NOT nvidia. I really wish I had the name of this generic sounding video driver that I saw, but I can't seem to get back to the point to write it down. :-/ Not sure if that says anything or if it just makes everything more confusing.

I guess what it comes down to is that the motherboard had a bare-bones video card permanently connected to it and then an Nvidia card added on (so that if the nvidia goes sour then there is still a basic video card there). But then again, that was just a guess and could be wrong. (And this is why I'm going to try and learn to build my own computer sometime soon: because I've gone so long without actually having to understand what's going on underneath the hood ><).

-Lisa

grimx133

Have you tried the video drivers from HP? Might be worth a shot, and while your there grab the service manual (not user manual) and it'll show you how to take the laptop apart. Keep track of your screws, there are a lot of them.

Jeldim

I shall do this! But should I be looking for the video card drivers on HP instead of Nvidia? I suppose I can try that as well (that is, if I can finish the OS reinstallation without the screen going wonky), along with the utility that has been suggested earlier.

I know I can get into the innards of my computer (I've done it once when I wanted to clean out the fans), but perhaps I'm dragging my feet a bit since last time I did it took well over an hour (with me taping all the screws to drawn diagrams of the inside of the computer).

I'll update when I have the time to try all the things that have been suggested so far.

grimx133

It's only recently that nVidia began releasing drivers for mobile cards, before it was the laptop manufacturers. Or modded drivers, such as Omega, or others like that. Since HP supposedly makes the drivers specifically for their computers, it may be more stable, or not.