[ekim524]

I am assuming my graphics card is the problem here, but I wanted to be sure and ask more knowledgeable people. I own a sager 8150 with replaceable gpu. I have never overclocked it. I barely play intensive games and usually put my settings on the lower end. I have no idea why this happened to me! the laptop is only 1.5 years old and is out of warranty .

So the story begins with me watching videos last night when randomly my screen started to get a bit "glitchy". Very unusually color lines until it covered the whole screen. I ignored it and went to bed. This morning when I turned on my laptop, there were still unusual glitchy colors. I could still get to my desktop and everything, but the screen was reversed in half. The left side showed the right side of a normal view and vice-versa. I restarted into safe mode and looking around I decided to roll back the driver for my display adapter (radeon 6990m). Not sure why I did that but after rebooting I would always end up with a blue screen. I believe it was error stating that "attempt to reset display driver and recover from timeout failed" stop: 0x00000116.

At first I thought it was a driver problem so I went into safe mode, uninstalled the display adapter driver and manually reinstalled up to date amd driver for my 6990m. But it didn't solve anything and the blue screen continued. sometimes instead of the blue screen it is just a blank black screen. Booting with lower resolution also didnt help.
After several hours of getting nowhere I decided to do a complete reinstall of windows 7 and drivers. Of course it didn't work.

So here I am. I can bypass the blue screen without having to go into safe mode if i disable my display adapter in safe mode first. Both modes have glitchy colors and horizontal lines.

I do not have another graphics card to replace my own to test. I will try to hook up my laptop to a monitor tomorrow to see if it also gets these glitchy lines. But in the meantime, anyone got any advice for me? Also, as a student I heavily rely on my computer. Is it safe to continue to use my computer with the display adapter disabled? It is glitchy colors but I can still surf the internet and use applications.

Thank you so much for reading this large text. Appreciate it!

 

[McNinja]

Reference for drivers for your 8150.
Software Upgrade

Lptop graphics are not replaceable. I'm sorry to say but they are usually built right into the motherboard. Each motherboard within that series is different built with a either the highest end card a 6990M or 6970M .

If it is built like this you might have luck.

Graphics card aka video board >> Laptop Parts 101

You should try calling sager and getting a replacement part if your laptop is like this. It will cost you a lot of money though
https://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=support

Do the monitor check, if it still has glitches and artifacts then you know its graphics card.

It was probably a heat issue, I advise you to blow out the dust from the vents in the laptop and buy a cooling fan.

Thermaltake Massive 23 GT Black Model CLN0020
$27

 

[ekim524]

thanks for the reply. yes i am 100% certain my graphics card is switchable. I replaced thermal paste with arctic silver the day i got my laptop and have been using a cooling pad. this is so dumb :c! it's not even old enough to warrant a replacement. expected longer life for a laptop that cost me 1500

 

[McNinja]

Is it possible that you incorrectly put the heatsink on the GPU or CPU incorrectly?

 

[ekim524]

don't think so. maybe the paste was spread out too thin or too much dust in the fan. regardless, is there a chance the card will heal on its own? i guess i could always try the oven trick.

is it safe to continue using this laptop with display adapter disabled?

 

[McNinja]

There's the built in Intel GPU on the CPU so it should be fine to use.

The oven trick is pretty hard unless you have an electric oven that can regulate temperatures or a really nice heat gun that can again regulate temperatures really well. Anything cheap and the connections just start spreading too much. If its too low it may not break but it certainly won't fix it.