Graphic card doesn't work

[Kalenden]

Hello, I've been having some problems with my  graphic card.

I've got a laptop XPS M1710, Vista and a Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX

Yesterday, I installed an old game ( from 2001) and after that I watched a video on viddler.com in full screen.
I had some graphical glitches with any moving image on my laptop ( including scrolling ). I restarted my laptop, and tried to watch the video again. After which the laptop crashed and successfully restarted, I tried to watch it again and now it wouldn't restart.

It would give me the Dell loading screen with graphical glitches on it ( red lines and such ) after that the load thingie and after that instead of the windows logo, a blue screen with some info on it.
So I went into safe mode, and my screen was littered with these small blue squares/blocs. Figuring it had something to do with my graphic card, I disabled that through Device manager, and managed to restart in normal mode. If I enable the card, I can't start up except in Safe Mode.

So the problem is most likely my graphic card. Reason I said I installed an old game is that after that I had problems with the video, ain't sure it is connected. Could it be that the game messed up my graphic card? Is it possible my card is irrevocably damaged from a few crashes?

I already did a virus scan and updated to the newest drivers. Please help me with this, cause I really don't want to buy a new card and I'd be really surprised that a few crashes could break it so easily.

[Broni]

Replacing video card in laptop would be a hassle.
Did you try System Restore?
Did you try to reinstall video driver?

[Kalenden]

Thanks for the reply.

I haven't made any restore points for system restore  ...

How do I reinstall my video driver? Under device managed I only see an option for uninstalling it.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Go to your manufacturers website, locate your laptop model, and download the appropriate drivers.

Did a search myself:
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLH&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=XPS_M1710&hidos=WLH&hidlang=CK&TabIndex=

There ya go.

[patio]

Laptops have video chips...not cards.
Let's hope it's not the chip...they are expensive to replace.
Follow the excellent advice above on re-installing your drivers...

[Kalenden]

Thank you for the replies.

I used the site you game me, Carbon Dudeoxide, ( changed the settings to windows vista ) and I downloaded the needed driver, installed it and it asked to restart. So I said yes, and it restarted.

But after the loading screen ( the one with @windows corporation or something like that) I got blue lines, and white lines and flickering and such. After 30 seconds I restarted the laptop with the option The last known good configuration.

What does this mean? I did install the driver thingies with the card disabled. Is that a problem?

[Broni]

I haven't made any restore points for system restore

Do you have System Restore disabled, or...?
The last known good configuration is reverting your Windows files to a state, where everything was working fine.

I did install the driver thingies with the card disabled

What do you mean by the above?

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Woah that's odd!

As well as answering Broni's questions, can you get the computer to boot with the external monitor?

[Kalenden]

@Broni: System restore is disabled, I've had a lot of space problems on my C: Disk, and I disabled the feature. I know, stupid...

Sorry for being so unclear,what I did was the following:

I went to the site you gave me, changed it to windows vista 32-bit,  clicked to expand Videos and selected the Geforce 7900 GTX option.
I let the thing download, double clicked on it and after that it installed itself and I only had to press next.
After this it asked to restart the laptop, and it did so. Then after the @windows corporation loading screen, I had these blue lines and white lines and flickering and stuff. It didn't auto restart or crash, so I manally restarted and selected the option The last known good configuration.

I double clicked on the thing I downloaded, which starts the installation screen and went through the installation and restart. During this I had my Nvidia Geforce 7900 GTX disabled by using the Device Manager and I wondered if this could cause problems.

@Carbon Dudeoxide

I'm sorry but I am rather bad at computers/laptops. Could you specify what you want me to do please, I don't know how to boot a laptop/computer with the external monitor ( nor have I any idea what an external monitor is  ).

At both of you, thanks for the replies and help so far! Is it possible my graphic card broke down from crashes, or do you think it's just a software malfunction?

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I don't know if it's a hardware problem or software problem.....too early to know.

Forget about the external monitor for now (it's just another monitor, i.e. desktop monitor)

I would go and enable the graphics card in Device Manager and then travel here:
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=hk&l=en&s=gen
Enter the service tag which should be on the bottom of the machine.
Then look for the appropriate drivers.

[Kalenden]

I did exactly what you said, and enabled the graphics card, it said to restart to enable the graphic card, but than my laptop won't start up.

So I did the driver installation and the restart, the same happened. Blue lines, white lines, flickering. Although I think I see in the background a blue screen with text. Ain't sure about that.

I could go in safe mode with the graphics card enabled, but I guess it is disabled in safe mode as well so that wouldn't work.

[Broni]

During this I had my Nvidia Geforce 7900 GTX disabled by using the Device Manager

Why?
We'll have to sort it out.
Can you operate laptop normally from Safe Mode?

[joefido]

If you haven't done so yet, uninstall the Old Game. Re-enable the graphic adapter and then re-install the drivers from the recovery disc that has the drivers.

[Kalenden]

@Broni

I have to disable the graphic card, because if it is enabled my laptop won't successfully start up.
I can operate it normally from Safe Mode

@Joefido

I've already uninstalled the game.

To fully re-enable my graphic adapter ( same as a graphic card I assume? ) I'll have to restart my laptop. Something I can't do with the graphic card enabled ( except in Safe Mode, but I assume safe mode doesn't start the card up so it is the same? ).

Is reinstalling the drivers from the recovery disc the same as downloading the drivers from the Dell site Carbon Dudeoxide gave me?
If not, where should this disc be and what does it look like? All my not needed laptop stuff is a big mess, heck I don't even know where the box is  , so any help would be appreciated.


Thanks for the replies.

P.S Is it normal I have a lot of difficulty accessing this site? It's mostly offline for me, and I've got to refresh a couple of times.

[Broni]

I did exactly what you said, and enabled the graphics card, it said to restart to enable the graphic card, but than my laptop won't start up

No, you didn't do exactly what Carbon asked you to do.
He said:

I would go and enable the graphics card in Device Manager and then travel here:
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=hk&l=en&s=gen
Enter the service tag which should be on the bottom of the machine.
Then look for the appropriate drivers.

Did you go to Dell site? Did you download video driver? Did you install it?

[BC_Programmer]

Since the graphical problems appear on the POST screen, this sounds deeper then windows driver issues...

[Kalenden]

@Broni

Sorry to be unclear.

I did exactly do what Carbon said, I did install the video driver and installed it.

But he said I had to enable my graphic card, which I can't do because my laptop won't start up then, except in Safe Mode.

@BC_Programmer

What do you mean by POST screen? If you mean my P.S addition in my previous post, I was just commenting that this site was often offline for me, while on the other sites I visit I never have a problem, it has nothing to do with my graphic card problems.

Thanks for the replies.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Quick question, when you go to Device Manager, are there any yellow question or exclamation marks?

[Kalenden]

When the card is disabled ( like it is now ) it has a white arrow pointing down.

Should I enable it now, without restarting, it has a yellow/orange exclamation mark, but that is because I need to restart to fully enable it, and then my laptop won't successfully start up.

[BC_Programmer]

by POST screen I meant the Dell boot-up screen; since this is shown before windows even starts to load, and it is shown with graphical glitches, it would appear the problem is more deeply rooted then the driver.

[Kalenden]

That doesn't sound very good...

Any idea what it could be? Hardware or software?

[patio]

Borrow a known good card and swap it in there...
If the problem goes away it's time for a new card.

[BC_Programmer]

Patio- was this not a laptop? you yourself said:

Laptops have video chips...not cards.
Let's hope it's not the chip...they are expensive to replace.
Follow the excellent advice above on re-installing your drivers...

lol.

[patio]

I'm certainly off kilter again today...no ?

[Kalenden]

2 days since last post, so I'm allowed to bump (I hope).

[Kalenden]

Sorry to bump yet again, but it has been 4 days since my last one.

Please help me with this one, I'm thinking about perhaps getting another laptop, but I want to be absolutely sure this one is irrevocably lost.

[Calum]

As no one else has replied I'll pop in.
Sounds to me like the graphics chip is dead.
Just try it on the BIOS/POST screen though - when you turn on the laptop you'll see a message to press a key to enter the BIOS, CMOS, Setup, something like that, the wording is different with each manufacturer and sometimes model.
Hit that key and enter the BIOS, leave it for a while - do you see the graphical glitches there too?

[Kalenden]

Thanks you for the quick reply

I restarted, pressed F12 and came unto a black screen with 4 options of which Bios Setup and Diagnostics.
In this black screen I had several white dots/lines on random places over the screen.

In the Bios Setup ( which is blue ) in the background there are groups of vague brownish/reddish short lines also spread randomly over the screen.

[Calum]

In that case, I'm sorry to tell you that your graphics chip is dead.  The chip also can't be swapped, so if Dell won't repair it, the laptop is basically junk.

[Kalenden]

Absolutely sure? A couple of posts back BC_programmer said something about the problem being more deeply rooted then the driver.
So the hardware of my graphic card is dead or is it a general software failure or something like that?

[Calum]

It's the hardware.
If the glitches continue in the BIOS, where no software related to the card is being used, there's no other explanation.
Someone else may have another opinion, but I'm convinced it's the hardware that's dead.
Whether the game caused it or it's just a coincidence, I don't know.

[Raptor]

Haven't quite read the topic in detail but I skimmed through it, here's my two cents;

You can find someone who'll replace the system board if Dell won't..Plenty of people out there who enjoy doing that. For a price, of course.

By the way, I'm not sure, but a 7900GTX sounds more like an add-on card than an actual videocard chip so perhaps just replacing the videocard (If it is indeed at fault) would be a cheaper solution.

Here are some more ideas before doing any of the above.

Clean out the laptop cooler.
Reformat the hard drive and install Windows XP to make sure it's not a driver issue or virus attack before you write the laptop off.

Google for your laptop name + problems and see if more people report this problem and what they did about it

[Kalenden]

Did a quick google ( yahoo actually ) and came up with one of my own threads  .

I think I'm going to go for a new one, although that will take some time.

A friend is going to give me Fallout 3 for Christmas too ....

Anyway, anybody know if Dosbox games can function without a graphic card? Or what other games can?


Ow yeah, and thanks for everybody for trying to help me out!

[Calum]

Raptor - the graphics chip isn't replaceable.  Sometimes the 7900GTX is, in this case no (at least not as far as I can determine), I already checked.
Replacing the system board is an option, my only reservation is that the board itself might be a bit hard to find and the cost could be pretty prohibitive.
Cleaning out the cooler might help, I agree.
Reinstalling Windows won't though, as the problem occurs in the BIOS too.

[Kalenden]

Is it a good chance that cleaning out the cooler might help? I'm terrible at laptops and only want to do this if it is risk free.