strange error help needed plz m5550

hey guys, i was getting a dim image and a system crash when using external monitor so i bought a new gfx card, i just installed the gfx card (upgraded from x1400 to x1800) and the external monitor works but is now strange colours and my screen is lighter but still dim.

when trying to install the driver i get an error and a system crash....

*** Hardware malfunction

Call your hardware vendor for support

NMI: Parity check / memory parity error

*** The system has halted ***

i cant see this on my laptop but i can on the external monitor? and it also gives red and green dots?

anyone have any ideas?

 

please give us full spec of your system and the external monitor including the graphics driver version.
go to control panel>administrative tools>event viewer>system and check for errors relating to your monitor. (you can use time as a reference for finding the error) and post it here

 

the external monitor is a samsung plasma tv with pc input, cant see its model number. the laptop is core2duo 2.0, 1 gb ram, x1400 (just installed x1800), m5550. i keep trying to install the latest ati drivers but it crashes out every few mins when doing something intensive. and there were no errors in the system log

 

so to sum up, the internal lcd is fine except the fact that it is dim, the external monitor never use to work until i installed new gfx card but now its discoloured with red and green dots. and while installing new gfx drivers (with the external on) i get a parity error.

is this a ram issue? it sounds like it to me except for the dim image, i wouldnt think ram would cause a dimmed image on my lcd.

 

Your LCD could have burned a few lighting spots out which would cause it to be dimmer. What I would suggest is to remove all the ram and just try any other stick of ram and see if that works. If you don't have any other ram just try removing the ram and testing different combos of the ram (i.e taking 1 stick out).

 

i managed to get the driver installed and altered the colours from 8 bit to 32. external screen looks perfect now. i switch rams around and on both i get about 5 RGB dots during windows boot but thats it.

my lcd screen is still dim thou, i left the laptop turned off for about 2 weeks and today it was lighter (still dim but i could see the BIOS boot screen) but its gone back to dark again now.

and im not getting any more parity errors. it died out once or twice while messing with the external but seems to be fine now. i was going to upgrade the ram to 4gb anyway so that should remove any possible existing ram errors.

only thing i have left thats original then is the cpu. would u recommend replacing the lcd ? it seems shafted to me

p.s. driver version was ati 8.5

 

The memory/parity error sounds like a bad-ram issue. Test your ram out. This happened to me once on my m5550 as well. Have you tried booting up in safe mode and to see if the LCD problem persists??

 

i havent tried safe mode as of yet as i assumed the error is caused by the hardware and not a driver, as the screen is dim straight from boot. but nevertheless, i will give it a go!

im running memtest on the ram now and no errors as of yet. and the parity error has not been repeated, but i got a feeling the ram is causing the random red/green dots during boot up on the external monitor (they dont always appear - i think they are linked with the heat of the laptop/how long its been on)

thanks for the help so far guys, my laptop is slowly but surely getting repaired lol