G73JH won't recognize graphics card/ATI drivers not installing

Hello,

TL;DR: G73JH won't recognize that I have a graphics card.

Backstory: So a while ago I repasted my CPU and GPU. The first time I turned it on after this it worked just fine. Full resolution screen/graphics card worked. The next time I turned it on, the display would remain black after the "Starting Windows" screen. Going into safe mode I was able to dink around with it and discovered the sound drivers were somehow making the graphics card not work. But I made the mistake of reinstalling the sound card drivers and messed up my computer in such a way that the graphics card drivers wouldn't work again.

I reinstalled Windows 7 64-bit (restoring it to factory settings) on the computer and everything worked again. Until it didn't. The second or third time after I started up my computer after reinstalling windows, my computer was stuck at the stock VGA drivers. I reinstalled windows again. Graphics card worked again. Then second or third time, back to VGA drivers. Which is where we are now.

Current Situation: So my computer is stuck at stock VGA drivers. My display is stuck at 1152 x 864. I've used CCcleaner, and Display Driver Uninstaller to remove any and all remnants of AMD drivers, and then I've tried installing AMD Catalyst 11.2, 12.11 Beta, and 14.4 but they all stop at "detecting graphics hardware", with the error message "Catalyst Install Manager has stopped working". ( Pic Related). In device manager, under Display adapters, it says "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" ( Pic Related). Not even CPU-Z can tell I have a graphics card ( Pic Related).

My Question: How can I possibly fix this? What is happening here? Any information you need just let me know. I hope I've been clear on the situation.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

Update: An hour after I posted this, I went to restart my computer. Now the display remains completely dark/unpowered no matter what I do.

Can anyone tell me what might be happening here? Are these all symptoms of a GPU failure?

 

could also be a dead motherboard too. Also the GPU could have slowly died. if the Ball Grid Array failed due ot over heating that might explain why it won't recognize....if that's even possible. (maybe when the BGA fails it fails)

 

It could be the 3d section of the chip failed and now the 2d section that just passes through the image is also gone.

 

As far as i know it's all the same part of the chip and it scales the clock speed.

 

The 3D shaders are not active when the drivers are not installed. It's why cards let you boot and software render the screen but BSOD when you try and put drivers on.

 

Thanks for the replies, guys!

So quick hypothetical question: would it work if I took a brand new AMD 5870M (the exact same graphics card currently in my G73JH) and swapped it in? I'm operating under the assumption that the GPU is dead in the current laptop. I ask because I actually have another G73JH that has a fried motherboard, though with a working GPU. I'd be very willing to swap it in if that would work.

And another question: Because this whole mess occurred only after I repasted the CPU and GPU, is it totally possible I simply knocked some important component on the GPU out of place? Maybe the Arctic Silver 5 compound leaked onto some important piece, or a wire came loose? Or is it just coincidence and nothing more?

 

Definitely pop the other card in. Then you should have a working computer again. Might be worth applying some icd7 or similar at the same time. Advantage of that is the paste should last longer than a silver paste before you need to do it again.

 

AS5 is capacitive (not conductive) so is a little risky.

So either static, physical damage or the paste capacitance got it.

 

Okay! Thanks again everyone for the answers. I'll try to transfer the new GPU over.

 

Good luck, be gentle, take your time and ground yourself