A8Js Possible power supply or video card issues

My A8Js started to have a flickering screen when it first boots. The mouse cursor moves around fine but things like opening the start menu is an impossible task and nothing happens like its freezing while the screen flickers on and off.

The screen flickers whether it is a plugged in monitor or the laptops onboard monitor.

I was using the xtreme G modded video drivers when this problem happened but when i installed nvidias newest drivers on their site it worked again.

even with the new drivers, it begins flickering again if i unplug the power adaptor.

It works fine if i completely uninstall the video drivers.

edit: pressing buttons does seem to have an effect, the video just does not display it properly. when reattaching the adaptor, the problem improves in that pressing things is more responsive but it is not completely fixed, the laptop needs to be rebooted with the power adaptor in for it to work properly.

I think it may be that my video card isnt getting a stable enough voltage but that is aimless speculation. Please help.

Waijun

 

bumping it, please help

 

having this problem with my f50 i just got back from an RMA, rather than speculate what the problem is i'm sending it for another RMA.
do you still have warranty on that baby? i would suggest sending it back,more likely a connector problem OR a faulty GPU

 

i dont think my laptop is under warranty its over 3 years old. i'll check though and cross my fingers hahaha.

 

Flicker can often be due to a failing lcd inverter, but the same symptom on vga-out makes an inverter problem much less likely.

When you say it's working after you "completely uninstall the drivers," are you talking about then using just the Windows generic VGA ones?

Two things I'd try:
1. Rollback to an earlier nVidia driver series and see if that helps.
2. If the flicker only occurs when on AC power, but the battery still charges effectively, you could be dealing with a power jack in the early stages of getting loose (the repair for that would be resoldering a new jack onto the MB). Still, it doesn't make complete sense why you'd get flicker that way as the MB should smoothly switch to battery power if the AC link is cutting out - unless the rapid on/off cycling of the worsening jack is making it hard for the system to keep up with where it's supposed to be drawing the power from.

In the end, if this is either an impending gpu failure or a power jack problem (the latter is more speculation, I think) - you are likely going to be better off spending the money for a new budget notebook rather than the cost of diagnostics and repair. Currently available systems in the mid-budget segment can easily keep pace with the A8 series, and you'll get a better cpu too.

 

yeah i mean using the windows generic ones. i am currently using the latest nvidia drivers and its working fine so long as its plugged in. once i unplug it, it begins flickering again. i suppose i'll have to look into a new laptop, i've already anticipated that paying for a repair was prohibitively expensive. i was hoping to find a way to fix it at home since i am rather technically proficient.

 

OK, now flickering only while on battery makes one think of either the battery connections themselves having problems, or the power routing circuitry from the battery through the MB has something bad going on.

I'm not sure whether a new battery would help (and wouldn't spend the money to buy one), but you should try and clean the battery contacts with isopropyl and see if that makes any difference. If the latter scenario above, you'd probably be looking at a MB replacement and not something you'd want to do with the A8j.

Sorry.

 

This can also be easily a bug in the power management that is interfering with the graphics drivers.

I would suggest:
- uninstall and reinstall the entire ATK suite of drivers and applications (ATK100, ATKHotkey, ATKOSD, ATK Generic Function etc.)
- uninstall GPU drivers in safe mode, run DriverCleanerPro or similar software to remove their remnants; reinstall GPU drivers.

If this fails, do a complete Windows reinstall from the recovery DVD. Backup your data first.