external monitor on N61JQ

I have a very annoying graphics problem when using my Asus N61jq-jx002v with an external monitor via the analogue VGA cable.

I need to use the external monitor (1920x1080) for screen real estate for working from home.

Graphics card is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 1Gig

Using Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 32bit (had 64 bit on but same problem with the screen)

I've updated my ATI graphics driver to version 8.840 and updated my BIOS to v 212 but nothing seems to fix this problem.

I've even tried using a different external monitor with no luck.

I randomly get applications freezing and hanging my system. The screen will resemble a patchwork quilt of distorted square shapes and most of the time the system will just freeze, requiring a shutdown. Occasionally the system won't freeze but will recover with a message about my AMD display driver recovering from a problem.

The applications that seem to trigger this problem are usually "Media player classic" and "Adobe Reader v9", although the problem occasionally happens with just windows explorer.

This problem started out by happening once every few days but now it predictably happens at least twice a day.

Any suggestions would be appreciated as I'm running out of ideas.

 

I would uninstall the video drivers first, run driver sweeper 2.9 in safe mode and do a clean install of the latest drivers. It seems like you are getting artifacts, it could be a driver related problem but it might run deeper than that. Check your GPU temperature too when you're on that 1080p monitor just in case. Also, are you running your GPU with an overclock?

Hopefully, it's a driver problem and your GPU isn't dying.

 

Thanks tijo.

Well in desperation I've blown away everything and done a fresh install of Win 7 and the problem persists.

I'm going to look into the possibility of replacing the ATI video card. I've never done this on a laptop so hopefully it won't be a difficult process to get the old one out.

 

You're pretty much stuck sending it back to Asus if you want that done, knowing Asus, the GPU in the N61 is probably soldered to the motherboard.

Anyways, have you checked your GPU temperatures using something like HWiNFO32?