NEED HELP w/ my m1710 (its more of a general issue with all laptops)

hey guys, posting this on my iPhone...

Today I was playing Trackmania (its a racing game) and all of a sudden my screen started to flicker. 30 seconds later I got the bsod screen that said something like page_fault_in_nonpaged_area

So I restarted my computer. I am able to get into safe mode, but my screen is all messed up. There are like these yellow patches everywhere. Its like that when I start it up as well, but if I boot normally, it will get passed the windows xp screen, white lines will flash, and then the screen turns off but the laptop stays on.

I have not gotten that bsod screen since. I have ran diognostics and it says nothing is wrong.


What should I do? I have no warranty.

 

Wait for other responses as well, but my reaction is a dead/dying video card.
That sounds like artifacting as a result of overheating/malfunction.

 

Maybe it's time to grab a can of compressed air and clean the inside of the unit. Might have overheated or have too much dust. Might be the vidcard ready to go. Just a guess here.

Then, run memtest86 to test the RAM and check disk for hard drive.

According to MS, it's a pretty general error code relating to memory or page files.

 

Good call purehazard.

 

alright so it HAS to be with either the memory or GPU then?

I was thinking about upgrading those 2 anyways.


Can someone give me more opinions, and can you link me to where I can buy the memory I need and a 7950gtx go?


Thanks so much! Especially you pure.

 

I doubt it's memory since you're no longer getting BSODs and are getting lots of artifacting. That BSOD code is very general and can be caused by tons of things.

The only place I know where you can get a 7950GTX go is ebay:
http://computers.search.ebay.com/79...ebooks_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR40QQsacatZ158885
Sadly they're pretty pricey. You might want to make a post in the BST forum, and also check around other forums for people selling their used Go cards.

As for memory, pretty much any PC2 5300 or PC25400 DDR2 SO-DIMMS will be fine. I'd shoot for 2x2GB, should cost 80 bucks tops.

 

As Hep! mentioned, mobile video cards are hard to come by. It's either eBay or call Dell to see if they have some in stock to sell.

If it is the RAM, the cheapest in the US that I can find is here at Buy.com at $87.54 - $20 MIR = $67.54 with free shipping for OCZ 2x2GB.

Don't like MIR? Newegg's got Kingston 2x2GB for $79.99 and free shipping. Use the promo code, EMCAFDABK, to get an additional $5 off.

 

alright I think im just going to sell this on ebay and get a mac or m1730

 

One thing you can check, it might work or might not. Bring up the Bios at startup. When my geforce 6800 went bad, the bios would show bad characters. Some would be correct but others would not. Just something to look at.