Problem with my E1705

Hi,

Yesterday my laptop broke down without any apparent cause. I was writing a document, and all of a sudden the screen started flickering displaying weird black lines and than a blue screen came up telling "major hardware failure". I restarted the laptop, but the screen remains black - i can hear the hard disk working but I just don't see any image. The weird thing is that the screen appears to be lighten up (i can see light under the screen casing), but no image.

Needless to say that it's no longer under warranty, so I have to figure out what broke so I can purchase the part and replace it. I am completely clueless as to what the cause of the problem is... Is it the video card? Or maybe the screen? Or maybe the LCD inverter? Or maybe the motherboard?

If any of you know how I could troubleshoot my problem I would greatly appreciate it. I can buy the spare parts, but I just don't want to purchase something and realize it's not the cause of the problem...

Here are my laptop specs in case you need it:

Dual Core 1.63
256mb NVIDIA 7900 GS
120gig HD
17” WUXGA TruLife

 

When you reboot, do you see any text at all? Can you enter the BIOS? If not, my first step would be to shut down and check the video card. Remove and reinstall, then reboot and try again. Hopefully that fixes the problem.

Have you been overclocking your video card?

 

Last night I did some more testing...

I connected the laptop to an external monitor and it worked. Automatically, I was sure that it was the LCD screen that was broken. After 10-15 minutes of working on the computer backing up my files, the image started flickering (same as what happened the first time) and then the screen went black.

So, right now I am starting to think that it's my motherboard that is messed up... Luckily for me, I was able to get it started long enough to take out all my files from it...

Based on this new information, does anyone have any other ideas or I am on the right track?

 

Why do you think it's a motherboard problem? The logical first step is to evaluate the video card. Your 1705 has an actual card, not onboard video. The card could be getting too hot, which can easily cause damage to the card itself. Find yourself a diagram of the 1705 and/or instructions on how to disassemble the case, and then clean out the vents and fans for your video card, processor, and cooling fans.

You also didn't answer my question - have you been overclocking your video card?

 

No I didn't overclock the card at all. It's running with the default settings.

Also, I did take apart the whole thing and cleaned the vents and the fans. I've done this in the first place. I disassembled every part in there and placed it back together properly.

The reason why I say I believe it's the motherboard is because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't... If it was a video card problem, it wouldn't work at all. But I could be wrong. It would be nice if the broken part is the video card because it wouldn't be expensive to replace. If it's the motherboard, then I'll just throw the whole thing to the garbage and get myself a new laptop.

How can I isolate the real cause of the problem without having spare parts to replace and check? Any tips?

 

Without another video card, you can't troubleshoot. You probably need to take it to a repair shop - they should have parts on hand to at least tell you exactly what is wrong.

You can pick up a replacement video card on eBay - but be prepared to pay quite a bit for one. The last time I checked, a card runs around $200.