Faulty or not: 9500M GS (Acer Aspire 6920G) GPU

Hi there! Firstly, I apologise if this thread isn't supposed to be here as I do not know where should I start this on.

Alright, actually my problem is quite a long story but I'll cut it short. I've got a few questions that I hope to get answers for. Reason being is because I suspect my GPU is dying on me which I would count on it as a definite hardware issue. The situation is that my Acer 6920G laptop will auto shutdown some seconds after booting normally to Windows Vista. It seems most probably a GPU issue after the many experiences. HOWEVER, as I boot in safe mode, the problem does not occur.

I sensed some hope and decided to uninstall the drivers for the GPU. Gosh, the screen resolution turned ugly and it was using the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter, BUT it works! The problem is gone; the laptop does not auto shutdown anymore awhile after booting!

So, one question which I would like to ask is, does uninstalling the GPU drivers mean that the laptop is no longer using the GPU at all? As in the GPU will be obsolete and ignored by the system and treated as if there is no GPU installed?

Please enlighten me and I would really appreciate any feedback or suggestions with regards to my situation!

 

welome to nbr
normally when the gpu starts to die you will have lines and artifacts on screen. when was the last time you cleaned your fans and vents out. this is the biggest problem with high temperatures which causes a shutdown.

download some temperature monitoring software from my sig below and post your temperature results. try HW Monitor and core temps for cpu and Nvidia inspector for gpu temps.

and yes, once you removed the gpu drivers the card will be dead and it will use the onboard graphics.

 

Thank you MrDJ

Hm. No, there wasn't any lines or artifacts on the screen. Everything seemed perfectly normal except that it kept auto shutting down the laptop a few seconds after booting. As to the cleaning of fans and vents, I've never done that before since I'd bought the laptop some 4 years ago.

I don't think I would be able to do that monitor temp. thingy since I have already uninstalled the drivers for the GPU and now using the 'Standard VGA Graphics Adapter'. I suppose that problem will be back if I re-install the drivers and I wouldn't want that, since everything is alright now without it (hence why I suspect that the GPU was at fault for the problem). Thankfully you cleared my doubt that the card would be dead when I uninstalled the drivers. So, does that prove that the GPU was indeed faulty?

All the functions seems alright as well for the laptop except for the graphic cards. Do you think I can continue using it with a peace of mind that it will still function and that everything except the GPU is fine? Is using the laptop without the GPU/drivers going to cause problems or limited functionality as compared to when the GPU is present? Will I not be able to do certain things without it?

 

Clean out the vents and fans. 4 years of dust and junk is not good.

 

when i said dead i didnt actually mean dead but lying dormant as without the nvidia drivers it just sits there and does nothing and instead uses the onboard graphics.

you can still download monitoring software from my sig below but of course you wont get as high a gpu temperature as you will be using the onboard. you will still get a cpu temperature reading.

if you havnt cleaned them out for 4 years to be honest youve been lucky it hasnt played up before.
as theres such a small space in laptops dust does get in there and starts clogging up fans and vents.

unscrew the baseplate and give it a good blow out. its best to use a can of compressed air as this gets into all the nooks.

when was the last time you updated your nvidia drivers. for basic laptops you dont really need to update them but if you ever game on your lappy the newer drivers give better gaming. theres a nvidia walkthrough in my signature below.
as youve got quite an old graphics card i would recommend the 186.81 nvidia driver which was the most stable driver a couple of years ago.