Has my GPU likely displayed its last pixels? (It died...?)

Hey everyone, I thought I'd come here looking for some answers before I decide what to do next. This post will get a little lengthy, so there is a TL;DR at the bottom. Anyway, I haven't been very active here since the 7970M came out, and haven't been gaming much since I went back to university, but have always found this community to be extremely knowledgeable and thus have come seeking insight.

Today I was streaming some video to my HDTV from my laptop when suddenly the screen went grey and the audio cut out. I assumed my machine had crashed for whatever reason, and decided to reboot. The Sager BIOS page displayed, followed by the Windows 10 logo, however after that I was met with a black screen; the sign-in page never came. I figured my machine was still shaking something lose and did a hard reboot again with the same result.

At this point I thought either my Windows configuration was messed-up somehow, or something was wrong with the GPU. I hadn't updated the drivers since February, so perhaps that had something to do with it. No worries, I thought, I'll boot into Safe Mode and go from there. Once in Safe Mode, I removed all AMD drivers, and proceeded to reboot again; this time I was greeted by the sign-in screen and Windows loaded fine, although my screen resolution was now 1024x768 as I had no display drivers installed.

I downloaded the newest AMD package and installed it, and midway through the installation process, the display went black again. This has led me to believe that my GPU has indeed bit the dust, as after several repeated attempts to install the latest drivers, this is the end result.

I suppose my question is whether or not this type of behavior is exhibited by any other issues, or if this sounds like hardware failure. I've had this card since they were released back in 2012 and was among the first to receive one, so it's definitely had a good ride. Its been slightly overclocked for the entirety of its life in my machine, at a modest 900/1400 @ 1.0V and never shown any signs of artifacting or overheating. Aside from a full resinstallation of Windows, what would my next step be to determine if I can salvage the card, or if there is something else wrong? I'll consider resintalling my OS as a last resort if I have to, but I'd rather take other diagnostic approaches first, if they exist.

If the card has indeed displayed its last pixels (at a resolution above this safe-mode-esque 1024x768), is there still no upgrade beyond the 7970M for older machines like mine? I'm not sure it's worth putting another $500 into this laptop for the same GPU when I could put that towards a new desktop instead.

Also, the card does show up under device manager with a device status of "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)." I'm assuming this is due to the drivers being uninstalled.

TL;DR: My GPU is likely fried. I cannot install display drivers without my screen going black and having to reboot into safe mode and uninstall the drivers to regain functionality. Other than replacing it with another 7970M, is there an upgrade path available for older machines like mine, or am I stuck with the 7970M? If so, is there an easy way to diagnose my card and possibly fix it, or, could this be an unrelated software issue?

 

My bet would be on a dying card, rather than a software issue. Try baking it, 7970Ms seem pretty partial to that.

Reinstall couldn't hurt and there's no need to lose the current install if you make a full disk image prior to starting. You should be making backups anyway, if not for the data itself then for the hassle of reinstalling and all the tinkering that is necessary to get Windows running at a modicum of usability.

Nice avatar, btw .

Ah, and display, too.

 

I'd nuke the drive and reinstall Windows first.

Can't lie though, as soon as I saw 7970M, I thought "She's dead, Jim."

Get your oven mitts ready, it's time to bake.

AFAIK, the NP8170 has no upgrade path, beyond the 7970M and GTX 680M. I had one with the 6970M, and that's my recollection.