When on-board graphics go bad...

I have a Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650 that's been more or less a nightmare since purchase. It was repaired several times while within warranty, and now another part of it has died. I'm scouting about for replacements over the next couple of months, but in the meantime could use advice on any options I might not have thought of.

I think the video card has died. On boot (Vista) the first screen (with the small segmented bar) is chock full of display corruption. The machine boots up fine using the Standard VGA driver. The moment I install any nVidia driver (it's a geforce go 7600), instant blue screen on boot every single time.

So, I've gotten it running using the standard driver. This is fine because for the next month or two I don't really need to play games on it, just office work and movies, both of which work fine with the generic driver. The downside is that the generic driver doesn't support 1920x1200 (any way to enable this video mode using the generic Vista VGA driver??) so I'm not taking advantage of the lovely screen.

SO... my questions are,

1. Outside of sending it for repair ($$$$$$) or letting it sit as is until it dies completely, are there any other options available to me? I assume the graphics are integrated onto the motherboard.

2. Display corruption (strange blue bars) all over the Vista startup screen every time on boot (but only on that screen) + blue screen installing any nVidia driver = busted video card... or so I assume! Could I be wrong? Anything else it could be? (I don't think so, but...)

3. Does this happen often? Is it common on systems with discrete graphics? I'm just wondering if this would affect my future purchase decisions. I don't play any serious games other than world of warcraft, and I've never done anything to tweak or overclock the graphics at all. I even turned off the Aero interface because I like things simple and quick. So I'm a little irked that the graphics adapter would die.

Advice appreciated!

 

I had exactly the same problem on GF6200Go. Had to buy a new lappy as repair would cost me a fortune.

But you should be able to get away with a cheaper alternative, 7600Go can be replaced. You still will have to pay for a new one if it's not under warranty.

 

Actually, it doesnt sound like a bad graphics card. It seems that you have graphics controller irq interferences.

I would back your data up on an external harddrive, and reinstall the operating system. That way, you know you do not have any possible software issues. The reinstallation of the operating system should fix your problems. Try this, and tell us if it fixxes your problems.

K-TRON

 

I had two systems on my old laptop, WinXP and Linux (Ubuntu 6.06). And if Windows was still able to boot discarding nVidia drivers, Linux was failing to.

After some time the situation got worse, with lines starting to go across the screen during POST.

I'm 95% sure it's a hardware issue.

 

I already tried a fresh reinstall from the retail media. Same issue. Display corruption right the moment the first Vista splash screen starts up. During the OS install, Vista reports (at some point) in its list of unrecognized hardware that was unable to install a graphics adapter driver due to Unknown Error or some such. But the OS does install nicely by substituting the generic VGA driver. If I then manually download and install a nVidia driver (either Toshiba's or one from laptopvideo2go), instant blue screen at the tail end of the install. Then I can't boot to a desktop except in safe mode. If in safe mode I uninstall nVidia, everything goes back to normal.

I managed to get into the Toshiba Qosmio BIOS and it's not very useful, not much in the way of IRQ settings.

I'll also say that this happened overnight... went to sleep with the laptop on, when I woke, got ready, went to use it for MS Word stuff and 3 or 4 minutes in, the blue screen hit, and it's been like that ever since.

The behavior is consistent with what I've seen desktop video cards do but I don't know much about laptop devices.

NJoy, you said just the graphics card can be replaced? Any way to ascertain? If I am able to track down this issue, and I'm savvy enough to work on these things, is it possible for me to order the parts themselves? After the hell I've gone through since purchase (haven't even had the laptop 2 months out of the original warranty period because it was sitting in repair depots) I don't want to give more cash for labor repairs to Toshiba or its service centers right now, and I know they charge just to diagnose.

Is there any way to get the generic VGA driver to display 1920x1200? IT goes up to 1600x1200 but obviously that scales weirdly on a widescreen display. I'd love to be able to enable a boring non-accelerated 1920x1200 for the next month or two until I figure out what to do.

 

If the laptop is out of warranty and you don't mind losing it worst case. Open it up and take a look. I have seen laptop where the heatsink compound on the GPU (or CPY for that matter) have somehow dried up and separated, thus overheating the GPU.

 

Also make sure all cables from the motherboard to the LCD are firmly in place.

 

You should be able to do so, I hope.
Have a look inside the laptop, your 7600 should look like this

or like this


If it looks that way, then you should be able to buy a similar one from hardware shops and replace it by yourself. You will also need to find the right thermal paste to go between heatsink and chip (if it isn't shipped with the card). I'm new on this forum, but i'm sure there are detailed guides for accurate replacement of MXM modules.

if you find that nVidia chip is soldered directly to the motherboard, than this is the end of the story, cheaper to buy a new laptop.

Hope it helps, good luck!

 

Is there a way to find out short of breaking the thing open? Does Toshiba publish service manuals that are commonly available, particularly for niche models such as the Qosmio? My understanding is the MXM is not very common, a neat concept that did not / does not / will not see widespread use. I'm not adverse to opening it up and taking a look, of course.

 

As NJoy said above, nothing beats looking in your notebook. Provided you know what you are doing and don't damage anything. Now on to MXM? Or not? From the NBR Upgrading Mobile Graphics Cards (Dreamer/Bad Boy) I pulled this link to known models with MXM. Guess what? Yours is not on it. Is that the end? No maybe no one has bothered to list it. When you read it says, when a model is offered with different levels of Discrete GPU's that can indicate MXM. Does yours? I don't think it does? Is that the end? No here is a link from the last link scroll down to Toshiba. Have a read. Is that the end? No open it up already! And let us know!

One thing I want to emphasize as I believe there is a incorrect implication being spread around. That is, if you have NVida 7xxx or above it is most likely MXM. That is wrong. If you don't know then you most likely don't have MXM. Regardless of GPU.

Edit: I could not find a service manual.

 

Swiego, you dont have to take your machine appart! All you need is take the backlid off and look at the motherboard. It will not be far from your cooling system for sure.

 

Thanks for the comments and advice. I did open it up once, when the fan died, and I learned that this notebook is not an easy one to disassemble; the motherboard is was not easy to get to.

I'll break it open again, though I might wait a few weeks as I have a great deal of work to take care of and it's running MS Office etc. just fine using the standard VGA driver.

I'll be interested to know if it's a MXM part though I doubt it. The notebook was only offered with one video card option. On the other hand it's a fairly large 17" 10+ lbs. model with room to spare so I they may have used a modular design.

 

I took it to the local authorized repair shop. The results were pretty stunning.

On-board video corrupted. Motherboard replacement required. There is no MXM. $1,300.

I can get a laptop that blows this 1.5 year old $3,000 laptop out of the water for that price just by shopping for a decent deal.

Needless to say, I've learned my lessons as an early adopter, buyer of niche products, and buyer of expensive Toshiba equipment.

If anyone knows how to trick the standard VGA adapter to do 1920x1200, do let me know Meanwhile, I'm going to go find a dark corner and mope for a bit.

 

Yea, I kinda knew it might be what was up. But tried to spread a little info. They wanted you to buy a MoBo and GPU plus labor? I could of said from the start, hope all learned? If not next time I will just yell! Thanks for posting back.

 

I mostly knew it as well, I posted primarily to see if there were creative options others might think of that I hadn't, but I guess there are none.

At some point I might try some random things like downgrading the BIOS or underclocking something or who knows what, maybe I can get it up and running in crippled form.