Help!! Something is wrong with my laptop!!! :(

Hey everyone,

My laptop just did something really weird. I had turned it on and started to put photos into a new folder that I had just made. There was one photo that I color corrected in Photoshop. I saved the photo under a different name. I put it in the new folder that I had just made. I clicked on the Windows Picture Viewer. I started to flip through photos. When I clicked on the next button, the picture wasn't there. The only thing that was there was black that replaced the picture. When I tried to flip through different photos, that black just stayed there. No photos would come up. Then, a couple of seconds later, a box popped up in the lower left hand corner saying something like this: "Display card has stopped working but has been recovered." It said something like that. Then the screen started to turn off and on by itself every 2 seconds. The laptop is shut down right now. I have very important work to do on it. I hope nothing is wrong with my laptop!! Someone please help me out! What is wrong with my laptop? Thanks. God bless!

Photographer

 

It sounds like a video driver issue which may be corrected by uninstalling and reinstalling your video drivers or updating the current one.

 

Should I turn the laptop back on? How do I do I update the drivers or uninstall/reinstall?

Photographer

 

Give more info on your system
OS...
Video Card w/driver version....
anything else will be helpful....

another thing to make sure they photos are safe, back them up to a usb pen asap and check them on a second system.

 

Yes you can turn the laptop back on and see what happens. Try first to boot into safe mode by pressing f8 during the bios launch. Once that comes up go to you add/remove programs and take out your video drivers, i.e. nvidia, ati. The computer you are using to access the net now can be used to go to the mfr's website and update your drivers. Do you know what kind of graphics card you have? Also the brand (HP) I assume and model number may help.

 

1.6 GHz AMD Turion™ 64 x2 dual-core mobile technology TL-52 processor is designed for mobile computing
15.4" WXGA high-definition Brightview widescreen (1280 x 800) display opens up a wide viewing space
120GB hard drive provides plenty of room for movies, music and more
1024MB (1GB) DDR2 system memory (2 DIMM) for handling multiple tasks at once
LightScribe Super Multi 8x DVD±R/RW drive with double-layer support burns personalized, silkscreen-quality CD and DVD labels right onto discs
Built-in 802.11b/g wireless LAN lets you work and play on your wireless network or at hotspots; integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet allows easy wired networking
1 IEEE 1394 and 3 USB 2.0 ports connect to your peripherals
HP QuickPlay™ and HP Mobile Remote Control for movies, music, photos and more at the touch of a button
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 (UMA) graphics control for beautiful images
5-in-1 integrated digital media reader for SD™ Card, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD Picture Card™
Altec Lansing audio for an immersive multimedia experience
Included Software: symantec® Norton Internet Security™ 2007 (including 60 days complimentary live update), HP Total Care Help & Support Center, PC Recovery (Softthinks Restore Solution), Wireless Home Network, Microsoft® Works, Microsoft Office™ 2007 Student and Teacher Edition (60-day trial version), Vongo, HP Photosmart Essentials, HP QuickPlay, Muvee AutoProducer Basic Edition, RealRhapsody, Roxio® Creator 9 Basic, Adobe® Acrobat Reader
Inputs: 1 microphone, 1 VGA, 1 RJ-11 (modem), 1 RJ-45 (LAN)
Outputs: 3 USB 2.0, 2 headphone (1 with SPDIF digital audio and 1 stereo), 1 S-Video, 1 notebook expansion port, 1 IEEE 1394 FireWire, 1 consumer IR
Expansion Slot: 1 ExpressCard/54 (also supports ExpressCard/34)
Rechargeable 6-cell lithium-ion battery
Includes notebook computer and remote control
Dimensions: 14.1"l x 10.1"w x 1.6"h
Weight: 6.8 lb.

Photographer

 

Download them from the OEM site or Video card manufacture site and put them on your desktop. Once you download them. go to add/remove programs and delete anything that is installed by your video card. (I.E. nVidia, ATI, Intel, etc... Software. Sometimes there will be more then one.) go to device manager and uninstall the video card, restart, double click on the previous downloaded file and follow prompts.

 

I'll let you guys know what happens when I turn it on in a second...

Photographer

 

Go to this address http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3370286&lang=en# and download both drivers below. Once you have done so then you need to boot into safe mode by pressing F8 during the BIOS action screen, once safe mode boots into its desktop go to the add/remove programs section and find anything that says NVIDIA and remove it. Then right click on Computer, go to properties and go to the the Device Manager. Click on the Display Adapter + box. Right click on this hit uninstall and follow the prompts. It should ask you to reboot, if not then reboot once its done. When you get back to the main screen and computer settles thru startup you will first click on the nForce Chipset Driver and install that and follow all the instructions. Then Reboot. Next click on the VGA Driver and do the same. All should be well then. May take about 30 mins for the whole process. Post results.


Driver - Chipset Date Version Previous Size

» NVIDIA nForce Chipset Driver

05-2007 5.47 A » Version:
9.08M




Driver - Graphics Date Version Previous Size

» NVIDIA VGA Driver

05-2007 7.15.10.9815 A » Version:
116.58M

 

I turned the laptop on. Everything seems fine. Right now, I'm burning all of my photos onto a DVD-R, as a backup. I'll probably install the drivers in an hour or so.

Photographer

 

Smart move. You should burn anything that you want to keep from your documents, pictures, music etc. If something really went wrong then you can always reinstall your Windows and still have your files available.

 

It's just taking a little bit of time to burn them to the DVD-R... It will be done in a couple of minutes though.

Photographer

 

Any news on your issue?

 

Are you running Vista? And if so, are there videos in the same folder as your pictures? The Windows picture viewer or whatever also previews videos and if the video is too big it can cause the picture viewer and display driver to get messed up.