dv2 Graphic glitch

Hi, I own this dv2-1122ax for 2 months and I have this random issue where my screen will freeze for 5-10secs, followed by a black screen and recover to the initial screen.
There's a bubble message saying "Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered" error

This issue happens in windows environment. While web browsing, watching videos, going through menus or exploring through "My Computer"

It happens with factory vista image and even in windows 7 (upgrade/fresh) with factory drivers, updated drivers from hp.com after driver sweeper from guru3d.
I even tried the 9.9 ati mobility driver and the latest ati drivers with mobility mod tool.

Is this a hardware fault or driver incompatibility?

Right now, the notebook is with hp service centre and I just got a text message from hp saying "the part for your unit is currently on part hold"

Here's a bunch of photo taken with my camera

 

pak - Sorry to see the problem with your dv2. It looks like the issues I've seen on a few Dell's (where I work) that we suspect had bad Nvidia graphics chips. Have you gone into BIOS and checked how the graphics look? That will eliminate any Windows/drivers issues. If you see similar problems in BIOS then it must be the mobo/graphics. Good luck!

 

well atikmdag.sys is the main device driver for ati graphics cards. there was a similar problem with the first 8510p´s. those laptops had a graphics bios integrated into the main bios. curiously not all of the 8510p´s with the hd 2600 were effected.
after a few month hp and amd delivered a new bios and new drivers, and after that everything was ok.

the point that vpu recover is working, and your notebook does not crash might indicate that it´s not necessarily the hardware that is corrupted.

you never can rule out a failing / corrupted graphics hardware, but before you send in your laptop you should definitely try updating to a newer bios( only if you don´t already have it) and definitely install a new graphics driver.

 

Your pictures look like you have failed video memory. Drivers won't fix it no matter how hard you try. Send it back.

 

that what a lot of people said about the hd 2600 in the 8510p. but it has turned out that it was no hardware problem, but more a bad vgabios/dvga-driver combination.

so maybe not everything is lost, and testing if another bios and graphics driver will do the job don´t even hurt a bit.

 

Bad BIOS? could be (messed up memory clocks or timings), but if it is, how do you edit it? HP locked it out.

Does it make the same artifacts in BIOS or only under Windows?

 

The graphic card in this model is ATi HD 3410 Mobility Raedon.

I tried updating the system bios from hp support page. That didn't help. Disabling the "Aero" feature in vista/win7 didn't help either but it didn't happen so often.

Is the graphic card in dv2 similar to the one below, which is a HD3430. Or is it embedded on to the motherboard?



I don't know why is my local hp service centre in singapore having a "part hold" for this and the ETA period is still unknown to me.

Is it possible to request for a updated model as a replacement since dv2 is discontinued?

 

The artifact happens in windows environment randomly

• appears for 5-10secs background sound still running if applicable, screen and mouse pointer freezes.
• screen goes blank
• recovers with bubble message "Display driver atikmdag stopped responding and has successfully recovered" error

I tried playing 3d games for hours and didn't get this problem and strangely, it happens in 2d windows environment.

I placed my laptop on a flat surface and air vents cleared of obstruction

 

well this indicates that it might not be failing hardware, but more a bad device driver or a problem with the drivers components.
you should try some newer catatlyst ( probably a newer bios could help too, if there is a vga-bios integrated).

 

The video BIOS gets upgraded as part of a video driver upgrade, if there's a newer BIOS in the driver package. If there's a newer driver package on hp.com for the dv2 series, get it. But in absence of other similar reports I'd have to agree with Th3_uN1Qu3 about bad video hardware, probably one of the video RAM chips that your dedicated GPU uses. I vaguely recall there being a testing program that will verify your video RAM... can't think of it at the moment?

 

could it have been this programm ?

video ram stress test:
http://mikelab.kiev.ua/index.php?page=PROGRAMS/vmt_en

 

Unfortunately it's built-in.

If you say it works fine in games, i'd suspect something wrong with the power saving algorithm. Try disabling PowerPlay in Catalyst Control Center.

 

It's not what I was thinking of but it looks interesting.