Somethings gone wrong! Help!

Hey

My 6214 has gone horribly wrong. While playing a game it crashed. I had only been playing for 5-10 minutes so the notebook wasnt even hot. But now when i reboot i get the xp loading page followed by a page with black and white squres on the bottom and some random pinky artifacts on top and nothing else.

Does this mean a gpu failure?

Does anyone know if I remove the the hard drive will it invalidate my warranty?

I have tried calling the customer support number on the British website (45 47 37 10 30) but im getting British Gas!!!! What the hell is going on?!!

Please help me

 

What are your GPU temps during gameplay or at idle?

Mike.

 

No idea. I had only been playing for literally 10 mins. I checked the underside and it wasnt very hot.

PS worked out the number problem. You have to put 00 in front. But because they are an hour ahead they are closed.

 

Probably your graphics driver got corrupted. Try booting in safe mode, and then reinstalling the drivers. If that doesn't work, then you might have to reinstall windows. Nothing more serious than that. If it was hardware related, you wouldn't even get to see the POST screen, leave alone the XP loading screen.

 

Famouse Grouse, you have to remember the number on the UK website is directly to the danish support (meaning the 45 is the country code ) as we have no UK distributor at the moment. But i can se you have figured that out
It doesn't sound good with the squares. Could you email me some pictures with what you see on the screen. You can find my email on the UK site. under support contact.

 

To me, sounds like overheating. Could it be that a fan got stuck? Some lad in the forum had that kind of problem causing crashes. Maybe due to overheating, your GPU got screwd :S But, thank god for Rene being active today.

 

Hi famous grouse. Nice to see posting again. I'm sorry to hear about your trouble though.

Definitely work with Rene to diagnose the issue.

 

The fan is running now but I dont know if it was at the time of the crash.

 

Were you able to start up in safe mode? and if so, how was the result?

I really feel with you. Just seeing the attached picture gives me a bad feeling inside. I would be gutted if it happened to me.

I hope you get it sorted quickly

Cheers

 

I can boot in safe mode but when I install the drivers i just get the same problem again.

 

It doesnt look good
You might just need to send your laptop and a small journey to Denmark.

Have you talked to Zepto about how long it would take?
You know you can buy the '2 year quick repair' (or is it 1 year?) I works from the date you bought your laptop, but if you buy it now, you will still get it set in the front of all the other laptops that dont have the 'quick rep option'

If you want it faster, and you have the money, then its i good option.

Talk to Zepto Denmark, they will give you some good advise. They are really good at that.

Cheers

 

I have emailed rene about the issue.
If the quick repair isnt too expensive I may consider it but I have access to two other computers so I can live without my zepto for a week or two.

So what do people think wrongs with it? A gpu failure?

Serves me right though for playing a game in my history class!

 

I think that it's rather clear. Something happened to your GPU. I have never heard that anything else would cause such a problem, artifacts in the screen. The common reason for that is overheating. And we're talking about zepto here, so that's my two cents.

 

It looks like your GPU went out to me.

 

Your Graphics card is slowly dying. Had the same problem but with a desktop with the graphics artifacts corruption which slowely bled into games then eventually prevented me from starting up the computer.

Think you need a new one. Whether it was heat related, I dont know. It could just be a weak graphics card. Stress out the new one with an intensive demo or game, for a few minutes, just to ensure its strong.

 

So it only happens in Windows when the drivers load, and not in safemode? Then it might be a good idea to try and reinstall Windows before we can say if it's a faulty hardware component and not just a software issue.

 

Cheap parts = short life span

 

Have just reinstalled windows. No luck. Boots fine but when I install the drivers from the supplied CD I get the same problem again.

 

Unless you've done something which may suggest fault; i.e. open the laptop or overclock components, do not pay for any repair. Period.

See my relevant post

Really you should also insist they pay shipping as well

 

Its OK LFC i havnt opened the laptop or overclock anything. Its still under warranty anyway.

 

So what do I do now then? Looks like I have to send it to zepto. How do I go about doing that?

 

Have you tried installing a different NVidia driver yet?
I used a driver from the ftp server from Zepto Denmark (84.63) and it worked like crap with various games. ( I think it's the same one on the installation CD)
Then I chose a different one from LaptopVideo2go (read about replacing the inf. file!).
I'm running XP Pro and with the 97.92 driver all my games run like a charm. It might be worth trying before you send your Znote to Zepto. It will only take about 15 minutes to read, download, install and reboot.
(And if that isn't the solution you might try burning the latest BIOS for your 6214 on a bootable CD and replace the current BIOS).
Good luck!

 

You call Zepto and they will tell you what to do.

I had a talk with them regarding a laptop i got, that had the keyboard mounted wrong. They gave me instructions and how and where to send the laptop. I live in Denmark, but the process should be the same i guess.

Since your laptop is still under warrenty, they should pick up the cost of transporting back and forth. They did that with me at least.

Good luck mate.

 

Hi famousgrouse! Same thing happened to me, me GPU died and I kept getting weird artifacts. I'll share my experience:

Rene was extremely helpful, he arranged pickup of my laptop and sorted everything else out, but unfortunately the other departments were crap. I got my GPU fixed (not sure if it was replaced) but the outputs to external monitors still doesn't work. Also delivery had my laptop for a week before actually sending it. I didn't resend my laptop because I need it until the end of uni and will do after, but it's happened again playing...Soldat!! (A 2D game, not intensive at all! Except now I can still use Windows properly, just not Soldat...I wasn't going to try a 3D game until after uni)

When you laptop gets arranged for pickup and repair, pay for the quick repair service. Mine took around a month but with quick repair it should be delivered back to you within 48 hours of arrival. Make sure the repairs centre repairs EVERYTHING associated to the GPU (unlike with mine) and ask them to do something like an extensive video test (I'm sure they do but just to make sure). Hope everything goes fine

 

Rajveer, I don't know if you ever got an explanation about what actually happened in your case.
Your machine was classified as a Quick Repair in our system as you had bought that. The reason why your machine was delayed in our shipping department was because after your RMA case had been made in our system (under the Nusystems account as we were used to), the company had made the decision that all cases (orders and RMA cases) made under the Nusystems account was to be kept with us until they had found out if the cases where done via Nusystems or if the customers had contacted us directly. You where not the only one which had orders/RMA cases delayed at that time unfortunately. Now all customers in the UK are getting their own accounts in our system so the cases does not have any link to the Nusystems account.

I believe I've already been in contact with Famous Grouse about this earlier this week, as far as i can remember anyways.