CF-30K graphics issue

Hi folks I'm hoping you can help me sort out a graphics card issue with my CF-30KAPAX2M which is stock except for an additional 1 gb ram stick and a 4 gb readyboost SD card.

I bought the unit used from ebay just before Christmas.
The installed OS on the HDD as delivered to me was XP, but it wouldn't boot due to a faulty MBR.
I added an extra 1 gb ram stick in addition to the 2 gb stick already installed.
I ran the bios diagnostic utility and all components came up clear.
I then swapped out the HDD with a fresh unit and installed windows 7 32-bit.
I downloaded the Toughbook driver download manager and acquired up to date copies of all windows 7 drivers and the installation instruction pdf listing the order the drivers should be installed in.
I activated all options in the bios (lan, SD, AMT etc) and installed the drivers as per the pdf, so far so good.
Win 7 is fully up to date.

Everything works perfect except for problems with the graphics card. I can best describe as checkerboard glitches in certain parts of the screen when running specific programs such as google earth, firefox and google maps.

This usually occurs where text is displayed and it appears to be more prevalent when running on battery power rather than A/C, but persists in both cases. I've played around with the power management options and currently have all power saving features disabled but this has made little difference.

The output from the PC information viewer can be found here:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php?file_id=04750450072500808446&t=0475045007250080844635873

and a photo of the glitch here:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/download.php?file_id=71288167989044218840&t=7128816798904421884079914


Any suggestions?

Thanks
Max

 

How long are you running it before the problem shows up?
Are you sure the ram is good?

 

Shawn it's present from startup.

It seems posting about this issue has lead me to reconsider what might be wrong - I pulled the extra ram and the issue seems to have been resolved

Presumably this is down to how the graphics card / chip accesses and uses system ram.

As a test I swapped the ram over in the slots and this didn't make a difference.

So, the ram that came as stock is:
HMP125S6EFR8C-S6
http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/332782/HYNIX/HMP125S6EFR8C-S6.html

And the problematic ram I added is
HYS64T128020EDL-2.5C2
http://www.datasheetlib.com/datasheet/453875/hys64t128020edl-2.5c2_qimonda.html#datasheet

I'll run memtest on the problematic chip and see what comes of it.

Thanks
Max

 

memtest came up clear. I have two of the problematic ram chips (same model number) and the problem is replicated using either so I think it's more likely to be a compatibility issue than a fault. Any further suggestions?

Thanks
Max

 

Probably right,best bet is to buy a matched pair of low density pc2 5300 new from a maker like Samsung or crucial. A pair of 2gb and an SSD will really kick it up a notch. My 30K boots in 26 seconds that way.