Clevo P150HM: Problems with AMD Radeon HD 6970M -- Screen keeps turned off

Hello everyone!
I own a Clevo P150HM with an AMD Radeon HD 6970M for approximately 2.5 years. A few days ago, I started to have issues with my GPU (as I think it's the culprit): Occasionally, the image on my display became split in half vertically and shifted horizontally (I didn't make a screenshot but tried to reconstruct the image: see image attached) Each time this happened, the screen turned completely blue (another blue shade than the one of BSODs) after a few seconds so I had to power it off and restart.
Maybe two days later, the PC didn't boot into Windows 7 at all. The BIOS information and the low-res 'Starting Windows'-screen did show, but after that, the screen turned black (off). I booted into safe mode, removed the AMD driver of my GPU and restarted the PC. Everything worked perfectly until I installed the AMD driver (another version at this time) again.
So I decided to re-install Windows 7, which was no problem to me because I did it a few weeks ago. After completing the installing routine, I tried to install the driver for my GPU (a version that definitely worked previously), but the same problem as described above happened again.
After doing this, I decided to disassemble the GPU and re-assemble it again in order to "reset" it. I disassembled the PC from time to time to clean it from dust so I wasn't inexperienced in doing this. So I put out the GPU unit and put it in again. I didn't apply new thermal paste between the GPU and the heatsinks because the old one seemed to be still kind of fresh and I just wanted to test whether the putting out and in again made things work again.
The problem I'm faced with right now is that the PC doesn't show anything on the screen if I start it. The green LED indicates the computer running, exactly as the blue LED below the start button does. The fans work properly (even if I put them into 100%-mode by pressing Fn+1). Of the three LEDs on the upper right of the keyboard, the uppermost one with the database-like symbol lights up shortly after starting and then blinks at irregular intervals; the lowermost LED with the BT-symbol lights up shortly after starting and goes out after approx. 4 seconds (I think this is only a kind of initializing because I don't have any Bluetooth module installed). The screen doesn't even turn on to show a black screen but keeps completely turned off. The problem appears in all combinations of AC plugged in or not and battery put in or not.
To my mind, the PC does start up (at least into BIOS) in the background but doesn't show anything on the screen to some reason. Maybe I accidentally injured the connection from the mainboard to the display? Or does a CMOS battery reset help?
Please share every idea regarding this problem! Thanks!

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It's likely the card was on its way out and has now died, you can look into the baking recovery method and perhaps want to think about buying a replacement (card or system) for the longer term.

 

Thanks for your response!
Today I tried to boot up the PC again and suddenly, my notebook screen worked again. I don't know exactly what caused the problem but it has probably solved itself.
However, I still can't boot into Windows 7 with the drivers for my GPU installed. I tried several driver versions (from the official Clevo website and from the thread within this forum) but none of it made me be successful. Each time I installed a new driver, I was asked to restart my PC and am faced with a completely black (but turned on) screen after the 'Starting Windows' image has passed. I uninstalled the drivers via safe mode multiple times and installed another version each time, but none worked for me.
What I'm curious about is that the GPU worked (almost) normally a few days ago.
May I have to update my BIOS? And how can I determine whether my GPU is dead?

 

Not being able to install drivers is a pretty good sign if after a repasting/reseating/re-install of os.

 

I'm afraid I don't really understand what you're meaning--is the inability of installing drivers a good sign in a positive way or in a negative way in terms of "good sign for a dead GPU"?

 

Meaker is saying it's a bad/negative sign, and that the card has likely died. Some users have success with baking the card to reflow the solder joints, though it is a fix that only sometimes works, and when it does work, it tends to be very temporal.

 

Yes because without drivers the cpu renders the image and the gpu just passes the frame to the monitor. Once you install the graphics drivers the gpu starts rendering the image on your screen so if the drivers keep crashing (after checking the software is ok) on install it means the gpu can't render even a 2d image properly.

 

Following your thoughts, I'm pretty sure that my GPU is dead. I've read a couple of threads from people having the same issue with this GPU. Additionally, I wrote an email to my reseller but haven't received an answer yet.
Do you think it's a good idea to try the 'baking method'? In fact, I've nothing to lose if my reseller doesn't make a good deal for repairing the notebook. Do you have recommendations regarding the 'baking method' or should I just use one of the many online tutorials available?
Thanks for your great support so far!

 

I never promote it as it's a rather barbaric way of "reflowing" the card. But hey, if your reseller will not help you and you have nothing to lose, by all means! There are plenty of guides on how to do it.

If the problem is not with the solder joints or chip creep though, then baking it won't fix anything, and you'll be looking at needing a new GPU. You're right in that the 69xM cards have a higher than usual failure rate.

Good luck!

 

It's exactly what happened before my 6990M died. I've baked mine 3 times already so there's not harm, it's dead paperweight anyways. Find an upgrade to 7970M or 680M if you wanna keep your machine.

 

As a temporary solution, are there any chances for activating the graphics chip integrated in my Intel i7-Sandy Bridge processor?

 

No, IGP is disabled in BIOS on HM series.

 

But if I had ordered the notebook with a Nvidia GPU instead of the AMD card, I had been able to use the Nvidia Optimus technology which activitates the IGP on demand, or am I wrong? Is there a different BIOS installed on the Nvidia version of the notebook?

 

No, you will not be able to use it too.

 

Okay, thank you for clearing that up!
I have another question: Do you guys recommend flashing a VBIOS compatible with nVidia cards before I try the 'baking method'? At the moment I'm still able to boot into Windows with its standard VGA driver. I wonder whether I'll still be able to do this if my GPU may get completely destroyed in the oven and would not be able to pass the image to the display anymore. Flashing the VBIOS would allow me to install a nVidia GPU, wouldn't it? Or would it achieve incompatibility with AMD cards?

 

How are you going to flash a vbios into a card you don't even have? Best you can do is update the bios and EC while you still can so your new card is plug n play.

 

He might not realise that the vbios is stored on the MXM module itself and is not stored on the motherboard.

 

I updated my EC and BIOS version, 'baked' my GPU once for 7.5 minutes, applied fresh thermal paste and everything works again! I know that this is just a temporary solution, but for the moment I'm very happy that my notebook is working perfectly. Thanks for your help!

 

Woo, yes you do likely want to get a replacement as it is just time you have bought but it takes the pressure off

 

Hello,

I'm experiencing the same issues. I own the same barebone with the same graphic card for 2,5 years. It's already going for a while, still not dead but failing randomly...

Strange thing for me is that I've booted with Hiren's and ran Memtest and video memory stress test. On memtest, which I think it tests RAM memory only, I had above 700 errors. On video memory stress test, 0 errors found.

The simptoms are the same as described on the first post. Usually it stalls with a blue/grey screen and a strange noise. Other times its the splited screen, with strange colored horizontal lines flickering. If everything points to the graphic card, why no errors on the test?

As for RAM memory, I have 2x4Gb modules 667MHz.

What can I do? I never made a bios update, can it help somehow?

 

Try running with one stick of ram then the other, it might just be your ram.

 

HD6970m Baked and working!!

Fantastic...

BTW, I've noticed what I think that might be a design flaw. 1 or 2 memory chips of the graphic card do not touch the copper plate on top. It has a gap of maybe half a mm... I've compensated with extra thermal paste, but I think its not a good solution. What can I put there to compensate this gap on a more definite way? And where can I buy it?

Thanks in advance

 

There should be 0.5mm thermal pads between the vram and heatsink.

 

No, no pads here. Never heard of them, actually... But I think I'm gonna get some. Where do they stay? Between the memory module and the paste or between the paste and the heatsink plate? And on the CPU, shoul be there allso a pad? Because it doesn't has.

 

It sits between the 8 vram chips on the top and the plate that sits over them, there is not usually thermal paste put there.

 

Ok, thanks for the help.