D901Cc video problem

Right I have mentioned this before but I have more detailed investigation and previous thread a bit cluttered and lost a few pages back.

After installing the video driver (first drivers after installing XP) I noticed that the screen was breaking up on the start-up screens. Both the POST screen as well as Windows start-up which made me doubt it was related to driver.

On further investigation it appears it is loosing horizontal sync with a low APL (in layman's terms the image with blur sideways on dark lines of picture.) It does this on start-up, then noticed on the screensaver and changed my background to black and does it on Windows desktop. Seems to be becoming evident more often.

Have checked video card. There was hair (who's the hippy at Kobalt?) caught in the edge connector so I have removed the card cleaned the connector (which also seemed to have a bit the heat pad in there) and replaced the card, using standard heat sync compound as it's all I currently have. Fault has persisted.

What would I do to check the connections between the card and the LCD? I feel this is the next step, to ensure everything is well seated.

If that doesn't solve it I will try changing card to primary slot.

Then if it's still not solved back to Kobalt!

 

check for continuity through the ribbon cable that connects the motherboard to the display panel; these systems have had problems with the ribbon cable getting pinched, so it's possible that you've got a hairline break in yours that's causing degradation to the signal going to the lcd.

 

Blue on dark picture? Spelling corrected

 

By that I was trying to ask exactly where the cables are located and now I access them. I am guessing the one on the MB is the one under the KB going towards the screen, yeah? To check continuity I also need to get at the other end. Problem with testing continuity is most meters use a fairly high voltage compared to the video signal (or is the inverter earlier?) and it's fine with a high intensity image so will probably pass continuity. Resistance check might show something though...

 

Just realised there are the cables under the strip with the power button and LEDs etc. Not a ribbon cable but seem to go to the LCD. Are these the ones to test? Made sure were push in tight that end at least...

 

Hi kazakore, I've just replied to your post on our forum but have coppied it in here incase you check nbr first

"First thing that you need to do is install the chipset drivers from the disk, this has to be done before any other drivers are installed and is most likely why you are experiencing graphics problems. Depending on how far you have got with the system you should uninstall the GPU drivers and start from scratch with the chipset drivers. The laptop was fully burned in before shipping so there really shouldn't be any hardware fault. If this doesn't solve the problem then we should probably have the laptop back - if any of the fluid spilt on the keyboard has made it through to the motherboard or any other components the longer it is used the more damage will be done.

I'm not sure how a "hippy" hair got in the chassis - the only person who works on builds that has hair longer than an inch wasn't in the office when your laptop was built & tested so I can't explain that.

A single GPU should always be installed in the slot furthest from the CPU i.e. when the laptop is upsidown the slot furthest to the left.

Let us know if you have success with the driver instillation first, if that doesn't work then we can start to look at hardware damage."

 

Thanks Neil (seen this first but checked both quite regular.)

Didn't use the disk drivers but downloaded from Clevo site and installed in order Chipset, 8800m, audio, others in pretty much alphabetical order. A couple seemed to bring up errors (showing two Realtek HD Audio devices, one not accepting driver/ TPM / Intel Matrix (is this for RAID only?) stick in mind.

Only first noticed the error after installing GPU driver from Clevo site but may of been present before. As stated you do not see anything unless the majority of the screen is black, or close to, so could sit running basic Windows programs with the standard background forever and you wouldn't see it. By making my desktop solid black I did make it show most of the time while the thing is active.

Since checking cabled under the keyboard area I have powered back up and it has not yet flickered at all. I am going to keep it on with black desktop and keep checking throughout the day but I'm hoping it's just one of those video cables had worked a little loose. I'm 90% sure that none of the liquid got that far, it's hard to be 100% positive but with it now seeming stable for the first time since I noticed the problem I am fairly confident it was just a loose cable.

After removing the bottom and checking the video card it was obvious that was the better slot for a single card. Seems strange BIOS labels it as the secondary slot...

"Hippy hair" might of been a bit of an exaggeration. About 2 inches and quite light in colour if you're interested

 

It is difficult to diagnose the problem just with so little information and so far away from the computer. But you did mentioned that the computer came with Vista installed and you did not say anything about any problem with Vista so maybe it is just a driver problem.

 

That's what I initially thought and I almost went back and started installing XP from scratch (even if just to rule out drivers. Surely XP drivers should make zero difference to the display at the POST screen though...) but I was seeing it pretty much constantly after changing the desktop to plain black and now haven't seen it flicker after checking cable connections under keyboard/LED strip so I'm hoping it was just a loose connection there

 

Well it's been perfectly stable all afternoon so I'm pretty confident it was one of the cables to the screen.

Can I just check with somebody if I'm correct in thinking the fact it has a 8800m GTX installed proves it's an NP9262, rather than 61 or 60?

Thinking I might reinstall XP anyway, using the driver from Sager which are more clearly labelled to ensure I don't try to install bits I don't need such as that for the RAID.

Also can anybody tell me what the Intel Matrix driver is as it refused to install when I tried before...

 

Chassis is definitely a Clevo D901C which is what the Sager 9262 is built on Also you don't need the Matrix drivers unless you have RAID.

Order from the driver disk should be:

Chipset then restart
GPU driver (from NVIDIA website for 8800M GTX) then restart
Then install all the other drivers from the "install drivers" tab and then the webcam from the "Optional Drivers" tab. Wireless drivers are on a seperate CD