Having graphic problem..

Well I bought a Sager 8130 last July and haven't really experienced any problems thus far.

For about past half hour I started to get some weird coloring/marks to pop up on screen and then leave, was only at start.

Since I've had the screen go black and then come back (4 times). Some kind of problem popped up on bottom right for a few seconds, will try to get a picture next time..

What is the problem/possible problems? How to fix? May need RMA (graphic card problem)? Update drivers/bios or whatever for card?

Anything would help.

Excuse the noobness, I tend to panic with problems & don't know the complete ins and outs of PC components or how to resolve this.

Edit: Message was on the line of "Nvidia Display Driver Has Stopped Responding and Successfully Recovered" with some number at end.

Ran virus scans just in case and nothing turned up (and never had a virus on it since got it). I haven't kept drivers up to date, possible issue?

I just finished watching a movie, and problems came after. In case related.

 

The message:



But yea pretty odd to just randomly happen now and repeatedly. I hope it's not a major problem and someone knows the/a possible solution.

Going to head to bed now >_<

 

Hi Yanni
nothing to worry about at the moment. this happens to the best of us.
have you updated your graphics drivers lately. its trial and error really to find the best ones for each graphics card.
if you need a walkthrough i can post one later as at work at moment.

in the mean time and if you need any there are lots of free monitoring software in my sig below.

 

Definately worth checking temps. Had similar symptoms before a gpu meltdown. That can be catastrophic especially if the gpu is soldered to the board.

 

That error can be a sign of a failing graphics card, but that's uncommon. Most of the time it's driver or temperature related. You've had your laptop for a while, so you should consider cleaning out the vents and fans and monitoring the temperatures. An older set of drivers can also potentially get rid of the problem.

 

I used to get this message on my desktop quite often. Try changing your drivers either to the original ones that came with the computer or updating them to the newest ones which can be downloaded driectly from Nvidia.
The newest ones are 296.10 vs the 268.49 you currently have installed

 

Thank you very much for the responses!
Just logged in from a family members PC to be on the cautious side lol

Ive never updated the drivers lol, so assumed it was fine as is as long as working good. Unless its conflicting with some other update and would be best to update.

That would be much appreciated.

I did check temps before shut down last night and they seemed normal-ish. I usually get average 35 when turn it on and doesnt really go past 40 with normal use. Hopefully not the case, definitely worst case scenario!

Will check it again once get on it.

Just finished cleaning (10min ago), but cleaned it 2 weeks ago and usually for sure around every 4 weeks.

As mentioned from when I checked the temps last night they were pretty normal, but Ill check again. Hopefully its just driver related.

The drivers part is definitely confusing me, since its the same ones from last July(when got it). And the problem arose after finished watching a movie. Some random marks appear on the screen and then leave. As well as screen goes black, comes back and error message is there (happened probably 8 times in the 1h period before shut down).

Which would seem like a better option (original ones or the new ones)? Is there a version that works well with other peoples 8130(or is it mixed results)?

And for the really noob question, do you just download it, install, and done? Or anything too it.

 

those temps are perfect so its not the temperature. what do you use to monitor them. (you can find quite a few different ones in sig below)

now this is another matter and doesnt sound to good but dont panic yet.
what power option have you got it set on, power saver,balanced or high performance. check by clicking battery in bottom right of screen.

to be honest im a bit like you with if it aint broke dont fix it.
its only since ive had my clevo that i update the graphics drivers as it can give better performance in certain games.

here you can find a list of the last 10 or so drivers (best to stick with whql) NVIDIA Driver Downloads - Advanced Search

with the latest drivers it has a auto search but i still prefer the old fashioned way of manual update.

how to update graphics drivers manualy:

first download driver sweeper which will remove all traces of the driver left on your system.save a shortcut to your desktop. we will use this later > Thank you for downloading Driver Sweeper from CNET Download.com

then download the latest or whichever whql driver you want to try from the above nvidia link and save it to your desktop. make sure you get the right one ie. 32bit or 64bit

Go to the control panel > program and features > scroll down the list and find NVIDIA > then select NVIDIA and click uninstall. It will ask if you want to restart the system.. click yes

keep Pressing F8 on startup and go into windows in safe mode.

Run driver sweeper and select NVIDIA drivers.. then clean.

Go to the control panel > system> device manager > graphics card. Right click on any present and click uninstall

Restart the system and go into windows normally. Install the NVIDIA drivers listed above which you saved to your desktop

Restart the system.. and fingers crossed all should be well!

hope it helps. if not come back and we will try to help out more.

 

I use CPUID HWMonitor for temp. Temps right now are 31-37 on CPU. And the GPU is 32-34.

I don't always use battery, but it's always been on balanced.

Looking over what you said and downloading those.

Also been on for about 20 minutes and the problem hasn't came back (so far), but also not really doing anything on it lol

Edit: Downloaded latest whql driver for the card.



Just uninstalling certain ones(just graphic driver)? all? or..

And thank you very much for the help!

Edit: Nvm, seems all of that is in the driver. Haha

 

When you download it, it will get them all. Go ahead and update all of them.

 

Thank you!

Learn something new everyday

 

your welcome. hope it helps.

if you get the artifacts on the screen again if you could get a picture of it it would help us out immensely to give you an idea what it could be. use a mobile phone or camera as screen grab doesnt always show the artifacts.

 

Will try!

Edit: nvm, finishing up.

Edit2: All seems good so far. If it comes back (or worse card fries QQ) will post, and try to get pic if can.

 

if the card dies this is what it will look like