Intermittent Display outage in Sager P150HM

Hey folks,

I have a 2011 Malibal P150HM with AMD 7970m GPU. The Specs are in my sig.It has been a great machine (apart from a couple of GPU issues).

I had upgraded the GPU from 6990m to 7970m in early 2013 after the earlier GPU fried. Now, I am getting some problems with the display again and I need to a way of figuring out if the GPU is the culprit.

It happens randomly (the frequency has increased now). The screen goes blank. Sometimes it is totally black, sometimes total grey, sometimes with lines and i think one time I saw blocks (totally weird). And I think once or twice it went blank with a buzzing sound. It usually happens when I am watching a video (mp4 etc) or on youtube. Here's a pic I took from my cell when it happened today:


I always have hard shutdown the laptop and power up again to make it work.

I haven't been gaming much lately so the GPU hasn't been under much stress for the past 4-5 months.

Now my question is how do ascertain that the GPU is the culprit and not something else?

PS: I am running Windows 7 64-bit

 

I would feel safe saying the GPU, the other thing could be the screen itself. You can hook up an external to see if they both have the same behavior.

 

Just hooked it up to my TV via HDMI.

There were weird dots (white and shimmering) all over the TV screen for a few seconds. Then the screen flickered a bit and all went normal.

I am not sure what to make of that.

Is there a way to make sure that it is the GPU? ANy tests I can run?

 

There are no tests like for RAM (Memtest86). The only sure fire way to know is putting a new one in.

You could see if its software related by reformatting the hard drive, or try different GPU driver versions.

 

Hmm...that's too bad. This card was still pretty great for my needs.

So if I do have to buy a new GPU...what are my options? I guess the newer ones wouldn't be compatible with the Motherboard.

Also, while we're at it, can you suggest a CPU upgrade as well?

I think I've limited options for both.

 

The 680M is the nvidia alternative, yes the latest wont work with it, for them it has to be the EM series or later.

 

I think I can safely assume it is my GPU now. This happened today:



I also got a blue screen.

Also, another weird thing. The laptop has been randomly hibernating even when plugged in. It happened today also just after the seeming GPU crash. I hard reset it. The laptop booted but hibernated automatically. Had to restart it again.

It is working OK right now but I am not sure till when!

 

Definitely gpu has gone cactus.

You can always try baking the card in the oven.

Good luck.

 

That is a good point, baking the card could get it back while you wait for the new one.

 

The weird thing is it won't happen for days. And suddenly, when I am just surfing the net, it would happen. Totally random!

I will try baking it. Hope it works!

 

bake it, it has worked for me so far for more than a month while I search for replacement. 680m 4 gig is the best card to replace the 7970m ati card. But it is also the most pricey.
Holding out for it and hopefully before the card craps out on me