Is my AMD 7970m in Sager NP9150 dead?

Hello,

Here is my story:

I started Fallout 4 and when I started to customize my character, I got the whea_uncorrectable_error BSOD on windows 10. Then after the computer restarted, I thought something was wrong with the computer when it started up, so I thought to try Fallout 4 again and it would work. I got the same BSOD again and here is where everything went bad. After I had to force shutdown the computer, the computer would get the thread_stuck_in_device_driver BSOD everytime I tried to boot up the computer.

Then I went to Safe Mode and uninstalled the amd drivers with the AMD uninstall utility. Now my computer would not get the error anymore. When I tried to reinstall the Crimson Edition 15.12 driver from AMD, I would get the thread_stuck_in_device_driver BSOD and get into the BSOD loop whenever the computer booted up again.

Now I reformatted the hard drive and did the windows 10 updates. The OS would then crash and I realized it was because Windows tried to install the driver for the AMD 7970m. I used a Windows 10 utility to hide this update and prevent the install. Now I tried to reinstall the AMD drivers from AMD's installer and the driver install will fail every time. The error message would be "Driver Install: the installation failed."

Is there anyway to install the driver or is my GPU dead? The bios detects the card and Windows obviously knew the card since it was trying to install the driver specifically for it. Also the card is not shown in the "Device Manger" under "Display Adapters." I believe it is the "Unknown device" under "Other devices."

Also if my GPU is dead, could I send it to Sager or the reseller I bought it from to get it fixed by replacing it with a new GPU? Thanks.

 

Looks like a dead GPU but wait till a few others share their opinions... Personally, not worth spending $600 on a new GPU... You should sell the laptop for parts and get a new one..

 

stuck i nthread BSOD sounds more like driver conflict with Windows 10, WHEN my card worked I used the beta 15.6 drivers from June. After my card died I haven't bothered to see what other versions work.

 

Yea, I had the stuck in thread bsod before, but now I have no drivers for AMD installed and it fails to install the drivers every time I try to do it from AMD.

How did you know your card died? What helped you decide that your card died?

 

You could try updating BIOS to see if that helps with anything if you don't have the newest version. Have you tried using an older version of the drivers, as well as the newest? Since you have 10 now, have you tried installing the version of windows that you had before that was out? I was having some different issues with my graphics card, formatted and went back to 7 and my gpu started working fine again, then upgraded to 10 after that. Might not necessarily work in a stuck thread issue, but might be worth ruling out if you have the ability to go back to 7/8.1 to try.

You could reach out to where you bought it and see if they have any advice on it, or if they have seen it before. They could help give suggestions, and you might be able to set up an RMA if you want to see if it is fixable.

 

I will try out going to try downgrade the windows OS to 8.1 or 7 when I get back from my trip. Is the procedure to upgrade the bios simple and I do understand why that would cause an issue out of nowhere.

Also I bought my laptop from Xotic PC, I will email you guys directly about the issue also after I get back from my trip.

 

Yeah, doing the BIOS isn't too bad, just make sure to read and follow instructions on it. When you reach out to our support team, if you give them your model and serial number, they can get you the BIOS update and instructions for it as well. Let me know if there is anything I can help with otherwise.

 

Sounds like the GPU is dead, similar thing happened with my laptop - started up League, received a BSOD. Windows refused to reboot, but the second I uninstalled AMD Drivers and it stopped using the 7970M and ran on my integrated, it worked fine. So unfortunately it's probably a dead GPU. All the 7970M's seem to be dying around now.

 

Did you also have trouble reinstalling the drivers? Thanks.

 

Yeah, any time I reinstalled drivers (or attempted to) my laptop crashed and wouldnt start up again. my laptop would only work if I disabled/didn't install the 7970M drivers.

 

7970M is dead... This confirms it

 

When the drivers are not installed the CPU is rendering the screen, when you install the drivers the dGPU is started properly and faulty silicon will cause the blue screen. There are replacement options since it is an MXM based machine.