Laptop screen issues

I am needing some help from the experts here in the forums. I have a Sager 9750 that just started having problems with the screen. For some reason it is giving me this distorted red burn-in type picture (it is not actual burn-in). If you have ever had burn-in from a tv you know what I am talking about. Anyway, I thought that it might be a heat issue so I cleaned the fans and had a fan blowing but that didnt work. I also reinstalled video drivers but that didnt work. I have since hooked up the laptop to another monitor and the screen is perfect so it must be the monitor that is screwy. The wierd thing is that sometimes the screen will work perfectly but whenever I start playing a game it will get that distorted red burn-in look. I have attached a pic so that you can see what I am talking about. This picture is of TF2. Notice the red splotches. Anybody have any idea on what the problem maybe and is there an easy fix? If not how much would it be to send this in for repairs? I appreciate any help.

 

Looks like driver issues.What's the driver?And the temps?

 

Graphics card is a Nvidia Geforce go 7900 GTX--driver 6.14.10.8663. CPU temp is around 58 and I am not sure how to get graphics card temp. I just turned the laptop on and it fine now but I am sure the screen will mess up again. I am not sure it is a driver issue as the screen is perfect whenever I hook the laptop up to an external monitor.

 

Have you tried HWmonitor to get gfx temps, or GPUZ?

 

I tried those two programs but it didnt show my gpu temp. It did on my newer laptop but not the one that is having problems.

 

It seems like something is screwy with your color levels or some thing like that. Have you tried messing with video options in your game or color levels in the control panel? The color distortion is following the image patterns in an organized way so I don't think it has anything to do with the card itself, something is wrong with software and/or firmware, and based on the fact that it only effects 3-D modes I don't think it is the screen itself. You could try uninstalling driver, boot to safe mode, run driversweeper, reboot, reinstall driver. Maybe a VBIOS flash? Or... you could try a full system wipe?... I know that sucks. Good luck man. You also need to send that image and a description to tech support and see what they say. I don't think its temp because you said it messes up as soon as you play the game, before the GPU has a chance to warm up.

 

Any damage to the LCD cable (the ribbon cable that feeds signals from the motherboard to the LCD display)?

 

Well, he says the problem on occurs when he is gaming, so I was thinking it might be something related to 3-D rendering/processing and not an actual hardware problem.

 

That's what I get for typing while tired ("TWT") You're right, of course; if it only happens under certain applications, it's not likely to be h/w. My bad.

 

Use RivaTuner to check your CPU temps.

Guide here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81852

 

Thanks for the replies. One thing I forgot to mention was the color is also messed up when you first boot up the computer. The boot screen which is normally black is that wierd red color so I am not too sure the problem is the graphics card. Is the graphics card even in use on the bootup screen? That is why I thought that maybe there was a problem with the actual lcd screen. How do I check to see if there is any damage to the ribbon cable. I tried to open up and look at the motherboard/screen connection but was unable as there are screws underneath the lcd screen that I cant get to.

 

Actually, if it's muffing up on boot, too, you can easily determine if the fault lies with the GPU or its drivers by forcing a boot into VGA-only mode, which will boot using the basic onboard VGA graphics instead of the discrete GPU graphics. Microsoft KB article KB315222 describes the various methods of safe booting, including VGA-only mode.

If you still get color artifacts in VGA mode, then odds are it's not a problem with your GPU or its drivers (pay careful attention, because you might get a different color effect in VGA-only mode - the point is to check to see if you're getting color artifacts that are similar in nature, not necessarily identical). If you don't get any such effects, then it's a good bet that the problem is in the GPU or its drivers.

 

I forced a boot into VGA-only mode and I am still getting the color artifacts. I installed different video drivers but got the same thing. Any other suggestions? If it is something wrong with the screen how much does it usually cost to get fixed? Again thanks for the help.

 

screen is pretty cheap, around $100-200 for a new panel.

videocard, however, would be quite costly ($300+)