Nvidia Driver issue with the 8662?

I'm not really sure where to go to in order to get a proper answer on this matter so here I am. Hopefully this is right forum, if not I'd appreciate any directions.

Anyways, I've had the NP8662 for about 1.5 years now and it's worked out great as far as being my first high end laptop goes, but recently I ran into some unexpected trouble. As some of you might know the Starcraft 2 beta was recently released, and while I didn't get an invite myself(damn you Blizzard. Damn you.), my friend was kind enough to lend me his account to play.

For a week and a half now I'd been enjoying the game on a pretty frequent basis, but a few days ago in the middle of a game I got a BSOD. Now I wasn't a stranger to BSODs, as I had seen a few in the past, so I assumed it was just the natural result of a mix of multiple things happening at the same time and that it does happen so I dismissed it and rebooted.

When I booted the windows error finder told me it was a problem with the graphics driver, so naturally I thought to update myself as I had not in a while. So I grabbed the latest compatible driver with the modded inf and, now, if memory serves me correctly, I think I mistakenly installed the driver without first uninstalling the one I had. Stupid move I know, I don't exactly recall my thought process at the time of the event. It was really late in my defense.

Anyways, so it goes, I reboot back after installing the driver and my system becomes unable to reach the login screen. Whenever I booted, it would show the loading screen (the aurora thing...) then instead of going next to the log in screen my monitor would just go black and eventually reboot itself. What does end up happening is that I have to boot into safe mode, uninstall the driver which then allows me to boot normally but instead I have to run the Standard VGA Adapter.

That was about 2 days ago, since then I've basically tried a dozen different drivers (properly uninstalling, rebooting, then sweeping and rebooting then reinstalling) including the one I was on before and everything has produced the exact same result. I even updated my BIOS in hopes that that would work, but it didn't. I've literally scoured the internet for any possible answers but I haven't found any conclusive solutions or solutions that worked for me.

Anyways, here are my system specs pre-crash.

# Operating system:Windows 2.6.0.6001 (SP 1)
# CPU type:Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P9500 @ 2.53GHz
# CPU Speed (GHz):2.554
# System memory (GB):3.994
# Graphics card model:NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GT [Dox Optimised 182.46]
# Graphics card driver:nvd3dum.dll
# Desktop resolution:1680x1050

 

if i were you i would revert back to 186.81 which have been the best for me so far.
download Who Crashed which will give you a better idea of the bsod.
also when you cleaned the previous drivers out did you use driver cleaner pro?

 

Did a crash dump and this is what I got...

On Sun 3/21/2010 9:00:54 AM your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA80094EA010, 0xFFFFFA6002417040, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
Dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini032110-01.dmp

I am currently using Driver Sweeper followed by CCleaner.

 

The reason for the BSOD was the graphicdriver (nvlddmkm.sys). I`m guessing the graphic card has died.

 

If the graphics card is dead what would you guys suggest I do?

Does my warranty with sager/xotic cover this?
If I needed to get a new card, which would work with my specific system?

Is there any way to see if it's really dead?

 

best way is to contact your reseller.

it will be very very unlikely you will find a 9800gt card now as they have been superseeded by the 260 cards.
please tell me you havnt oc'd the card as i see you are using dox drivers as this will most probably invalidate your warranty.

 

I've never attempted to OC my card at all, I just used the dox drivers on a recommendation that they were better than the standard stuff nvidia puts out.

I'm finding it hard to believe that the card itself is dead, rather, I don't want to believe that the card is dead. Is anyway to figure out of its dead for sure, without having to put it in another laptop?

Also I've been seeing this baking method for gfx cards. Is this possibly applicable to my situation?

And I wouldn't have to have a 9800 gt as a replacement, I'd definitely considering upgrading. The only concern I have is whether or not the new cards would be compatible with my setup.

 

there is a walkthrough of how to bake your card but this is a last resort.
not sure if the connections are the same for the newer 260 so others will have to advise you on this.

 

Gtx 260m mxm 2.1 III will fit, but you should update your bios and kbc/ec to the latest.