Sager NP9170 - Issue with GPU ?

I'll try to make sure it's simple.

First of all the specs( Clevo P170EM ):
- Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
- Bios : ver 04.06.05 - Date : 05/21/12
- CPU : Intel i7-3720QM
- GPU : AMD 7970M <- main culprit ?
- Ram : 16GB

If you need more info. Feel free to tell me where I can get them.

Explication:
- A week ago I was playing an MMO just walking around then suddenly the game froze and turned to black screen.

- I had to force close it. And after it reached the "Starting Windows" it just froze there forever. I rebooted few times with the same results being stuck on "Starting Windows".

- With some small research with my smartphone. I saw that it could be the display driver.

- I downloaded DDU with a spare dusty laptop and launched it via Safe-mode on the Sager. Cleaned the AMD + Intel display drivers with it.

- I was then able to go back on the Windows desktop after rebooting. Then I installed the latest Intel driver. Rebooted. And worked fine.

- And then I decided to install the 14.4 Catalyst driver ( a modded one ). after the reboot, I was back to being stuck on "Starting Windows".

- Removed the AMD Driver via safe mode. I could get in Windows 7.

- The problem happened before, but I fixed it by plugging the HDMI cable on my laptop to my TV ( weirdly it revived ). But then this solution didn't work anymore.

- I tried all the possible drivers I could install for AMD. The same problem comes from each of them.

- I then opened my laptop and cleaned my fans and repasted the CPU and GPU with the Arctic MX-4. It didn't work sadly. I wanted to replug the AMD Card, but they gave me a double stripped screw that I can't remove. Bugger.

- I've tried numerous solution but now I'm really out of ideas. I'm really afraid that my GPU died after 2 years. If someone can be my hero I will be really happy If there's a way to fix this. My warranty died ... when the 2nd year got here.

Save a poor soul. Sorry for the lengthy post. I didn't know a way to explain it in a short way

 

I've also gotten stuck on the starting windows screen before. It happened after installing new drivers for the 7970m. I ended up using my last restore point and problem went away. I then reinstalled drivers and the issue didn't come back. It was strange, as if some drivers got corrupted during the install. Your situation sounds like it could be similar. Can you load a previous restore point? If that doesn't work, I know it's a pain, but maybe a clean OS install is in order. Not sure if the dGPU is dead, but could be, and might explain why it's working fine in safe mode when only the intel hd4000 is being used.

 

With it just getting stuck at startup rather than displaying weird colors, that points to software rather than hardware.It's possible that the modded drivers overwrote something within Windows to prevent booting or some startup item to halt in that process. Maybe give a Windows recovery a shot and then stick with official drivers.