d900t video problem

Hey folks. I purchased a d900t notebook from a pawn shop for 100 smackers (which is a steal being it is listed at over $2000 online). It wouldn't boot at all when purchased. The first thing you would see when it powered up was a bunch of accented a's covering the screen. It has been formatted and wondows reinstalled and still have the accented a's when first booting up then shows the sager screen and once window boots up completely it runs fine except for the dispaly. I have pretty little pink dots covering my screen and am unable to run it in anything other than 800x600 pixels or else it will completely shut the system down. Graphics are horrible but everything else runs great. It has a nVidia GeForce Go 6800 video card. Has anyone seen this before and if so is it that I need a new video card?? A new one runs 460 bucks..not cheap. I was thinking maybe there was a driver that wasnt installed that perhaps I needed (trying anything first but then again scared to even try to mess with the pixels in fear that it will crash on me.) Any help is appreciated.
Missie

 

please give us some pics (even its its with a camera phone).

upload it to www.imageshack.us or attach to the reply.

that sounds very strange indeed. There might a number of problems from what you described...
- BIOS might need updating (to remedy the strange digits during bootup)
- Videocard might be causing the strange "pink dots" or artifacting

 

Okay have taken some pics from boot up to websites. First starting with the accented a's. The guy that worked on it did say he had to "flash the bios"??? Whatever that is. Anyway let me see if i am smart enought to post photos.

 

other than the POST/BIOS screen, everything else seems ok.

You have to download the drivers for the videocard:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=9890

I recommend to get the nVIDIA 79.31 drivers first.

Then see if you can set the resolution to its native... its usually 1680x1050 or 1920x1200

The BIOS might have been screwed up a bit from the previous flash update.. thats why the strange characters show up that way.

And I did not really see those pink dots, but they sound like artifacts or... coming from the color depth not being higher than 16-bit.

 

Okay so if i pump the pixels up and it shuts off on me can you give me the steps to get it back up so i can run it in the lowest bit?? Scary! LOL But yeah on the one pic that shows the screen look way at the bottom and the dots are noticeable didnt show real well on the screen but let me try this and see what happens... keep your fingers crossed! but I aso thought that if it was the video card wouldnt it not show anything at all??? Know what I mean?/ K.. going to try it and see ... oh my!

 

O i see the pink artifacts now.

Hmmm... that really seems to be due to hardware if thats a "safe mode" graphical setting (16 colors).

If the drivers dont help and pushing the resolution up causes problems, then the videocard needs to get swapped out.

Do you know where this notebook came from (take a pic of the bottom, I can tell the custom SKU's of Sager, Pro-Star, etc..)??


If the warranty is still available, then I would get it RMA'ed.

 

The top of the case has imperial on it and I do know that the guy that worked on it said it was a ProStar. But also on the bottom it says Clevo Co. model d9 product code (chineese symbols) D900T. Nowhere on the bottom says anything about Prostar (but what do I know about it. There is a place here in my home town that said they can run a diagnostic check to find the exact problem. I think I will take it to them and do that before I spend 460 for another video card and that not be the problem.I am thinking it is but better safe in asking. Thank you so much for your help. I will continue to keep you updated on anything new I find out about it. tried to take a pic but it didnt show very well and didn't know if it you would even be able to see what you would need to see.

 

Contact these guys:
This is the vendor that the notebook came from.

They should be able to assist you in service and repair.

Imperial Computers
http://www.imperial-computer.com/
Telephone
626-285-1256
FAX
626-285-9488
Postal address
318 S. San Gabriel Blvd. Units B & C
San Gabriel, CA 91776
Electronic mail
General Information: [email protected]
Sales: [email protected]
Customer Support: [email protected]

BBB Rating (since 1985): AA

looks like I got some more Clevo Resellers to update

-Gophn

 

Ha! I did contact the seller (Imperial)! What a joke! The first thing they say when they answer the phone is "Eh? Imperial!" HAHA I tell him what I am calling about and the first thing he says is "Are you Military? and when I say I am not military, he says "no can help you." So I called back and said my husband was military and needed a video card for the thing and he said "email me, I give you information." Email him at the george email addy and no reply. We have been on these people since September! Thanks for the information though WORD TO THE WISE... DO NOT BUY FROM IMPERIAL!!

 

thats strange for a reseller to act, but i am not too surprised, they have no reseller ratings recently, and their site has not been updated for almost 2 years. Everything was out of date.

That sucks.

 

Okay i downloaded drivers installed and pumped the pixels up and monitor went blank but the computer didnt shut off this time.. just black monitor so i think i will end up getting another video car boo hoo.. but if you think of anything else lemme know. By the way what setting (pixel wise) is best for this bad baby anyway??
Thanks!

 

ok tell me what vga mode is LOL i downloaded drivers and installed and pumped pixels up went to a blac screen so when it brought it back up by hitting f8 i told it to enter vga mode and omg! big as heck but clear??? with a few little blotches here and there but NOTHING like what it was??? wth? if it was video card would it not be bad in that mode also???
lord have mercy this is blinding me! LOL

 

LOL, so can i get a pic of that?

 

I will take some pics for you and post.. but i can surely see things clearer now. 640x480 is what it is running at.. bad part is .. i cant get it to set back to the 800x600 resolution as before but it is running .. have to scroll side to side when veiwing a page and oh my does it take forever to scroll all the way down to the bottom .. haha! I think at this point I am just tinkering around to see what I can do with it. Will have photos posted by this afternoon.

 

Does the computer even recognize your video card? Right-click the desktop, go Properties, Settings tab, and see what it says.

You could always try installing the drivers again, use our guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64910

 

Gophn, San Gabriel is about 45 minutes from where I live. How far is it from where you are? Maybe we should pay them a visit?

 

It does recognize the video "(multiple monitors) nvidia geforce go 6800" will try the udating driver again with link above and see what happens... thanks guys... i will keep trying to figure this thing out.

 

k uninstalled the driver, restarted and installed current driver .. seems to have a better display somewhat but still cant pump the pixels ( have a great new year everyone!

 

Can you connect an external display to it to see that the resolution and image quality is better on the external monitor?

 

nope i think i have to have an adapter and i dont have one for it??? i think ... can you please tell me how to get it off this vga mode and back to the 800 x 600 resolution cause this is driving crazy takes forever for it to scroll down a page... thanks!

 

You can get a DVI-VGA adapter from almost anywhere, they are worth less than $10.
Here is 1 from Newegg for $3:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814999201

the only way to really get out of VGA mode is to install the compatible nVidia drivers (from Clevo, Sager, Pro-Star).

You can remedy the scroll speed by going into your:
- System Properties
- Advanced tab
-- In the Performance section, click on the Settings button
--- Under the Visual Effects tab, make sure that everything is unchecked.

 

Hey G.. check this out... I booted it up in safe mode with networking and was able to pump pixels up and it is running fine.. no blimishes.. graphics are awesome???? Didn't cause the monitor to go black like in regular boot up???? Is that normal? I mean if the video card was shot wouldnt it not give me the same problems in safe mode?? I am in safe mode now and things are awesome on this side of OZ..... Weird? But being I dont know alot about this system... I could be wrong?

 

Safe mode is great for diagnostics, it force Windows to use a generic driver, so yes you can force up the resolution with minimal problems... but I dont think that it is as efficient as a Normal Mode.

Can you bring it in to a nearby Clevo vendor to let them check it out, Pro-Star and Sager are both in City Of Industry.... I recommend to try Pro-Star first... due to my recent experiences with them.

There must be something weird about the system, but from what we have been discussing about, I am still not sure if its a hardware or a software issue... maybe a bit of both even.

 

There is a little place called bits and bugs here in my home town that can run a diagnostic which will tell us what is wrong with it. I think they open back up on Wednesday. I think I will take it to them and let them check it out. It just throws me off that it is so clear on safe mode. I do thank you for all that you have helped me with. I am going to continue to keep you posted on the outcome so if anyone else comes across this problem you can pass the word on. I will continue to tinker with it a bit more.. besides cant really hurt it any eh?

 

oh yeah still not able to get it to anything higher than 16 bit medium but does show clearly will keep you posted

 

G-- I went into safe mode tinkering around uninstalled drivers and restarted and when it said found new hardware i hit cancel... being i dont know if I have the right drivers or not.... it boots up normally now and I can change everything in normal windows as far as resolution and OMG what a niffy little display I have ... If I have to run it this way I will. I can play games .. watch videos... the whole nin yards.... thought I would update ya! Thanks for all you guys have done! Will keep ya posted!
Missie

 

ok did windows update not the dayum thing shut off and when booting up it gives me operating system not found. tried to boot with windows xp disk and it says my drive is missing??? WHAAAAA

 

thats weird, Windows update should not have caused that.

You should check your BIOS to see if it see your HDD.
and if your HDD is in the boot sequence.

 

This is the error message i got Resource Conflict - PCI on Motherboard
Bus:00, Device:0A, Function:00
and no it is not recognizing the hdd?? How can i get the thinkg to boot up is there a way to do system restore when it wont boot to windows?? or how do i just plain ole start from scratch at one time I could have swore I seen BIOA not installed or something like that really weird at this point I feel like throwing the thing in the dumpster!

 

This is what the bios says as far as bootup....
Boot priority order:
1: USB FDC:
2. PC SC:
3. IDE: Toshiba CD/DVDW SD- blah blah
4. IDE:
5. PCI LAN

All it shows took aitty bitty pic of it for you if you cant see it well let me know and I will take a better one with my digital cam.

 

is that the harddrive that came with the system?

If you can set the BIOS to:
SATA-to-IDE
IDE-to-SATA
(something like that)

Disable any RAID options.

 

no it wont let me put the ide to number one boot position i can get the cd there but not the ide

 

is this the HDD that came w/ it?

it might be a bad drive, do u have a spare to try?

 

what does it mean when it says bios is shadowed???

 

i get this screen that comes up and says "disable bios memory options such as caching or showding" restart your computer blah blah blah and answer to your question...no spare hard drive not for a lappy anyway

 

so you got a BSOD/?.... thats a good sign that your HDD is still there.

Now you need to repair install Windows or reinstall it cleanly.

 

i have no idea when i try to reinstall windows it tells me unknown device.. i am figuring it is talkin about the hard drive then i get the blue screen about (something)dd.sys casuing the problem can i send it to you and let you repair haha! ALl kiding aside it is now sittin in the floor tired of messing with it

 

lol, go into command prompt (either in the Recovery Console with the WinXP CD or in Safe Mode)

type:
CHKDSK C: /R

That should fix all the bad sectors and missing file locations that can cause BSODs and problems with re-installations.

 

ok being i have foreign characters on my screen anyway this is what i get when i took your advice..
The volume appears to (alot of foreign characters) coverable problems LMAO!!!
to be exact it says "The volume appear<-> tnaco aiannoaraoroaun (with a bunch of little accents above each letter here and there LOL) >o`coverable problems." ha ha!!

BUT did it again and it says "the volume appears to have one or more unrecoverable problems."

 

find a working SATA 2.5" harddrive to test with, I think that might fix a few problems.

 

i think i need the appropriate bios as in like when the guy flashed the bios i dont think he did it properly because when i change to a:/ and do dir i cant even read what is in there but do see alot of flsa. but the disk has sata drivers?? written on the floppy itself

 

ummm i have a floppy LMAO funny what do i do to use this disk apparently he had used it first maybe?? heck if i know ha

 

i have to take a pic of this and show it to you this is tooooo much omg
this is the floppy read out on my poor baby

 

wow, that is definitely a corrupted BIOS.

You gotta go to a Clevo vendor and get it re-flashed. A local PC store wont be able to do it, since the BIOS is not publicly available.

 

Yep figured so ... where the heck would i find one at though? I live in Belton Texas???? Good gawd almighy!

 

http://www.imperial-computer.com/d9t_d900t.htm check this out and tell me since the computer came from here could i use this?? It is drivers.. flash and bios and all.... I am sorry to bother you so much but you have no idea how much help you have been...

 

Yay, I found you the latest BIOS for your notebook.

http://www.eurocom.ca/support/drivers/bios/D900t_bios.htm

Imperial's site is way to behind.

 

Ok.. so walk me thru here just a little to get me started... save it to a floppy? I have no idea... soooo sorry G!

 

its simple, its all done in Windows.

Download the file:
http://www.eurocom.ca/support/drivers/zip/d900t/D9R12.zip

The link that I gave you has the instructions:
http://www.eurocom.com/support/drivers/winphlash.txt

Tell me how it goes.

Note: I would go into Safe Mode after downloading the stuff.

 

Umm G... u are talking about downloading this thing onto the lappy right?? remember I cant boot that one up LOL sooo... if you mean dl to my desktop and go from there that is fine I can do that too... just want to double check first..