d901C video card failure?

Hi all,
I've been using a D901C (from rjtech) for more than 1.5 years(Got it on 10/09/2007). Yesterday when I was playing a game the screen froze and went hazy. I reset the laptop only to find strange green square blocks after BIOS post and the OS won't boot completely(Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit or Windows 7 64-bit). I've attached a picture of this.

I'm able to use a live cd and boot into safe mode( in windows) but only with blotchy graphics.

Does this mean the video card( 512 MB Nvidia 7950 Go) has gone wrong? Has anything like this happened to anyone?

So far, I've tried removing RAM/graphic card and putting them back in. Cleared the dust etc.,

Any help or pointers appreciated.

Thanks

 

hmm.... does seem hardware related.


was that the first time you cleared out the dust in your notebook in the 1.5 years that you have had it?
.... if so, then you might have caused it to be damaged from a long duration of time with overheating

You can check the LCD cables and inverter as well.
.... an easy way is to connect the notebook to an external monitor.
......... if it works fine on the external monitor, its and LCD (and/or LCD cable, inverter) issue

 

You could try to check the memory if you have another computer with intent access and a cd burner. It is easy and fast and does not require much, and if the memory is not the problem move to the other components.
If your hdd got bad sectors might also do funny things.

You might try to do a clean install or try to boot a live cd linux. If the problem is in memory or video card it should show up.
It is also posible that only windows is damaged and only a reinstall is needed.

If you are sure that the problem appeared after the freezing of your computer then it is probable that something burned. In general if the video card is burned the computer will not boot.


PL

 

Hi, Thanks for your responses. I've checked the RAM .. it's fine. So is the HDD. I've reinstalled the OS .. it's still the same.
The video card displays ok without the driver(but with blotchy graphics). With the driver, it does not display at all. How could a part of the card be not functioning? I will check the cable if it's connected right.

I do not have an external monitor as of now.

 

your video card is toast, sorry.

 

Is it possible to replace the graphic card? I've sent a mail to rjtech .. doubt if they'll respond. Can't seem to find a 7950 Gtx anywhere since it's a mobile card.

Also, would it be possible to sell this laptop to one of the vendors(xotic pc etc) and get a new one for extra money?

 

its very very easy to replace the videocard.

.... many people sell that videocard for your notebook for pretty cheap.

 

Good luck with it mate, sorry I can't help you but I was hoping you could help me.

Recently bought a D901C myself and plan to put a Ubuntu installation on it. Currently planning on Ubuntu Studio 8.04.1 distribution. I have to admit I am new to Linux so will be my first time installing and I was wondering if there's any specific problems I might expect with the D901C.

Feel free to take it to PMs if you don't want to pollute this thread although people seem fairly confident it's your gfx card. You may want to find the revision of your motherboard to ascertain which GPUs your machine is compatible with.

 

Hello,

I found this link about how to check the video card on each component of it:

http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100683653

maybe it will help .

PL

 

evga only is meant for desktop videocards.... not notebooks.

you can try to reseat the videocard... but the external monitor test is teh simplest.

 

I think you TL;DR'd this one, Gophn. The main highlight in pasoleatis's link is Misha Cherkes's VMT 1.7. I have been using this application since 1.1 to test the memory on my cards and my client's cards and it always worked like a charm. It will help 24andkid deduce whether his GPU memory is bad and if it may be the cause of the artifacts.

 

Thanks a lot. I ran the test with the iso off a CD. And it saw that the card has only 256MB of memory(it's a 512 MB card)!?
And there were too many errors in test 2 (zeroes test) to proceed.

Code:

Error at [memory location] must be 00, but found 20 (bits: 00100000) 

I guess this confirms that the problem IS the card. Still a bit confused as to why would it partly work.

Thanks for all your help guys. Really appreciate it.

 

GPU's with faulty memory can still operate. They would only fail if any data is read or written from the bad section on the memory chips. The same goes for system memory. A computer can still function just fine for hours on bad memory, but if anything is read or written to a bad section of the memory, then the system will BSOD.

 

It can still work if only the memory is damaged but then it fails to do al the work wehn the bad part of memory is used. Too bad you can not change just the video ram.

PL

 

We posted in the same moment, almost the same information .

PL

 

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