M40-jm8 help please!!

Hi, i have just purchased a M40-jm8. everything seems to work fine, except the screen, everything that it display seem to have a lot of noise. first, i thought it was because that it was the video card, since it have an intergrated intel extreme 2. i check the video ram, it only have 8mb, so i thought of changing the ram to a higher level, but i try to find the configuration tool everywhere in the os, including the driver setting, configuration and the graphic manager, i can't find a single trace of where it could set the video ram value. so i check the bios, nothing is there, other than some basic configuration. does anyone have a similar problem like me, please help me out here!

 

That sounds like a bad driver or a defect. Reading the RAM on an integrated card can be tricky, so don't get hung up on that 8MB right now. Try removing the video driver, if that fails you should probably call support.

 

well, brian, thanks for replying, it is useless, i have even try it with a linux boot up cd, and the graphic still remain so unworthy. i check the details of intel extreme graphic 2, i realize it is normal to have such a low memory of video ram, i can't think of another reason why does the screen display in such a way, i wonder if it is the nature of this laptop or is it a defeat. i guess i might call the manufacturer tomorrow to verify this, if you or anyone have any further information, please reply.
one more thing, when it comes to display a image of sunset, it appears to be that it is in its worst state.

 

First, with shared video memory units, the video memory will dynamically change when needed. Since you're just surfing the web and such, not much memory is required, but once you go into some 3D games and such, the memory will jump up to the required amount. It does this because the video memory is shared with the system ram. The more system ram it can free, the faster your system will run. So don't worry about that number.

Second, regarding the grainy video, are you running the maximum (native) resolution that the screen can hit? If not, this will explain why your graphics is grainy/noisy. LCD's must run at full resolution in order for it to look sharp. It's not like a CRT where you can change resolutions and it still looks good. LCD's have a set # of pixels (wide & high), if the resolution is not at max, the screen will have to stretch the image in order to fit on the screen. This stretching will cause the gariny look of the graphics. You can always disable the stretching feature, but that would leave black borders around your screen. For example, if your LCD is 1280x800 native and you only set it to 800x600, the LCD will only activate 800x600 pixels out of the 1280x800. Therefore, you'l have black borders around your 800x600 screen which are unactivated pixels.

You should also try using the most upto date drivers from the Toshiba website. If this doesn't work, you can go the extreme step of reloading your OS using Toshiba's Recovery CD's. This way, you're only running Toshiba loaded software/drivers on the system and there's no way anything you loaded could be affecting it. If it still doesn't work after this, then there could be a problem with the system, try getting a replacement and see if the problem still exists.

Good Luck!

-Vb-

 

thanks,Venombite! but of all of what you said i have already try it all. i have even boot up the system with a linux cd, but the same result comes up. i was thinking even to upgrade my bios, but i suppose that will void the return policy. anyway, i have already return this model for a a70-rw1, it works so fine, so smooth, so far, although i have heard a lot of bad things about this, but i guess this model will be fine, since on the back of it there is the date, 05/16/2005 with the word ROA on it, i suppose that is the manufacture date, which will mean that this unit is produced after these problems have been found, but if anyone got any other clues, please let me know. thanks

 

Learner,

Since you've already returned the unit, I guess any suggestions would just be for future reference.

Booting from a Linux CD is no guarantee that the video drivers for the new video card will be included, so it's possible you're still operating with "compatible" drivers that may give you limited resolution/colour support.

Upgrading the BIOS will not viod the warranty as this is provided by Toshiba for the user to upgrade. If it would be something that would void the warranty, they wouldn't provide it freely on their site.

Well, in any case, you're welcome for the suggestions. Since the problem didn't get resolved by reloading the OS using the Toshiba recovery CD's and drivers, then it would indicate a defective system, either in the video controller/systemboard or LCD.

Currently, the reports of static on the A70's have dropped significantly, so I think they may have finally fixed the problem. I know they added a lot more grounding tape and esd tape to the underside of the top cover, so maybe that helped.

-Vb-