Video flicker-n-hang issues

Hi there.

First off, my laptop specs are in my sig, so check there before continuing.

I was hoping that perhaps someone could give some sort of advice as to my problem: Occasionally during games, a loading screen will yield a great deal of artefact-ing, and a static of what appears to be misplaced pixels.

The symptoms vanish once the loading screen disappears, but if this happens once, it'll happen on every subsequent loading screen, and should I close the game or even alt-tab out of it, it will happen again, hang the entire system, and usually crash to black (sometimes with only the cursor visible, and less frequently, reducing the resolution dramatically). The only thing I can do then is a hard shutdown and start it back up.

I'd also like to say that the very first time I experienced this was actually when I was watching a movie on VLC on a second CRT screen. When I re-opened the laptop, the screen was flickering, almost as if there was a frame rate issue (the second screen was unchanged).

Through a process of elimination, I get the feeling it has to do with either my PCI bus drivers, or simply an overheating issue (the whole left side of the laptop does tend to get very hot).

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Reuben (Doc) Jurott

 

**Update**

The atikmdag driver is almost certainly to blame here, so any solutions to that effect would be grand.

 

dude this is identical to the nvlddmkm stopped working problem for NVIDIA cards. I think it might be an operating system problem or you have a defective video card. try experimenting with different OS or you can exchange for a laptop.... you sure you have the latest drivers?

 

I'm positive.

After doing a full out-of-the-box reset, and reinstalling everything, it seems now I get feint stationary horizontal lines (every second row of pixels is slightly lighter) and this is throughout the game, not just during loading screens. I've taken screenshots, and they lack these lines, so read into that what you will.

Alt-Tabbing out of the screen with these symptoms doesn't crash it any more, but the lines remain, and should I do much else (like opening a new window or something) it will start flashing more and more rapidly, as if the refresh rate was slowly becoming out of sync.

After a while of that it'll just turn black, but it seems everything continues running, as pressing the power button once whilst the whole screen is black will still allow a soft shutdown.


Any other advice out there?

 

I had dual NVidia card that crashes and have flickin issue at the same time when i am running games that require rendering. I changed OS but it didn't help...maybe you should exchange for another laptop...I am still waiting for my exhange

 

I had the same problem during a Game opening, I updated my Gpu driver from the stock driver and the problem vanished. I have a Nvidia card though and upgraded to the 169.09 driver. I'd update the ATI driver and see if there is an improvement.

 

My drivers are all up to date already.

It would seem that heat is to blame. I've raised the laptop up on two pieces of wood to increase airflow to the intake fan, and so far I've not had the problem again.