Graphics Card Error in Win7

The past two days now I've been constantly getting distorted horizontal lines across my screen that occasionally lead to BSOD, as well as an error message about my video card :

Display driver stopped responding and has recovered
Display driver ATI Radeon Family stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

I've tried reinstalling all the catalyst graphics drivers from 9.3 up to the latest 9.11 (using mobilitymodder for anything past 9.3). I also tried uninstalling everything and letting Win7 find the driver for me but still I get the same problems every time a graphics driver is installed. It's only when I run in safe mode or with no graphics driver installed that there's no problem (except for the screen being huge and no areo).

Is this really a driver problem, or is my video card dying? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm a student and NEED this laptop to work lol.

 

Got the BSOD twice again, first time said something about MEMORY MANAGEMENT before my laptop shut itself down, and the second it said PFN LIST CORRUPT

 

please take the time to write down the 8 digit crash code and the 4 groups of 8 digit numbers in the () immediately after the crash code

Without that info it's hard/impossible to help you.

 

I took a screen capture of the information (viewed it with a program called NirSoft BlueScreenView):

 

Good news is, with the stop codes you have, it's pretty easy to say it's a memory problem.

And for the bad news, I can see black lines in that screenshot, so you could have failing video memory. Which basically means new laptop time if that turns out to be the case.

Here's how we start this:
Download memtest, burn to a CD.
http://www.memtest86.com/
Boot from the CD, let it run for 7 passes. 7 passes, no failures? Cool, system memory is good.

Now download Video Memory Stress Test, here:
http://majorgeeks.com/Video_Memory_Stress_Test__d5896.html
Burn the .iso in the .zip file to a CD, boot from that. Let it run also for 7 passes. Does it have errors? No? Well then...


...it's not memory and I was wrong; you should download SeaTools and test for a bad hard drive. Also get the ISO version, none of that in Windows nonsense. http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
Another possibility is a damaged pagefile. I'll just let you know that I've got lots of tricks up my sleeve and if you follow my directions I will help you get to the bottom of this.

 

I replaced the screenshot from one in safe mode, easier to read without black lines. I was hoping that since none of these problems occur in safe mode that it really was just a DRIVER problem...

Anyway, I'll follow your steps and reply once I have some results. Thanks a lot Hep!

 

My first guess would be memory, despite not happening in safe mode. Often hardware problems take longer to surface in safe mode than normal mode since the resource usage in safe mode is significantly lower. I would have had you try different drivers first, but since you already tried that, it's safe to rule it out for the most part.

 

Memtest = no errors (on 7+ passes)
Video Memory Stress Test = no errors (on 7+ passes)

SeaTools
----------
S.M.A.R.T. Test: no errors
Short Drive Self Test: no errors
Long Drive Self Test: no errors
Short Generic Test: no errors
Long Generic Test: no errors


Any further suggestions? Also, I'm haven't gotten the driver error or lines on my screen in awhile now, don't know why???

 

Scratch that, as soon as I rebooted my laptop after all the scans, I started getting the driver error and massive lines all over the screen again, and a few more BSOD:



I'm not sure what to do at this point. Maybe I didn't install/uninstall the drivers correctly? All I know is this problem started randomly, I didn't install any new hardware/software/updates.

 

Go to system properties, disable the paging file, reboot, enable paging file, reboot.
Would feel more confident in a corrupt page file if you were in XP (haven't seen it happen in Vista/7), but it's still worth a shot.

 

Seems like it's failing on eamon.sys... are you running Norton Antivirus?

 

So last night (before Hep!'s latest advice) I opened up the back of my laptop and made sure everything was tight into position, as well as tightened all the screws. My thinking was that since I carry my laptop around all day at school, maybe something got rattled. Anyway, I rebooted my computer and it started to work flawlessly, no errors at all and no screen lines after 5 reboots. I watched some videos, did some photoshoping, not a single issue.

I was thinking maybe something had been loose and the problem is now fixed... NOPE! This morning I started my laptop back up and right away the exact same problems. I don't understand why it worked fine for 10hrs last night and several reboots and now it doesn't work again??? This is confusing and very frustrating.

@ Hep!: I'll try the paging file thing now and let you know (thanks sooooo much for all the help!)

@ Pitabred: I'm not sure what eamon.sys or ntoskrnl.exe are but they seem to be causing the BSOD's. And no Norton, I run nod32.

 

Those are the faulting modules. Normally you'd analyze the minidumps to see what module was causing what fault, which gives you enough information to try to stop it... but also normally, you only have one, MAYBE two stop codes. You've got like 8. Which means it's extremely unlikely a software problem, short of the installation of Windows being the problem. Hardware problems, especially memory related ones cause sporadic errors like you're seeing. Sometimes they're easy to diagnose, sometimes not so much.

Any chance you have a spare HDD we can drop in to do testing on?

 

Tried disabling paging file, restarted, enabled paging file, restarted, same problems after every restart, no change.

If it is a memory problem (hardware) I'm going to try to shut down and replace the newer crucial 2x2gb of ram with original hynix 2x512mb that came with my laptop.

 

Alright, well Ram sticks definitely isn't the problem. I got the same errors and BSOD with the 2x512 as I did with the 2x2gb.

I do have an extra 120gb HD that currently has XP on it, came with the laptop swapped it out back in August.

 

If you don't need anything on the drive, swap it out and put a fresh load of Windows 7 on it. You can use the same disc as you do on your other HD, just enter no key for a 30 day trial.

 

I'll grab my old hard drive and install Windows7 on it, but out of curiosity if I put the old hard drive with XP on it back in, and there's no errors, does that mean that there's a problem with either my new HD or the Windows7 OS I installed (downloaded it and purchased key, never bought CD).

Also, on a random note I had to restart my laptop yet again and this time when it restarted everything was working fine again, like last night. My laptop still has it's bottom off and is sitting on the cooling pad. I ended up bumping it by accident and the screen filled with distorted lines exactly like before and then I got the typical BSOD due to SYSTEM SERVICE EXCEPTION. Now, this is making me feel like it really is a hardware problem... I foresee myself buying a Netbook come Monday.

 

If the XP drive doesn't have the issue it does point to it being either the other drive or Windows 7, or another software issue. Run it for a few days to test.
I was just suggesting putting Windows 7 to make things as close to your other setup as possible.

 

Well Hep!, I put the old drive back in and booted up the laptop. I didn't reinstall Windows7, I just started up the laptop with the old XP, and BAM same issue. Horizontal lines all over the screen, even worse then with Windows7 on my newer HD. So, this leads me to believe it's not a Memory, HD, or OS problem... mostly likely video card or other hardware. Any further suggestions to figure this out exactly?

 

I am going to say dying GPU.
Does this problem crop up instantly, or does it take some time running? If it takes some times (30 mins+) before it appears, then I'd say see if you can make it happen more quickly with something graphically intensive, like 3dmark.
If it does happen instantly, there's not a whole ton I can suggest.

 

Wait just a second...in safe mode would the GPU drivers even kick in? I'm thinking the GPU is going bye-bye.

 

No, they wouldn't. Also the GPU would be under much less stress in safe mode, so it would take longer for the symptom to appear.

 

In safe mode, are there any ATI processes running?

 

It tends to be a little bit of both. Ususally when I start up my computer the distorted lines are there, however sometimes they're not and after a few mins/hours of use (which includes watching videos @ NBA.com) they arrive and always with that annoying Display Driver error.

Acer 5672 graphics card replacement
As it turns out, the GPU on this unit is integrated on mobo + it's an old laptop + $$$ to fix = I'm screwed. As Napbree states, I see "lines of colour"...

So, looks like I'm walking in to Futureshop tomorrow and buying an Acer Aspire Netbook. I'd wait and get the Asus Eee (out of stock), but I need something for school asap.

I REALLY appreciate all the assistance and suggestions Hep! Thanks a lot
And if you have any further suggestions or ideas please post away.

 

I haven't had any issues yet while in safe mode, however I can't do anything graphically (no running movies, no running photoshop, no watching videos online). So I believe that no ATI processes are running.

 

You could try booting to VGA mode for a bit more usability. It's in the F8 boot menu. VGA mode is normal mode minus video drivers. You still lose out on the photoshop and online videos though.

Personally, I'd try to reflow your GPU in the oven. People are doing it primarily on nVidia cards, but that doesn't mean it won't work for you. I've personally had great success baking several laptops.

Here's the guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385973

Best of luck.

 

WOW, lol baking it? Never would have crossed my mind.

So, I'd have to unscrew everything, take heat sinks and fan off mobo, put mobo in oven and bake it per instructions, then reseal heatsinks to CPU & GPU with new thermal past and reassemble everything?

I'll have to give this a try over the Xmas break when I have some more time.

Thanks again Hep!

 

Yes, you'd want to remove the motherboard from the chassis, then remove all the components you can (wireless, memory, etc).
Any soft plastics that you can remove, remove... things like those black sticky plastic sheets that they usually use to insulate the board. Many things like connectors and slots obviously can't be removed. These you just need to be careful not to touch until cool.

I've found that 9 minutes at 385F is best for me, then I turn off the oven, crack the oven door, and let it cool down to room temperature like that. The slower the cool, the better.