faulty laptop

[xaero]

hello people.. im wondering if any of you guys are experienced with repairing faulty laptops..

if u are read on..

this is my problem:

i am in agony.

let me explain.

i am using a factory,pre-built laptop, Acer Aspire 5580 that runs Nvidia Geforce Go 7300. I have been using it for a year. A YEAR! then the most unimaginable thing happened to me... my laptop died.. well sort of..

at first i noticed yellow vertical lines about an inch around my cursor, then soon after my laptop freezes. so i rebooted. when it came to the windows logon screen, i got a BSOD!

image:

http://i35.tinypic.com/favp05.jpg

Wait! theres a bigger problem! when i reboot again, i cannot see anything... my monitor screen is blank. the backlight is on but the screen is blank! :( what can i do? will plugging in an external monitor work? (i doubt so) i cannot go into safe mode to unintall the driver because of this.. is it still possible to repair this problem by myself or do i need to (which i am not willing to) send it off for repair?

ok if all hope fails, can i at least rip off my laptop hard drive and plug it to my other PC via USB? will all my existing files still be readable?

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/laptop-support/314632-bsod-nv4_disp.html

~edit

so basically now i can plug an external VGA display and uninstall the driver, but everyime i try to install the display driver, from manufacturers site or a custom forceware, it crashes again...

is is self fixable?

[medoix]

by the sounds of it you have faulty drivers.

remove the hdd and attach to your pc with an external USB>IDE cable. Grab all your files and format + re-install windows.

[VaKo]

Nvidia heat failier? Or was that not on the 7 series? TBH, if it crashes with the driver you need to get it repaired or returned. Its not supposed to do that, so I'm thinking hardware.

[DABIGHURT]

there is a product that will allow you to plug you laptop drive in via usb and pull all the data off

http://www.dalco.com/ProductDetails2.aspx?...&selection=

[xaero]

Nvidia heat failier?

the fan is spinning, i can hear it lol

its an old laptop running nvidia geforce go 7300..

TBH, if it crashes with the driver you need to get it repaired or returned. Its not supposed to do that, so I'm thinking hardware.

unfortunately my warranty expired..and im not going to waste like $300 repairing an old model laptop!(according to them, its around that price, WTF)

i also know im not the only one experiencing problems with acer laptops!

im going to backup all my data, and try 1 last format soon (after my projects are done)

then if format doesnt work, i'll just ditch this and buy a new laptop. thanks people! at least i now know is hardware.

[0xC0FF33]

The BSOD lets me think of an error in you NVidia drivers. nv4 is the chipset of your pc. Did you upgrade the chipset drivers?? Or even tried to remove and reinstall them? And what about other operating systems??

As a tipp: Do it soon! I had almost the same problem with an old laptop and I tried too long. Now it's really dead...

[VaKo]

Its a shame when this happens but it does. Once your laptop is out of warranty its pretty worthless. One thing you could do is check around on ebay for the same version of the laptop with a broken screen or similar, then just swap the inards over.

As for the Nvidia/Heat issue, there was a manufacturing issue with a most of Nvidias stock which lead to laptops with certain graphics chips failing at a much higher rate than was expected, same issue was happening in desktops but they have less agressive power management.

One thing you could try is to install linux on the system, something like ubuntu as it has decent driver support. If it dies when you use the right drivers then stick the thing on ebay for parts and get a new one.

[psydT0ne]

OK this, seriously might be worth a go, if you think it's a hdd phail.

Grab a copy of SPINRITE from GRC.com or alternatively, elsewhere.....u get my drift, remembering that winners don't do ware-rez (sic...see season one of hak5).

This program is "DA BOMB" when is comes to recovering dodgy drives, however be prepared to wait while this gem works it's magic...sometimes 10 hours or more can be expected.

Patience will usually pay off in the long run.

Have a go at it anyways it just may fix the issue.

[xaero]

The BSOD lets me think of an error in you NVidia drivers. nv4 is the chipset of your pc. Did you upgrade the chipset drivers?? Or even tried to remove and reinstall them? And what about other operating systems??

As a tipp: Do it soon! I had almost the same problem with an old laptop and I tried too long. Now it's really dead...

ARRGHHH!!! dont scare me like that! im currently on my laptop (the one with the "dead" monitor..) with no graphics driver.. screen laggy as hell! i am going to backup my data soon.. when i find time and HDD space for it lol

chipset? i looked in my manufacturers page and it only shows 2007 drivers... no updates.. and there is only BIOS update, which i have already done..

OK this, seriously might be worth a go, if you think it's a hdd phail.

Grab a copy of SPINRITE from GRC.com or alternatively, elsewhere.....u get my drift, remembering that winners don't do ware-rez (sic...see season one of hak5).

This program is "DA BOMB" when is comes to recovering dodgy drives, however be prepared to wait while this gem works it's magic...sometimes 10 hours or more can be expected.

Patience will usually pay off in the long run.

Have a go at it anyways it just may fix the issue.

no my HDD is ok, its my graphic drivers that im having issues with..

As for the Nvidia/Heat issue, there was a manufacturing issue with a most of Nvidias stock which lead to laptops with certain graphics chips failing at a much higher rate than was expected, same issue was happening in desktops but they have less agressive power management.

One thing you could try is to install linux on the system, something like ubuntu as it has decent driver support. If it dies when you use the right drivers then stick the thing on ebay for parts and get a new one.

hmm i havent tried it with ubuntu.. lets see if i can still rmmbr the password..

[DingleBerries]

From the post i got that you are using ACER drivers, have you tried downloaded the drivers from Nvida? Maybe trying to roll back the drivers to an older version that worked. If you are using xp can you plug in your external monitor and take a ScreenShot of your device manager, with the graphics sub open, and your display properties. Also try a linux live cd and see what happens.

If all is phail take the screen off and use it as a headless server or just suck it up and use the external monitor, now you will have a SUPER slim line pc.

[xaero]

From the post i got that you are using ACER drivers, have you tried downloaded the drivers from Nvida? Maybe trying to roll back the drivers to an older version that worked. If you are using xp can you plug in your external monitor and take a ScreenShot of your device manager, with the graphics sub open, and your display properties. Also try a linux live cd and see what happens.

If all is phail take the screen off and use it as a headless server or just suck it up and use the external monitor, now you will have a SUPER slim line pc.

nope, i tried to search for a bunch of drivers elsewhere, but i found none on nvidia's site.. then i went an search for custom forceware drivers, but my laptop seems to be incompatible.. then i finally i found one that worked.. for awhile.. until it crashed like my previous driver... i cannot roll back, coz i only installed 1 driver.

and yes im currently using an external monitor through VGA with no graphics driver..

im sucking it up since i dont want to shell out that much money to repair and old laptop..

anyways this is the screenshot:

http://uploadingit.com/files/929293_8wjis/...-looks-sexy.jpg

tried to run ubuntu, but it frooze. i saw horizontal, colorful lines across the screen. :(

[DingleBerries]

Are you using a different shell? Id try Backtrack and select all the different settings, graphic, and see if any of them work, if they do its not your card... if they dont then oh well.

[VaKo]

I know Dell get custom parts from Nvidia, ones that require you to download drivers specifically from Dell for that part. What I don't know is if Nvidia do this for Acer. If this is the case then you need to use the Acer drivers as the standard Nvidia ones might cause problems or fail to install. This might also cause problems under linux if there is an incompatibility between this particular hardware and the standard nvidia drivers provided by the Ubuntu repo.

You should crack it open, clean out all the vents and heat sinks, clean and re-apply some thermal gunk on all the bits that need it. I see no end of laptops at work and large amounts of them are full of dust.

But all this being said, if it fails to work with a clean install of XP SP3, no updates and just that correct driver from Acer's page, and fails with a clean install of Ubuntu in a similar fashion then I would just reuse it as a torrent server or something until it finishes dieing. Just swap the hard drive out or connect it to another machine if you still have data on there and do some tests with a clean install.

Personally I think its fucked though, buy a new one and stop wasting your time with it.

[digip]

What happens when you try running a live disc? Does it still only give you a screen from an external monitor, or does the laptop screen show anything? Do you even get a bios screen on the lappy, and then goes blank under windows? Cause if you don't even get a bios screen and its blank from the moment you turn it on, sounds like the screen itself has a problem, like a backlight or burned out part.

I had an issue like that with a laptop that would only work with the external monitor. Took it in to get fixed and the guy replaced a part in like 3 seconds and screen came back on without a problem. I can't remember if it was the backlight or another part that burned out, but even though I couldn't get a screen, if you shined a flashlight at the screen and got real close, you could actually see that it was booted and in windows, just so dark that you could barely see it at all.

[xaero]

on ubuntu, its not hooked up to an external display. it works fine on my laptop monitor. then horizontal lines across the screen, colorful lines appear onscreen and it freezes. so i reboot and now i cant see anything. there IS backlight but monitor is blank. no bios no nothing, unless i plug in an external monitor.

i am pretty sure my monitor is ok, there is backlight.

i am pretty sure my graphics card is ok, there is something on screen on my external monitor

it has to be something inside..

anyways i am planning on buying a new laptop. just came back from http://www.sitex.com.sg/ afew minutes ago..

funny how dumb salesman try to get you to buy their products when clearly i know more that him!

i give up on this current laptop. no i will not waste money trying to get it repaired, nor will i want to waste time getting it to work again with alternative OSes.. f-this.. it has served me well.

thanks guys.. for ur help lol ;)

[0xC0FF33]

sounds like heating problems if you also have problems in other operating systems... Maybe the GPU gets a bit too hot... Ever checked that?