Windows 7: Nvidia Driver no longer works. Graphics card broke???

reconminicon · 18 Dec 2012

Hi

A few days ago on boot up my laptop restarted and then attempted windows repair. Came back to life.
Tonight while viewing Youtube my screen went black. I had to hold the power button down to restart. I chose start windows normally. When attempting to load windows I got a blue screen saying "Attemp to restart display driver has timed out". After a few attempts I have managed to get it into safe mode and deleted the Nvidia Graphics driver. Restarted and all was fine (low resolution). I installed the graphix driver again an it happened again. Is my graphics card broke?? Please say no.

Alienware M7700 D900K
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4600+
GeForce 6800 Ultra
Windows 7 64
2gig Ram

The Nvidia driver does not detect my graphix card so I have to add it in the Setup Information file. But I have had no problems for about nine month since I bought this laptop second hand.

I joined this site for another problem a few days ago. Slow speeds and constant HDD access but had a good clean out and was going to see how it went. Then this happened. I do not think they are related.

NikDorado · 19 Dec 2012

hi,

yes, probably the card is broken. Try to install different versions of the driver, but if you get blue screen the card should be broken.
try also to remove the card from the PCI-Express slot and clean slot and graphics card.

pebbly · 19 Dec 2012

Hi reconminicon, Always download laptop video drivers from their respective manufacturers in your case Alienware : The Ultimate Gaming Machine

reconminicon · 19 Dec 2012

Hello people and thank you for the response. I think you have confirmed my worst fears. @Dorando When it was rebooting after the blue screen I would get flashy and coloured patterns over the top of the BIOS screen and it would fade. By the time windows had loaded it had cleared and windows works/loads fine. "No Nvidia driver just windows driver low resolution". I thought it might of been stuff left in the memory!?! But now when it has been unplugged overnight and I turn it on it does not fade while booting and if the desktop has loaded while there is still crash/colours on screen all the desktop colour is messed up. When I restart it reboots as normal. No mess over the BIOS!?! @ pebbly I tried to find the driver when I bought it and put Windows 7 on it but had no joy finding it. I just use the latest Nvidia driver but have to list my graphics card in the setup files so it is recognised by the installer. I carnt understand why they have worked for months and now fail. The 6800 Ultra Go is an overclocked version of the 6800 Go. I fear it may of overclocked a day to many. Any idea where I might find the correct driver? Or is it to late?

pebbly · 20 Dec 2012

hi reconminicon, try here Alienware : The Ultimate Gaming Machine these are xp drivers /win2000

noworries · 20 Dec 2012

As an ex Alienware employee I can tell you for sure that its sounds as if the card is gone.. Also when that 7700 was built windows 7 didnt exist so it would have been put through its paces running XP along with XP qualified drivers. I doubt Alienware has a windows 7 driver listed on their site as tested and approved for use on that 7700 (altough i could be wrong). You could try roll back a driver version and then update that version to most recent. Also with regard to removing the card and cleaning the AGP slot I think you are wasting your time there but if you insist on doing it try have yourself grounded/earthed and be EXTREMELY CAREFUL. Also try using the windows Vista driver if you can find one for that card.

Windows 7: Nvidia Driver no longer works. Graphics card broke???

Nvidia Driver no longer works. Graphics card broke??? problems?