Laptop GPU issue?

[whitebloodcell]

Not specifically related to Windows 7 but the answers I get here are always very helpful so thought I'd try my luck with my latest problem.

My laptop (LG R405) has been behaving strange lately. The display is randomly switching into multiple (usually 8) copies of itself on screen, or image blurring or a combination of the two. Sometimes it starts immediately upon booting up in BIOS, sometimes it'll go a few hours happily. I thought (hoped?) it was a RAM problem so went about testing. Only one stick of RAM is accessible so I removed it and replaced with a stick I had around. Problems lessened but continued, the lessening was probably coincidental. Then removed the stick I had just replaced and ran memtest on the inaccessible stick. All passed.

What can I do to help narrow down what is wrong?

 

[Tepid]

It is either a bad video card or a bad Ribbon Cable.

Less likely is a Bad LCD.

If it is happening at the BIOS screen, this is a hardware issue, and more likely (98% sure) it is not a RAM issue. Weirder things have happened.

It could also be the inverter.

Here is an example.....
LCD screen cable >> Laptop Parts 101

LCD Screen Video Cable is the better known as a Ribbon Cable

So, in order of repair checking....

1. Ribbon Cable
2. Inverter
3. Video Card

Much less likely.... but, as stated "Weirder things have happened."
4. Motherboard
5. LCD
6. RAM

 

[fishnbanjo]

I'd remove the battery and the power to the laptop and hold the power button down thereby draining the laptop of all power. Replace the battery and power after 30 minutes and restart your laptop.

It should have been a short enough duration to retain your BIOS settings but a few minutes checking on your part will ensure everything is copecetic.

If this doesn't work you may have issues with your GPU and may have to remove it and bake it in your oven per instructions:

1: remove heatsink and thermal paste
2: preheat oven to 385F to 400F( NO HIGHER!) ( gas mark 6)
3: lay foil over the oven rack
4: make 4 balls of foil, about 4cm high,
5: when the oven is heated to its correct temperature, put the graphics card on the 4 balls, one on each corner )
6: leave for around 6-10 mins, NO MORE THAN 12 OR IT WILL MELT
7: remove from oven and let cool on a stack of newspaper
8: once cooled, reapply thermal paste and heatsink then reinstall

This has been used by folks over on the Overclockers board and Alienware Forums with success with funky gpu cards.

 

[CarlTR6]

I'd remove the battery and the power to the laptop and hold the power button down thereby draining the laptop of all power. Replace the battery and power after 30 minutes and restart your laptop.

It should have been a short enough duration to retain your BIOS settings but a few minutes checking on your part will ensure everything is copecetic.

If this doesn't work you may have issues with your GPU and may have to remove it and bake it in your oven per instructions:

1: remove heatsink and thermal paste
2: preheat oven to 385F to 400F( NO HIGHER!) ( gas mark 6)
3: lay foil over the oven rack
4: make 4 balls of foil, about 4cm high,
5: when the oven is heated to its correct temperature, put the graphics card on the 4 balls, one on each corner )
6: leave for around 6-10 mins, NO MORE THAN 12 OR IT WILL MELT
7: remove from oven and let cool on a stack of newspaper
8: once cooled, reapply thermal paste and heatsink then reinstall

This has been used by folks over on the Overclockers board and Alienware Forums with success with funky gpu cards.

Now that is interesting.

 

[whitebloodcell]

If this doesn't work you may have issues with your GPU and may have to remove it and bake it in your oven per instructions:

1: remove heatsink and thermal paste
2: preheat oven to 385F to 400F( NO HIGHER!) ( gas mark 6)
3: lay foil over the oven rack
4: make 4 balls of foil, about 4cm high,
5: when the oven is heated to its correct temperature, put the graphics card on the 4 balls, one on each corner )
6: leave for around 6-10 mins, NO MORE THAN 12 OR IT WILL MELT
7: remove from oven and let cool on a stack of newspaper
8: once cooled, reapply thermal paste and heatsink then reinstall

This has been used by folks over on the Overclockers board and Alienware Forums with success with funky gpu cards.

Care to link me to the thread on overclockers? Trying to see why that would do anything useful.

 

[Ageeb]

Care to link me to the thread on overclockers? Trying to see why that would do anything useful

OCForums
[H]ard|Forum

google results

edit:
I haven't read about the oven trick for a while, but I don't recall reading about integrated video being any of the contestants
choose this method as your very last result, as I suspect your entire motherboard will have to go in (which brings finding a teardown guide for your laptop into the mix, as well. I'd start here for that)...

 

[mpcrsc562]

Had you laptop been subject to any drops or very hard bumps lately?

 

[whitebloodcell]

Had you laptop been subject to any drops or very hard bumps lately?

No, just started one day whilst watching a video. I tried connecting it to an external monitor to see if it was just an LCD problem - no dice, happened on the external as well.

I assume it's an integrated GPU so I'll see what can be done regards the oven trick. I introduced this problem as my laptop, but in actuality it's my brother's girlfriend's, so convincing them that taking it apart and baking is the best course of action may be difficult.

Fortunately I have my actual old laptop that fell prey to the failing nVidia GPU issue a couple years back which I am free to experiment as I see fit so will give that a go at the weekend methinks.

 

[mpcrsc562]

Had you laptop been subject to any drops or very hard bumps lately?

No, just started one day whilst watching a video. I tried connecting it to an external monitor to see if it was just an LCD problem - no dice, happened on the external as well.

I assume it's an integrated GPU so I'll see what can be done regards the oven trick. I introduced this problem as my laptop, but in actuality it's my brother's girlfriend's, so convincing them that taking it apart and baking is the best course of action may be difficult.

Fortunately I have my actual old laptop that fell prey to the failing nVidia GPU issue a couple years back which I am free to experiment as I see fit so will give that a go at the weekend methinks.

I wouldn't do the oven trick... My two cents. The article I read some time ago only applied to discrete cards, i.e. add on graphics cards for desktops. I have never heard of this for a motherboard...

 

[Dom]

Just adding to fishnbanjo's input, lots of replies on those forums that it worked. Another guy posted how to do it with a laptop : Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card resurrected! - [H]ard|Forum just look at the edit halfway through the post once the first lot of pictures had ended.

 

[pebbly]

i posted a little while ago http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/76034-repairing-laptop-graphics-card.html and am very pleased to say its still working fantastic , no probs whatsoever , so i would definitely say give it a go

 

[mpcrsc562]

Just adding to fishnbanjo's input, lots of replies on those forums that it worked. Another guy posted how to do it with a laptop : Holy crap, it worked! Dead video card resurrected! - [H]ard|Forum just look at the edit halfway through the post once the first lot of pictures had ended.

i posted a little while ago http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/76034-repairing-laptop-graphics-card.html and am very pleased to say its still working fantastic , no probs whatsoever , so i would definitely say give it a go

Wow! So it has been a while since I read up on the baking thing... Laptop boards work too, very cool.

But the thing is what you stated about the pc being your brother's girlfriend's... Good luck with the convincing

 

[fishnbanjo]

Basically all it's doing is allowing some bad solder to reseat itself so to speak. It gets hot enough to cause some flow but not hot enough for the solder to fall out. Baking a board was what we did when we repaired one, i.e. we'd use the blueprints for the circuit board and find the dead circuit be it a voltage regulating chip, transistor, capacitor etc, often a combination. Of course nothing can repair some of the modern boards who can be 8, or more, layers, all you can work on is the back or front and on some boards you may actually ruin it desoldering a component I'd only work with components that are socketed on current boards.

Once soldered we'd inspect the board for any lifted streets, the metal strips that connect the components. Sometime a street would fracture and baking, then cooling, would reveal the separation and we would repair it with solder if small enough or tie it together with a length of cable that would bypass the break and thereby give the board new life as we generally had a backup board for critical NC and CNC machinery, baking boards isn't all that new.