Norman Bum

So, my friend has a 3-year old custom build (through ibuypower.com) gaming laptop that is having a very strange graphics problem. Basically, if you try to run any kind of graphical intensive program (i.e. games) the pixels get all screwed up on the screen and the computer crashes.

In order to play games on the laptop, an external monitor needs to be plugged in.

Summary: Games do not work on the laptop's main monitor, an external monitor (or TV, S-Video ftw) is needed in order for it to run any kind of game.

The kicker: This problem did not start happening until Windows Vista 32-Bit was installed on the computer. Vista was quickly uninstalled and the hard drive was reformatted back to XP. But the problem still stayed.

I have done plenty of testing with current / older drivers and have found that not to be a solution. I am guessing that something was corrupted with the Vista installation, but I can't find what it is!

Specs:
nVidia Geforce Go 7900 GTX
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4600x Dual Core Processor
Windows XP Media Center Edition 32-Bit
1gig of DDR RAM

I am stumped, let me know if you have any ideas or have seen this problem before.

Thanks!

EDIT: Another part I forgot to add:
Even when an external monitor is attached, there is a very weird "lag" that happens in game. Think of the slow-motion they have in the Matrix movies. It fades in and out without regard to latency or how much load is being put on the graphics card.

__________________

UndertheGun

Runs fine on external? Kinda rules out GPU puts on the screen as the issue? I don't have an answer I mean bad cable? I don't have a clue sorry.

Bump? (4 minutes I know)

Demented

If it's the laptop's display that is borked, and it works fine when connected to an external display, I would have to think the laptop's LCD panel has started to die. It just might have coincided with when you installed Vista x32.

I also have an iBuypower laptop:

Intel 1.83Ghz Core Duo
GeForce Go 7600GT
3 GB RAM
Came installed with XP MCE as well, but I have been running Vista x32 with no issues for over a year.

You could always uninstall your video drivers and reboot. See if letting Windows use their drivers fixes it. Or, with the external monitor attached, and as the main, uninstall the monitor (Laptop's LCD) from the device manager and see if that does anything.

EDIT:

Yeah, like he says, it could be the cable inside that connects the laptop's LCD got damaged somehow as well. If you really feel adventurous, you could always open her up...

__________________

Norman Bum

Yeah I forgot to add a crucial part, which I will edit into my post in a sec.

Basically, even if an external monitor is attached, there is a very weird "lag" that happens in game. Think of the slow-motion they have in the Matrix movies. It fades in and out without regard to latency or how much load is being put on the graphics card.

__________________

NFSxperts

I'm sorry to say but the gpu is slowly dying.
the gpu you posted sounds like it uses the upgradable mxm modules, but they are expensive.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...TX.2131.0.html
perhaps you could try baking it?

Norman Bum

Well I fixed the graphics card "lag" by simply turning off Vertical Sync in any game I run.

__________________