New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Fried video card?

post #1 of 14
7/30/06 at 4:56pm
Thread Starter 
My M6805 screen (and attached flat panel monitor) developed something I've never seen before...from left to right, top to bottom there now appears about 80 columns of tiny squares, each the size of a sewing pin head. I turned off the laptop and in doing so, noticed the bottom was hotter than normal. After a 20 minute wait I rebooted and everything was fine for about 15 minutes and then the tiny squares reappeared. 24 hrs later, same thing.

Someone suggested that the vieo card might have fried.

Question 1: Does anyone have any knowledge of a problem like this?
Question 2: If it is a bad card (Radeon 9600 Mobility) is there any workaround? I'm told this card is integrated into the motherboard...yes?
Question 3: If I do need a nerw MoBo (found one on Ebay asking $40) how difficult is it to swap and replace a MoBo?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks~
topchef
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 14
7/30/06 at 5:14pm
I've seen a handful of cases of these and they are due to faulty video card RAM. There is really no fix for it since it is physically integrated into the motherboard so you'll be looking into a mobo replacement. I've sold a bunch of these mobos on ebay and they usually sell for $150-200, so the one you saw for $40 is most likely untested as-is, which typically means defective.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 14
7/30/06 at 9:50pm
Thread Starter 
Spinitch if I decide to go with a new mobo could I buy one directly from you?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 14
7/30/06 at 10:03pm
Sure, PM me if you are interested or if you have any questions.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 14
8/2/06 at 3:34am

Fried Video Card?

If the video's fried then the patterning would be visible all the time. I'd check the system to see if there's crud in it (for example, grilles on side blocked with matted (animal) hair (I've seen it happen)) -- if the system's airflow gets disrupted things will get hot inside and start misbehaving. Check the grilles are clear and if necessary clean them out (carefully) with a pin or tweezers. Blowing air through the system can dislodge quite a lot of dust.

So you may not have a broken system -- yet. Once it does break for real then you have to do a motherboard swap. Emachines has a very slick service but it will cost you $244.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 14
8/2/06 at 10:14am
I have seen this happen on ATI desktop video cards when there is a driver problem. Especially in video games, but I have also seen it happen to the desktop environment. Have you tried using ATI's Catalyst removal utility to remove the driver then tried a different driver? You might be using one that is incompatible.

Of course if you get the pattern before your machine even boots into Windows, this probably won't work, but is still worth a try.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 14
8/2/06 at 6:39pm

Fried video card?

If the GPU is screwed then you'll see the patterning at the BIOS and during Windows boot. You may be able to make the screen more usable by changing the refresh rate in the video modes, a higher rate makes the pattern smaller so you may be able to see more of what's going on.

EMachine's 'bots will tell you to unload and reload the driver. Its worth doing since it only takes a couple of minutes and you can then answer "yes" when you get asked whether you've done this (over and over). Two other things to look out for are:-

-- Whether you can see a variety of refresh rates in the "List all Modes"
-- Whether the video properties panel includes a bunch of ATI specific panes. These had disappeared on the defective system which, along with the PCI configuration information, suggested that the defective part had ceased responding as a GPU, the system knew it was an ATI part but was unable to configure it properly or something (hence the patterning).
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 14
11/14/06 at 3:51am
I have a e-machine with this same problem. It has pixels during bios and booting (all the time) at boot they are wider apart and things are easier to see. Once windows takes over they are so close together it is hard to read anything. Does this mean my graphics card is bad? it is a M6807. And Spinitch, do you have a motherboard for this model? and how much. Brianamber@netzero.net
Thanks
Brian
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 14
11/14/06 at 5:19am
email sent. Unfortunately it is a common yet crippling problem on the m68xx laptops.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 14
11/22/06 at 11:15pm
unfortunately video chip is fried, if pixels comeout on post before windows then its impossible that its a driver problem. i have an m5305 older version, i replaced the heat sink with a thicker copper sink from my desktop mobo, the stock heatsink is too thin
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 14
12/3/06 at 7:07am
wow seems this is a common problem my fiance's laptop ia a m6811 and does the same thing even in post .... wondering if its an airflow issue maybe bc of the fact that it sometimes clears itself up to no visible artifacting for about 30seconds 2 like 5 min... i was thinking of trying to flash the bios maybe it was corrupted and replacin it with my m6805 bios that is newer... i have swapped the hdds and with her hdd in my machine it doesnt do it @ all and vise versa so i know it cannot be driver related. my attemts @ flashing with my bios have failed i used ati tray tools to dump my bios but i cant even on a dos boot cd nor in windows get it to flash... is there any other tool that im missing or should i just look for a decent bottom 1/2 of the gateway/emachines armia series... ?
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 14
2/18/07 at 11:34am
Just happened to me too.

Block patterns on the screen, right from POST into Linux or Windows. Started while playing a 3d game on Windows. Got worse with each reboot right now, will see how it turns out. I bet the video ram is damaged....bleh.

This is a m6805.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 14
5/13/07 at 4:09pm
Looks like mine has bitten the dust as well.... I guess i'll have to go looking for a new mb if I can't swap it out, I hope there are a few left on ebay. Its also a m6805 with the m9600, I've pushed this puppy pretty hard for the past few years so it was only a matter of time.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 14
5/14/07 at 4:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by beauxaj
Looks like mine has bitten the dust as well.... I guess i'll have to go looking for a new mb if I can't swap it out, I hope there are a few left on ebay. Its also a m6805 with the m9600, I've pushed this puppy pretty hard for the past few years so it was only a matter of time.
Yeah, unfortunately these video cards are infamous for crapping out (on the 68XX models anyhow). I've seen TONS of them give out like this. Unfortunately there's no remedy to the situation with the on-board cards like these. New mobo is probably the way to go. Swapping a new mobo is defintely not very difficult. Easiest way is to keep your screws mapped out so you know where everything goes once you're done. Good luck
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Gateway Notebooks