Problem with screen?

newmug

Hi all. I'm not too computer literate, so please bear with me.

My computer is giving trouble with the screen lately. A few times last year, everything froze, then went black for a few seconds, then came back to normal. A message would come up saying that the video card (?) was in recovery. Now however, whenever I look at a saved video or try to look at youtube, the entire screen keeps hanging, then catching up, then hanging again. I mean the whole screen, not just the video. What could be wrong?

ED E

Potentially a failing GPU (graphics card).

Do you still get "A display driver has recovered from a crash" message?

ithorizon

It could be a faulty driver, try to get latest version. If this will happen then it's a gpu then

newmug

ED E wrote: »

Potentially a failing GPU (graphics card).

Do you still get "A display driver has recovered from a crash" message?

ithorizon wrote: »

It could be a faulty driver, try to get latest version. If this will happen then it's a gpu then

Thanks for the replies guys.

I dont get that message any more, now the screen just keeps hanging. It eventually sorts itself out, but yea, I USED to get that message, now its stopped.

How do I find out what the latest driver is? How do I find out what GPU I have?

ithorizon

gpu-z

newmug

Right, its a GeForce Go 7300 according to GPU-Z. I Googled the driver for this, found a site called driverscape, seems I have 31 out-of-date drivers! Are these sites trustworthy?

ithorizon

i can't put a link to yr drivers yet

Try always download it from manufacturer.

Luck100

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

newmug

Luck100 wrote: »

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Tried that, it says there is no driver found for my GPU

Bongalongherb

There is a driver for your GPU on the website link mentioned here... http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Have a look at the screenshot below... make sure you uninstall the old driver before installing the new one. Where it says gforce 900 series on the main nvidia page click the arrow beside geforce 900 series and scroll all the way down to the bottom and yours is the third from the bottom. Geforce go 7 series (notebook)

Just click on the operating system you are using...64-bit or 32-bit operating system.

ithorizon

Yeah man You must be joking if You can't find it.
Try harder:)

newmug

ithorizon wrote: »

Yeah man You must be joking if You can't find it.
Try harder:)

No joke I'm afraid.

newmug

@ Bongalongherb, I followed what you've written to the letter. It worked, I've downloaded the correct driver successfully. As pain-in-the-arse-ish as it may seem, someone who's computer illiterate like me needs that kind of step-by-step instruction. I wouldnt be coming on here otherwise, I dont ask for help lightly.

Anyway, its done. Thanks again. We'll wait and see does it make any difference.

newmug

No difference I'm afraid. If I play any sort of graphic-heavy game, the entire screen freezes, sound and all. Then it catches up to where it should be faster then normal speed. Ok for 10 secs, then the same thing starts again.:mad:

ithorizon

Hard to tell really. It could be various of things, You need to download some monitoring software. Put pc under pressure (prime software or some program to diagnostic GPU) and check what's really happenning. Cpu throttling, temperature issues...That's what I would do.

Explosive_Cornflake

Record a video of the issue and put it on youtube.

Michael D Not Higgins

OP have you always had these problems? Just looking on a benchmarking site and my 4 year old work laptop has a better video card in it. It could be related to the performance of the card itself and not the drivers.

newmug

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

OP have you always had these problems? Just looking on a benchmarking site and my 4 year old work laptop has a better video card in it. It could be related to the performance of the card itself and not the drivers.

No only in the last year or so. How could I upgrade my card? Expensive?

ithorizon

First off all, check is it graphic card 100%.

Michael D Not Higgins

newmug wrote: »

No only in the last year or so. How could I upgrade my card? Expensive?

It's a laptop yeah? It's unlikely to be able to be changed, well not easily anyway. The GPU is from 2005 so I'm assuming the laptop is too. Might be time to upgrade.

newmug

Right - It happened again, so all those software updates musn't be the answer. The screen just went black, and then recovered after about 5 seconds. Here's the error message that came up:

Michael D Not Higgins

newmug wrote: »

Right - It happened again, so all those software updates musn't be the answer. The screen just went black, and then recovered after about 5 seconds. Here's the error message that came up:

It's time for a new laptop mate.

ED E

Old 7 and 8k series nVidia chips loved to burn themselves up, youve done well getting a decade out of that old girl.

Michael D Not Higgins is right, off to laptopsdirect with ya.

newmug

I dont have the dollars. If this packs up completely, any chance it would destroy documents, photos etc.? For now, I'll just have to soldier on.

Bongalongherb

To rule out any system file corruptions... Click on the windows start button - bottom left globe, then click on 'Computer', then right click 'Local Disk C', and click properties at the bottom of that box. Then when the box comes up Click Tools... you will see on the first list saying... this option will check the drive for errors, on the right of this it will have a box saying check now, click that check now box.

Only make sure the Automatically fix file system errors box is checked. Then click Start within that box. The next box that pops up, click the button that says... Scheduled Disk check, then click ok on the last box and restart your laptop. It won't take too long, maybe 10 minutes. You will see a black screen command, just let it go through its test or fixes and your laptop will automatically restart again back into windows.

I saw that error before so try this and do a test.

I'd also recommend an SFC /SCANNOW test after that. Just try that one first if you haven't already to make sure your system files are not corrupted.

I'd also advise you to back up all your important files soon to be safe onto a usb stick or a decent external hard drive just incase the graphics card does fail completely in the near future.

ED E

newmug wrote: »

I dont have the dollars. If this packs up completely, any chance it would destroy documents, photos etc.? For now, I'll just have to soldier on.

GPU failures are unlikely to nuke a HDD. That said, your HDD is OOOOOOLD. The chance that it could fail are already very high. Ensure everything is backed up as a first priority.

TerrorFirmer

Anything with a 7300Le would have to be almost 10 years old, so to be fair you got decent mileage!

newmug

Any suggestions of a similar replacement? This machine is a Toshiba Satellite A200. I think it has 3GB RAM, dont know any more than that.