Computer issue - wont boot, "Video TDR Failure"

Lord TSC

Hey everyone

So, my laptop is throwing a hissy fit. It's an 8 year old Dell Studio 17, and when I was playing Final Fantasy 14 in it today, the screen went all static and died. When I rebooted, the static remained over the boot screen, and I'm getting an error message. On a blue screen, it says it's gathering info, and there's a "Video TDR Failure".

I'm trying to read up about this issue online but any tips I've seen are pre-supposing I can get the laptop turned on. I can't, cause it keeps crashing when I try. I did get it to boot to desktop once, after it had crashed twice, but when I tried playing the game again, the issue returned and now won't go away. I've played the game a fair bit over the last few months so it's not the game was new and it couldn't handle it. It just seems like the video card jacked itself in this morning.

Would appreciate any advice people could offer with regards how to proceed here. Is the laptop ****ed?

jhud

Please provide more specs on laptop like what windows is running as much info on specs of laptop you can give. Have you got into safe mode ok have you tried safe mode. Have you upgraded drivers on graphics if so in safe mode roll them back

ED E

Lord TSC wrote: »

It just seems like the video card jacked itself in this morning.

Probably correct.

Lord TSC wrote: »

Is the laptop ****ed?

On the face of it, yes.


Chips can die after many thermal cycles. When a GPU dies you get weird things like pink/green tints, strange patterns or missing lines or just no output. The fact that it was crashing under load suggests it was the GPU going.

A new GPU = new motherboard = economic write off. You can have a shop test it to confirm.

Lord TSC

jhud wrote: »

Please provide more specs on laptop like what windows is running as much info on specs of laptop you can give. Have you got into safe mode ok have you tried safe mode. Have you upgraded drivers on graphics if so in safe mode roll them back

Windows 10. I'll try and provide more specs if I can get it to boot into safe mode again and see what they are exactly, I don't have them at hand.

It's a Dell Studio 17 (not sure how much info that gives), and the display driver said it was an ATI Radeon 5000 series. The Blue screen says the stop code is Video TDR Failure, and what failed was "atikmpag.sys

Sometimes, it boots to a recovery screen, and I can start it in safe mode ok. Safe mode seems to run grand. But when I try to restart in normal mode, it crashes on boot. I've not updated drivers ever (it auto does them as far as I can see) and according to the info I can see online, the drivers haven't been updated by the makers since late 2015. I've tried downloading them to manually update them, but it won't update them manually in safe mode, and I can't get into the thing properly.

I'm reading that the "Video TDR Failure" issue might be a corrupted driver, which might be fixed if I rest the computer using the Windows 10 reset options.

ED E wrote: »

Probably correct.

On the face of it, yes.

Chips can die after many thermal cycles. When a GPU dies you get weird things like pink/green tints, strange patterns or missing lines or just no output. The fact that it was crashing under load suggests it was the GPU going.

A new GPU = new motherboard = economic write off. You can have a shop test it to confirm.

So it would be as "cheap" to look at getting a new laptop then?

EDIT: More specs....

Dell Studio 1749
Intel (R) Core (TM) i5 CPU M 540 @ 2.53gh
6GB ram

Lord TSC

Just to add.

When I go into Safe mode and Uninstall the Display adapter driver, the computer will then boot up properly for a while, though with poor resolution. The first time I got it to do this, I tried re-installing the driver at that point, only for the system to crash to the blue screen again.

Lord TSC

Ok, in safe mode I deleted the display driver, which let me get the computer booted up. There's still green static when it's booting, and the resolution is dreadful, but it boots.

Problem is when I then try to reinstall drivers, it then crashes to a blue screen again....

Spear

Green static when booting is a death knell for it. There's no drivers or acceleration in use at that point even.

Lord TSC

Spear wrote: »

Green static when booting is a death knell for it. There's no drivers or acceleration in use at that point even.

Awesome

So, time to start pricing new laptops then?

Spear

Lord TSC wrote: »

Awesome

So, time to start pricing new laptops then?

I don't suppose there's a chance the video card is in an mxm format module and could be replaced?

TerrorFirmer

Not worth it I think. Even fully working the laptop is only worth about €150. It's a first gen i5.

You'd get one just as good or better 2nd hand for about €200-300 depending.

New, something like this for about €600 has likely superior GPU performance (depends on the model card, but best case scenario and your laptop has the super high-end card from 2010, 5870M...this is similar. If your card is the 5670M or similar, this is actually way better) and massively superior CPU performance, as well as being super light/thin.

Something like this for the same money is not as slim/light, but also has an SSD (mega difference), processor is significantly better and GPU is light years better, capable of playing all the latest titles well.

Lord TSC

Spear wrote: »

I don't suppose there's a chance the video card is in an mxm format module and could be replaced?

Jesus, I wouldn't have a clue...

Spear

As TF mentions, any serious repair wouldn't be economically viable. Even if it did have an mxm format GPU, it's only worth replacing if you could get one for free or next to nothing.

It's 8 years old anyway, a new one wouldn't be unreasonable even if it was working.

Lord TSC

Spear wrote: »

As TF mentions, any serious repair wouldn't be economically viable. Even if it did have an mxm format GPU, it's only worth replacing if you could get one for free or next to nothing.

It's 8 years old anyway, a new one wouldn't be unreasonable even if it was working.

Yeah. It's one of those horrid timing issues; two months earlier or later, and money wouldn't be as big an issue, but it's bad timing. Still, I was considering aiming to upgrade by the end of the year anyway, so guess I can just pull it forward a few months.

Never used any sites other than Dells and am weary of weird looking sites, in but will do research on them, especially TerrorFirmer's suggestions.

Thanks though guys

Lord TSC

Just doing some research, from what I can see, Dell Studio 1749 gpus cannot be replaced as its intergrated into the main board (apparently)

I did the "Rest Your Computer", which achieved the same as before; with the ATI driver uninstalled, I can boot it up, but the second I try to reinstall the driver, it dies again.

Lord TSC

sugarman wrote: »

Should be a way to completely disable the graphics in the bios and use the 540m onboards graphics id imagine?

Its been ages since I've had a laptop with dedicated graphics so cant confirm myself.

Not sure tbh. Would that card be in anyway decent for games though?

Anyone any feedback on...

http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-15-7577/spd/inspiron-15-7577-laptop/cn57702

Inspiron 15 7577
7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7700HQ Quad Core (6MB Cache, up to 3.8 GHz)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB GDDR5 graphics memory
16GB, DDR4, 2400MHz
Dual drives with 128GB Solid State Drive+ 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive

It's €1179, plus another 10% off. Plus since I can claim some of the VAT back as well (I do work on the laptops as well so can claim a portion back), would say around €900 altogether?

TerrorFirmer

Depends on the priority. That has a good CPU, but this one for example has a slightly weaker CPU and less RAM, but the graphics card is literally 200% faster.

If number crunching/heavy workload is the priority, the i7 is better. If gaming is a priority, the GTX1060 6GB cripples the GTX1050Ti....though the GTX1050Ti is still a very decent card.

Have one in the laptop I'm typing this on and it runs Overwatch at 1080p ultra 60fps just fine.

Lord TSC

I've never heard of that site before. Presuming it's ok. Bit worried about doing such a big order with them though.

TerrorFirmer

They're fine. I've bought 4 or 5 laptops off them over the years.

TerrorFirmer

Yep, if there is an option to disable to discrete GPU, the onboard will be OK for desktop use, browsing, etc - basically everything but gaming. Won't be able to run any of the games you've mentioned even at lowest settings and resolution.

Lord TSC

sugarman wrote: »

Nah, fairly basic. I just meant as a means of continuing to use the laptop for the time being. Would still be a decent laptop for general use.

You can disable it in the BIOS by the way, well I could on a slightly newer Dell.

Ah right, yeah. I can achieve that by deleting the driver as well, which seems to push it towards using the basic card. It's just the second I try and use the driver again to get going again, boom.

Johnboy1951

I would try another OS on that to confirm the fault is showing in that OS, which would eliminate the possibility of driver/software being the culprit.

I would certainly do this before I would consider discarding or selling it.

Lord TSC

Where would one begin with that?

Johnboy1951

Lord TSC wrote: »

Where would one begin with that?

Maybe try a Live Linux distro for one,

or

maybe save off all your data and wipe the drive properly and reinstall Windows from scratch.

Either would have the effect of a new OS.

Fogmatic

Any luck yet, Lord TSC?

In case you don’t know about the Linux thing (and can still access your BIOS), among other things it’s a way to boot a machine outside Windows, straight into another OS (without touching any existing settings/data), and eliminate Windows settings (or not) when troubleshooting. You don’t need knowledge of Linux etc to do it (I know - I’ve been there!). And still have the bookmarks, so if you want to try it I could easily send you links to step by step instructions, etc (the searching was most of the work!).

I don’t know if it’s relevant to your exact error, but with the randomness (and maybe heavy processing setting it off), I just wondered if you’d tried any hardware checks, e.g. resetting the machine, and checking for loose/broken connections (cables, cards, anything that’s just pushed in)? (It’s easy to forget about trying the simple things first!).

That kind of stuff can cause some weird and puzzling symptoms, especially the seemingly random ones. Connections can easily get unseated over time by warming up & cooling down, jogs and other movement (especially with laptops), and dust can lead to overheating, and stray bits of electricity (for want of the right word!) can add to the confusion. Another reason I wondered was the state of the cables to my laptop screen during a (different) display problem (it wasn’t a cable that had failed, but I was amazed they’d coped with so much distortion and movement). If it’s unfamiliar territory I could easily link to a guide (and ignorance doesn’t seem to get in the way of noticing signs of excess heat, damp, corrosion etc!).