Laptop graphics card seems to have died

[May90]

I've had Toshiba X775-3DV78 laptop for 3 years without any issues.

A month ago I decided to use an old 24" external monitor. Initially I tried to make it through DSub->DVI converter, but unfortunately there were some problems such as random black screens and funky colors. So I ended up using DSub->DSub, and it was working fine. I was using only external monitor with internal laptop monitor turned off.

A few days ago electricity in my home started blinking multiple times for a minute or so. I was stupid enough not to turn off the external monitor at that time, so it turned on, then turned off, then turned on and so on at a very high rate. After blinking stopped, everything was totally fine.

Yesterday I updated NVidia display driver to the latest version available. During the update the external monitor turned off and laptop's screen turned on. After the update and system restart, I turned the external monitor back on and turned the laptop display off.

Then problems started happening. Initially the system randomly froze with monotonous noise in dynamics with random time intervals, from 20 minutes to 2 hours, mostly 30-40 minutes - strangely, it was happening only when I was playing Starcraft 2. I thought the problem was the new graphics driver, so I rolled back to the previous version - same problem. I removed the NVidia driver altogether in Safe Mode through DriveSweeper and then performed a clean installation of a new driver - same problem. I ran all security and Windows updates on my system I could, ran antivirus scan 2 times, ad-aware scan 2 times, hard drive scan, memtest - to no avail. Finally, I gave up on the external monitor and put it away, running laptop alone - the problem persisted.

As the time went, freezes started happening more and more often. Sometimes it would freeze in Windows without any applications running. Sometimes the display would randomly shut down while system continued running, with sounds and hard drive noise. Now it came to the point that sometimes the screen wouldn't even turn upon turning the laptop on, or it would turn on but then black out right after BIOS logo. Same happens in Linux. Same happens in Windows safe mode.

What's interesting is, it seems, the more I let the laptop to "rest", the longer it works. The longest period I let it off was for about 1 hour, and then it managed to run for 5 minutes - but then it blacked out again and the display wouldn't turn on until I wait for a few minutes not turning the laptop on again. Sometimes there is a strange electric noise when I turn the laptop on coming out from somewhere where the graphics card is. It doesn't matter whether I use the charger or plug it off. Also I am 100% sure it is not overheating: the graphics card is freezing cold when blackouts happen.

---

So, what could it be? If my graphics card just died, then what caused this? It all happened after the latest NVidia drivers update, before that everything was fine. Now, it seems, I even cannot make the card run long enough for me to try making any checks (I am currently typing on my friend's desktop).

I was going to buy a new desktop in 3 months anyway, and I can live 3 months without a computer, but I am curious why it all happened all of a sudden. Also, is there anything that can be done? The warranty ran out a year ago, so I cannot ask for replacement. I will be in the US in a month where I originally bought the laptop, so I guess I can pay there somewhere for the laptop to be checked, but before that - is there anything that can be done? I don't even care about games, but, unfortunately, this laptop doesn't have an on-board graphics, so only NVidia GeForce m560 can display anything.

[Vermicious]

go back to prior version of graphic drivers... sometimes the latest =/= greatest

[May90]

go back to prior version of graphic drivers... sometimes the latest =/= greatest

This was the first thing I tried - didn't fix anything.

[jackofwind]

Sounds like it could potentially be a heat-related problem. Are your vents clean / have you dusted it recently / are you sure your fans are working?

[Kezotar]

Something you can try to do is open the PC, please be careful and try to find a video on HOW..
Replace thermal compound and clean the fans for dust, make sure everything is as it should be and try to turn it on.
That will help the heat issue, however if that still doesn't help you can try drivers, if there's nothing there then maybe.. dunno.

[ttak82]

I've had Toshiba X775-3DV78 laptop for 3 years without any issues.

A month ago I decided to use an old 24" external monitor. Initially I tried to make it through DSub->DVI converter, but unfortunately there were some problems such as random black screens and funky colors. So I ended up using DSub->DSub, and it was working fine. I was using only external monitor with internal laptop monitor turned off.

A few days ago electricity in my home started blinking multiple times for a minute or so. I was stupid enough not to turn off the external monitor at that time, so it turned on, then turned off, then turned on and so on at a very high rate. After blinking stopped, everything was totally fine.

Yesterday I updated NVidia display driver to the latest version available. During the update the external monitor turned off and laptop's screen turned on. After the update and system restart, I turned the external monitor back on and turned the laptop display off.

Then problems started happening. Initially the system randomly froze with monotonous noise in dynamics with random time intervals, from 20 minutes to 2 hours, mostly 30-40 minutes - strangely, it was happening only when I was playing Starcraft 2. I thought the problem was the new graphics driver, so I rolled back to the previous version - same problem. I removed the NVidia driver altogether in Safe Mode through DriveSweeper and then performed a clean installation of a new driver - same problem. I ran all security and Windows updates on my system I could, ran antivirus scan 2 times, ad-aware scan 2 times, hard drive scan, memtest - to no avail. Finally, I gave up on the external monitor and put it away, running laptop alone - the problem persisted.

As the time went, freezes started happening more and more often. Sometimes it would freeze in Windows without any applications running. Sometimes the display would randomly shut down while system continued running, with sounds and hard drive noise. Now it came to the point that sometimes the screen wouldn't even turn upon turning the laptop on, or it would turn on but then black out right after BIOS logo. Same happens in Linux. Same happens in Windows safe mode.

What's interesting is, it seems, the more I let the laptop to "rest", the longer it works. The longest period I let it off was for about 1 hour, and then it managed to run for 5 minutes - but then it blacked out again and the display wouldn't turn on until I wait for a few minutes not turning the laptop on again. Sometimes there is a strange electric noise when I turn the laptop on coming out from somewhere where the graphics card is. It doesn't matter whether I use the charger or plug it off. Also I am 100% sure it is not overheating: the graphics card is freezing cold when blackouts happen.

---

So, what could it be? If my graphics card just died, then what caused this? It all happened after the latest NVidia drivers update, before that everything was fine. Now, it seems, I even cannot make the card run long enough for me to try making any checks (I am currently typing on my friend's desktop).

I was going to buy a new desktop in 3 months anyway, and I can live 3 months without a computer, but I am curious why it all happened all of a sudden. Also, is there anything that can be done? The warranty ran out a year ago, so I cannot ask for replacement. I will be in the US in a month where I originally bought the laptop, so I guess I can pay there somewhere for the laptop to be checked, but before that - is there anything that can be done? I don't even care about games, but, unfortunately, this laptop doesn't have an on-board graphics, so only NVidia GeForce m560 can display anything.

The Nvidia 500 series laptop cards have been known to cause issues with WoW as well. Could be an incompatibility issue with Blizzard games.
Ive tried many thing to solve a similar issue, blackouts, and game freezes , but to no avail. Whatever it is, when you upgrade ur pc or get a new one, avoid those 500 series cards.

[May90]

Sounds like it could potentially be a heat-related problem. Are your vents clean / have you dusted it recently / are you sure your fans are working?

Everything's working fine, temperature never goes above 60 C, and I can hear the fans clearly.

Something you can try to do is open the PC, please be careful and try to find a video on HOW..
Replace thermal compound and clean the fans for dust, make sure everything is as it should be and try to turn it on.
That will help the heat issue, however if that still doesn't help you can try drivers, if there's nothing there then maybe.. dunno.

Unfortunately, my laptop is Toshiba... So opening it is harder than reaching Everest. I opened it partially and cleaned everything inside - nothing has changed.

The Nvidia 500 series laptop cards have been known to cause issues with WoW as well. Could be an incompatibility issue with Blizzard games.
Ive tried many thing to solve a similar issue, blackouts, and game freezes , but to no avail. Whatever it is, when you upgrade ur pc or get a new one, avoid those 500 series cards.

Well, I've been playing Starcraft 2 almost every day for 1.5 years and haven't encountered any problem a single time. And, when I played WoW for 2 months or so, also didn't see any problems. It all started happening 2 days ago, and now I am lucky if after 10 tries I manage to see Windows desktop before it freezes or blacks out. When I buy desktop in 3 months or so, I will buy something from 700 series, or even 800 if possible.