Is my Laptop Motherboard / Chipset / Graphics card fried?

[nesboi]

Hi kind hearted soul or curious passerby. Have a read and let me know what you think.
I’ve got an Acer Ferrari 4000 laptop (4006 WLMi to be exact)
Win XP 64 bit,
Processor: AMD Turion 64 ML-37 (2.0 GHz, 1MB L2 cache)
Core Logic Chipset : ATI Radeon XPRESS 200P (on same board as GPU & Processor)
Graphics: ATI Radeon Mobility X700 (on same board as chipset & Processor)
1024 MB of DDR 333 Ram
I haven’t overclocked anything or added any custom hardware.
More detailed specs can be found on this website:
A repair manual can be found on this website:
Screen garbled Photos can be viewed on this website:

This past Saturday, during light usage (web browsing, etc) with the laptop on a bed, the screen graphics became garbled and less than a minute later the PC froze. After a few tries of restarting the laptop thereafter, the screen went and stayed entirely black. Sunday night the result was the same. Monday evening I plugged it into an external monitor using the Laptop’s VGA port (I didn’t try the DVI or S Video ports) and compared to a black screen had very limited success. I was able to see the OS and the text was garbled. However, if I tried signing into Windows (in normal mode), the laptop would freeze. If I tried shutting it down from the sign in screen, the laptop would freeze when windows XP would usually gray out the background. I then tried starting it in safemode and was able to log in all the way to my desktop; the graphics were still garbled, but more legible at the lower resolution. I then started up windows in VGA mode; the screen was still garbled, but the most legible compared to other attempts. In safe or VGA mode, when a new window would appear it would be somewhat legible, but after moving the window position via the mouse, it would become illegible garbage though I could still click an ok or close button on it.

I also tried entering the BIOS menus and they were garbled as well.

Q1: So, dear reader, I’m left wondering what I should try next in deducing what the problem is and fixing it.
I’m NO expert but have a few opinions about what I observed thus far. I don’t think this is a virus b/c the BIOS looks similarly garbled. I suspect the OS freezing under normal usage was caused by the graphics card overheating and some failsafe mechanism kicking in. Thanks to a lower resolution?, safe mode and VGA mode taxed the card less and I suspect that is why I was able to load windows successfully. From other forum posts that I read, it sounds like other people have had similar problems from video cards that have gone bad. Unfortunately, I do not think mine is separately replaceable as it is attached to the board (see pdf page 13 of the repair manual for a picture). However, I really don't know what the next step I should is.

In the repair manual (pdf page 82) I also saw mention of a diagnostic disk or CD, though I’m not sure where to get such an item. This webpage has an ISO for a diagnostic CD which might be similar but I have yet to try it out.

I noticed there are a few updated 32 and 64 bit drivers for the laptop, though I’m not sure if installing any would make a difference. They are: a ?? bit bios update, a 64 bit chipset driver, a x86 CPU driver, and an updated x86 VGA driver.
Q2: Is it safe to install those 32bit / x86 drivers on a laptop with a 64 bit CPU? I can install normal 32 programs fine but I’m not sure if the drivers and bios have extra requirements.

Q3: I’m also wondering what could have caused this to happen? (It’s important to learn from our mistakes right?)
One suspect is that b/c the laptop was being using on a bed and on a lap, the various vents on the underside of the chassis were blocked, causing it to overheat, even though the usage was *nothing* intensive like playing a game, watching a movie, photoshop, maya, etc. Other than that, I suppose a virus could be capable of making hardware overheat, but I don’t know for sure that such ones exist in the consumer space.

Thanks for the read and I hope to hear from you 

 

[-ChEM-]

If you go into the BIOS (i.e before the OS and drivers have loaded) and things are still messed up you can be 100% sure the graphics hardware is dead or dying. You might as well try and update the firmware etc but i wouldn't hold out much hope

If you have some kind of premium laptop it may have a separate graphics board in there which you can chuck out and replace... 95% of models will just have on board graphics though, in which case you are well and truly screwed

Sorry

 

[venomous42]

fan stopped working, or dust bunnies cause heat issues.

 

[nesboi]

Thanks for the quick reply. Let me answer your questions.

If you go into the BIOS (i.e before the OS and drivers have loaded) and things are still messed up you can be 100% sure the graphics hardware is dead or dying.

The BIOS also has the same graphical problems. It was mentioned in the original post but due to its length, perhaps the info got lost.

You might as well try and update the firmware etc but i wouldn't hold out much hope

Do you have any experience or knowledge installing 32 bit drivers on a 64 bit CPU? Does the difference matter?

If you have some kind of premium laptop it may have a separate graphics board in there which you can chuck out and replace... 95% of models will just have on board graphics though, in which case you are well and truly screwed.

Sadly, I'm 95% certain the graphics card is on the board based on looking at the repair manual I linked to in my first post.

I came across this suggestion thread.
I don't feel like a lot of the suggestions apply but I suppose I could double check there is no dust in the case and that the heat sinks are in place. I should mention hat my laptop doesn't feel overly hot from just sitting on in VGA mode.

Thanks again for your input!

 

[nissanztt90]

Your getting artifacts before drivers load so the GPU is toast, and since its onboard, the motherboard is essentially done also. Im sure its far less worth it to replace anything in your old laptop.

 

[plugwash]

fan stopped working, or dust bunnies cause heat issues.

The fact that from the OPs description the problem seems to persist even after the machine is turned off for ages would appear to indicate that even if heat was the original source of the problem the damage is done

It may be possible to order a replacement motherboard but it's unlikely to be economic to do so.

 

[DrDoU]

Sounds like the video card is on it's way out.When all else fails you can try to remove the heat sinks,and reapply thermal paste.