USB graphics card

RaiderHammer

I think the graphiics card has gone on my laptop, keeps crashing on a BSOD. But all virus checked and all OK. Seems to happen why something is happening on the screen (flicking from webpage to webpage or waiting for something to download). On the BSOD it says hardware failure.

I was wondering if there is such a thing as a quick fix like a USB graphics card that is just a plug and play item. I have seen sound cards like this.

Anyone know if there is a check I can do to find out if the graphics card is the faulty item for sure?

Thanks.

sharkie

normally a number is displayed. google the number.

If time is just too short to write it down, take a photo of the screen with your mobile or camera

bob_man_uk

try downloading and burning a live CD of some linux variant on another pc and see if that helps, it could just be a driver issue with windows.

if nothing else, you can get all the data off of your laptop.

as for usb graphics, im sorry i dont think ive ever seen anything like that ever and if they make them, expect them to be stupidly expensive. your probably better off arguing with the manufacturer if they will repair it, how old is it out of curiosity? ive spoken to a few people who have (successfully) managed to get their electronics goods replaced outside of the warranty because electronics are deemed to be suitable for purpose up to 4 years... something to maybe consider

RaiderHammer

bob_man_uk wrote: »

try downloading and burning a live CD of some linux variant on another pc and see if that helps, it could just be a driver issue with windows.

if nothing else, you can get all the data off of your laptop.

as for usb graphics, im sorry i dont think ive ever seen anything like that ever and if they make them, expect them to be stupidly expensive. your probably better off arguing with the manufacturer if they will repair it, how old is it out of curiosity? ive spoken to a few people who have (successfully) managed to get their electronics goods replaced outside of the warranty because electronics are deemed to be suitable for purpose up to 4 years... something to maybe consider

Laptop is around 2.75 years old... Sorry I didn't understand the live cd bit, can you explain more I am not a great techy person!

closed

Nvidia?

Backup, reinstall windows from recovery partition

RaiderHammer

closed wrote: »

Nvidia?

Backup, reinstall windows from recovery partition

Not sure if it's Nvidia how do I find out please? Can't really do the recoovery thing because don't know when it all started.

sharkie

RaiderHammer, you are not sure of the error, and with no experience guessing what the problem is.

Think you had better comeback with something more definitive, including a description of the error and the o/s version.

it may be just as easy to go into safe mode and just reinstall the drivers

gonzo127

the LiveCD is a CD which contains a totally free and legal operating system (not windows) which allows you to run this operating system from the CD and your systems RAM without any lasting changes to your hard drive, this allows for testing of certain things, in your case the graphics chipset.

basically what is being suggested is running this way for a while (as it will still allow you to go online, run office programs, listen to music as it includes all the nessesary programs on the CD) and see if your computer crashes again, if it doesnt then more than likely your graphics card will be fine and it is a problem with windows (your current operating system) which can allow us to offer sugestions on how to fix it, however if it carries on crashing then it is more than likely your graphics chipset, which then means new laptop time, so we will run you through how to get all your information of it that you might need incase you havent backed up lately

as to the recovery partition this isnt a roll back that is usually suggested this is a complete reinstall of your operating system which more than likely will wipe all the information from your system and put windows back on it nice and clean - a recovery partition is what is provided instead of a windows disk that used to be provided

macman

RaiderHammer wrote: »

I think the graphiics card has gone on my laptop, keeps crashing on a BSOD. But all virus checked and all OK. Seems to happen why something is happening on the screen (flicking from webpage to webpage or waiting for something to download). On the BSOD it says hardware failure.

I was wondering if there is such a thing as a quick fix like a USB graphics card that is just a plug and play item. I have seen sound cards like this.

Anyone know if there is a check I can do to find out if the graphics card is the faulty item for sure?

Thanks.

First thing to do is plug it into an external monitor. If it's then OK it's not the graphics card.

Enterprise-D

What laptop make and model is it?

Do you have any other specs you can give us?

Laptop hardware faults can be harder to pin down, especially as the graphics chips are integrated into the motherboard and cannot be replaced.

BSODs can be caused by thousands of different things, so its worth us knowing what some of the error message is that you see.

Does this happen after the laptop has been running for a few hours? Or does it happen only after a few minutes?

RaiderHammer

Enterprise-D wrote: »

What laptop make and model is it?

Do you have any other specs you can give us?

Laptop hardware faults can be harder to pin down, especially as the graphics chips are integrated into the motherboard and cannot be replaced.

BSODs can be caused by thousands of different things, so its worth us knowing what some of the error message is that you see.

Does this happen after the laptop has been running for a few hours? Or does it happen only after a few minutes?

Hi

It's an Acer Extensa 5620 running Windows XP.

Can happen just after start up, after one hour, after two hours, after 5 or after 10 hours. No real pattern there.

Seems to occur more often when not connected to mains.

I will try and get some more information from crashes and report back. Had it on all day today and it's fine!

Thanks.