Help! My laptop is broken

mikeopvc

I'm in a bit of a panic as my laptop is playing up.
Since this morning I have had to turn it off several times by keeping the power button pressed down.
The screen keeps going weird and fuzzy and then I can't do anything at all.
It works for a while then just stops, hopefully I will have time to finish typing this before it goes again.
I can use my sons computer upstairs when he gets home from school so will have access to this forum.
I did a spyware scan, then I ran cc cleaner, then I tried a full system scan with Avira Antivir and it crashed a couple of minutes into the scan.
I run my business from this laptop so I would be devastated if it broke for good.

Any advice would be great

Tropez

It could be a number of things.

If the screen is going fuzzy it could be a problem with the display adaptor - overheating is a common cause, but it could also be that the drivers are not working properly, or that the cable that connects the display to the chip has come loose (happens when a laptop takes a bit of a battering from constant travel) although based on the info you've provided I doubt this is the case.

Laptops can be susceptible to dust-intake related problems which often causes overheating so you may need to clean it out which will involve taking the laptop apart and blowing compressed air to remove dust. If you're uncomfortable doing this yourself then you will need either an experienced friend or a professional to look at this for you.

Try and download an updated display driver for your laptop and install that to see if it helps at all.

It may also be that the memory chips are not sitting in their sockets properly, although this usually causes a blue screen fatal error as opposed to what you're experiencing.

If you're unable to install a new driver before a crash and you're not confident enough yourself you may wish to take it to a computer repair shop as the symptoms you describe, if they're not driver related, suggest a hardware fault.

Mista_C

Try plugging a monitor into it and see if your experience the same problems on that. If not then I would suggest that the connection from the screen to the motherboard has become loose. Usually simple to fix but requires opening the laptop and/or the screen bezel.

If external monitor experiences the same problem then it's possible that the onboard graphics chip is on the blink, usually a motherboard replacement job. You could always try a graphics driver update to rule out corrupt driver problems before taking it any further.

mikeopvc

ok thanks for the speedy replies

Any suggestions as to where I can get a display driver from

thanks

mikeopvc

Mista_C wrote: »

Try plugging a monitor into it and see if your experience the same problems on that. If not then I would suggest that the connection from the screen to the motherboard has become loose. Usually simple to fix but requires opening the laptop and/or the screen bezel.

If external monitor experiences the same problem then it's possible that the onboard graphics chip is on the blink, usually a motherboard replacement job. You could always try a graphics driver update to rule out corrupt driver problems before taking it any further.

How do I plug a monitor into my laptop? I do have a spare monitor but wouldn't know how to connect it to the laptop.
Are you saying to do this when the screen goes fuzzy again?