Possible laptop graphics problem.

[redlinezak]

My laptop has been doing a couple of annoying things for quite a while now so thought i would ask the experts lol.

It running Vista with SP2 and the graphics is nvidia 9650mGT.

Upon booting th elaptop up the background appears in normal colour but almost immediately it flashes and then it has a yellow hue to it (everything works etc and have all desktop icons). It normally reverts back to the correct colour within maybe 30-60 seconds and all is good. However sometimes it will continue to have the yellow tint to it and will not correct itself (its almost like the laptop hasnt quite loaded it properly as when this happens the HD light is almost permanently on.

The other problem is that very often the screen will flicker, moving the screen slightly (hinge) will cure it. This also manifests itself most noticably when the screen saver is active (picture folder). After sitting on the screen saver for a period of time the screen will go grey although you can still see it flicking pictures you will not be able to actually see the pictures moving (its just grey lines moving around etc) Again a wiggle of the screen will fix this. I know this pretty much sounds like a loose connection but it seems to happen mostly when the screen saver activates and the screen saver will run for a period of time and then go grey without the laptop even being touched or moved.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have Kaspersky and have run a scan, also Malwarebytes, Spybot and Ccleaner. Have also defragged yesterday.

[sideways14a]

The second issue sounds very much like a faulty ribbon cable between graphics board and lcd, very common. You will need to identify the part - they are normally available on ebay for not a lot, could be a duff screen or something else but the ribbon connection is most likely.

First one could be similar, but if its repeatable every time and it does the same thing over and over again then i would try updating the video drivers (what version of forceware drivers are on it?), if its using the stock vista ones then it will benefit immensely from the proper video drivers.

[redlinezak]

The second issue sounds very much like a faulty ribbon cable between graphics board and lcd, very common. You will need to identify the part - they are normally available on ebay for not a lot, could be a duff screen or something else but the ribbon connection is most likely.

First one could be similar, but if its repeatable every time and it does the same thing over and over again then i would try updating the video drivers (what version of forceware drivers are on it?), if its using the stock vista ones then it will benefit immensely from the proper video drivers.

Can you tell me how to check the forceware driver please mate and i will post the result.

Cheers

[sideways14a]

Download the latest one from nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[Draven]

on windows 7 (and possibly vista dont know) if the screensaver is on pictures folder after a while of running the screensaver the images go grey, not sure why exactly maybe something arty farty or maybe an attempt at cycling down minimal load on the gpu to save power

everything else does suggest knackered or loose screen connector or duff display with a minor possibility of memory corruption or other defect of the graphics card

if the machine has an external VGA or HDMI connector try plugging it into an external display and see if it still does the same visual anomolies

[redlinezak]

OK latest driver installed and the yellow tint remains. Its like it loads correctly when the laptop powers up then changes to the yellow tint and never goes back.

Will try the HDMI experiment when i get home cheers

EDIT I will also try and get a quick vid clip of ot powering up next time.

[redlinezak]

on windows 7 (and possibly vista dont know) if the screensaver is on pictures folder after a while of running the screensaver the images go grey, not sure why exactly maybe something arty farty or maybe an attempt at cycling down minimal load on the gpu to save power

That is exactly what happens on mine - can you still see movement as though the pictures are still changing?

[Draven]

yeah you can normally see the movement but if there is a problem with the cable it may effect certain colours/brightness/effects more than others

good way to check if its video card related would be to get a screenshot, paste into paint and save it then transfer it here or to another computer
if the image is still borked its graphics processing related, if its fine then its more likely screen related as a screenshot basically dumps the graphics buffer from the video processor to memory, any issues in that point (which is pretty much the step before transmitting it to the display) puts the fault within the hardware/software running the card

[redlinezak]

OK well just tried another reboot and it did something slightly different which didnt really highlight the background going from bright to yellow tinit too well. I did time it tho and takes 4.30 to boot up and be ready to use.

I have now however got another problem since updating the graphics driver. Twice now the computer has totally frozen on me (mouse keyboard everything) Had to hold down the power button to turn off and reboot. Is it worth me rolling back the driver??

Thanks

Nath

[redlinezak]

OK i have found it. In the Nvidia control panel there were 2 options - 1. allow other applications to control colour settings and 2. Use Nvidia settings. Switching between these 2 displayed exactly the problem i was getting so it looks like there was a conflict between 2 programs to control the colour settings.
I havn't rebooted yet so im hoping the setting remains selected.

[redlinezak]

Right well its locked up again so had to reboot and it didnt seem to remeber the colour settings so something is definately at odds withe the invidia settings.

[sideways14a]

Something is not well with the drivers, you shouldnt be crashing with a nice new fresh updated set.
Try a roll back to the ones you had, assuming they were nvidia drivers and not MS ones (which are shit)

[redlinezak]

Im trying to identify if its something specific thats causing it. I have been in the control panel each time it has frozen i think
will roll back the drivers (yes they are nvidia ones from 2008 i think)

[redlinezak]

OK driver rolled back. On reboot it switched to yellow and then reverted back to white and so far no crash. so hopefully all ok although im not too sure what has been done to fix it.

[redlinezak]

Have changed the screen saver to the standard 'mystery' one and it doesnt even seem to activate (screen just stays black) so not sure if this is contrinuting to the other problem.

[Cluck]

re. the tint, it's possible you've got a screen calibration program running on startup. Adobe (amongst others) used to have a gamma thing loading on startup, so it might be worth looking through your startup processes to see if there's anything that obviously relates to screen/graphics/display. To be sure, turn off all the startup items (in msconfig) and reboot and see if it does the same thing .

I'd go with other peeps suggestions about trying an external monitor to see if the 'grey' problem is screen-related.

[redlinezak]

I have checked MSconfig and there is hardly anything running on startup and certainly nothing that screams graphics other than Nvidia (which incidentally did not run at startup with the new driver installed).
Startup items are

Synaptics Pointing Device
HD Audio Control Panel
Kaspersky
Microsoft Windows OS
Nvidia Display Driver
Nvidia Media Center (can i stop this at start up as im not sure what it is but dont think i use it)

[Cluck]

I have checked MSconfig and there is hardly anything running on startup and certainly nothing that screams graphics other than Nvidia (which incidentally did not run at startup with the new driver installed).
Startup items are

Synaptics Pointing Device
HD Audio Control Panel
Kaspersky
Microsoft Windows OS
Nvidia Display Driver
Nvidia Media Center (can i stop this at start up as im not sure what it is but dont think i use it)

If that's all that's in your startup then it's probably not what I thought it was.

[redlinezak]

It certainly seems to be screensaver related in some way. Its pretty much guaranteed that the screen will grey out just after the screen saver activates.

With regards the yellow hue. That seems fixed now although it still flashes between the two on startup so definately a conflict but at least i know how to get round the problem if it happens.

cheers