More computer problems

[Systreg]

Got this HP laptop new 3 months ago, and already having problems with it as of yesterday, the graphic or video card is on it's way out?

My screen went completely yellow yesterday with thousands of little white diamond shapes all over the screen, then it froze, had to take battery out to start it again, then got the bad shutdown page offering to start windows normally or in safe mode etc, since then have had the page full of squiggly lines, other colours etc, really peeing me off.

Entered in safe mode when it happened numerous times again after that, did a system restore to Dec 23rd, not like that would help, and updated driver for video/graphics card from the device manager, they all seem ok, but still every now and again, screen goes black for about 2 seconds, then comes back on really bright, and I get a message in my bottom menu saying:

"Display driver stopped responding and has recovered. Display driver AMD driver stopped responding and has succesfully recovered" - See message at bottom of screen here:



Done all the usual virus and malware scans and there's nothing bad on my machine

Now, on this laptop it has a "HP quick view" function, that's where as soon as I turn the laptop on, a page opens before I login to Windows, where I can go online before Windows actually starts, been using this for the past hour or so and no problems at all with graphics or computer shutting down etc, so I'm thinking it must be something to do with Windows itself to be causing the graphics to fail, otherwise I would still be getting the graphics errors even in quick view, no?

So my question is, I have an old copy of Linux on CD, if I was to install that, presumably that would wipe Windows from my computer and install it's own graphics operation stuff, and in doing so, stop the errors I'm getting?

 

[diablo]

3 months old - must still be under warranty. Removing Windows and installing Linux may make that warranty null and void - and who knows what lies down the road.

Looks like a driver problem. If you Google it, you are not alone.

 

[chrisduggan]

Contact HP. Warranties are given for a reason.

 

[AssetDomains]

Wont invalidate the warranty hardware wise but they may refuse to support you online and such.
Boot in safe mode with networking go to the amd site and download the driver.
uninstall the current one completely and run the driver install from downloaded file that should do the trick

 

[Systreg]

My desktop will not load at all now, constantly going black screen then back to original start page, but it runs fine from the HP quick view thing, anyway, I'm actually posting in safe mode at the moment and safe mode is just as good as normal Windows as I've changed the screen resolution to get rid of all the huge icons and text etc, so could just use it continually in safe mode if need be?

Boot in safe mode with networking go to the amd site and download the driver. uninstall the current one completely and run the driver install from downloaded file that should do the trick

Funnily enough, I started in safe mode a while ago before seeing your post and went to www.amd.com site, downloaded a couple of drivers from there as wasn't sure which one, also not sure what destination to save to on the computer, so just clicked "run" and let it put it where it wanted to put it.

One of the downloads gave an error when I clicked to download it, so I clicked ignore and downloaded it anyway, made no difference after downloading them as desktop still wont load properly, presumably the laptop will recognise they are installed somewhere on the computer?

Having not seen your post, I didn't delete the old drivers before downloading the new ones, maybe I'll try that in a minute, but not at all sure as the names of the AMD and ATI things in the device manager are called something different to the download on the AMD site, so not sure the computer will recognise them with different names

I have at least saved all my website files by emailing them to myself and also downloading them to a USB flash memory for safe keeping.

Would like some clarification on using Linux, though, will installing Ubuntu install it's own new graphics driver stuff for use on Linux when it deletes all my current Windows files?

Yes, the computer being fairly new will be under warranty, but I bought it in the UK before moving to Ireland and not sure I know where the receipt is now, need to go searching for it. Also, not sure I can be arsed sending the laptop through the post to some far off place, probably cause it more damage being kicked around post depots, would be easier just to buy a new laptop if Linus doesn't do the trick, then again, if I use it permanently in safe mode, no need to install Linux on it.

 

[AssetDomains]

Theres ususaly a thing were you can put in your laptop model number and it will tell you he correct version to download. if not post it here and i'll have a look see what i can find out

 

[Systreg]

Theres ususaly a thing were you can put in your laptop model number and it will tell you he correct version to download. if not post it here and i'll have a look see what i can find out

This is the AMD page and you can see the 4 drop down boxes on the right, also my device manager with the names of the display adapters next to it:



Of the 2 downloads on AMD site, which do I need, the 4xxx series or the 5xxx series, as there are the numbers 4250 and 5470 showing on the device manager?

I'm guessing my laptop is Vista 64 bit? I know it's Vista but that's about all, EDIT FFS, just looked at my old post on here from when I bought this laptop and this is the one I bought:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-dv7-4020sa-06474287-pdt.html

Model is HP Pavilion dv7-4020sa

Which is Windows 7, it was my other one that was Vista, so I better go and download the Windows 7 driver from AMD instead

 

[Ashton]

You need to get the driver from HP themselves:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&product=4217498

 

[Systreg]

Cheers, running it now, well downloading it, still 8 minutes to go, which is a lot bigger than the AMD downloads which took about 10 seconds to install.

Do I still need to delete the current drivers in my device manager, if so, which of the 2 to delete or both, and what about renaming them if name is different?

 

[AssetDomains]

Mobilty Radeon Series
Mobilty Radeon Series HD 5xxx series

in the second and third boxes will work

 

[Systreg]

Ok, tried installing the download from the HP link above, got an error straight away saying "failed to load detection driver", clicked ok and it carried on downloading, then got the error log at the end which said failures occured during installation, and this was the log:

Existing packagesAMD USB Filter Driver
Catalyst Control Center
ATI Catalyst Install Manager
North Bridge Filter Driver
ATI Display Driver
HDMI/DP Audio Driver
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable


Other detected devices

Error messages
Failed to load detection driver

 

[AssetDomains]

Ok, tried installing the download from the HP link above, got an error straight away saying "failed to load detection driver", clicked ok and it carried on downloading, then got the error log at the end which said failures occured during installation, and this was the log:

Go with the ATI ones direct from amd see my last post

 

[Systreg]

Go with the ATI ones direct from amd see my last post

Ok, downloaded and installed that, same one as I installed before, but I'll leave safe mode now and see if any change from the several lots of downloads I've done. I didn't delete the old drivers before as not sure about the different names of stuff compared to new download names/files.

One other thing, I was just looking at the restore function in my control panel and see one called return your computer to factory condition

This option will delete everything on your computer and replace it with a recovery image provided by your computer manufacturer. Afterwards, you can restore your files from backup. Any programs you've installed will need to be reinstalled using the origina; installation discs or files

I don't have an Windows 7 installation disc as it was on the computer ready installed, so does that mean it will use the recovery image that's already on the computer?

I don't mind a factory reset as that will presumably fix the error, plus nothing on the computer I need to save now as already done that.

 

[Ashton]

Use Driver Sweeper to clean the driver and run with the windows ones (which is what you do when your in safe mode)

Edit: don't suppose you have a system restore point from a while back?

 

[Systreg]

Use Driver Sweeper to clean the driver and run with the windows ones (which is what you do when your in safe mode)

Sorry mate, thicko question time lol, what do you mean by run with the Windows ones, what's that?

[edit]

Edit: don't suppose you have a system restore point from a while back?

Apparently, system restore sets auto save points regularly, not sure how fa back it goes, the one I did yesterday took it back to December 23rd.

[edit]

Looks like the last restore point was that 23rd one

 

[AssetDomains]

If theres nothing you want to keep the factory reset will fix the promblem assuming its not a hardware error (which i dont think it is)

 

[Ashton]

Windows has built in drivers to handle cards - when you're in safe mode you are using these drivers (which are working for you)

If you delete your graphics card drivers windows will use it's build in ones to handle them.

 

[Systreg]

If theres nothing you want to keep the factory reset will fix the problem assuming its not a hardware error (which i dont think it is)

Thanks, I may well give that factory reset a go if all else fails, might also try installing Linux but with one of those partitions to dual boot from Windos or Linux, but that might be a but techy for me doing partition stuff lol

If you delete your graphics card drivers windows will use it's build in ones to handle them.

Ahh, thanks, I see now, wasn't aware of that.

 

[Ashton]

I would say delete all the drivers and things related to them (drivers control panel etc) with driver sweeper and reinstall the one's from HP for your system. Normally that works whenever I have to fix other peoples, and if that doesn't work then I guess factory reset (which is format presumably?)

 

[Systreg]

I would say delete all the drivers and things related to them (drivers control panel etc) with driver sweeper and reinstall the one's from HP for your system.

That's the thing though, I wouldn't have a clue what to delete or what was related to what, going to restart now anyway and see if anything has changed, back soon lol

Is there anything wrong/detremental with using a computer permanently in safe mode? Quite happy to use it like this if need be as it's just like normal to me.