- Oct 10, 2014
- 4
- 0
- 4,510
I could use some second opinions around here, this laptop I am working on that was brought into me three days ago has me stumped. I think I've narrowed down the problem, but would like some opinions and how you would relay some of the information back to the owner of the laptop. First, I need to do some backstory though:
Laptop owner brought computer in about three days ago. It is a MSI gaming laptop, fairly old- probably about 4 years old. He is running Windows 10 and he told me that up until the day he brought it into me, he was able to play his older games (we are talking 10+ old games here). But now, every time he runs any games, he gets an error code saying some display settings aren't correct (even though they were and remember, he was able to run his games just fine until the day he brought it in to me). There was another error saying that he needed DirectX 8 or higher to run some games even though he was running on 12. He was able to run everything but his games, including AutoCAD just fine though.
So I get it checked in and start working on it. Device manager claims that his Radeon HD 7970m was stopped by windows since it reported errors (a code 43). So I tried reinstalling the drivers. I have tried download drivers off of the laptop manufacturer's website, AMD's website, and even used a third party driver installation tool to get drivers back on, nothing. Uninstalling the driver and waiting for Windows to reinstall it solves nothing too, same message.
So I opened up Dxdiag after each attempt as well, even after restarts and it claims I am running on Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, nothing else.
On the second day, my coworker took my place and was working on the laptop since I was gone, so I can't say all of which bootable CD programs he ran but he had many issues. He could not boot into pretty much anything but Windows Installation CDs. He tried Live Ubuntu, UCBD, Hirens, etc. and to my understanding, only one of the CDs booted up properly while the others just got skipped over entirely. He told me that the machine crashed every time he tried to run a video memory stress test through a live CD. We couldn't even try to run a video benchmark like Furmark in Windows because it wouldn't let us since the computer thinks that it is under Microsoft Basic Visual Display Adapter.
Anyway, I took over again after his tests. I tried formatting Windows with another drive and used 7 (couldn't even install though) 8.1, and 10. When Windows got the drivers installed both on 8.1 and the fresh 10- it still, same issues. I downloaded Speccy to look at computer temps and it won't even give me a temp for this guy's graphics card, but his processor is sitting at mid 90s to mid 100s (AMD A10 proc, don't know exact model- forgot) and his motherboard was sitting anywhere between low to high 60s.
I think at this point, it's safe to say that his graphics card is fried, but I can't tell if any other components should be replaced either. To be honest with you all, I'm not even really sure how to explain this to the owner. Usually it doesn't take us very long to figure out a bad component with a computer but this one really took us for a spin. Any other suggestions or what you guys think might be wrong would be appreciated.
EDIT: Should mention that other than computer not being able to run his games and the fact that device manager was shooting out that the card isn't working, computer runs just fine. I never would even consider the motherboard or proc a possible problem until my coworker failed to boot into the majority of his live CDs- which have been tested and works on other computers- and had not seen how hot the proc and board were running. That was just after having the computer on and idling for 5-10 minutes as well.
Laptop owner brought computer in about three days ago. It is a MSI gaming laptop, fairly old- probably about 4 years old. He is running Windows 10 and he told me that up until the day he brought it into me, he was able to play his older games (we are talking 10+ old games here). But now, every time he runs any games, he gets an error code saying some display settings aren't correct (even though they were and remember, he was able to run his games just fine until the day he brought it in to me). There was another error saying that he needed DirectX 8 or higher to run some games even though he was running on 12. He was able to run everything but his games, including AutoCAD just fine though.
So I get it checked in and start working on it. Device manager claims that his Radeon HD 7970m was stopped by windows since it reported errors (a code 43). So I tried reinstalling the drivers. I have tried download drivers off of the laptop manufacturer's website, AMD's website, and even used a third party driver installation tool to get drivers back on, nothing. Uninstalling the driver and waiting for Windows to reinstall it solves nothing too, same message.
So I opened up Dxdiag after each attempt as well, even after restarts and it claims I am running on Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, nothing else.
On the second day, my coworker took my place and was working on the laptop since I was gone, so I can't say all of which bootable CD programs he ran but he had many issues. He could not boot into pretty much anything but Windows Installation CDs. He tried Live Ubuntu, UCBD, Hirens, etc. and to my understanding, only one of the CDs booted up properly while the others just got skipped over entirely. He told me that the machine crashed every time he tried to run a video memory stress test through a live CD. We couldn't even try to run a video benchmark like Furmark in Windows because it wouldn't let us since the computer thinks that it is under Microsoft Basic Visual Display Adapter.
Anyway, I took over again after his tests. I tried formatting Windows with another drive and used 7 (couldn't even install though) 8.1, and 10. When Windows got the drivers installed both on 8.1 and the fresh 10- it still, same issues. I downloaded Speccy to look at computer temps and it won't even give me a temp for this guy's graphics card, but his processor is sitting at mid 90s to mid 100s (AMD A10 proc, don't know exact model- forgot) and his motherboard was sitting anywhere between low to high 60s.
I think at this point, it's safe to say that his graphics card is fried, but I can't tell if any other components should be replaced either. To be honest with you all, I'm not even really sure how to explain this to the owner. Usually it doesn't take us very long to figure out a bad component with a computer but this one really took us for a spin. Any other suggestions or what you guys think might be wrong would be appreciated.
EDIT: Should mention that other than computer not being able to run his games and the fact that device manager was shooting out that the card isn't working, computer runs just fine. I never would even consider the motherboard or proc a possible problem until my coworker failed to boot into the majority of his live CDs- which have been tested and works on other computers- and had not seen how hot the proc and board were running. That was just after having the computer on and idling for 5-10 minutes as well.
Facebook
Twitter