How to fix a flaky display driver

November 3, 2005 4:32 PM

2 to 3 times a day my work computer locks up and i get a pop-up message: "The s3sav4 display driver has stopped working normally. [Save & reboot]" My screen drops down to a 640 x 480 display with almost no color. I reboot and everything is fine again (for a few hours). The cheap bastards here are not going to buy me a new computer. Is it a hardware or software issue -- any clues as to the nature of the problem and if there anything I can do or download to fix it?
posted by Carsey to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Update the drivers?
posted by fire&wings at 4:43 PM on November 3, 2005

This happened to my wife's laptop. Updating the drivers and reinstalling the OS didn't fix anything. Turns out the built-in video just was bad hardware-wise. Turning down the video acceleration fixed it. We just took it down by a notch each time until the computer was stable. It's been doing well for more than a year. The speed isn't much less for normal Windows usage.
posted by zsazsa at 4:47 PM on November 3, 2005

Yeah, if you can't get the drivers updated, turn down the acceleration. The drivers are however the way to go if you can get them.
posted by kindall at 4:53 PM on November 3, 2005

Turning down the video acceleration suggests that it's possible that direct X is having problems. Perhaps updating directX (available from MS) might increase stability.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 5:31 PM on November 3, 2005

2 or 3 times a day, if you can't find a software connection, may be hardware (there are plenty of weird software things that have odd stimuli, though, so explore those first).

Is the chip onboard? If it is, there may be mobo diagnostics you can run. If its an actual card, cheap 2D cards can be picked up for less than $10 (I have 2 sitting on my shelf at the moment, actually). You shouldn't need a whole new computer for this in any case.
posted by devilsbrigade at 5:33 PM on November 3, 2005

I would try opening the actual CPU and seeing if there's dust. I got errors like that when the hard drive started to get too hot from all the dust buildup around it. Might be the same MO for you.
posted by itchie at 5:46 PM on November 3, 2005

I had a similar problem with my parents old computer. It turned out to be an overheating problem with the Hard Drive. When it would get hot, it sometimes could not access drivers and would dump those drivers and resort back to the stock windows vga driver.

I assume it is a desktop. If the driver updates and new card don't work, try blowing it out, make sure the fans are still working, add more fans, put elastics around your IDE cables (be careful), add a hard drive cooler - anything to increase air flow.
posted by Yorrick at 8:22 PM on November 3, 2005

What itchie means is "I would try opening the case...". It is a good suggestion though, computers should be cleaned of dust periodically. If the graphics chip has a heatsink piled with dust you may well have a cooling problem.

People do sometimes "open the actual CPU" by removing it's integrated heat spreader. This has nothing whatsoever to do with video issues, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
posted by Chuckles at 9:04 PM on November 3, 2005

What operating system are you running? If it's Windows 2000, or Windows XP, try updating the drivers for the video card. S3 is no longer in business, but you should be able to scrounge for old drivers by google searching 's3 savage 4 drivers'.

If you're running a version of windows prior to 2000 or XP, I'd highly recommend upgrading to a newer operating system, but if you are not allowed or are unable to do that, install a fresh copy of the operating system.

Hardware issues are, in my opinion, less likely than software issues, but it's not out of the question.
posted by creeront at 10:01 PM on November 3, 2005

If I may throw in my two cents, if the OS is 2000 or XP, I've found the available drivers for S3 Savage boards to be unsatisfactory in a pretty sorry way. After no end of problems, I upgraded to slightly newer cards, and all was well.
posted by drumcorpse at 12:37 AM on November 4, 2005

thank you all. i am running xp. based on the plurality of suggestions, i will open the case and check it out -- but i am told there are 3 fans in there already, so i think in the end a new card may be the way to go.
posted by Carsey at 4:44 PM on November 4, 2005