Diagnose my laptop woes?

May 10, 2017 10:42 AM

Hi all. My laptop, the mighty Qosmio, has an intermittent screen/graphics problem that I'm hoping you'll be able to diagnose. Once in a while the screen suddenly starts doing this ...

...and the computer becomes, as far as I can tell, unresponsive although it's difficult to tell with the screen flickering frantically like a detuned 1970s portable TV. Each time it's a case of holding down the power key to force a shutdown, and, some teeth grinding.

This machine has always run hot but the problem doesn't seem to be directly linked to temperature or heavy graphics or cpu use.

Thanks for your help!

posted by merocet to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh and I ran a memory test and it all came back good so, not that allegedly.
posted by merocet at 10:54 AM on May 10, 2017

Seems like the graphics chip has seen better days, if it usually runs hot, the chip may have started to unseat from the motherboard. Could also be a bad screen ribbon cable, but I don't recall those crashing a system.

Reflowing the chip could work, although it's a shot in the dark.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:32 AM on May 10, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'd hook it up to a separate monitor and see if it still happens.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 12:32 PM on May 10, 2017

Yep, looks like the integrated graphics chip is on the fritz.
posted by porpoise at 1:00 PM on May 10, 2017

It looks like that laptop has a graphics card that's removable. I think that laptop's CPU has a built in GPU, so you could try taking out the graphics card, and see what happens.

Laptop disassembly.

Replacement graphics cards.
posted by gregr at 1:24 PM on May 10, 2017

Best answer: Find out if the machine is actually crashing by finding out what its IP address is (check it when the machine is actually working) and pinging it from another computer or phone on the same network.

If it is still responding on the network, I'd try the replacing the display's ribbon cable first.
posted by wierdo at 3:10 PM on May 10, 2017

Oh, I failed to mention that if the backlight is flickering on and off when this happens, that's a strong indication of a problem with the cable or connector in and of itself.
posted by wierdo at 3:11 PM on May 10, 2017

I had a laptop that would get the same scrambled screen. The problem was either a cable or connector. Seems like the repair was less than or about $100.
posted by Carbolic at 4:27 PM on May 10, 2017

So, be honest, have you dropped this lately? Or even just dumped it down unceremoniously on a desk? Does this happen after it's been powered on for a while, or does it happen immediately on or just after startup, or is it genuinely random?

It seems like you were maybe watching a movie here, or is that background noise? Is that the laptop's speakers going?

I would pop off the hood and try reseating the display cable, if you can (there should be doco or even a video tutorial of this online). If the graphics card is really something that can be replaced (by a user), I would reseat that as well. Reseat everything while you've got the lid off. Ensure the fans are spinning smoothly. Blast out any dust that you can.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:58 PM on May 10, 2017

Best answer: I had this happen every few years on the same laptop whenever the power cable was wearing out. I was sure at first that it must be the graphics or the screen cable, but it turned out switching power adapters/cables always fixed it (even though, given that the laptop had a working battery, I'm not sure how that made sense.)
posted by trig at 12:07 AM on May 11, 2017

Best answer: Happened to my Dell laptop a few years back and it was bad RAM, weirdly. Spent $200 for a dell tech to replace a <$50 part i could have done myself... worth a shot if you're comfortable accessing that part of your laptop.
posted by danapiper at 5:37 AM on May 11, 2017

(My memory test also came back no problem so, fwiw)
posted by danapiper at 5:39 AM on May 11, 2017