Laptop troubles - conflicting graphics cards?

Librarian

I am trying to fix an Acer Aspire E 15 for a friend.

Initial issues:
After latest update PC would just boot to a black screen, mouse pointer still visible, technically possible to still log in, but getting no visual clues except for mouse pointer.

Tried so far:

Removed the battery and pushed the power button for 1 minute.
Booted several times in safe mode and did the following:
Installed the latest drivers for the Nvidia Geforce 840M
Uninstalled the onboard Intel graphics, this would lead to a successful boot but then result in an automatic new install which led to black screen on next boot.
Just deactivated the Intel graphics without uninstalling, this removes the boot to black but resulted in extremely bad game performance and massive slowdown/choppy frames. The Nvidia control center says it is not connected to a Nvidia GPU.
Did a clean reinstall and formated the drive, since the system was pretty messed up anyway.
The problem is exactly the same, so now I am back to a properly running system with a deactivated onboard graphic and an nvidia card that seems to be not really working. Or a boot to black if I activate both graphic options.

Has anyone ran into a similar issue? any ideas?

LD50

If it persists through a reinstall I am assuming that some part of the graphics subsystem is physically broken. Is the laptop still under warranty?

Shadowfire

You might be able to roll back the Intel driver and exclude it from Windows updates.

Librarian

LD50 wrote: »

If it persists through a reinstall I am assuming that some part of the graphics subsystem is physically broken. Is the laptop still under warranty?

Unfortunately not.

Librarian

Shadowfire wrote: »

You might be able to roll back the Intel driver and exclude it from Windows updates.

I tried several options with the Intel driver, but it always reverts to a black screen boot unless I deactivate the device in windows.

wunderbar

you could try nuking from orbit and a fresh windows install?

Quantux

If you're getting a cursor, then GPU should be fine, really sounds like you're stuck on a secondary monitor. Have you tried hooking up to another display when you get the black BG w/pointer?

Librarian

Quantux wrote: »

If you're getting a cursor, then GPU should be fine, really sounds like you're stuck on a secondary monitor. Have you tried hooking up to another display when you get the black BG w/pointer?

Great idea, but unfortunately no. I just get a mirrored black screen when I connect my main screen with an HDMI cable.

Librarian

And the fact that the Nvidia card is not recognized by the Nvidia software after the driver installation is also pretty weird.

Cantido

Wrong laptop thread!