Laptop Displaying Weird Colours

GhostManOnThird

Recently, I was playing TF2 on my laptop. Then it froze, crashed to desktop, and in the taskbar I received a message saying something along the lines of 'Driver has failed, but has restarted successfully' - Anyway I tried to go back onto TF2 again it did it again.

So I let the computer rest a bit, came back and it was working fine. But this started happening on the desktop, when I played WoW, and using an internet browser. Eventually it blue screened saying something about a memory dump.

Now I've turned it back on, but it displays nothing now but weird lines of colours or a black screen with lines going across. Its actually working because I can see the laptop signing onto MSN, and the startup sounds - I just can't see anything displaying.

I'm guessing its the videocard, which is a GeForce 8600M GS. Any ideas?

edit: Don't know much about the laptop itself as it belongs to my brother but its a BenQ Joybook S41 series.

edit2: Okay well I let it rest again for a bit, and its back to normal, but its going to happen again eventually. I cant find any drivers for the 8600M GS. Not sure if there is a fix for this or is the graphics card just dying?

Ego

I'm guessing the heatsinks are fairly clogged with dust, particularly as it's okay when it's 'rested' for a while. Laptops are bad for it. Pick up a bottle of compressed air and give your laptop a good blast through the vents (find out which exhaust goes to the GPU if possible.)

Alternatively you could add the coolbits registry tweak and (assuming it works for mobile chipsets, and I don't know why it wouldn't) and down-clock your card so it doesn't get as hot. But overheating is an issue you ought to deal with properly.

yotes

You might be F'd in the A. 8x00M-series chips have been having issues.

http://gizmodo.com/5021713/lots-of-nvidia-laptop-graphics-cards-are-overheating-dying
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=271616

Pat McRotch

Hit it with a can of air like Ego said. I hope you are playing on a surface that lets the notebook breath, i.e. a desk, coffee table or a kitchen counter. A cooler pad can help. Or if you have a USB keyboard and mouse, prop the notebook's rear up with something.

You can try updating the video card drivers. Try to use the ones from the manufacturer, they are sometimes custom drivers.

This really sounds more like a heat issue than a driver issue... Once it gets so hot it is not gonna work right again. If it is still under warranty, call em up and get it repaired. I am on the phone dealing with notebook stuff like this all day, they should service it if it is overheating.