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Please allay my fears (laptop malfunction)
Dalboz
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
I posted about cleaning my laptop earlier, but I feel that I need to ask this because it really got me worried.
I left my laptop on last night downloading a rather large program for a closed beta test. I've done this before with no problem. I went into the program, which is a 3D game and during the character creation screen which I was just screwing around in to play with some stuff. While I was doing this, I got a BSOD, but one which I've never seen before. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was only two lines, which said something along the lines of there being a hardware malfunction and to contact the hardware vendor.
I've gotten the occasional BSOD before, although this one had me a little worried because it was new. I powered down the laptop and may have simply not left it off long enough, but I thought it was a sufficient amount of time for everything the clear. When I powered it on, everything worked fine...except that I noticed some dots on the screen during POST and during the Windows loading screen. At first thought it was just some dust specks. They seemed to be just a few random dots, but the fact that they were appearing during the POST and loading screens worried me. The dots weren't noticeable after that when everything was loaded and I was browsing the web, and everything booted up without complaint. I even went back into the game at the character creation screen, although I didn't stay long.
In my online searches about this, I kept seeing references to the GPU burning out and things like that, but the incidents people were describing were a lot more dramatic than what happened to me. Also, I can't quite remember, but I get a feeling like this might have happened once before, but since everything worked after that, I just chalked it up to a quirk (it should also be said that since I can't really remember if it happened before that if it did happen, it happened a while ago).
For reference, I'm using a Dell Inspiron E1705, almost three years old with a Centrino Duo 2.2 GHz CPU, nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS, and Windows XP SP3. Anything else needed to determine issue, just ask. Please help allay my fears that my laptop is dying.
TL;DR: Laptop BSODed during game listing hardware malfunction, rebooted but showed what might be called artifacting during POST and loading, but everything runs fine. What happened?
I left my laptop on last night downloading a rather large program for a closed beta test. I've done this before with no problem. I went into the program, which is a 3D game and during the character creation screen which I was just screwing around in to play with some stuff. While I was doing this, I got a BSOD, but one which I've never seen before. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was only two lines, which said something along the lines of there being a hardware malfunction and to contact the hardware vendor.
I've gotten the occasional BSOD before, although this one had me a little worried because it was new. I powered down the laptop and may have simply not left it off long enough, but I thought it was a sufficient amount of time for everything the clear. When I powered it on, everything worked fine...except that I noticed some dots on the screen during POST and during the Windows loading screen. At first thought it was just some dust specks. They seemed to be just a few random dots, but the fact that they were appearing during the POST and loading screens worried me. The dots weren't noticeable after that when everything was loaded and I was browsing the web, and everything booted up without complaint. I even went back into the game at the character creation screen, although I didn't stay long.
In my online searches about this, I kept seeing references to the GPU burning out and things like that, but the incidents people were describing were a lot more dramatic than what happened to me. Also, I can't quite remember, but I get a feeling like this might have happened once before, but since everything worked after that, I just chalked it up to a quirk (it should also be said that since I can't really remember if it happened before that if it did happen, it happened a while ago).
For reference, I'm using a Dell Inspiron E1705, almost three years old with a Centrino Duo 2.2 GHz CPU, nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS, and Windows XP SP3. Anything else needed to determine issue, just ask. Please help allay my fears that my laptop is dying.
TL;DR: Laptop BSODed during game listing hardware malfunction, rebooted but showed what might be called artifacting during POST and loading, but everything runs fine. What happened?
Dalboz on
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Posts
They could be initial symptoms of heat death in the GPU.
OR
They could be dust on the screen.
No, it wasn't dust. I described it like that to give an idea of what it kind of looked like. But it was definitely dots on the screen.
If so, your GPU is overheated/dying. You can limp along at this point but I'd stay away from anything intensive.
but they're listening to every word I say
If the specks are still there, you might have done permanent damage. If they're gone now, it was just a temporary overheating issue, and cleaning out the notebook might not be a bad idea.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
It was actually kind of like what JebusUD described. It looked kind of like a small handful of dead pixels, although more stuck than dead. They are no longer there now. And I did blow out my vents with some compressed air which seemed to dislodge a good sized and rather dense dust bunny from the GPU, which I pulled out through the vent with a pair of straightened paper clips. I8KfanGUI is showing the CPU and GPU now running 20 degrees C cooler than before under normal idle (With Folding@Home running) than before.
It's sound like people are leaning toward it just being a temporary overheat and that it's unlikely that I did any significant permanent damage. Or am I missing something?
Right on the money. The 20C drop in CPU/GPU temperature is helping, no doubt.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.