Video Card stopped working

EDIT I was told that this issue is probably a physical issue, like the graphic card burned a certain component or something like that, so I think its not spyware/malware in the end and probably only solution is carrying this to the technical service to replace the card, Im very sorry for all the trouble and my lack of experience and knowledge to diagnose this

Hi all,

I have recently experimented a certain trouble in my laptop, one day suddenly the video card stopped working (so I enter windows in 640x480 and 4bits mode), I have Windows Vista Home and accessing the device manager it says the card was stopped by windows. The card is Nvidia Geforce 8400M GT and I already tried installing the drivers supplied by laptop's manufacturer, even went to Nvidia's site after that to get their latest drivers still nothing worked because Nvidia installers say there is no hardware compatble, I tried uninstalling card from device manager and detecting again and everytime its reinstalled its back to being stopped, so I wonder if this could be any kind of malware involved as it sounds like the registry could be affected somehow, I had no restore points for the registry, although dont know how its possible as I had settled a certain rule for it to be created long time ago. Anyone could help me please?

Also if you consider this is not part of malware please receive my apologies and move it to the proper section, I just always have the feeling something is related to that in any computer with internet access.

EDIT Forgot to add that even being in 4bit mode there are lines going across the screen like its not just normal display for that mode but totally wrong which makes it hard to even read any text or run any tool, even when laptop is turned on and black screen appears saying its loading all system there are green lines, dont know if it could help clarify it

Hi asdronin,

Sorry to hear about the issues with your computer.

It looks like someone has moved your topic from the Virus and Spyware Removal forum, over to here.

As you know laptops don't usually have a removable graphics card, inside, but rely usually on the video chips and circuitry embedded into the motherboard.

However there are some laptops that fall outside this general situation ,and your local competent computer technician should be able to diagnose the situation and advise if a new motherboard is required… pricy and maybe makes the computer beyond economic repair bearing in mind the withdrawal of support for Vista by Microsoft from April 2017 ( that is to say its only got 2 and a quarter years left so to speak)

Sometimes it is possible to "reflow" the video chip and if the soldering of the chip and its heatsink is the problem this reflow can effect a repair that is sometimes permanent ..other times its only fairly temporary.

I have two suggestions for your consideration however before you involve yourself in any expense:

1 Connect your laptop to an external VDU (screen) and see if this sorts out the issue… if the external screen works Ok it usually indicates that the graphics are actually OK and you need to be looking at the cable connectors and the laptops built in screen.

2 Download and burn a copy of a Live Linux Distro and boot from it.

If the machine works Ok using Linux then its indicating a fault with Windows and or the video driver, so you may need to revisit the site where you downloaded the Windows driver….in explanation Linux will provide its own driver so if it works Ok using Linux then its pointing towards your windows operating system and the video driver.

You can download linux Puppy from here:

http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm

There are of course many other distros of Linux available, but when you have the .iso downloaded you must remember to burn the CD as an "image" just making a copy of the .iso wont work as its not bootable….it must be an image.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

paws