Blue Screen/Graphics Card Problem Help

**cwaddell27** · #1 20th Feb 2009, 05:49

My sister has recently been having problems with her laptop. It starts up and the screen in blue but is the light blue colour of her laptop wallpaper (so shows like normal but without logos/ Windows toolbar or anything). It also shuts down after a few minutes (possibly from everheating) and wont turn back on until the power/battery light comes on again. I think it has had a system restore and I am just running antivirus (AVG 8) but keeps turning off before it can complete it. We are trying to backup everything but again it keeps turning itself off so not able to backup everything.

Will trying to reformat it help or is there anything else that will be able to help it without replacing everything. I had a similar problem a while ago and remormatting fixed it.

Also it starts up fine in safe mode if that makes any difference

She has taken it to be looked at and said it had a graphics card problem but will cost £140 to replace something.

Wrote down all info I could about it that I could find out - not sure how to find out any other info on it.

Acer TravelMate 5510
Windows Vista
Service Pack 1
AMD Turion (tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-52 1.60Ghz
1.00GB Memory Ram
System Type: 32 Bit OS

**Hybr!d** · #2 20th Feb 2009, 06:00

Sounds like overheating, turn it over, remove the little cover panels and blow it all out. Use a can of compressed air also. Aside from that I highly doubt it is a graphics card hardware fault. RAM maybe, dodgy hard drive/windows corruption.

With laptops replacing hardware is almost never a economical repair option, also I would be wary of anyone who will swap a graphics card for £140. Laptop graphics parts/components are spread out and soldered to many boards, it is a specialist and time consuming job. Not something I would do for £140 or any price for that matter, it is a nightmare to do and 99% of companys will turn a job like that down straight.

**cwaddell27** · #3 20th Feb 2009, 10:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Hybrid

Sounds like overheating, turn it over, remove the little cover panels and blow it all out. Use a can of compressed air also. Aside from that I highly doubt it is a graphics card hardware fault. RAM maybe, dodgy hard drive/windows corruption.

With laptops replacing hardware is almost never a economical repair option, also I would be wary of anyone who will swap a graphics card for £140. Laptop graphics parts/components are spread out and soldered to many boards, it is a specialist and time consuming job. Not something I would do for £140 or any price for that matter, it is a nightmare to do and 99% of companys will turn a job like that down straight.

Will have a go at trying to blow it all out. It also seems to turn itself off if it is doing too much (file transfers/running too many programs...) but guess it is from overheating. Other people on other forums have said it might not be the graphics card since it works in safe mode so we are going to try and reformat it and see if that helps. Just dont have the vista disc that came with it (in another country right now) so have to wait a while before she goes back or gets it sent to her until we can try that - unless there is a way of doing it without the discs - Ideally want it done as fast as possible.

**Hybr!d** · #4 20th Feb 2009, 10:30

Sounds like they have no idea but still want the job... Sort the overheating then if you have nothing important on it wipe it and start fresh, you'll soon know if it has a hardware fault as Windows will not install if it has. It's a easy 'acid test' as they say. Yes, unless your make/model has a recovery partition you will need the CDs that come with it, be it recovery CDs or Windows Install CD.

**cwaddell27** · #5 20th Feb 2009, 10:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Hybrid

Sounds like they have no idea but still want the job... Sort the overheating then if you have nothing important on it wipe it and start fresh, you'll soon know if it has a hardware fault as Windows will not install if it has. It's a easy 'acid test' as they say. Yes, unless your make/model has a recovery partition you will need the CDs that come with it, be it recovery CDs or Windows Install CD.

Just heard from another person who said since its working in safe mode it shoudln't be the graphics card. Dont know if I said this already on this forum but she first started having the problems when she connected to wifi in a pub so it may have got a virus from there. The person also said it may be one that targets the fan and shuts it off? Will try and get another antivirus on there and try and let them run and see if that works and then try to reformat once we get the discs as all the important files have been backed up on an external hard drive.

Also

**Hybr!d** · #6 20th Feb 2009, 10:41

Virus dont target fans or hardware. Fans get blocked with dust and overheat. It's a common problem. The other fault could be 1 in a million things. Until you fix the first fault it's impossible to diagnose the second.

**cwaddell27** · #7 20th Feb 2009, 10:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Hybrid

Virus dont target fans or hardware. Fans get blocked with dust and overheat. It's a common problem. The other fault could be 1 in a million things. Until you fix the first fault it's impossible to diagnose the second.

Ok - it sounded a bit strange that a virus would do that. Tried a virus scan but it shut down in the middle of it. Will see if I can clear any dust in it. Also would using HijackThis help if I can get it on her laptop?

**Hybr!d** · #8 20th Feb 2009, 10:52

Running any cleaning software is intense and it will crash instantly if you do not fix the overheating first.

Malware removal is also a specialist process, novices should not be using hijackthis, it is a specialist tool. Once you have fixed the first fault come back and post in the virus forum, then a trained malware expert will guide you through properly cleaning the machine.

**cwaddell27** · #9 20th Feb 2009, 10:53

Ok thanks

**cwaddell27** · #10 21st Feb 2009, 05:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Hybrid

Running any cleaning software is intense and it will crash instantly if you do not fix the overheating first.

Malware removal is also a specialist process, novices should not be using hijackthis, it is a specialist tool. Once you have fixed the first fault come back and post in the virus forum, then a trained malware expert will guide you through properly cleaning the machine.

How am I meant to clear out any dust? Do I remove the screws and just blow or is there an easy way to do it without opening it up? My sister doesn't really want to be opening it in case she messes it up more and also doesn't have the right size screwdriver.