Graphics Card stops working

[Aosis]

I have Dell Inspiron N5010 laptop with:
Intel Core i5-460M 2.53GHz
500GB HDD
4GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Basic
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470

Since last few weeks I am facing trouble with its display. It does not starts during boot. I have to press power key 15-20 repeatedly to turn it on.Then the screen pixels appears totally damaged and wierd patterns appears. The boot menu comes and if I choose Start Windows normally, it may/may work further. Even if it will get ON for a few minutes, it will get off soon. Many times, error message comes that "Display Driver stopped working and has successfully recovered". I am currently using my laptop in Safe mode with networking. In safe mode, it works OK normally but bad pixels appear sometimes.
I went to a PC mechanic who simply exchanged RAM chips in the two slots itself after rubbing the corners with an eraser but it did not work. I used System Restore but that too was not useful. I have done boot time diagnosis using F12 key which showed that LCD, System Board and every thing is fine (though my battery was unable to charge and I already knew it). I suspect that problem is with my Graphics Card.
How should I confirm about the problem. I use my computer only for basic tasks like Web Browsing, watching HD videos in 720p and MS Office
tasks. Should I disable my Graphics Card (How to do that?). Also, please tell if my CPU will be able to handle my tasks in such a condition?
Thanks in advance.

 

[pyr0_m4n]

If the display driver is failing, that is usually caused by an unstable overclock or a failing graphics card. It can also be caused by a conflict in graphics drivers. Have you updated the driver recently? If not, its probably failing since laptops normally aren't overclocked.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

1. What kind of voodoo is rubbing an eraser 😵
2. Try re-installing the graphic driver. Uninstall current driver in Device Manager, go into Safe Mode and use Driver Sweeper or Driver Fusion to clean it again (download), restart, install the latest version of driver from AMD http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
3. Your processor does have onboard graphic. If the laptop is capable of disabling the discrete GPU, it should be somewhere in the BIOS.

 

[Aosis]

I have disabled my Graphics Card using Device Manager. But now the system has become too sluggish and also screen resolution won't go beyond 1024X768 which was earlier 1366X768. I display field it shows: Default Monitor. How do I increase it? My Dell Manual says that machine has HD display with screen resolution of 1366X768.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

Don't disable it in the Device Manager, go into BIOS and see if you can do it there. Device Manager will only mistake that as you want the default VGA standard driver.

 

[Aosis]

Yeah! I tried to do that in BIOS. I have A15 Bios by American Megatrends. But there is no such option. What can I do now?
Also, I was having Windows 7 Home Basic but now the interface has changed to some other edition of windows, I think it is Windows 7 Home Premium. I am habitual of Home Basic only. Pls help, I am stuck.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

Are you in Safe Mode?
What happens when you enable the GPU again?

 

[Aosis]

No! I am not working in Safe Mode. I am working in normal mode.
I talked to Dell Customer care and they have advised me to reinstall Windows. I am doing it. Let's see if it helps. I will return here and tell my experience.

 

[Aosis]

Its is sadly still not working. I reinstalled Windows 7 successfully using the re installation Disc that came with my laptop and also installed all the drivers and utilities but it is not working. I am going to show it to some PC mechanic.

 

[IDontUnderstand]

Good luck.