(Help) Dead video card or driver issue ?

[Ineedanadult]

Hi guys, first time poster here.

I'm having an issue with my laptop and would like some help, I've browsed the forums and tried several fixes but to no avail.
Yesterday my computer crashed while I was playing a game (some green-ish lines appeared briefly on screen, which froze, then went black). The computer was still on, fans working, etc. I shut it down, reboot, and got to the screen where you get to choose normal mode VS safe mode.

When I boot in normal mode, I get the windows icon (no visual issues so far), then the screen goes black before the login screen. Computer is still working, I can even enter my pw blindly and hear it start, but nothing on screen.
When I boot in safe mode, everything works fine, I can watch some videos and even start some games, although with extremely low performances of course. Every time I try to boot in normal mode, the black screen is back.

I've tried a few things : in safe mode, my device manager shows 2 graphic cards, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 and Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator HD. Disabling the ATI card doesn't seem to do much, and uninstalling it (+driver) allowed me to boot it up in normal mode...until windows decides to reinstall it anyway, at which point the black screen comes back. It seems to me that the computer switches between the 2, and the ATI simply doesn't work ?
The ATI's properties also say, in the resources tab, that "it doesn't use any resource because it has an issue" (roughly translated). That doesn't help much.


My question is simple, did my video card just "die" or could it be driver-related ? I also read something about conflicts with some USB peripherals, and I did use a USB key a few minutes before the crash, could it be related ? How could I go about troubleshooting further and fixing it ?


Config :
HP G62 Notebook PC
Intel Pentium CPU P6000, 1.87GHz
4Go RAM
Windows 7, 64 bits
Video cards mentioned above


(edit : I'm fairly sure there's nothing wrong with my monitor nor my power supply, and there was no overheating. Again, everything seems to be working fine in safe mode.)

Thanks in advance.

 

[techguy55]

card isnt dead as you still get visuals on screen. try to download an updated driver through safe mode and installing it before running normally.

also, make sure your USB device is unplugged as it could cause issues

 

[Ineedanadult]

Hi techguy, thanks for the fast answer.

To be honest I'm not tech savvy (wouldn't be asking for help otherwise 😉 ) and I'm not sure I understand what safe mode does exactly. The way I understand it, I have 2 graphic cards, ATI being the "main" one and the Intel one being a sort of safety device in case of failure. Am I wrong in this ? Do you mean that my ATI card is, in fact, working and being used in safe mode (even though the device manager indicates that it doesn't use any resource ?). That would be a huge relief, considering I cant really change a card in my laptop (and its price...).

I did get rid of the USB key immediately.

I've tried installing a driver from safe mode rather than normal mode and get the same issue once I boot in normal mode - black screen before login.

 

[techguy55]

it does work and is being used in safe mode. try to rollback the drivers from the device manager properties page, if possible. or downloading an earlier driver from manufacturer.

 

[Ineedanadult]

Doesn't seem to work.

In device manager, when I uninstall the driver, the ATI card is removed from the list. I then scan for devices which brings it back up immediately, with the same driver (date 02/03/2010 !). Auto-update tells me that it's the best driver to date, which I find hard to believe.

Using my current (original) version of catalyst control center (the package provided by AMD) : "no graphic driver ATI is installed, or the driver doesn't work properly".

I also tried downloading the package from their site (catalyst control center) but upon using it (either to install new drivers, or to remove existing content) : "unable to load the detection driver" - again, this is a translation, I have no idea what the detection driver (pilot?) would be.

I really don't know what to try at that point, I want to believe that there's no hardware issue, but surely (re-)installing a driver shouldn't be that difficult ?

 

[Ineedanadult]

Something that's really bothering me : if I simply uninstall the driver in safe mode and reboot, I can actually start in normal mode (how comes I get a visual signal even though my card has no driver ?), but once I get there, windows start updating the driver automatically (from where ??). After a few seconds, the update is complete, and the screen turns black again.
I've tried turning the auto-update option off, but it still does it anyway.

So basically, whenever I boot in normal mode (which requires uninstalling the driver), the driver is reinstalled and makes my laptop crash. Once in safe mode, I cant update with a different driver, I'm just stuck.