Laptop Video Issues

[Guest]

I have Windows Vista x64 - as of late last night, my computer ceases to boot unless the nVidia display driver (for GeForce 7600Go) is uninstalled. If I install the driver, the bootup hangs after the 'Windows is loading' bar and then gives me a blue screen saying the display driver has stopped responding.

I also appear to be getting a bit of artifacting, although minor. As it's a laptop GPU (and my warranty is up), are there any solutions that won't involve shelling out multiple hundreds of dollars? Assuming the GPU is dead, that is.

 

[frozenlead]

I think you're assuming correctly. Does the artifacting happen immediately, or only after a while? Consider cleaning out the heatsinks to give that GPU some air - that may simply be the problem. Also, try installing a newer driver.

 

[Guest]

I think you're assuming correctly. Does the artifacting happen immediately, or only after a while? Consider cleaning out the heatsinks to give that GPU some air - that may simply be the problem. Also, try installing a newer driver.

I have tried updating my driver, as well as reinstalling it and removing all traces of the old one with the Guru3D Driver Sweeper - yet the problem persists. The artifacting (as I'm assuming it to be) is shown in this image I took (the horizontal scanlines). These scanlines are present from when the bootup stages start and onwards.

How exactly might I clean out the heatsinks, given it's a laptop? Forgive me but I'm not that apt with doing much more than installing more RAM into the bottom compartment. The laptop is a Toshiba Qosmio G30 HD-DVD-R model, if it helps.

 

[frozenlead]

Looking at your design..well, this is why I don't really like toshiba notebooks.

If this is your machine:
http://www.ixbt.com/portopc/toshiba-qosmio-g30/bottom-big.jpg

You'll notice there are no intake ports on the bottom of the machine. Essentially a cooling nightmare. You can take shots of compressed air directly into the exhaust ports in the back, but it might not do any good. I would take all the panels you can off the bottom of the notebook and get comrpessed air into every crevice toward those heatsinks in your notebook. You might just find some nook to where it gets air from. Also consider shooting air into all the holes on the bottom of the case.