Thread stuck in device driver - amd radeon 7670m on a laptop

[stevovski.petar]

Hi there. This is my first time posting here, and its an urgent post (to some extent). So heres the problem.

TL;DR : I assume graphics card failing (amd radeon 7670m) on a dell inspiron 3521 laptop. Can it be the cause of thread stuck in device driver AND can it be replaced?

I am using a Dell Inspiron 15 3521 laptop with a dedicated graphics card - ATI Radeon 7670m - and I am almost 90% sure its failing on me. About a week or so ago, I turned on the laptop, did spend some time on it on facebook etc, and then decided to play some games (dota 2 in particular, not that it matters..). As I opened the game, the screen froze, game crashed, had an error "Desktop windows manager has stopped working" and I think if I can recall good, I also had some popup saying that the AMD driver crashed and restarted again (or something along those lines). This problem occurred everytime I tried to open some game. Few times on dota2, I tried once on CSGO, same thing. And all of a sudden, the windows started to give me random BSODs, if for ex. I turned on the laptop with my recharger in, it would crash on start (probably because of it trying to start the dedicated graphics card since its on high performance ).

After that kept going for a few times, I decided to do a fresh, clean install of Windows (at that time it was windows 7). Did a clean install, everything was fine, untill I tried to install the driver for the graphics card from AMD. From Dell's website, yes, I used the manufacturers drivers as I am supposed to. It crashed and started with the BSODs again. Then I did another clean install of windows, with windows 7 and then I upgraded to windows 10 (since it is still free from the Accessibility upgrade feature), and thought I was all fine. It worked normally for a day and a half, and then I decided to finally install the amd graphics card driver (strange how it didnt auto install the driver that first time..) And then, it crashed again, bsod again with "THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER". That kept going on and on. After another 2 clean installs (the one time windows 10 automatically insalled the driver, the second time it hasn't ) its now working normally ALTHOUGH without the AMD Radeon 7670m, since no driver is installed and it doesn't reads it up & doesn't crashes.

As I said above, I'm about 90% sure its the graphics card failing or already dead... Anyone had a simillar problem as this one? Also, is it possible to replace that graphics card with at least the same version on this laptop?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post, I'll include TL;DR at top.

 

[RealBeast]

From a quick search it looks like that laptop has an embedded GPU, and Dell recommends a full motherboard replacement. Some models allow individual component changes, but apparently not yours although I did see a discrete 7670M for $100 on EBay, but that may require soldering that is not easy unless you work on boards a lot.

 

[stevovski.petar]

If it is failing, yes you can replace it if you are comfortable inside a laptop. Dell has service manuals that you can download and it is not a huge deal, although you do have to do quite a disassembly for some models.

That mobile GPU is about $100 on EBAY. I buy a lot of mobile parts there and never had issues. Just insure that you apply a nice thin layer of thermal compound when you install it like you would a CPU. They usually have copper covers that attach to copper bars that have little radiator like attachments that are in from of a ventilation port, but you will see all that when you get a Dell service manual.

Thanks for the quick reply, and thanks for pointing out that it actually CAN be replaced, as I was most worried about that part. I am not feeling comfortable opening the laptop apart, so I will take it to the service on Monday, even though the warranty is off, it will be the best if they check it out. On a side note, is there any way to check for 100% sure if its the graphics card failing, like some software or anything? I mean, the driver installation and the incoming of the BSODs, is almost a clear sign somethings wrong with that particular hardware piece, but still, just to be sure. Thanks again for the quick answer

 

[RealBeast]

If it is failing, yes you can replace it if you are comfortable inside a laptop. Dell has service manuals that you can download and it is not a huge deal, although you do have to do quite a disassembly for some models.

That mobile GPU is about $100 on EBAY. I buy a lot of mobile parts there and never had issues. Just insure that you apply a nice thin layer of thermal compound when you install it like you would a CPU. They usually have copper covers that attach to copper bars that have little radiator like attachments that are in from of a ventilation port, but you will see all that when you get a Dell service manual.

Thanks for the quick reply, and thanks for pointing out that it actually CAN be replaced, as I was most worried about that part. I am not feeling comfortable opening the laptop apart, so I will take it to the service on Monday, even though the warranty is off, it will be the best if they check it out. On a side note, is there any way to check for 100% sure if its the graphics card failing, like some software or anything? I mean, the driver installation and the incoming of the BSODs, is almost a clear sign somethings wrong with that particular hardware piece, but still, just to be sure. Thanks again for the quick answer

Yeah, I followed up on my quick look (as I have replaced many GPU/CPUs, etc. in Dell units) but that one may be more challenging, although nothing that a good service shop shouldn't be able to handle. It would not be a job for you as a first timer. Dell actually recommends a full mainboard replacement for that model and I suspect that GPU is soldered onto the board.

The entire mainboard is fairly cheap, but you will have to select the right one as there are many variations if you look on EBay for a Dell 3521 mainboard.

I'm not aware of any simple way to test just the laptop graphics, unlike memory.

 

[lukas.mroz]

same problem with a dell vostro 3560 - it refused to boot after a power-down during a win7 update. win7 re-install and win10 upgrade and install fail with THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER if the 7670m driver is installed, but work if only the intel graphics is active. It seems a strange coincidence, that the 7670m hardware breaks because of a forced power-down.

 

[RealBeast]

same problem with a dell vostro 3560 - it refused to boot after a power-down during a win7 update. win7 re-install and win10 upgrade and install fail with THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER if the 7670m driver is installed, but work if only the intel graphics is active. It seems a strange coincidence, that the 7670m hardware breaks because of a forced power-down.

Please start a new thread, this one is too old to get much attention.

Any power down *during* and update will break your OS, for 7 or 10, which is why there are so many warnings to not let that happen. And its a much bigger problem if you power down during a bios update, usually you need to replace the EEPROM, again why they warn against letting it happen for any reason.