help me break my laptop! and verify my gfx card

[kenshin-dono]

Im sending my Dell XPS out for repair here in a day or two. Its got an nvida geforce go 7950 in it. There was a lawsuit where these cards were found to be defective. The thing freaked out on me last year and wound up totally dying and i couldn't even start the system up. Its one of the reasons i havent really been around and have fallen behind on anime.  Luckily there was a class action lawsuit with the gfx card being defective and so my warranty was extended a year. I have everything backed up so im ready to send it out for repair, but now the stupid thing seems to work fine!! The problems were yellow lines on the screen, dropping signal, garbled text, and eventual total video loss and failure to boot up (went to a black screen). It just stopped working so i didn't use the thing for months.. now it seems just fine >_<

im not getting the yellow lines on screen i was getting before, or the garbled text, loss of video, fail to start up, ect. I tried playing videos on loops the past few days but no luck. Im reinstalling a game or two to see if that will do anything but  i need to send it out in the next day or two. I've had it too long while i backed my stuff up.  I may have problems if its not glitching out when i send it out. Anyone have any suggestions on hwo to stress the GPU to try to get it to malfunction again? I  thought i could put a towel under it to try to force it to overheat, but i dont want to damage the MB or CPU as well. Any suggestions?

Side question: is there any way to verify that they replaced the Graphics card? I want to verify they swapped it out, but im not sure how to do that. Is there anything i can check in the system menu that has a unique code or way to see that they actually replaced it with a new one? I have a feeling they may just send it right back after wiping the HD and reinstalling the OS or something

^_^x KD

[kitamesume]

be clear though, IS IT working? or not? i mean "MAKE UP YOUR MIND PLEASE!"

i don't think theres any tool that can be used to verify if they changed the GPU, specially if you didn't know the previous model#, though to verify if its fixed is to test it out by using it continuously for months, stress tests isn't really the thing to be used for durability, imho some stuffs just works flawlessly and suddenly feels like breaking down. well anyway be prepared to buy a new and better laptop ^^ oh btw Ivybridge laptops should be out by the middle of this year, though its just a rumor.
well known GPU stress test = MSI kombustor, packaged with MSI afterburner, well usually it is.

"throw that junk away, thats for babies" by metro2033 merchants.

[kenshin-dono]

The graphics card is messed up. Theres no question about that. It seems to be intermittent though.  The problem is, that after months and months of not even booting up; as of right now its  suddenly working.. thats the pisser. It started screwing up more and more  for quite a while, and then back around march i think it totally crapped out. I got gibberish when it started up and a black screen. I could sometimes get a picture if i went into safe mode but there were usually lines on the screen. I tried it a few more times off and on for about a month but it seemd the gfx card had finally just died. Of course when i find out the warranty is extended a year and get ready to send it out over 9 months later, it seems to be working fine now suddenly >_< Im sure its still messed up and once i stress the gfx card enough it will crap out again. The issue is that i need to get it out here in the next day or two for repair and it seems to be temporarily working ok now.

I just want to put a lot of load on it to see if it will crap out again before i send it out. Maybe a benchmark test? is 3dmarks still around?

I probably should get a new laptop or computer soon, but theres new gfx cards coming out here soon so im gonna have to wait until after that at least. I think i may want a laptop instead of just building a desktop, but would have to do some research on what type to get. Im obviously not a fan of Dells right now. And alienware is owned by them these days.

how do you check the gfx card model number? All i know is its a geforce go 9500 gtx. I was hoping there was a serial number or something you could check in the system menu. I have a feeling theyll just format and send it back my way with the messed up gfx card still inside. I need to actually do a search and see what the general policy has been with the replacments theyve done with this replacment plan for this. Like i said there was a lawsuit so they were swapping them out. Im not sure if they put the same card in or a different one

[kitamesume]

i already said, well known GPU stress test = MSI kombustor, packaged with MSI afterburner, well usually it is.

you could check it via GPUID though most likely it'll show model# and batch# instead, well unless you knew what your previous card's was i doubt you'd know if its been switched(btw, how would you know if some fag replaced your book with an exact replica? the only thing that differentiate them with each other is the serial barcode which i doubt you payed attention to.) oh and last time i checked you said "Its got an nvida geforce go 7950".

Its got an nvida geforce go 7950

so... "MAKE UP YOUR MIND PLEASE!"

though this might be a better idea though nasty, this is to take the GPU out or disable it on BIOS(set boot to IGD instead of PEG), and instead use the IGP of your laptop's motherboard if you have one.

peace~

[Freedom Kira]

I'm not 100% sure, but you can look up hardware-related IDs in your device manager. Right-click Computer (7) or My Computer (XP) -> properties -> hardware tab -> device manager. One of the tabs should have a drop-down list of several IDs you can write down.

As for killing the graphics card, dunno, man. I would just block the vents and wait for it to overheat and auto-shutoff, then unblock the vents and start it up again and see if it worked.

[Bob2004]

I'm not 100% sure, but you can look up hardware-related IDs in your device manager. Right-click Computer (7) or My Computer (XP) -> properties -> hardware tab -> device manager. One of the tabs should have a drop-down list of several IDs you can write down.

As for killing the graphics card, dunno, man. I would just block the vents and wait for it to overheat and auto-shutoff, then unblock the vents and start it up again and see if it worked.

Yep, any information available can be found in device manager - expand the display adapters section, double click on the grapics card listed there, and then go to the Details tab.

I'm not sure which, if any, of the details available are unique to a particular card, though. Possibly Hardware IDs, Physical Device Object Name, or Matching Device ID. There are also Install Date and First Install Date fields, but I'm not sure how reliable they are - the first install date of my card says 04/09/2011, when I know I first installed it in August 2010. The install date says 20/11/2011, which is when I last updated my drivers.

As for how best to make it malfunction, stress test sounds like the best option, yeah. 3DMark might do it, or there are probably other programs around if you Google. You could also consider overclocking it for a little while, but doing so voids the warranty, so if they find out you did so, then you're screwed.

[AceHigh]

This is probably the worst kind of error we get in electronics industry. Not only are errors that come and go and appear only randomly hard to detect and thus risk shipping faulty products, but when the customers return such hardware and we can't recreate the error, it might bring some tension between us and the customers.

Turn on your laptop, shake it a bit, turn it upside down, run a benchmark to heat you graphic card, be rough with it and see if it comes back.

[fohfoh]

For future reference, install speccy if you really have no idea how to look up the info of stuff installed in your computers.

[kitamesume]

how about just ditching that thing entirely and sell it to someone before it totally breaks and buy a new one? less headaches right?

well anyway, to break your GPU use "MSI Kombustor" and tick the checkbox "Xtreme Burn-in" and let it sit for hours.

[NaRu]

This is like a car. The mechanic can only fix a problem they can see. You have to stress it until it breaks completely.

[halfelite]

Stress test it and put a towel over all the vents to really heat it up should be a good stress test. and might break it for good

[mgz]

This is like a car. The mechanic can only fix a problem they can see. You have to stress it until it breaks completely.

not true a good mechanic hears shit wrong and can be described a list of symptoms and suggest solutions many of which are right

[fohfoh]

how about just ditching that thing entirely and sell it to someone before it totally breaks and buy a new one? less headaches right?

well anyway, to break your GPU use "MSI Kombustor" and tick the checkbox "Xtreme Burn-in" and let it sit for hours.

Can you run it off a thumb drive? Don't know if it's true, but I hear from time to time, they check the HDD for stuff like this.

My Sony on the other hand had aftermarket RAM, HDD etc. that I forgot to swap back out and they replaced my Mobo and put the other stuff back in. lol. Great guys.

[kitamesume]

i dunno if you could install MSI kombustor onto a thumbdrive, but you could try, its free anyway.

MSI kombustor is usually bundled with MSI Afterburner.

[kenshin-dono]

well, crap. Internets been down for a few days =( Just got back on tonight. I couldn't d.load 3dmarks or the MSI thing suggested. I just played some games on it. Got the GPU temp up to 95 celcius. It didn't totally die but i did get some of the yellow and blue lines on the screen when i ran it on DVI out. I dont have much time i may try one of the stress programs tomorow. A towel under it would work but i dont want t o damage everything.

i already said, well known GPU stress test = MSI kombustor, packaged with MSI afterburner, well usually it is.

you could check it via GPUID though most likely it'll show model# and batch# instead, well unless you knew what your previous card's was i doubt you'd know if its been switched(btw, how would you know if some fag replaced your book with an exact replica? the only thing that differentiate them with each other is the serial barcode which i doubt you payed attention to.) oh and last time i checked you said "Its got an nvida geforce go 7950".

Its got an nvida geforce go 7950

so... "MAKE UP YOUR MIND PLEASE!"

though this might be a better idea though nasty, this is to take the GPU out or disable it on BIOS(set boot to IGD instead of PEG), and instead use the IGP of your laptop's motherboard if you have one.

peace~

*scratches head* im not sure why you keep typing make up you mind in all caps. How is my mind  not made up? I havent changed anything ive said from the start. Ive always said the graphics card is messed up and that its an Nvidia  geforce go 7950 gtx... where is the confusion?

Anyway thanks for the info guys. I tried going to the device manager. i found this number under device instance id. Under the details tab where Bob naviaged me to:
PCI\VEN_10DEV_0297&SUBSYS_019B1028&REV_A1\4&1C9EC085&0&0008

is that a unique code for my graphics card? I dont really see anything else i can check to see if the card gets replaced. I can tell if they swap the actual computer out because im going to put a few unique marks on the case. But i cant physically see the graphics card. If theres no way to check the ID in the system then i dont think i can verify if they changed it. Blea i gotta send it out tomorow, ive waited too long. I'll see if i have time to try one of the d.load programs listed to stress it or if i'll just have to send it out as is and hope the gfx card gets replaced

^_^x KD

[kitamesume]

its because you're confusing the heck outa me

Im sending my Dell XPS out for repair here in a day or two. Its got an nvida geforce go 7950 in it.

how do you check the gfx card model number? All i know is its a geforce go 9500 gtx.

and yes you CANNOT know if the device has been changed by just looking at them, you have to know the codes and compare them to each other. like i just said on one of the previous posts of mine "btw, how would you know if some fag replaced your book with an exact replica? the only thing that differentiate them with each other is the serial barcode which i doubt you payed attention to." so how do you think you could compare two devices that you didn't bother memorizing their unique codes?

so take note of that code you've found and look it up later after the laptop has been returned, if the codes changed then they changed the card.