Video hardware problem

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jimmyray
Joined: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:02 am
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Video hardware problem

Post by jimmyray » Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:33 am

Hi,
I have been using my computer twice now and the screen has turned black, I am pretty sure the computer itself is working but you cannot see anything, this is the error report I have gotten on Vista:
Product
Windows
Problem
Video hardware error
Date
7/2/2010 9:48 PM
Status
Not Reported
Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

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Kariudo
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Re: Video hardware problem

Post by Kariudo » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:33 am

Actually, that error is somewhat specific.

No idea what the actual problem is, but it does sound like your video card is fried.
Did you install new drivers recently?
Did you make any other changes to your computer?

If it's a pre-built machine (ie, anything you didn't make yourself,) chances are you'll have to get a new computer. If it's still under warranty, send the manufacturer a note and hope they fix it.

If you built it (or some boutique computer shop did,) then I'd try getting a new video card.
Doesn't need to be anything fancy, something like this would do the job fine (unless you do gaming on your computer)
Image
Image

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Qyot27
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Re: Video hardware problem

Post by Qyot27 » Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:03 pm

It may not be that the card's fried, but the drivers may need reinstalling/updating. I found a thread here that talks about the same type of warning:
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista ... ndows.html

The most surefire way to know if it's graphics card or a Vista problem is to grab a LiveCD for a Linux distribution like Ubuntu, burn the image to a CD-R or DVD-R using ImgBurn, restart, and use the 'Try without any change to my computer' option. If it boots into the desktop without problems and doesn't give you errors or anything like that, you know it's Vista that's spazzing out and you need to fix the OS, not your hardware.

It may not even be either - it could even be a problem with the BIOS in the computer, and you'd need to update or refresh the firmware.
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