staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
So, I'm already assume I know what is causing this issue, but I would like some insight from you Skial tech nerds on if there is something else I can do to try and fix it.

Story:
So the other day I was using my ancient laptop, when suddenly, these white bars started coming across the screen, until the whole screen turned white then shut off completely (no backlight). The laptop froze up right as the white bars started showing up, and now I can't really turn it on and use it for any longer than 10 minutes before it does it again.


Is it really the GPU or CPU being either fried or dead? Could the video software on the PC be outdated or corrupted and causing this? Help?
 

PsychoRealm

Australian Skial God
Contributor
From what you've described, most likely your GPU is fried. Quite possible though that it's CPU or another hardware. If it's GPU though - it will be cheaper to buy a new laptop since you can't replace GPU in any other way but to replace motherboard (which costs like 40% of new laptop).

Anyhow, LED lights of your laptop could give you codes on what's wrong with your hardware when you turn your laptop on. For example, HP laptops have the following LED codes:

wFVu2CB.png


Refer to the manual of your particular laptop to see what your LED code means.
 

staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
From what you've described, most likely your GPU is fried. Quite possible though that it's CPU or another hardware. If it's GPU though - it will be cheaper to buy a new laptop since you can't replace GPU in any other way but to replace motherboard (which costs like 40% of new laptop).

Anyhow, LED lights of your laptop could give you codes on what's wrong with your hardware when you turn your laptop on. For example, HP laptops have the following LED codes:

wFVu2CB.png


Refer to the manual of your particular laptop to see what your LED code means.
alright thanks for the reply. I'll probably just look into saving up for a new laptop. This one was 8 years old and was one foot in the grave already.
 

bluehawk

Legendary Skial King
like psycho said same goes for the beeps the computer makes on start up depending on how many beeps it makes you can diagnose the problem
 

staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
usually the beeps are before login screen but i dont know if laptops have that
Yeah, I don't hear anything, but I'm just going to assume it's dead and be done with it. It was a 8 year old piece of crap that could only run any games I like at 30 fps max.

Just gotta start saving up for a decent new one, or trick one of my rich aunts into buying me one.
 

Meowcenary

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
Yeah, I don't hear anything, but I'm just going to assume it's dead and be done with it. It was a 8 year old piece of crap that could only run any games I like at 30 fps max.

Just gotta start saving up for a decent new one, or trick one of my rich aunts into buying me one.

If you don't move around a lot I'd suggest getting a desktop. They're a lot cheaper and much easier to fix

If you want to go with another laptop I'd suggest looking into buying one that has interchangeable GPU's. Some gaming laptop manufacturers make them, it could save you from having to buy another laptop sometime down the road.
 

staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
If you don't move around a lot I'd suggest getting a desktop. They're a lot cheaper and much easier to fix

If you want to go with another laptop I'd suggest looking into buying one that has interchangeable GPU's. Some gaming laptop manufacturers make them, it could save you from having to buy another laptop sometime down the road.
I already have a desktop, I only need the laptop because I go to my father's house in Ohio for the whole summer and most holidays. I'm not able to take my desktop there, so my laptop is what I would take to play on. Now that I don't have one I'm basically fucked for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.
 

PsychoRealm

Australian Skial God
Contributor
usually the beeps are before login screen but i dont know if laptops have that
Yeah, I don't hear anything
1. For laptops it's not "beeps" - it's flashing LED lights (either PWR light, NUM light, or CAPS light).
2. It happens during BIOS boot (not OS startup) since that's when BIOS performs a hardware test called POST (Power-On Self Test). Making it simple - it should happen within 15 seconds of you turning your laptop ON.
 

staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
1. For laptops it's not "beeps" - it's flashing LED lights (either PWR light, NUM light, or CAPS light).
2. It happens during BIOS boot (not OS startup) since that's when BIOS performs a hardware test called POST (Power-On Self Test). Making it simple - it should happen within 15 seconds of you turning your laptop ON.
Is there any chance it might either be malware or a virus? My laptop doesn't flash the LEDs at start like you described, and I've been able to sit here in Safe Mode for around 20 minutes w/ it doing what it normally does. I've ran Malwarebytes' scan already and am about to run Avast's full system scan.

I'll get back to you if it does it again. I appreciate the help though.
 

PsychoRealm

Australian Skial God
Contributor
Is there any chance it might either be malware or a virus? My laptop doesn't flash the LEDs at start like you described, and I've been able to sit here in Safe Mode for around 20 minutes w/ it doing what it normally does. I've ran Malwarebytes' scan already and am about to run Avast's full system scan.

I'll get back to you if it does it again. I appreciate the help though.
Quite possible. If you're able to run the OS in a Safe Mode - then it's a problem on software level, not hardware level. You might've installed bad video driver (or it might've gotten corrupt). Try reinstalling the video driver and see if it resolves the issue.

If reinstalling video driver doesn't help then it will be easier to simply reinstall the OS than trying to pinpoint the culprit. Last time I was trying to determine what service was crashing the OS on my friend's PC it took me 4 hours to narrow it down (by disabling services one by one and booting to a Safe Mode), but I had no other choice - my friend wanted to keep the existing OS.
 

staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
Quite possible. If you're able to run the OS in a Safe Mode - then it's a problem on software level, not hardware level. You might've installed bad video driver (or it might've gotten corrupt). Try reinstalling the video driver and see if it resolves the issue.

If reinstalling video driver doesn't help then it would be easier to simply reinstall the OS.
I'm doing a full scan actually and I'm already getting reported by avast that there are infected files. I don't know what kind of virus it is yet, I'm going to let avast run it's course, but I do believe that whatever it was, uninstalled my antivirus.
 

PsychoRealm

Australian Skial God
Contributor
I'm doing a full scan actually and I'm already getting reported by avast that there are infected files. I don't know what kind of virus it is yet, I'm going to let avast run it's course, but I do believe that whatever it was, uninstalled my antivirus.
Use Malwarebytes. Try free one, but I'd recommend buying the Premium one. Last reviews do express really positive feedback about Malwarebytes Premium
 

FISH KILL

Wicked Nasty Engineer
If you do get your laptop clean of viruses then I'd still look into getting a temporary job to get the money for a much more recent laptop.
 

staticvoid

Gaben's Own Aimbot
Contributor
If you do get your laptop clean of viruses then I'd still look into getting a temporary job to get the money for a much more recent laptop.
Yeah I know. 20 fps is unbearable, but I have to deal with it for now. At least I don't have to travel anywhere soon, so I still have my desktop to fall back on.