G53JW Display Artifacts

[Alex_Vilner]

I have an ASUS g53jw laptop, 12GB RAM, NVidia GeForce GTX 460M card, Windows 64bit Ultimate.

The laptop was functioning just fine (for over 2 years) until recently, when all of a sudden I started getting artifacts (white squares, pinkish color on window headings, etc.). Rebooting did not help. No new software was added. I was running driver 296.16, at native resolution (1980x1080 60Hz, 32bit color).

I updated the driver to the latest from nVidia. Got a blue screen of death, and downgraded back (clean install).

The issue persists. I then downgraded my color depth to 16 bit, where it seems ok (for now).

Given that nothing has changed in the laptop configuration (other than a replacement of the DVD drive - mine stopped writing to DVD disks), what could be the issue - the card, the display, the temp? CPU and drive are not running hot. I am running a browser, with approx 20 tabs open (some of them are youtube, but stopped until I switch to them and hit 'Play'). Also running are an email client, a remote desktop, a few Excel spreadsheets and a few Word doc. So, no gaming, nothing GPU intensive....

Any ideas on where to look??? This is my "workhorse" laptop, so I would prefer if I did not have to replace it (re-installing everything is a nightmare)...

Thank you in advance!

--Alex

[dstrakele]

If you attach an external monitor or HDTV to your laptop, do the video artifacts appear on BOTH displays? If so, it is likely a VGA or video driver issue. If not, it is likely a poorly-connected or defective LVDS cable or defective laptop display.

[Alex_Vilner]

I attached an external monitor to VGA port, and artifacts are present on both.
Why would video card start misbehaving all of a sudden - I would guess that it either dies entirely or .... I guess I am wrong 🙂

I also started getting the "Display driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered" message - pretty much around the same time I started seeing the artifacts.

Would you suggest replacing a video card, then, or is there something else I can try? Two years into it, I had to replace DVD drive. Now - the video card...

Thank you in advance!

[dstrakele]

Check out http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/701837-questions-about-dying-video-card-g..., specifically @C4RN1's link to a discussion on "reballing" the GPU. Some folks bake the VGA in an oven to "reflow" the cracks in the solder and get some extra life from the device.

You could also replace the GPU or consider selling the laptop and putting the money towards a new machine.

You may also want to load up HWINFO64 and check your CPU and GPU temperatures to confirm overheating isn't also contributing to the problem.

[Alex_Vilner]

checked the temps. All 4 cores are in the 60-70 degrees Celsius, so processor and GPU are both within reasonable ranges. Sounds like GPU is tough to replace in G53...

Based on the recommendation, it truly sounds like the video card going bad. Bummer that it hoses the machine as a result. This is not what I would expect in the configuration where the video card is separate from the motherboard.

[dstrakele]

The problem is to try and shoehorn the VGA into a laptop case where being thin and stylish in design as well as providng adequate cooling are goals. That's why the more easily upgradeable laptops still have a more antiquated boxy appearance.

[Pitcher1]

also send to asus service center to check it, if it is make sure problem is vga, you can choose repair in asus or computer company.