Video / HW problem in laptop. Vertical lines

[Sergio T.P.]

Hi all.



First of all, excuse me for my poor English.



I'm having troubles with my laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 1524. It comes with
an integrated NVIDIA GeForce FX Go.



The problem raised when I was browsing the net. The screen / mouse got
freezed and I had to power it off by pressing the power button.

Next, when it booted up, just when the laptop is begging to boot (before
loading the operating system), the screen displayed several vertical lines
as showed in this pics I took:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/1.JPG,
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG.

Also some garbage (coulored pixels) are displayed at the top of the screen.



I have to say that I've connected the output of the laptop to an external
monitor, and exactly the same happens.



I've tried to do quite a lot of things, like booting from boot CDs. I tell
you what happens in each of my tests:



-Trying to start up Windows XP PRO in normal mode.

If I let the laptop to continue the boot up from the Windows installed in
HD, I get the screen that tells me that a problem happened and propose me to
start in safe mode or normal mode:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG .

In that screen, the lines are still showed (this time in blue).



If I choose "normal mode", it tries to boot Windows. The Win logo is shown
(with no lines). But when it try to enter in the "welcome screen", it shows
a blue window with white letters telling that a critical error happened and
blah blah (it's just a flash and I could not read what it says). Then, it
resets.



-Trying to start up Windows XP PRO in safe mode.

In safe mode, it enters Windows successfully (in 16 colour mode, of course).
When in Windows desktop, all the screen is crossed by the vertical lines,
this time grey lines.



-Trying to boot from Knoppix CD.

With Knoppix boot CD I've tried, it show a green screen and orange vertical
lines. It says with orange letters) "Invalid or corrupt kernel image" .

It does'nt boot.



-Trying to boot from Linux install CD (Ubuntu install CD).

I get again weird background colour and vertical lines. This time it says:

"isolinux: Disk error 80, AX = 42F0, drive 9F"

I've searched this error in the net, and everything points to badly burnt
CDs or errors with the CD drive. I'm sure it's not my case, because the CD
is OK, and I'm quite sure the CD drive is OK because I managed to install
Windows again from CD.



-Trying to boot Hiren's boot CD.

Hiren's boot CD is an emergency boot CD with a bunch of utilities such as
partition utilities, antivirus apps etc.

If I tried to boot up from this, all I get is a lot of pc-speakers beep and
ASCI garbage on the screen.

Does not boot.



-Trying to boot up from Windows XP install CD.

It boots ok, always showing vertical lines in the 16 colours screens of the
installation procedure (sample:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG).



I managed to install it and run from it. However, when I try to install the
NVIDIA drivers, during the installation procedure, I get the blue screen
with apocalyptic messages and it resets.



So, this is what I think:

-It's not an LCD problem, since I connected the video output to an external
monitor and it also shows the lines in the external monitor. I've also tried
to open the laptop and disconnect the LCD plug to the main board to avoid a
possibly spoiled LCD interact in my tests . Nothing new happens.



-It's a problem that only occurs when running video in 256 colours / 16 bits
mode. (It enters windows in safe mode, but it fails when I try to install
NVIDIA drivers).



So, I'm afraid it's the motherboard. what do you think about that?

If you do think it's the mainboard, where in the mainboard? Can I repair
that? How should I proceed??



The laptop is 1 month out of warranty. (Acer is quite accurate in that.)



Thanks for your time and excuse the log post. I wanted to provide as much
hints as possible.

 

[Guest]

Next, when it booted up, just when the laptop is begging to boot (before

loading the operating system), the screen displayed several vertical lines
as showed in this pics I took:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/1.JPG,
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG.

I had a similar problem once, only with horizontal lines - it turned out to
be the video card.

 

[BillW50]

Hi all.

First of all, excuse me for my poor English.

I'm having troubles with my laptop. It's an Acer Aspire 1524. It
comes with an integrated NVIDIA GeForce FX Go.

The problem raised when I was browsing the net. The screen / mouse got
freezed and I had to power it off by pressing the power button.

Next, when it booted up, just when the laptop is begging to boot
(before loading the operating system), the screen displayed several
vertical lines as showed in this pics I took:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/1.JPG,
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG.

Also some garbage (coulored pixels) are displayed at the top of the
screen.
I have to say that I've connected the output of the laptop to an
external monitor, and exactly the same happens.

I've tried to do quite a lot of things, like booting from boot CDs. I
tell you what happens in each of my tests:

-Trying to start up Windows XP PRO in normal mode.

If I let the laptop to continue the boot up from the Windows
installed in HD, I get the screen that tells me that a problem
happened and propose me to start in safe mode or normal mode:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG .

In that screen, the lines are still showed (this time in blue).

If I choose "normal mode", it tries to boot Windows. The Win logo is
shown (with no lines). But when it try to enter in the "welcome
screen", it shows a blue window with white letters telling that a
critical error happened and blah blah (it's just a flash and I could
not read what it says). Then, it resets.

-Trying to start up Windows XP PRO in safe mode.

In safe mode, it enters Windows successfully (in 16 colour mode, of
course). When in Windows desktop, all the screen is crossed by the
vertical lines, this time grey lines.

-Trying to boot from Knoppix CD.

With Knoppix boot CD I've tried, it show a green screen and orange
vertical lines. It says with orange letters) "Invalid or corrupt
kernel image" .
It does'nt boot.

-Trying to boot from Linux install CD (Ubuntu install CD).

I get again weird background colour and vertical lines. This time it
says:
"isolinux: Disk error 80, AX = 42F0, drive 9F"

I've searched this error in the net, and everything points to badly
burnt CDs or errors with the CD drive. I'm sure it's not my case,
because the CD is OK, and I'm quite sure the CD drive is OK because I
managed to install Windows again from CD.

-Trying to boot Hiren's boot CD.

Hiren's boot CD is an emergency boot CD with a bunch of utilities
such as partition utilities, antivirus apps etc.

If I tried to boot up from this, all I get is a lot of pc-speakers
beep and ASCI garbage on the screen.

Does not boot.

-Trying to boot up from Windows XP install CD.

It boots ok, always showing vertical lines in the 16 colours screens
of the installation procedure (sample:
http://www.geocities.com/garrapeta/borrame/2.JPG).

I managed to install it and run from it. However, when I try to
install the NVIDIA drivers, during the installation procedure, I get
the blue screen with apocalyptic messages and it resets.

So, this is what I think:

-It's not an LCD problem, since I connected the video output to an
external monitor and it also shows the lines in the external monitor.
I've also tried to open the laptop and disconnect the LCD plug to the
main board to avoid a possibly spoiled LCD interact in my tests .
Nothing new happens.
-It's a problem that only occurs when running video in 256 colours /
16 bits mode. (It enters windows in safe mode, but it fails when I
try to install NVIDIA drivers).

So, I'm afraid it's the motherboard. what do you think about that?

If you do think it's the mainboard, where in the mainboard? Can I
repair that? How should I proceed??

The laptop is 1 month out of warranty. (Acer is quite accurate in
that.)
Thanks for your time and excuse the log post. I wanted to provide as
much hints as possible.

For starters, your English is just fine. And secondly, you have provided
a lot of information and it points to one thing. A bad video card which
is probably on the motherboard no doubt.

And no, even if you are a profession with professional skills and tools,
odds are almost nil that you cannot repair it. And it is best to get
another motherboard and replace it. Cheap ones can sometimes be found on
eBay. And it is possible that the power regulators are bad and not the
video card. But on most laptops, this is on the motherboard too.

 

[shockwa]

looks like the matrix...

 

[First of One]

So, I'm afraid it's the motherboard. what do you think about that?

If you do think it's the mainboard, where in the mainboard? Can I repair
that? How should I proceed??

1. Open up the laptop and check for obvious things like a blown/leaking
capacitor, or some other component that had fallen off. You may be able to
repair it by soldering a replacement component into place.

2. Second most likely suspect would be the video chipset or video memory.
They may be soldered directly onto the mainboard, in which case the only
solution would be to replace the mainboard (eBay). They may also be in a
separate plug-in module called MAP or MXM, in which case you can order a
replacement module from Acer for the cost of a newborn.

 

[Sergio T.P.]

Thanks for replying.

I met a guy who is trying to explain me how to replace the VGA chip in this
laptop. e has some experience in this model and says that in this notebook
is quite easy to unplug and replace that chip.

If I don't manage to do it, I think I'm searching for a new board in eBay.

I hope I could solve this problem and post the solution in the newsgroup in
the future.

Thanks

 

[idarek]

Thanks for replying.

I met a guy who is trying to explain me how to replace the VGA chip in this
laptop. e has some experience in this model and says that in this notebook
is quite easy to unplug and replace that chip.

If I don't manage to do it, I think I'm searching for a new board in eBay.

I hope I could solve this problem and post the solution in the newsgroup in
the future.

Thanks

i have today that same problem in acer aspire 1525 WLMi. It suck... i
must send my cpu to the service to change graphic.. ... Right now
i'm a liittle scarred that all acer laptops can have this problem.

 

[kony]

i have today that same problem in acer aspire 1525 WLMi. It suck... i
must send my cpu to the service to change graphic.. ... Right now
i'm a liittle scarred that all acer laptops can have this problem.

Any manufacturer might tell you this, there's probably
nothing unusal about your Acer in this regard.