Something's wrong with my Nvidia Display driver

[CLUE]

Hi, I have a Gateway P-6860 FX Laptop, although it says 6831-FX in the dxdiag, I will post that info below. I was playing starcraft 2 earlier today when all of a sudden it crashed. I got a popup saying "Nvidia Driver stopped responding and has recovered." Now I am getting all these red lines (sometimes they're blue, green... but mostly red) on the screen and it's acting very weird, I took some pictures I can upload them and post a link to them, if that might help but I'll have to get them off my camera first. I just tried installing the latest Nvidia Driver (285.62)I am using windows vista 64 bit and I've had the laptop for 2-3 years now, never had this problem until now. Could this be that something has fried inside? What can I do to try and fix this? I just tried installing new Nvidia Driver When I click on the Nvidia Control Panel (Nvidia settings) in the taskbar I get a popup saying "Nvidia Display settings are not available, you are currently using a display attached to a NVIDIA GPU. I hope this doesn't mean something is fried, I don't really have money for a new comp anytime soon, is there anything I can try to resolve it?

Here's a copy of my dxdiag, maybe this, along with my other symptoms and information will be enough for someone to tell me what is going on here and hopefully a way to fix it. For some reason it doesn't have any information for the Display:


------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 1/23/2012, 05:49:03
Machine name: COLIN
Operating System: Windows Vistaâ„¢ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.110617-0336)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gateway
System Model: P-6831FX
BIOS: Ver 1.00PARTTBL
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5550 @ 1.83GHz (2 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
Memory: 4094MB RAM
Page File: 1419MB used, 6993MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name:
Manufacturer:
Chip type:
DAC type:
Device Key: Enum\
Display Memory: n/a
Dedicated Memory: n/a
Shared Memory: n/a
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (1Hz)
Monitor:
Driver Name:
Driver Version: ()
DDI Version: unknown
BGRA Supported: No
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: , 0 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B70EE0-4340-11CF-E025-7137AFC2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x0000
Device ID: 0x0000
SubSys ID: 0x00000000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Revision ID: 0x0000
Video Accel:
Deinterlace Caps: n/a
DDraw Status: Not Available
D3D Status: Not Available
AGP Status: Not Available

 

[GhOsT1321]

Usually when the display driver crashes, there is a problem with the video card, at least, if it happens multiple times.
In your case, it is definitely your video card failing. Your video card overheated and was damaged if you see vertical colored lines on the screen.
Please post the pictures.
Unfortunately, a damaged video card in a laptop CANNOT be fixed. It is integrated into the motherboard. Your best bet for fixing it would be to call Gateway.

Edit: It seems this is a known issue for your laptop.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R323VZ5KGCWD38/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R323VZ5KGCWD38

 

[CLUE]

Yes, in the main screen on windows there is vertical red lines most of the time, when it's booting up there's other weird lines patterns, here are some pics of what's going on:

]

So, what can you make of this? Did I fry my vid card? Does gateway do anything about this? This really sucks! I just tried hooking it up to my samsung tv through HDMI, to see if it the screen/monitor might be the problem and nothing happened, it didn't work, it's like it's not reading my vid card, if you look at the pic of dxdiag display tab it's not like it's not even detecting my vid card. I'm going to try and phone gateway to see if they can tell me something. As an avid gamer, this is like a kick in the groin! I was playing starcraft 2 when the issues started, I have a very bad feeling about this one. Can someone help me diagnose this and tell me what my options might be to fix it? There's a computer place right down the street that I went to once before, they might be able to help, but for a hefty fee I'm sure, I'm not even working right now, this blows.... I appreciate your help!

 

[CLUE]

Here is something new I just discovered, I was wondering why it's not reading my vid card and came across this, so I took some photos:

What should I try, or can someone diagnose my problem? Looks like it's not reading my vid card for some reason, is there anything I should try before taking drastic measures (take it in to shop, send to gateway, buy desktop)???

 

[CLUE]

I spoke with gateway support team online, they basically told me to take it into a local technician to diagnose it. I told them about the red vertical lines and they said it's hardware related. I told them I understand the vid card is integrated with motherboard and asked how much a replacement would be, they gave me a phone number to call, but I will have to do so tomorrow. I will probably be bringing it to my local computer technician down the street, I want to phone that number first and see how much the replacement would be, I'm guessing it will be ridiculously expensive though and seeing as how I paid around $1000 for this laptop, I don't know if it's worth fixing. Ughhhhh!

 

[GhOsT1321]

It is definitely the video card.
It overheated and became faulty. Windows is detecting that it cannot run properly and is partially disabling it. You are lucky to still be able to receive video, the problem will likely worsen.
For the time being, to help prevent the problem from worsening:
Don't play games, or if you do, minimum details, including resolution.
Use your laptop on a flat, hard, cool surface such as a table or countertop.
If possible, use a laptop cooler.

Your video card overheated and was damaged, let's hope that nothing else was damaged. Sometimes, the GPU can be located close to the CPU, so let's hope that the CPU was thermally safe when the GPU overheated.
You will need a new motherboard, your ram, cpu, and hard drive can likely be salvaged.
A motherboard for OEM usually costs 100-150, I'm guessing that the repair will likely cost 100-200 as well.
The call to your local repair shop will be more accurate, but for now, my guess would be $250-$350.

Be sure to keep us updated on your laptop problem.

 

[iFargle]

Yep, the video card's bad.. Same thing happened with my ancient 8800 GTS. Surprisingly.. After leaving it off for like six months made the lines go away

 

[CLUE]

Yeah the video card failing makes sense to me now, pretty annoying with those lines going through the screen, but atleast it turns on still. My advice to anyone reading this thread, next time your game crashes take it seriously! I am starting to learn just how important cooling is, although it happened pretty suddenly this time. I tried to see if I could get it to read the card at all today, no luck though, it must be shot. I really hope nothing else is damaged too! I'll bring it in to the shop down the street tomorrow and see if he'll have a look at it. When I hear back from him I will let you know what's wrong and how much. I do want to buy a custom tower next, but I won't have the money to put down on a good one for a while, so if I can fix this one for around $400, I probably will just to have one and then start saving for another. This is the second time now Starcraft 2 has killed this laptop, why is it that this game so graphics intense, I've heard of it burning out cards in pretty good machines! Last time it was a cheap fix though, I do keep it propped up for more airflow on a hard desk, doesn't seem to be enough though for that game. If I get it fixed I'll definiteley be buying a cooler pad and heat monitor it closely while I play on it.

 

[GhOsT1321]

Yeah the video card failing makes sense to me now, pretty annoying with those lines going through the screen, but atleast it turns on still. My advice to anyone reading this thread, next time your game crashes take it seriously! I am starting to learn just how important cooling is, although it happened pretty suddenly this time. I tried to see if I could get it to read the card at all today, no luck though, it must be shot. I really hope nothing else is damaged too! I'll bring it in to the shop down the street tomorrow and see if he'll have a look at it. When I hear back from him I will let you know what's wrong and how much. I do want to buy a custom tower next, but I won't have the money to put down on a good one for a while, so if I can fix this one for around $400, I probably will just to have one and then start saving for another. This is the second time now Starcraft 2 has killed this laptop, why is it that this game so graphics intense, I've heard of it burning out cards in pretty good machines! Last time it was a cheap fix though, I do keep it propped up for more airflow on a hard desk, doesn't seem to be enough though for that game. If I get it fixed I'll definiteley be buying a cooler pad and heat monitor it closely while I play on it.

Starcraft 2 is a medium intensity game. It gives your CPU, RAM, and GPU a respectable load depending on game quality settings. SC2 had a problem and I'm not sure if it was resolved. At the menu of the game once logged in and before you play a game, it over rendered the menu. It ran it at as high as possible FPS that you video card could handle. This caused many video cards to heat up and overheat as well. Most games fix this problem by limiting menus to run at around 30 FPS.
Also, a laptop doesn't have decent ventilation to begin with. Compared to a desktop, they are much more likely to overheat. There is only so much heat that the compact heat sink and high-speed compact fan can dissipate.

Edit: Here's a link to the article.
DailyTech - Hot Starcraft II is Frying Graphics Cards, Blizzard Issues Temporary Fix