Horizontal tearing, hardware or software?

[Blackfyre88]

So I was working on my friends laptop to remove some malware and viruses. After completing the work, he wasn't able to connect to his wifi. So, I took it back and reinstalled the drivers which resolved the issue. After I did that though, he started to get bad horizontal video tearing that freezes the computer until its restarted. After restarts, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to 8 hours for the tearing to occur again. I have attached an image of the tearing.

What do you guys think? Is it more likely hardware or software? I would assume hardware, which means either I replace the motherboard or just recommend he get a new laptop.

If it is software, what might it be? I have installed all up to date drivers manually from the manufacturers website after installing a clean copy of Windows 7 Home Premium.

It is an Asus A53E

I've been working on this computer for days and its really got me stumped lol.

Thank you for any assistance!

 

[carnageX]

Did you get the video drivers from Asus's website, or from the actual video card manufacturers' site? I would recommend the latter instead of from Asus's website.

 

[Blackfyre88]

Asus is the manufacturer of the motherboard.

 

[carnageX]

Right, I understand that - but did you download the video drivers from Asus's website, or AMD/NVidia/Intel's actual website?

 

[Blackfyre88]

I've tried drivers from Asus as well as Intel. Right now the ones from Intel are installed. I returned the laptop to my friend after letting the computer run for 8 hours under a stress test program and it didnt have any issues, but it didn't before either. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[zaka100]

maybe there is a loose video connection from the monitor to the mobo. Did you open up the laptop? Does this issue occur when shaking/moving the laptop? If so, try opening up the laptop and reconnect the video cable which should be underneath the keyboard depending on the laptop model (you can go online and google a manual pdf for the laptop).

I don't really think it is a driver issue. If the issue isn't that there is a loose cable, its most likely that the gpu is screwed (you may try reflowing the gpu if you have the tools and research but it is probably easier to get a new motherboard).

 

[Blackfyre88]

I checked all of the connections, also tried opening and closing the laptop and opening it again, a bit of shaking around, and it didn't happen. This was before I gave it back to him. I'm waiting to hear from him if it happens again. Thanks for all the help!

 

[PP Mguire]

Plug a monitor into it, if that doesn't happen it's going to be the connecting wire to the laptop LCD. If it does happen it could be the chip going bad, heat related, or both.