[dante56]

Hey there. While I appreciate there have been other problems of the same nature on this forum, I cannot find a fix that has worked for me and a new thread is probably the best action I can take right now.

The problem first started 2 days ago, when I was simply browsing the web (nothing too graphcs intensive, maybe a youtube video, I don't remember exactly) Basically, the laptop completely froze (black screen). Even though I tried waiting it out, the only way of fixing was to hold down the power button and force off the power.

Upon rebooting the screen was split into 6 identical images. 3 down the left side, and 3 down the right. On top of this, I could not get it to boot to windows (vista 32bit) I would simply get the loading bar as normal, then a black screen (no hdd activity) waited this out for 10+ minutes, and was forced to power off again. Tried a further 3 times and nothing.

Tried booting to safe mode, this was somewhat more successful, I would get the list of loaded files as per usual, then a black screen displaying (6) cursors. Same thing happened; no hdd activity, with just the screen.

At this point I headed onto another computer and started trawling the web for fixes. The screen problem wasn't bothering me intensely at this point - I just wanted to be able to get into windows in an attempt to fix it. After discovering that Asus don't provide you with the Vista repair disk (only recovery) I downloaded and burned a Vista repair disk. Booted to it and ran startup repair. Found nothing, so ran windows system restore and restored it to 2-3 days earlier. Upon restarting (after system restore) I was greeted with the same problem, however, safe mode now worked. I got the 'System restore successful' message in safe mode. Restarted a few times and got the option to run Last known good configuration, this was successful and I was able to boot into windows.

Returned back to the web to try and fix the 6-screen issue. Everywhere I looked suggested connecting it to an external monitor, did this and the problem is not mirrored on the external monitor, I get a complete image (though my drivers weren't being recognised and everything is displayed at 800x600, but it's a fix)

Anyway, after further reading I'd narrowed it down to one of two things: a driver issue, or a hardware issue. Opened up the laptop and checked all connections on the inverter were secure, also checked the ribbon cable on the back of the screen was secure - which everything was. After putting everything back together the screen was back to normal (one single image) and I was able to boot into vista! Because during some earlier time I had uninstalled all nVidia drivers, I was stuck with the standard VGA driver, and everything was in 800x600 resolution. I found the drivers disk that came with the laptop and installed the appropriate nVidia drivers & rebooted. Upon reboot everything was back to normal; good resolution, was able to boot into windows without any flaws. I even tried running a few games, all of which ran smooth as ever.

Sorry this is beginning to turn into an essay but I've tried so much to fix this I don't want to leave anything out. :/

This is where things started to go wrong. Since i'd used the driver disk to install nVidia drivers, I was sure these would be outdated. Checked and sure enough, drivers from 2007. I searched the internet for compatible drivers and ended up downloading some with a modified INF from laptopvideo2go (im sure anyone who uses a laptop is familiar with this site) Installed those fine, however when I ran a game, or anything graphically intensive. I would get a black screen & freeze, and be forced to power down. Upon rebooting, yup, you guessed it - 6 screens.

By this time i'd been working on a fix the entire day and was starting to get tired. I went through the same steps: Checked external monitor, did everything else. and after doing something (I don't remember what exactly, maybe a restore.) I got back to the former state (1 screen) This time I decided to search for drivers specific to the laptop (Asus F3Sv) and found some (from the same site) ran the same procedure, and got a freeze whenever I try to run anything graphics intensive.

So, by 2AM i'd decided enough was enough and headed to bed. When I woke up the following day, I tried turning on the laptop and, to my surprise, the screen was perfect. Once I was into windows, (had no drivers installed) I decided to restore to the time when the 2007 drivers were installed (and functioning 100% correctly) Restored, however, upon system restart I got 6 screens.

Since then i've had no luck - every time I boot up I get the same split screen problem (this occurs right from POST, BIOS is displayed in 6 screens aswell) I've restored, and windows refuses to boot, leaving me having to use Last known good configuration when windows WILL boot.

I find it difficult to accept that it is a GPU failure because A: It was working with 2007 drivers and B: the problem is not echoed on an external monitor).

Right now i'm typing this on the external monitor (800x600 resolution) whenever I try to install drivers windows hangs after the loading bar and wont boot. It seems the two things are directly related (IE: I can't seem to boot into windows with WORKING nVidia drivers) But with no drivers installed, using the standard windows VGA drivers, I can boot windows fine (albeit, with 6 split screens on the laptop).

Deepest apologies for the length of this post.

Laptop specs (incase it helps)

Asus F3Sv
2gb RAM
160gb HDD
nVidia GeForce 8600M GS (256mb I think)
Vista 32bit

Things i've tried:
Reseating ribbon cable on back of LCD & Checking connections on inverter
Reinstalling display drivers
Flashing BIOS with newest version.
System restore
Fn+F8 on startup (this worked the second time the problem occured)
Startup repair after installing new drivers.

I know with the laptop being 2 years old it's likely a hardware issue, but I find it strange that it seems to work *sometimes* surely if there was a hardware failure of some description it would cease to work at all? That, and the fact it displays a single image when connected to an external monitor (suggesting it isn't the GPU).

Anyway, Thank you for your patience if you've read all this, and sorry again for the length.

Thanks in advance,
Ryan.

[dante56]

Got a small update.

After managing to boot into windows (Screen still remains split, but using an external monitor enables me to see things clearly). I installed the nVidia drivers from the driver CD. When I go to restart to complete the installation, windows refuses to boot again (hanging after the loading screen.) However, I ran startup repair and managed to boot into windows, but the display driver is nowhere to be found, Vista is still resorting to using the standard VGA display driver.

I don't know if this means anything? It's almost as if the driver is the thing preventing windows booting, as it seems to boot fine when no display drivers are installed.

6-way Split screen on laptop display still remains though..

-Ryan.

[desz476]

Hello, I have spent hours on my laptop with the EXACT same problem!! Please tell me you have fixed yours......... and then tell me how!! Thanks Desz.

[dante56]

Unfortunately I haven't fixed it yet; I've been away over the last few weeks and as a result, haven't been attempting to.
Perhaps unearthing this thread will get the attention of someone who can help though, fingers crossed!

Posted via Mobile Device

[desz476]

I have just had my laptop picked up, lets hope they can fix it!! After speaking to the guy on the phone he reckons (Apparantly he´s had the the same problem before.) it could be the graffic card/video card!! I´ll let you know exactly what it was when it comes back! Desz

[dante56]

I'm pretty sure that's what the problem is with mine, but as I mentioned before, I'm still convinced it's not just a hardware failure, since I've seen it temporarily working/the problem isn't reflected on an external monitor. Thanks for the update Desz, let me know how things go, I'm usually against "sending in" computers unless there is nothing more I can try myself, but if you have success, it might be my only option
Thanks again and fingers crossed for a fix!

Posted via Mobile Device

[desz476]

So its back and working fine. Accordiing to the letter that came back with it, they only did a BIOS update!! I know that you have tried this already, so I wish you luck!!

[Jontxu]

Hello:
I´ve.got.the.same.problem.with.my.laptop.and.it´s.driving.me.crazy.

Have.you.alredy.fixed.it,dante?

I.think.i´ll.try.the.desz476.option.updating.my.bios.

My.laptop:
LG.E-500
nvidia.g.force.graphic.cardç
vista32bits

[desz476]

I also have the same LG, mine is working fine now!!

[fouady]

Hi dante56
Were you able to find the solution to this problem? My laptop has also got the same problem

[rumbard]

Greetings to all,
One of my friends had this problem on his laptop, I didn't find anything useful on the internet, but I managed to repair it this way finally:

1. Start it in safe mode
2. Right click on the desktop, choose "Properties"
3. On the "Settings" tab click "Advanced"
4. On the "Troubleshoot" tab set the "Hardware acceleration" slider to "None" and press "Ok" - the screen turned back to normal for me at this point. ( There is also a checkbox which could be toggled.)
5. However when rebooting the BIOS part was normal, but when windows started up it turned to 6 again

So, I reckoned it is something set by the windows driver, so I repeated steps 1-4, but then booted into Ubuntu linux ( from a USB drive, but you can use the downloadable boot-cd too I assume ) - there the screen came up normally, and even hw acceleration worked. (Checked with glxgears and glxinfo if it rings a bell to someone.). This must have switched something on the GPU, as after restarting to windows the screen was ok there as well.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
RumBard

[rumbard]

Unfortunately it lasted only for half an hour, than it splitted into 6 again by itself