So my wife was playing 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' when all of a sudden... blank screen, still powered on, can't do a thing. I was busy at the time and asked her to try and fix it (she's not cpu iliterate). She couldn't access the shutdown options or anything so she took the battery out (it's a laptop btw, HP Pavillion)
After watching her fool with it for a while I decided to take a crack at it. I took the battery out a second time and it finally powered back up. Only everything on screen was blurry, out of resolution, mouse icons weren't popping up... it seemed like everything just set itself back to standard settings or like it was in safe mode (pictures are blurry and out of focus, colors and contrast are all screwed up, icons are invisible). After about an hour or so of tinkering with the settings it seemed like nothing was working, so the only conclusion I've been able to come to is that the graphics chip is blown from overheating (it's a Nividia about two or three years old).
Is there anyone with an opinion on what to do or have had this or something similar happen before? Am I stuck with taking it to a repair man?
P.S.
I don't know if this helps, but my comp has been ramdomly shutting down and restarting alot lately. Does this maybe have anything to do with the recent problem?
After watching her fool with it for a while I decided to take a crack at it. I took the battery out a second time and it finally powered back up. Only everything on screen was blurry, out of resolution, mouse icons weren't popping up... it seemed like everything just set itself back to standard settings or like it was in safe mode (pictures are blurry and out of focus, colors and contrast are all screwed up, icons are invisible). After about an hour or so of tinkering with the settings it seemed like nothing was working, so the only conclusion I've been able to come to is that the graphics chip is blown from overheating (it's a Nividia about two or three years old).
Is there anyone with an opinion on what to do or have had this or something similar happen before? Am I stuck with taking it to a repair man?
P.S.
I don't know if this helps, but my comp has been ramdomly shutting down and restarting alot lately. Does this maybe have anything to do with the recent problem?