Suspected Graphics Card fail, Nothing loads but BIOS.

Hello w7f, this is my first post so please tell me wherever I go wrong.

Now, before anyone says anything, yes I did read this thread: How to ask for help with a BSOD problem

and I will state now that Nothing will load; i can't load into safe mode, low resolution, or system recovery (with or without recovery disc) therefore I can not get you a dmp file, however I can list off what my 'System Info' says in the BIOS.

Code:

System: Inspiron 570
BIOS Version: A01, 01/25/10
Service Tag: <not sure if this should be shown>
Asset Tag: (blank)

Processor Type: AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 630 Processor
L2 Cache: 2048KB
L3 Cache: N/A

Installed memory: 6144MB
Memory Speed: 1066 MHz
Memory Technology: DDR3 SDRAM

My error was in the 0x07 region, however I didn't catch the number; the error did however have 'KERNAL' in it.


Alright, now to explain what happened; I was copying over about 8gb to my flash drive, and was browsing the web while doing home work. The computer was lagging pretty bad, much worse than usual, so I decided to close some things; however when I started to close stuff, the entire OS froze. After a while, everything resumed and I was able to close the things I wanted closed, but pretty soon after that my screen went weird (scan lines & random colors) and than gave me a BSOD.

When this happened I waited for the BSOD to close, and then tried to start my computer up again, but it would get to where it says "Loading Windows" and the quad-colored window pane showed up, then it froze and stayed like this until I forced a reboot. When I did this, I then tried to load up safe mode, and it froze on the driver

Code:

"\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\AtiPcie.sys"

, hence the reason I think its a graphics card issue. This being said, I have no idea hwo the hardware of a computer works so I haven't pulled it apart for fear of damaging it further.
After the atipcie incident, I put in my W7 Recovery disc, and it got to the part where theres the green progress bar, but that just kept going on and on for about 20 minutes until I did another force reboot and started looking into the problem on my laptop. I found a youtube video stating that the RAM Voltage is the problem so I wasted a good hour or two trying to figure out how to change RAM Voltage with my AMI BIOS but never actually found it.



So, My question for you guys is - What in the world should I do now? I can't lose this computer, and I can't format it either, my life and work is on it.

The first step is to use a bootable disk (such as a Live Linux distro or the Ultimate Boot CD) to copy your stuff to external media (either an external hard drive or DVD's.

If unable to backup your stuff, it's likely that there's a problem with your hard drive - and your stuff may be lost.
In that case, try this free hard drive diagnostic: Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

Post back with the results and we can move on from there.

Originally Posted by usasma

The first step is to use a bootable disk (such as a Live Linux distro or the Ultimate Boot CD) to copy your stuff to external media (either an external hard drive or DVD's.

If unable to backup your stuff, it's likely that there's a problem with your hard drive - and your stuff may be lost.
In that case, try this free hard drive diagnostic: Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

Post back with the results and we can move on from there.

Thanks for replying; I left the system recovery loading thin running all night (Got fed up with it, and simply went to bed) and got up this morning with a report with 1 root cause;

Code:

Bad hard disk: Bugcheck 7a. Parameters = 0x20, 0xffffffffc0000009d, 0xffffffffa80066077c8, 0x0.

So, does this mean I've lost everything? If not, are there any fixes?

We don't know yet - there's too many possibilities at this point.
See the "Usual Causes" section here: BSOD Index (this is the same as a Bugcheck 7a)

The 0xffffffffc0000009d is

STATUS_DEVICE_NOT_CONNECTED - which means either the hard drive is having issues - or the CD/DVD drive is having issues (if you were using it to access system recovery).

The first step is to use a bootable disk (such as a Live Linux distro or the Ultimate Boot CD) to copy your stuff to external media (either an external hard drive or DVD's. Have you done that? If not, it's IMPORTANT that you do it - as this is the only way to ensure that your data is preserved. It needs to be done right away in case your hard drive is dying - but hasn't completely died yet. You may only have a limited time to recover your stuff - so try that first.

After that, run the hard drive diagnostic that I suggested - and post back with the results. We'll move on from there once you've replied.

Hello, I wish to express my apologies for this extremely late reply. I had to wait until now to buy a USB stick to put Knopix on, and that is what I am posting this from. Hopefuly you haven't given up on me and are still subscribed to the thread.


I was able to save all of my important files, but now what? I'm guessing that next I need to do one of those diagnostics that you suggested above, which I shall do tomorrow

While I have my linux as the main boot and everything, is there any info you need? Partitions/etc?

Run these bootable hard drive diagnostics: Initial Hardware Diagnostics
Search the web for diagnostics that run in Linux (I'm not familiar with it, so I can't suggest any particular tests)
You'll need (at a minimum)
- video diagnostics
- memory stress test (Prime95?)
- cpu stress test