[JOwte]

Okay, so I bought myself an HP Pavillion dv9728ca laptop, brought it home and fired it up. No issues on startup, we're doing fine. Then I decided to install WoW into my computer and BANG! Issues. It does this...thing...I like to call it "spiky" graphics.
Basically the pixels from the terrain, and the character models warp, and "spike" out randomly, and constantly. I tried talking to the guys at BestBuy and I just get the "well it's a laptop" answer. I checked my video card (it's an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M) and based on what I read, I should be *more* than able to run not only WoW, but a whole slew of other games. I tried downloading the new drivers, and even talking to HP's tech support line and nothing has helped. If anyone here has even heard of this issue or anything like it, any help would be greatly appreciated.
I can submit a screen shot of what it looks like to give anyone a better idea of what's happening. Thanks again

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A screeny would be nice.... Have you tried any other 3d games?

[Cold Titanium]

A screeny would be nice.... Have you tried any other 3d games?

[JOwte]

Tried a few other games, Spore, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, all get the same (or worse) result. Here's a screen though from one of my WoW toons. (Yes I know it's a lot of addons. Trust me, I've tried turning them off, not effect.)
WoW Screenshot

Attached Thumbnails

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[Cold Titanium]

You said you tried downloading the drivers, did they install without errors? Also, did you uninstall the old drivers before trying the new ones?

Download the new driver and then before installing it, uninstall the old driver and use a driver cleaner like Guru3D Driver Sweeper, poweroff, wait about 15-30 min, and then boot and install the new drivers.

See if you can run these if the above doesn't work. Run something like 3DMark or rthdribl (note on rthdribl: run it full screen and with 16x AA)

1. rthdribl (plus it's just cool)

2. 3DMark Vantage

3. GPU-Z

Use GPU-Z or something like RivaTuner to monitor the temperature of the graphics card while running these programs. Just to rule out overheating. Does the laptop ever seem hot?

Do you have everything patched and updated? Including your OS?

Edit: Can you watch movies without problems?

Edited by Cold Titanium, 09 May 2009 - 05:30 PM.

[JOwte]

Okay, so I did the uninstall of the old drivers, updated it, updated my OS with all the newest stuff, and I ran GPU-Z while running WoW, and the GPU Temperature made it all the way up to 84.0 degrees C and sometimes to 86. And yeah, to answer your question sometimes the laptop gets hot. Like really hot. Does this mean that the card's just not cooling properly?

I can watch movies with no issue what-so-ever, it's really just when I start gaming.

Sometimes the computer gets hot enough, I can feel the heat through the keyboard. Is that normal?

Edited by JOwte, 10 May 2009 - 09:07 AM.

[Cold Titanium]

Hmm... I dunno as I am not very familiar with laptops, seeing as how I have never owned one. ( I'm sure your like "oh great I get some dork who doesn't even own a laptop to help me ")

I can't seem to find the maximum temp for that card anywhere, but 84-86 seems a bit warm. Is there some way that you can open it up, and blow some cool air into it while playing or use a chill pad?

Maybe you could also try turning all the settings down on your game and see what that does?

[JOwte]

Well, I just got off of my fourth HP support chat, and my worst fears are confirmed. My card is simply a lemon. Interesting little tid-bit though, the guy I was talking to told me that it was possible for me to change my card, despite the fact that it's a laptop. I'd always been told that was impossible. The problem though is that I'm still fairly new to the idea of taking apart my laptop. Does anyone have any idea where abouts the card would be located inside?

And thanks for all your help so far. thanks alot Cold Titanium, I really appreciate your help.

[Cold Titanium]

Rats...

I'll go looking for schematics of your laptop and see if I can find anything. Can't you just send it in to HP and have them fix it?

[Cold Titanium]

Here is the best breakdown I could find Warning: this pdf is about 5 Megs(dunno what your internet speed is)

Here is the link to all the other manuals

And your very welcome Although, I was hoping that it wouldn't be a lemon

Edit: oh yeah, and Welcome to G2G

Edited by Cold Titanium, 10 May 2009 - 01:22 PM.

[JOwte]

I was thinking about sending it to HP to have them fix it, until they told me that it's my problem, not theirs, so if I send it in, it's gonna be like $450 to repair it. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out!

On an extra side note though, I've been searching the net like crazy, and have yet to come across *anyone* else that has the same issue with me. I'm curious as to whether I've just been wording my issue poorly, or if I'm really the first.

Now, my next big issue is finding a place that will sell me a GeForce 8400M GS card

And thanks Cold Titanium ^_^

Edited by JOwte, 10 May 2009 - 01:27 PM.

[Cold Titanium]

I thought you said you had a 9600M?

[JOwte]

Yeah, that was the other issue. When I was going through all the tech stuff with HP Support, the sticker on the bottom is labeled as a 9600M, but going through the specs, it's actually an 8400M, so yeah, another ball dropped by HP. Sorry about that.

It was my bad too though, I definitely should have checked the specs instead of trusting the label on the bottom. Sorry again.

Edited by JOwte, 10 May 2009 - 01:49 PM.

[Cold Titanium]

Thats ok. If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask! Have fun with the Indians of HP