[atunagur]

I have been having a problem with my Hp Pavilion dv9500 for about 3 weeks now. I originally posted in the Malware forum, but I got a clean bill of health from there, and they referred me to this forum. Any advice/help you could offer me would be greatly appreciated, since this whole thing is about to drive me insane.

*Copied from my original thread*
I can always get my computer to run in safe-mode. The problem is getting it to run in normal mode. When I turn it on, it will get past the hp logo, and sometimes it will turn on, but most times, the screen will be covered in multi-colored or white rectangles, one ontop of the other in vertical lines. I then usually do a hard-shut down and just start in safe-mode. On the days where I can get it to run in normal-mode, it will run fine until i try to a)access my school's online classes website or b)when i try to run windows live messenger, at which time the computer screen will turn an odd color, sometimes multi-colored with boxes of another shade. When this happens i also have to do a hard-shut down. There have been a couple of times where the screen will start to do this, and then turn completely black, it then looks normal and i get a popup balloon saying my display driver has recovered itself. Other than that, the computer runs normally(when i can get it to run)...

Any help would be greatly appreciated=)

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Before we start troubleshooting in earnest, try uninstalling/reinstalling your video drivers (as I think it's the most likely reason for your issues).

Download the most updated video drivers from the manufacturer of your video chipset (ATI, nVidia, Intel, etc). Then uninstall the current video driver through Control Panel...Programs and features....Uninstall a program.

Reboot the system (dismissing any Found New Hardware dialogs), then double click on the downloaded file to install it. Then just follow the prompts.

If that doesn't help, then we'll start by looking for errors in the Windows Logs of Event Viewer. The key bit of information here is that it doesn't do it in Safe Mode - so it must be something that loads in normal mode but not in Safe Mode. And by far the biggest suspect is your video drivers (as Windows uses generic video drivers in Safe Mode).

[usasma]

Before we start troubleshooting in earnest, try uninstalling/reinstalling your video drivers (as I think it's the most likely reason for your issues).

Download the most updated video drivers from the manufacturer of your video chipset (ATI, nVidia, Intel, etc). Then uninstall the current video driver through Control Panel...Programs and features....Uninstall a program.

Reboot the system (dismissing any Found New Hardware dialogs), then double click on the downloaded file to install it. Then just follow the prompts.

If that doesn't help, then we'll start by looking for errors in the Windows Logs of Event Viewer. The key bit of information here is that it doesn't do it in Safe Mode - so it must be something that loads in normal mode but not in Safe Mode. And by far the biggest suspect is your video drivers (as Windows uses generic video drivers in Safe Mode).

[atunagur]

When this problem first started and I suspected it to be my video driver, i downloaded the beta update and installed it, thinking it would help. But it didn't problem persisted. Yesterday, I rolled back my driver, and messed with my display settings, setting them to run for best performance and not best view.

I went to the Nvidia website to scan for updated drivers, while it was scanning the screen went black, but itunes was still playing in the background. The Screen then came back, and a popup balloon appeared saying the display driver had stopped responding and had recovered itself, but before i could do anything, the itunes started skipping and the screen got multicolored dots and boxes all over, it eventually turned black and then multicolored and back to black. I had to do a hard-shut down, and I haven't been able to get it to run in normal mode since.

One thing that I have noticed, is that whenever this happens while the computer is on, is that it starts when java runs.

Thank you

[Broni]

It definitely looks like video driver/chip problem.
Did you try to reinstall original driver from HP site?
Is the laptop still under warranty?

[atunagur]

No, I haven't tried to download the driver from the H.P website. But I have checked for driver updates using the Hp health Check multiple times, and it always says that I have the latest drivers installed.

The laptop just ran out of warranty a few months ago.

[Broni]

I have checked for driver updates using the Hp health Check multiple times, and it always says that I have the latest drivers installed.

It means nothing else, than Healthcheck seeing correct driver. It won't tell you, if it's good, or bad driver.

Edited by Broni, 18 April 2009 - 08:50 PM.

[atunagur]

Okay, I did as Usamsa said, and I re-installed my driver downloaded from the H.P website. Nothing has changed, and I cannot get my computer to run in normal-mode. They guy over in the Malware forum has given me instructions to take off the tools that we used to check for malware and spyware, as well as to update/re-install the latest java, but I can't do half of the things running in safe-mode.

Any suggestions as to what I should do next?

[usasma]

Start by looking for errors in the Event Viewer. To do this, go to Start and type in "eventvwr.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Expand the Windows Logs category and check both the System and the Application log files for errors (particularly those that are recurring). Let us know what you find and we can move on from there.

[atunagur]

There are a ton of errors, in both applications and system, that have occurred since this problem started. About 5-10 a day... Do you want me to post logs of all of them?

[usasma]

Boot into Safe Mode and note the time. Then boot into normal mode and work it until you get the screen issues (note the time then also).

Then get a list of the errors from the Safe Boot time until the time that the errors started happening.
To do this, go to the System log file of Event Viewer and left click once on the first error you want to include. Then hold down the Ctrl key and left click on each of the other errors that you want to include. Once you've selected them all, right click on the highlighted entries and select "Save selected events...".

You'll then be prompted to give it a name, select a name (and make sure you know where it's being saved - mine saves to the Documents folder). Then click on "Save" to save it. Then upload this file with your next post and we'll see what it contains.

[atunagur]

Okay, thanks.

The first set of logs occurred while i was in normal mode and i tried to open instant messenger. The second occurred after i had restarted and tried to get it to run in normal mode.

[usasma]

The logs didn't appear to upload. Could you try it again?

[atunagur]

I'm sorry. I'm having trouble getting the files to upload, and when i just try to copy and paste the text, my browser locks up because there is so much. what should i do?

[usasma]

Start by pasting only small amounts - the last 10 or so errors should be enough for a start.
The Event Viewer log is huge if you include a lot of stuff, try only including the last 10 or so errors in the log and seeing if that'll upload.

What size are the log files that you've got now?

[atunagur]

The biggest that i had, was 20 mb in the default format(which i can't upload because it is not supported in this upload thing here) and 8.50 mb in txt. format.