Gateway 450ROG Display Problem?

[foobar22]

Hi there,

I've recently started to experience a strange graphics problem with
the Gateway 450ROG laptop. It basically looks like a color issue
where black or dark colors are showing up as bright green. When
viewing a dark screen or graphic, the green pixels flicker on and off
as if there's some electronic interference from some other component
on the motherboard. This starts at boot and continues through login, desktop, and all applications.

This problem has been intermittent in the past but now it's happening
more frequently. It seems to happen more when I'm connected to AC
power supply versus running on battery.

I can still use email and basic productivity applications but graphic
applications are close to impossible to use because I'm unable to
determine what color I'm selecting until I print out the results.

The video card is ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, 32Mb video memory, driver version 6.14.10.6343 published 4/28/2003 and recently updated from the Gateway support site.

Of course the problem waited until the expiration of my 1-year
warranty! Add to that the closure of the local Gateway store and
service center and I'm basically on my own to figure this one out.
I really don't want to ship the laptop off for service and be without
a machine for a while. I'm pretty good with repair and would be
willing to try a hardware fix if anyone has seen this issue and can
recommend replacement or other repair.

Thanks in Advance,
R.G.

[johnfitz]

My Dell Inspiron 5000e has jsut begun to do exactly the same thing. I put it into hibernate mode yesterday evening, and when I resumed this I have the same symptoms you describe, I've reinstalled the BIOS (was already the latest available) and the video drivers (ATI Mobility M3).

When I try to edit the ATI Advanced settings I get a run dll error.

Did you find any solution? TIA
John

Originally Posted by foobar22

Hi there,

I've recently started to experience a strange graphics problem with
the Gateway 450ROG laptop. It basically looks like a color issue
where black or dark colors are showing up as bright green. When
viewing a dark screen or graphic, the green pixels flicker on and off
as if there's some electronic interference from some other component
on the motherboard. This starts at boot and continues through login, desktop, and all applications.

This problem has been intermittent in the past but now it's happening
more frequently. It seems to happen more when I'm connected to AC
power supply versus running on battery.

I can still use email and basic productivity applications but graphic
applications are close to impossible to use because I'm unable to
determine what color I'm selecting until I print out the results.

The video card is ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, 32Mb video memory, driver version 6.14.10.6343 published 4/28/2003 and recently updated from the Gateway support site.

Of course the problem waited until the expiration of my 1-year
warranty! Add to that the closure of the local Gateway store and
service center and I'm basically on my own to figure this one out.
I really don't want to ship the laptop off for service and be without
a machine for a while. I'm pretty good with repair and would be
willing to try a hardware fix if anyone has seen this issue and can
recommend replacement or other repair.

Thanks in Advance,
R.G.

[foobar22]

Hi John, I just noticed your response from June. I tried totally disassembling the laptop to see if there was an obvious electrical issue and found none. There's a connector cable from the motherboard to the display and it passes through the hinge. That looked like a potential problem area. I basically re-seated all of the connectors and put the thing back together and to my surprise the problem went away. Of course now it's back with a vengence... I have no idea where the problem is occuring but I've seen the connector cable for sale on Ebay and my thought is that there's a crimp or electrical problem in that part and it may need to be replaced. The biggest clue to this has been the fact that the laptop drives an external display perfectly but has the 'green screen' problem when I switch back to the onboard LCD. I don't know what I'm going to do next - maybe wait till the thing is 2 years old and dump it. This is not good.

Let me know if you've had any luck and I'll check back more frequently.

Thanks,
Rich

Originally Posted by johnfitz

My Dell Inspiron 5000e has jsut begun to do exactly the same thing. I put it into hibernate mode yesterday evening, and when I resumed this I have the same symptoms you describe, I've reinstalled the BIOS (was already the latest available) and the video drivers (ATI Mobility M3).

When I try to edit the ATI Advanced settings I get a run dll error.

Did you find any solution? TIA
John

[thorian]

Just to let you know I sent off a Gateway laptop (e400 series) because the Nic went out there new depot is totally incompitant we are Business customer the laptop went in on 6-23-04 they ordered a motherboard on 7-19-04 I called today ( because i forgot about it ) and the motherboard isnt supposed to arrive untill 9-13-04 the tech stated that they will need another 3 weeks to get the laptop out to me. Nedless to say that our company promptly cancled the order we placed yesterday for 10 more. Since the merger there support has really gone down hill.
You may want to consider paying a local tech to take a look at that.
Gateway will not get your laptop back to you anytime soon. I thought Alienware was terrible on turnaround time (pm me for details).

[ealund]

I have been having the exact same problem and am wondering what to do you... Have you heard anything helpful?
Thanks,
Erik

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers ealund

It sounds to me as if the display is quietly dying.. do you have the same laptop model or is it a different one?

[ealund]

Yes, i have a gateway 450ROG. Do you have any suggestions for repair?

[NooNoo]

Is it in warranty?
Does it do the same on an external monitor?

[ealund]

Actually my warranty just expired in august unfortunately. The problem does not happen when i feed the video out to an external monitor.

[ealund]

Make: Gateway
Model: 450ROG
Hope that's what you meant.

[ealund]

Thanks for the links and the help. I am looking at the Gateway 450RGH manaul now. Not sure how similar these models are, we'll see what works.

[NooNoo]

Taking apart a laptop is not hard, but it is fiddly, very easy to lose screws, break little plastic tabs and of course, zap the mainboard. Make sure you have the battery out and the mains cable disconnected and you have discharged any static before trying to remove any covers.

[bluesky]

I think there is someting wrong with your graphic out , or there is something wrong with your color setting , check that .

[ealund]

<<I think there is someting wrong with your graphic out , or there is something wrong with your color setting , check that .>>

How do you check if there's an issue with the graphic out? or color setting? (probably under display properties?)

[NooNoo]

Yes you can try playing with the settings in display properties... but it does still sound like a hardware fault.