Is my laptop gone for good?

**Meneldil** · 08-30-2010, 11:18

So, I was playing some game on my laptop (Vampire The Masquerade : Bloodlines, supposedly plagued with bugs). I go to the game's menu with the esc key and the game freezes.
It's the first time I encounter a bug while playing it so I'm not too worried, even though I have to reboot the machine. So I reboot, and my desktop now has three or four screens in one. Since it's kind of hard to explain, I took a pic and hosted it on Imageshack.

I tried taking the battery off and pushing the "on/off" button to reset the configuration. I launched the repair program, asked it to restaure the computer, with no luck so far. I can't get past that screen here: when the restauration is done, the computer restarts with the same problem.

I suck with computers but my guess is that my graphic card is dead. Any other option?

**Beskar** · 08-30-2010, 11:40

Have you tried booting in safe-mode and the same is happening there?

**Meneldil** · 08-30-2010, 12:22

I did, and successfully reached the windows desk, but then I couldn't find anything. Can't change the resolution, can't uninstall and reinstall my graphic card. I mostly can't read anything, since the screen is still divided in 4 parts.

**Tellos Athenaios** · 08-30-2010, 17:42

Have you tried reverting to a previous Windows restore point? To do that, you need to insert a recovery disk if you have it, or press F8 (can't remember which key it is) or some such while booting and select a recovery partition if you have it.

If that fails, perhaps forcing the BIOS to reset itself might do the trick. Typically laptops have a somewhat inaccessible reset button (you'll need a toothpick or needle or something similar) on the back (the bottom of the machine)... The manual of your laptop should mention it.

**Xiahou** · 08-31-2010, 02:15

Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios

Have you tried reverting to a previous Windows restore point?

A better question might be: does the screen look like that even before windows loads? If the BIOS screen is similarly screwed up, we can rule out Windows altogether.

Does your laptop have an external video plug? If so, can you hook it to a separate monitor? And if so, how does that look?

**Meneldil** · 08-31-2010, 09:28

Originally Posted by Xiahou

A better question might be: does the screen look like that even before windows loads? If the BIOS screen is similarly screwed up, we can rule out Windows altogether.

Does your laptop have an external video plug? If so, can you hook it to a separate monitor? And if so, how does that look?

Yes, the screen is divided like that even before Windows launches. It has a video plug, so I'm gonna try that.