Looking solution for black screen with ATI radeon 5450 HD graphic card on HP laptop ?

vapor paragorn

Reputable
Apr 25, 2014
5
0
4,510
Hello experts

My laptops specs
HP pavilion dm4 1009tx
Windows 7 (64 bit)
intel core i5
Ram 6 GB
switchable graphics
intel HD graphics and ATI radeon 5450 HD

Problem I am facing
Laptop has been working fine since three years, just few days back its ATI radeon 5450 HD graphic card crashed ( screen gone black ) while playing game called second Life. I had to manual restart in safe mode to disable ATI graphic card to just use intel HD graphics to be able to see anything. In safe mode I cleaned old AMD graphics drivers with driver sweeper and tried reinstalling drivers in normal mode. Installation starts, it recognizes card and when there comes point where it says screen will flicker, it does flickers one time and display comes back with installation still going-on on screen and it again flickers for second time but screen stays black this time. I again have to manual restart to go into safe mode to uninstall and disable ATI to be able to see anything in normal mode with just intel HD graphics card. Same thing happens when I try to install factory driver (one that came with laptop) or driver (from HP support site, same as factory driver) and I even tried new drivers from AMD site for this card but same result. Though I think factory drivers from HP are most relevant because AMD don't support those cards in HP laptops packed with intel HD card for switchable graphics.

When no drivers installed In device manager ATI card appears as Video Controller (VGA Compatible).My guess is card over heated and crashed but since its still detectable as a hardware by device manager, my Question is, is it a dead hardware ( or even zombie) now and I am stuck with it as graphic cards of notebooks can't be changed ? or it still can only be a software/driver issue ? , Any idea how to fix it ?

Please help I want to keep using my this laptop for lite games such as second life. Thanks in advance.
 

COLGeek

Cybernaut
Moderator
I does appear that your AMD GPU is defective. I concur with your overheating assessment.

To repair, you would need to replace the motherboard (or use the Intel GPU). Here is a link to a replacement motherboard:

http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/HP,Laptop,Part,608203001.aspx

BTW, you could disassemble the system and replace the thermal compound on the CPU and GPU and clean the dust from the inside of the system to see if that helps.

Good luck!
 
Solution

vapor paragorn

Reputable
Apr 25, 2014
5
0
4,510


Thanks for reply and link

replacing motherboard isn't a handy option for me because it costs much, I will look into cleaning dust and changing thermal compound with help of some technician, as i don't have right tools ...