I have several small screens on my computer at the same time

[Hardestnut]

I have a LG E500 with a Nvidia graphics card. When I tried to install an old computer game a while ago my computer crashed and when i restarted it I had 6 desktops + 2 half desktops, I have tried reinstalling windows and drivers without success.

This seems to be a rather unusual problem and is really card to search for solutions for due to the keywords being similar issues with multiple screens.

 

[CryptorX]

Could you specify a bit more, i am finding it hard to imagine what it's like to have 6 and two half desktops... or do you mean the backgroung image appears now has six smaller pics and two halves?

 

[arunphilip]

Yes, can you please give us a photo to visualize the problem?
Do you have another monitor you can try with?

 

[Hardestnut]

 

[Hardestnut]

Sorry about the size, Eeh, Well I guess its all about getting the big picture...

 

[CryptorX]

WOW

Now that it's something new

Have you tried to right click on the, i mean, one one of the desktops and select "screen resolution", then on multiple displays select "show desktop only on 1", or try to select another resolution then get back to your current resolution. You could also try to remove your graphics card drivers, restart, then reinstall them...

 

[arunphilip]

Thanks for the picture. I can honestly say this is the first time I've seen such a situation!

Are you running any multiple desktop software like StarDock's Virtual Desktops, etc? If so, try stopping it.

In your display properties, try changing resolutions to something else, and back again.

Can you try connecting an external monitor to your laptop, and see how that appears, when using the duplicate mode (you can press the Windows key+P to access this)?

 

[Hardestnut]

With drivers I have installed a new driver package for the screen. No effect.

The resolution is stuck at the lowest and I have no other alternatives to choose from.

No funky desktop software running or similar, The computer is actually quite clean softwarewise after a reinstall of Windows prior to this problem.

Tried to connect external monitor, but I didn't get any connection happening between them. Maybe if I wait longer...

The computer is running dead slow, like It's trying to process like all the desktops separately.

I think that a resolution adjustment in the old computer game i was starting when the computer crashed in some way f**ked up what the computer assumes is the natural screen resolution, but I have no idea of how to access or change that information.

 

[arunphilip]

The fact that its a laptop makes it that much harder.

In your BIOS, do you have any display related settings (say the amount of VRAM)? If so, try changing them to a value, reboot, change back, and see if that helps.

Next, try restoring your BIOS to default settings.

 

[CryptorX]

Which game caused this? Now i am curious...

 

[arunphilip]

OK, Googling turned up this hit - http://superuser.com/questions/258665/notebook-display-problem-multiplication

Is your Nvidia card integrated or discrete? Is it replaceable or soldered onto the motherboard? If its discrete and replaceable, you can check ebay for spares.

Edit: It appears that your laptop doesn't support MXM, which is a bit of a standard for replaceable graphics cards: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/15043-lg-e500-upgradable/

I had a failure on my laptop that had a discrete user-replaceable Nvidia card, ebay gave the replacement I needed, I replaced it in about 20 minutes, and have been running fine since.

 

[Hardestnut]

My bios allows for only limited tweaks and to my knowledge no graphic-related adjustments.

Is it possible to flash the graphics card separately?

 

[bryonhowley]

Does the laptop screen look correct during the post(before you get into windows)? Also to further rule out driver try booting into safe mode and see if your screen looks correct. If it does I would suggest you completely remove the display drivers and reinstall.
Other than that I would say your gpu is fubar.

 

[Hardestnut]

OK, Googling turned up this hit - http://superuser.com/questions/258665/notebook-display-problem-multiplication

Is your Nvidia card integrated or discrete? Is it replaceable or soldered onto the motherboard? If its discrete and replaceable, you can check ebay for spares.

Edit: It appears that your laptop doesn't support MXM, which is a bit of a standard for replaceable graphics cards: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/15043-lg-e500-upgradable/

I had a failure on my laptop that had a discrete user-replaceable Nvidia card, ebay gave the replacement I needed, I replaced it in about 20 minutes, and have been running fine since.

That sounds like a no-go option then. crap, I would actually prefer that kind of solution to biosflashing.

 

[arunphilip]

The superuser link indicates that this is caused by inadequate cooling on your GPU (possibly due to age). The game appears to have tipped the GPU over the edge, even if you hadn't done the game, the problem would have occurred shortly after.

If you're feeling adventurous (and can't get a replacement card), you can try cleaning off and reapplying thermal paste (or a thermal pad if your GPU uses it), to see if that helps. Its possible the damage is permanent, but there's always a chance that restoring cooling performance might help.

 

[Hardestnut]

Hmm thanks for the link, it seems like this is a problem that is kinda special for the lg e500 computers...

 

[CryptorX]

I am almost completely sure that is a software problem...

Also... i found this... it is a similar problem...

 

[Hardestnut]

I do not think that I would improve things by soldering in my computer.

I have seen a couple of examples where there are four screens but I think that it is a different type of problem. ( My error appeared a while ago and I've had to make do with another computer since, but I think that I have explored the 4-screen problem and found out that it was related to something that I already checked.)

 

[CryptorX]

Have you already removed the drivers? Don't reinstall them, let the pc restart and use win7 or Vista default vga drivers to see if the problem persists...
If you don't have this error during the post (where the card is using only his basic functions) it means you probably wont get it running it as a default card (no advanced functions) or in VGA mode which is a start mode you can select during windows start up, just keep pressing F8 after the post repeatedly (not continuously) and a menu will appear for you to select the starting mode, select VGA or Safe mode and see if the problem persists, and no, i am not going to suggest to keep it that way in case it works, i am just trying to find out what is wrong so we can solve the right thing instead of just trying to guess what's wrong.

 

[jdenova007]

"The resolution is stuck at the lowest and I have no other alternatives to choose from"

This typically means you don't have a driver installed.... can you run ok in Safe Mode? do you only see this occur in windows? when you first boot does it show your BIOS as 6 different BIOS's? Please respond so we can further diagnose.

BTW... never seen that before... really cool (sorry)

 

[arunphilip]

I do hope you're able to fix this, Hardestnut. That laptop looks really stylish (in a clean sort of way), and I wouldn't want to see you have to replace it.

 

[Hardestnut]

Thank you for your help everybody.

Here is a quick uppdate;

I'm trying to flash the bios and replace drivers after that, but it all takes a lot of time to do with the comp working so slow. It's surprisingly hard to do this while trying to figure out what the text says on these tiny subscreens and make sure that I'm looking at the right mousepointer out eight different ones. It all feels kinda like being a seasick old geezer...

 

[Hardestnut]

I've tried flashing the bios and a new attempt with drivers. no luck.

The problem is constant through post, bios, windows. But one thing that I have noticed is that there seems to be a disconnection in some way between the drivers and how the computers interprets the graphics card, as if the computer treats this as some other unit in some way. very funky, I'll continue in my search for a silver bullet for this problem, like something that fixes what I feel is a problem related to the communication between embedded software and everything else.

Please do comment your wildest ideas.

I'll try to fiddle around with

 

[jdenova007]

If you see this issue in BIOS then it is NOT software related..... probably need a new video card/motherboard. Sorry.

 

[CryptorX]

Just tell us if you also have that problem in the bios or during the post... also, do you have it during windows start up... (when that loading screen with a window appears) or is it only after he starts all the drivers...