Author Topic: Samsung Laptop won't boot (Read 15344 times)

Ballinlea · « **on:** November 21, 2016, 12:11:33 am »

Hi all
Last night I was working with Adobe Lightroom and was opening Photoshop Elements through Lightroom. As Photoshop was opening the screen went a strange colour (sort of Orange/Yellow) with possibly lines across. It was only there for a couple of seconds and then the screen went blank, no picture. I restarted the Laptop, running Windows 10, Windows started to boot with the circle of dots but then went blank. I then booted into Safe Mode and the Laptop booted as it should. I then Opened Lightroom and Photoshop successfully but could only go so far as I was in safe mode.
I have tried the Laptop again this morning but it still won't load.
Is it likely that I have overloaded my graphics and 'fried' something?
My Laptop is a
Samsung NP700G7A and is about 4 years old.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Boggin · « **Reply #1 on:** November 21, 2016, 01:02:56 am »

As you get the same in Safe Mode then that would eliminate the GPU as the problem as in Safe Mode that is isolated and you are then using the on board VGA.

I would suspect the LCD Inverter or its cable if the fan is still working.

Other than graphics, screen problems can either be the Backlight or the Inverter/cable and sometimes the screen itself.

To eliminate the backlight, after you have booted up, shine a strong light on the screen to see if you can see an image.

If you can then it's the backlight.

Some laptops are prone to the Inverter cable connection becoming loose or the cable broken with the continued use of opening and closing the lid.

With the laptop switched on, move the lid backwards and forwards to see if the screen changes.

You can buy Inverters and usually find strip down tutorials for most laptops via Google to effect the repairs yourself, but if you aren't confident then it would be best to take it in for repair.

If the fans is running then it isn't likely to be the RAM but if you have more than one RAM module installed, then try the boot with just one stick plugged in at a time and in different slots.

Ballinlea · « **Reply #2 on:** November 21, 2016, 02:32:10 am »

I am able to boot properly into Safe Mode and see what is on the screen.
The fan is running.
I have tried the bright light thing on the screen and I do not see an image when I do that.
I will have to strip the Laptop down to get at the Ram of which there are two sticks.

Boggin · « **Reply #3 on:** November 21, 2016, 02:35:38 am »

If the machine works fine in Safe Mode then it's your graphics chip.

Go into Device Manager and expand Display adapters - right click on it and select Properties and under the General tab will give its status.

There'll be no need to check out the RAM modules.

Ballinlea · « **Reply #4 on:** November 21, 2016, 02:47:59 am »

Attached pic of Display Adapter Status

Boggin · « **Reply #5 on:** November 21, 2016, 02:51:31 am »

Yes, I've just checked mine out as I vaguely remembered seeing a different set up in Safe Mode - sorry about that.

There's no other way to check out your graphics chip in Safe or normal mode that I know of, so I think you will need to take it in for repair.

Don't suppose you have extended warranty on the laptop ?

Ballinlea · « **Reply #6 on:** November 21, 2016, 03:01:40 am »

Unfortunately not.
Thanks for your help

Boggin · « **Reply #7 on:** November 21, 2016, 03:15:32 am »

There are a couple of more things that you could try but I don't think they will help and that is to Ethernet connect and boot up into Safe Mode with Networking.

Right click on the display adapter and select Update Driver Software and select Search on line - it may find an updated driver but if the GPU is goosed then that could produce an error message when you try to install it.

There is another way to reinstall the graphics drivers and that is after selecting Update Driver Software, select Browse my computer - Let me pick... then click on the appropriate one and click Next where it will try to install it.

I recently had problems with my wireless adapter and got an error message when trying to install its drivers.

The other thing to try is your restore points to before the screen went off but then again.....

EDIT - Just as a matter of interest, how have you managed to boot up into Safe Mode with a black screen in normal mode in Win 10 ?

Ballinlea · « **Reply #8 on:** November 21, 2016, 04:51:06 am »

If I try to update the display adapter, in Safe Mode, it tells me that the driver I have is the most up to date one.
I am booting into Safe Mode Windows 10 using the F8 key.
I had a problem with my Laptop some time ago but was unable to boot into Safe Mode. I came across this site.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/

Boggin · « **Reply #9 on:** November 21, 2016, 07:32:35 am »

I was wondering if you had changed the BCD.

I had my Win 10 like that for a while.

Ballinlea · « **Reply #10 on:** November 24, 2016, 11:54:10 am »

It still continues
Been in touch with Samsung and explained the problem and asked if there was anything they could do. I also told them what i had done trying to resolve the problem. I gave them the Model Number and Serial Number. They then wanted to know what platform I was using.

I replied
Windows 10 upgraded from 7

They replied
"Upon checking the model NP700G7A, it is not upgradable to Windows 10 due to pre-installed Intel Atom Processor that provides no support or a limited support on the software drivers so even replacing the Graphics card, the processor is still cannot support Windows 10.
It is much better to revert back to original pre-installed software to keep your notebook function in good performance. Just keep your drivers updated through running the SW Update tool that will search for an available updated drivers/software/application pre-installed to your unit. You can download the SW Update Tool from the below link if the application do not exist from your unit:"

I replied asking
"Is the pre installed 'Intel Atom Processor' the same as 'Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz' processor which is in my Laptop. I have included a screen shot of the Device Manager showing the Processor in the laptop."
I also attached a screenshot of the Device Manager showing what Processor is in the laptop.

To this they replied
Intel ATOM and Core processor are different. The incompatibility issue is on the other drivers that are just compatible to Windows 7 & 8 versions only. So the Intel processor cannot support Windows 10.

Can any one make sense of this for me

Boggin · « **Reply #11 on:** November 24, 2016, 03:08:23 pm »

That alert on the Generic PnP Monitor is normal in Safe Mode.

The reason you have so many entries under the CPU is because it's an 8 core processor.

Had you been able to use Lightroom and Photoshop previously in Win 10 before the reaction on the laptop screen or any other problem when just using the laptop ?

Do those two items show up in Task Manager/Startup or in the non-MS services under the Services tab in msconfig and do they have their own entries in services.msc - the main Services section ?

Sometimes the problem can be because of 3rd party programs.

Ballinlea · « **Reply #12 on:** November 24, 2016, 03:44:54 pm »

I have used Lightroom and Photoshop before in Win 10 but I don't recall using both of them at the same time. What I was doing was opening jpgs from lightroom into photoshop. This is something you can do while editing photos in Lightroom.
I did have a problem in Win 10 when my laptop just simply froze shortly after starting up. The period between startup and freezing became progressively shorter until it froze just on the appearance of the Desktop screen. It got to a stage where i did a clean install of Win 10.
Neither of the two programmes show up in Task Manager/Startup or in the non-MS services under the Services tab in msconfig.
What confuses me is that Samsung say that my CPU wont support Win 10. Is that possible? It is a pretty hi-spec laptop (Gaming Laptop).

Boggin · « **Reply #13 on:** November 24, 2016, 04:28:17 pm »

I would have thought an 8 core processor was more than capable of running Win 10 - but it's the drivers that matter.

I've upgraded two Toshiba much lower spec laptops and the only problem I have is the one with the AMD HD6310 GPU 1.3GHz Dual core processor seems a bit slow, whereas the other one which just has an Intel Celeron B800 1.5GHz Dual core works just fine - although I had IE 11 browser freezing in both until I reset it to defaults and disabled a couple of add-ons and uninstalled Adblock Plus.

The browser freezing didn't occur until after the Anniversary Update, so that could also have been the cause of your problems if the laptop was working okay before that.

If the laptop works fine in Safe Mode then that points to your graphics and not the CPU.

I'm not sure if I've asked you this before without going back through your thread, but can you go into Device Manager - right click on the Display adapter then select Update Driver Software - Browse my computer - Let me pick.. then see if there are any additional drivers.

The one that is highlighted is usually the one in use, but there may be an alternative MS driver that you could try if your driver looks like it was the original.

If the Anniversary Update has installed any additional drivers then they could be the cause of your problems.

Ballinlea · « **Reply #14 on:** November 24, 2016, 04:56:59 pm »

What I have done is Uninstall the graphics card and deleted the drivers for it. I have downloaded an .exe file,called 'autodetectutility' from AMD which finds the card, downloads and installs the drivers for the card.
I cant recall if the time my laptop was freezing was before it was updated to 10. I would need to ask my son if he can recall.

Boggin · « **Reply #15 on:** November 24, 2016, 05:04:41 pm »

What is your AMD graphics because lower down that AMD page are links for Win 10 drivers for their various cards, but some are just classed as legacy.

How is it performing after the auto detect install ?

Ballinlea · « **Reply #16 on:** November 24, 2016, 05:22:27 pm »

Graphics is an 'AMD Radeon HD 6900 M Series' card
I have just uninstalled the card and deleted the drivers ran the autodetectutility. I then scanned for hardware changes and it does not find the card.

Boggin · « **Reply #17 on:** November 24, 2016, 05:34:09 pm »

Use your restore points to reinstate it.

satrow · « **Reply #18 on:** November 24, 2016, 10:09:09 pm »

The i7-2670QM CPU includes a baked in HD 3000 graphics processor which isn't compatible with W10, according to Intel's latest table: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/000005526.html (though you might be able to run it under a Compatibility mode).

The latest W10 (both Catalyst and Crimson) x64 drivers for the HD69xxM series GPU are here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy3&os=Windows+10+-+64 (read the blurb carefully, I'd opt for the Catalyst, they were released for W10 Release day, and they should take up much less drive space once installed, turn off Windows driver updates or they'll soon revert to the 'bad' drivers).

I think the issue is really down to the 'switchable' graphics (simplified: on the original OS by default, it would boot from the HD 3000, only switching to the AMD/ATI when on mains power and extra capabilities were needed for certain programs and tasks), which you should be able to change in the BIOS - but probably only to on (switchable, boots on Intel, can switch to and from AMD within Windows when required), or off (Intel only). Because this is hardware/BIOS driven, I don't think the full switchable graphics are possible or supported on W10.

I might be wrong, it would probably take some searching on specialist fora to be sure whether they can be made to work as they used to/should or not, on W10. I haven't had recent access to a notebook of this type, so this is theory only.

The best you could hope for in the event that your system isn't fully supported in w10 is that the BIOS can enable the AMD/ATI GPU only, this would give you better graphics power, should enable the installation of the latest drivers (above) but with the main drawbacks of extra heat being produced and a much lower run time on battery power.

There's a slim chance that disabling the Intel graphics component from within the Device Manager > Display adapters section would force the switch to the AMD - but, as that's set in the BIOS, I'm not at all hopeful - and recovering from the failure of Windows not finding *any* display adapter would require a working System Restore point, at least. Not really recommended.

jraju · « **Reply #19 on:** November 24, 2016, 10:48:36 pm »

Hi, Please check this page whether all requirements are met to proper run of windows 10 on your system
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-specifications#sysreqs