My Toshiba Qosmio G30 suddenly developed the green screen problem
I have Toshiba Qosmio g30(no serious probs since purchase) that suddenly developed the green screen problem.The xp start up screen is green & black/dark gray pixels are also green. There is also some red pixel distortion in scroll bars and menu boxes.
I was using it fine today then i half closed the screen and left it to go on standby or hibernate. Anyway, when i flicked mouse to turn it back on, the green pixels were all over the desktop. PLEASE bear with me on my steps because i really don’t think it is a fatal hardware fault and don’t want to dismantle yet!
1)I thought video card driver corruption - installed new & original drivers but no joy. also tried other various tosh drivers for other parts.
2)problem the same in safe mode so started to get worried.
3)then approached the color management profiles thinking they had been corrupted somehow - short term fix but not happy. basically you can alter the settings to get rid of most black pixels…eg they will be v dark grey. the less there are the less the problem is visible. maybe there’s a prob deep inside windows, startup progs or registry that messes with pixel display/pixel shader? sadly i don’t think it’s that simple.
4)i can safely rule out water damage and have not dropped or bashed it.
5)I then suspected a damaged wire in the hinge mechanism but since i can have perfect blue (without even a single green pixel)i just doubt that any potential damage caused in the hinge would affect only black pixels…..and also only black pixels on all your pcs/laptops! playing around with hinge angle so far fails to solve problem but i haven’t entirely ruled it out since the last thing i did before it all happened was move the screen.
6)The static theory is certainly interesting but how would it have suffered such a problem? can heat / power supply or even sudden hinge movement cause this? Anyway, have tried touching inner frame/depress start fix but no joy yet. will experiment further with this but why would it only mess with the black/grey pixels and not green pixels instead?
7)I will soon try external monitor that should narrow down problem a bit more
8)in the meantime i am going into bios and will try a few other things…some rest for my laptop, a test of black pixels in photoshop etc, and some more static shck therapy!
ANY HELP would be greatly appreciated but surely we can’t all have the same faulty wires…it’s just such a specific problem.
QS remains is it software (windows, color management, drivers, registry, hibernate/standby/start up prob etc), or hardware ( lcd - graphics card communication, static charge, cable damage)
If these pixels appear on the screen as soon as you turn on the laptop, even before Windows starts loading, most likely your problem is not software related and there is something wrong with hardware.
First of all, you should test the laptop with an external monitor.
If the external video is fine and these green pixels appear only on the internal LCD screen, most likely you have a problem with the screen. You can buy a new replacement screen here.
If both external and internal images have the same defect, you might have a problem with the video card. Unfortunately, I believe the video card is integrated into the system board and when it fails, you have to replace the whole motherboard.
As I mentioned above, before you make any conclusions, test the laptop with an external monitor.
UPDATE. September 30, 2008.
Toshiba Qosmio G35 BIOS Update and GPU Repair Program
Do you need spare parts for your laptop? Search here by the laptop model and part description.Based on our Investigation, some Toshiba portable computers have Graphic Processing Units (GPU’s) that may exhibit one or more of the symptoms specified below.
If you experience a failure, you may see one or more of the following symptoms:
- Multiple images
- Random characters on the screen
- Lines on the screen
- No video with power onConsistent with our commitment to customer satisfaction, Toshiba is conducting a free GPU Repair Program for customers whose portable computers contain the subject GPUs in the model identified below and have experienced a GPU performance issue.
Qosmio G35-AV650
Qosmio G35-AV660
Qosmio G35-AV670For more information please contact Toshiba Support at 1-800-457-7777 or a Toshiba Authorized Service Partner near you.
June 17th, 2009 at 1:56 am
My G30 suffered from a failed video chip about 3 months out of the Toshiba extra year. At first Toshiba were reluctant to listen but when I pointed them to Nvidia admitting a huge financial hit they accepted the G30 for a free MB replacement. A courier called the next day and 2 weeks later was returned at no cost to me. See the link: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9112538
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9112538
April 28th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Hi. Qosmio’s are known to have hardware issues with GPU. We have found this throughout the F and G series. We can repair if your board is out of warranty. Or buy your faulty boards. repair@tektronics.co.uk
April 20th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Hi I’m from Germany and I just want to let you know that I have exactly the same graphic/mb problems with my G30 (188) which was bought end of 2006 in Germany for 1800 €!
My mb died in june 2008 the first time. It was fixed up (mb changed) by an authrised tech support. 3 days ago the same problem occured! I don’t want the mb changed again if this will not fix the problem permanently!!!
Has anyone experience with that (new) repair program from Toshiba for G30 series? Do the BIOS upate and a new mb fix the problem???
Thx for all experiences!
Best regards from Germany
April 8th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I would like to know if anyone have Qosmio F30 and get the GPU Repair Program from Toshiba? In the program, it said it is only fos G series
My Qosmio F 30 is also having the same problem. I have been changing the motherboard twice. It is broken again for the 3rd time. I do not use it for a very long time everyday and do not use heavy program. 3 times happened has the same symptoms as odd green, red, white line and pictures. It couldn’t go to windows via normal mode. If anyone have F series and get the repair program, please relpy.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Hi, I have a toshiba qosmio g25 and about 2 days ago a third of my screen went totally black.. what is strange is that the other 2 thirds work fine… is my LCD gone or is it something else? I’ve tried to go to the bios menu and still that third of the screen stays totaly black as i tought it could be a problem with windos or some kind of a virus but even in the bios menu only 2 thirds on the left hand side work… Need some help please
March 16th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Please check this link from Toshiba:
http://tais-app-p01.toshiba.com:8080/KanisaPlatform/Publishing/672/1199_f.html
March 12th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Apparently there are a manufacturing date series of the G30’s that are accepted as faulty by Toshiba, but mine lays 3 weeks outside that! I am awaiting a call back from someone “higher up” the chain in Customer support (or should I say, Technical Support, as I cannot get a number for Customer Services!)
March 12th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I did contact Toshiba canada customer support in Ontario though I can’t find the number now. The lady I was speaking with arranged for the repair and covered the cost. (3 months out of warranty)
March 12th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hi,
I have another failure on my G30. Exactly the same as before, found it sitting with black screen and the cooling fan running full speed. Total failure to boot now and no Quosmio TV or Music Player either. Apparently the motherboard lasted 14 months this time instead of 13 months for the first one!
Does anyone have a telephone number for Toshiba in Canada where they have actually received a positive reaction from them and had it repaired free of charge? I seem to be beating my head against a brick wall with them.
Any help greatly appreciated as I do not intend to throw yet another $1000 of my hard earned money at this heap of junk.
Regards,
Duncan
March 8th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Yes.. another g30 user with a second blown MB, first also blew just out of warranty(1yr) second MB lasted 13months, i’m gonna have another go with getting a free repair but am not holding my breath, my other very old satellite works like a charm with no complaints (besides crap toshiba HD replaced with a hitachi), shame toshiba didn’t carry on that workmanship with this high end laptop..
January 31st, 2009 at 4:52 pm
hey !end of 2006 i baught qosmio g30, a year later i get the matrix lines when i entered a game , couldnt exit .. so i rebooted and got the zero’s while loading .. i tried uninstalling the vga driver and reinstalling and i couldnt fix it . i sent it to the company for check up. i got it back a 3 weeks later . it was ok
2 days later i get the same prob . sent it back
it had its warranty. they told me i could change it for the 2007 model and pay a difference .
and i did that now i was playing world of warcraft and i got the same problem .. we people should do somethin about it
in my country the g30 costs around 3000$ back in 2007
wtf …… they sell laptops to get ruined a year after
is that timed on ur laptop to get ruined so u buy another one ??? can anyone reply ??n tell me what to do