Question re: screen noise on startup

[Experimentalist]

Hi everyone

I have a lap top PC computer that's ~6 years old running Windows 10.

It's been a pretty reliable and strong performing machine for that time. Lately upon start-up I've noticed the screen will display noise. It's hard to describe the nature of this noise, it generally affects the entire screen when it's manifested, and is variable. Meaning it comes and goes rapidly at seemingly random times during the start-up process.

This noise settles after the computer reaches the login prompt. The computer is perfectly fine from this point forward - the screen is perfect for the rest of the time I use the computer.

My question: what's going on here? I wonder if the native Intel graphics are driving the start-up process, then after login the graphics card takes over? That might explain the differences in behavior.

My concern is there may be an issue with deteriorating memory. The issue does seem to have gotten worse over the last several weeks. Previously the noise would only show up as the login splash screen loaded. Now the noise happens throughout the start-up process.

Thanks in advance for whatever insights you may offer.

[Robotron2k84]

Some laptops’ display driver hardware fails around that time due to continual overheating if the laptop graphics were used for long periods of time. Laptops are a bad place to use powerful GPUs as none have truly adequate cooling. If you want great GPU performance in a laptop, go external.

You might have some BIOS memory corruption and when the login prompt is shown, the entire buffer is refreshed and the hardware switches from BIOS mode to display mode.

Does the artifacting happen at any other point in the operation of the laptop? Vertical or horizontal colored lines? Flickering? Blinking? Pixels stuck on or off? Bright spots? You said no, but it might be very subtle.

The only real test to see if it’s the video hardware is to swap out the system board for a different one, since the graphics hardware is usually embedded on the system board.

[Experimentalist]

Hi Robotron2k84, thank you for your insights.

The computer has indeed been used extensively for graphics intensive applications. During these sessions the cooling fans are audibly working hard, so overheating is clearly a concern. I appreciate the limited capabilities of lap top computers, but I travel a fair bit for work and don't have much in the way of alternatives. When you say "Go external", do you mean to have a graphics card that is external to the lap top computer chassis? This is a new concept to me, could you suggest terms upon which I could do some research?

Does the artifacting happen at any other point in the operation of the laptop? Vertical or horizontal colored lines? Flickering? Blinking? Pixels stuck on or off? Bright spots? You said no, but it might be very subtle.

Good question but no. The screen seems perfectly fine after login.

Any insights as to the long(er) term reliability of the machine? I may preemptively buy a new computer if the writing is on the wall for this one. Unfortunate, it's been a good machine, made many trips back and forth across the Country.

Thanks again for your help.

[Robotron2k84]

Search out refurb system boards, as a potential fix. They usually aren’t too expensive.

I did a very similar swap in my old 2007 SR MacBook Pro several times as they were known to fry the graphics memory after a few years.

As for an external GPU, you need a laptop that’s equipped with Thunderbolt, which can be versions 2, 3 or 4. Versions 3 and 4 run over USB-C v3.2 and v4, but USB-C does not include Thunderbolt, by default.

Thunderbolt is a serial extension of the PCIe bus and runs at x4 tied to the version of Thunderbolt, that it’s running. E.g. TB2=PCIe 2.0, 3=3, etc.

When you have a Thunderbolt port, you can run an external PCIe chassis and load up a GPU that will run in the confines of a PCIe x4 lane.

Super handy, as I run bonded 10GBe cards off Thunderbolt quite a bit. GPUs are just another card you can use on the external bus, so long as it can run in the provided bus width.

Just DuckDuckGo “external GPU thunderbolt,” for some examples.