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    Laptop GPU Failing Need Help Backing Up Data w/o Screen

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by dougy86, Dec 12, 2012.

  1. dougy86

    dougy86 Notebook Guru

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    Hi,

    My p-6831fx's GPU is on it's way out (black and white stripes / grey screen when turned on). When I'm lucky I get maybe 10 minutes in win7 before it artifacts and freezes. Same thing in safe mode. Tried connecting to an external monitor via vga & hdmi to no avail (I tried both the Fn key and the win+P key). I thought about physically removing the hard disks and accessing them via an external dock but since both of them are in Raid 0 (soft raid) I doubt I would be able to retrieve my data that way.

    Is there any way to retrieve my data? would remote desktop/team viewer work with a messed up gpu?

    Your help will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
     
    dougy86, Dec 12, 2012
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  2. TANWare

    TANWare Just This Side of Senile, I think. Super Moderator

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    Your best bet, while you have the 10 minutes of a running system is too create a batch file on a USB disk you can run that could back up your data to another drive. Another option is maybe the system would be more co-operative in command prompt only mode, possibly safe mode command prompt only. This should be an ANSI only screen and may not push the GPU and alow more time to create a back up.

    Another option may be to start the backup in default Win7 but as soo as it does put the display to sleep. This may alow the backup without a crash, just don't wake it before the copy is done.............
     
    TANWare, Dec 12, 2012
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  3. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    You can attempt Hiren's boot as an alternative to the command prompt only option. It also can run DOS programs, which may put less strain on the GPU - but with your RAID configuration, I'm not sure how simple it would be to use the DOS programs for backup.

    TeamViewer is actually a good idea - but the only problem is that if the unit is freezing, you might lose your remote connection. Also, the backup process would be a lot slower using remote software.

    Pulling the hard drives and sticking them in another machine might work; you'll just have to make sure the second system has RAID drivers installed and it supports whatever version of RAID you're using.
     
    Prostar Computer, Dec 13, 2012
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  4. jsipe007

    jsipe007 Notebook Consultant

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    jsipe007, Dec 14, 2012
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  5. Prostar Computer

    Prostar Computer Company Representative

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    Oh, thanks for posting that! I actually need one for myself. I've used them before and they're pretty handy; it just allows the computer to see the hard drive as a USB mass storage device.
     
    Prostar Computer, Dec 14, 2012
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