I have a high end Dell Inspiron laptop with 1 GB ATI Radeon graphics card.
Because of some problem, the LED screen of the laptop is malfunctioning -- it works sometimes, and other times it abruptly shuts off. After that, it does not work for a couple of days, and then somehow magically starts working. I don't know if it is because of overheating or something else; I don't even know if it is my graphics card's problem or some other device.
Now, when I connect to my monitor (external display) -- EVERYTHING works perfectly, and I can play all the games perfectly fine. (I think that shows that my graphics card is not problematic)
My question is: do graphics cards have separate processors for internal and external displays?
Second, when you have a graphics card installed on your machine, does the integrated display processor (the one with my Intel microprocessor) remain inactive? And, in case of a graphics card malfunction, does the switch from graphics card to integrated display happen automatically?
My third question is: if I can play my games on the external display without any problem, and if for some reason my LED screen is not working properly -- does this prove that my graphics card is not the problem, it's something else?
Finally, please explain how the graphics card works in conjunction with the rest of the system.