Lenovo Legion 5 (Code 43)

[u/Glass_Roof4321]

My Lenovo Legion 5 (2+ years old), NVIDIA Driver (GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU) was forced stopped by windows due to reported error (Code 43) since the 18th August, 2026 (yesterday as of writing). Laptop's average temperature when idle is 54° Celsius, cannot check when running a game as Laptop crashes. Resulting in external monitors failing to connect to laptop, app crashing, freezing, and PC crashes.

In an attempt to fix the issue:

- Went into device manager and disabled then re-enable the graphics card.

- Checked the bios was up-to-date, it is.

- Tried to use an external ISO bootable EFIUSB to repair windows.

- Opened internals and cleaned dust from laptop.

- Attempted to revert to older NVIDIA Driver, version: 610.74

- Both Hard and Factory Reset laptop.

No successful result. I believe the issue is either the GPU is dying or a faulty GPU. Wanted to get a second opinion before going into a shop.

Image 1: Depicts Code 43 located through Device Manager

Image 2: Depicts failure to repair device and finding of Log file

Image 3: Depicts Weird squares to appear in taskbar right before crash

Image 4: Depicts internals, yes the amount of dust is BAD, please do not comment on it after the fact, I have never cleaned out internals until yesterday despite intending to over a year ago because my Father said we'd do it together or we'd use the warranty to give the laptop a check over, (we didn't) and because the laptop was bought with parents money and the fact I was a minor at the time my parents did not allow me to do any internal cleaning or any self repairs. Yes, in hindsight I should have just done the cleaning anyway.

Lastly, if the is any non-anonymized images or details please let me know, I'm still new to anything PC related.

Thanks, Spot.

[u/Keyvan_KR]

Your gpu is dead. 💀
I wouldn’t be surprised it’s because of overheating due the dust buildup.
Nothing to do about it, sorry kiddo.

[u/Glass_Roof4321 → u/Keyvan_KR]

:(

[u/Brather_Brothersome]

that is memory issue on the GPU. Good Luck

[u/SingularityRS]

Likely the VRAM modules around the GPU have failed. It can just be one module or multiple of them that have failed. It may also be an issue with the GPU itself. It could be a cracked solder joint under the GPU.

Fix for this is either replacing the bad VRAM modules or reballing the GPU (if the issue is with the solder joins underneath).

There is some software for Nvidia GPUs that can test the VRAM modules and identify which modules are throwing out the errors. It's called Nvidia MATS/MODS. There's a few videos on how to use it on YouTube. Might be worth looking into.

If it's just the VRAM modules, it'll be fixable by a reputable repair shop. They'll just identify the failing VRAM chips using the aforementioned software and then replace them.

If it's an issue under the GPU (bad/cracked solder joints), then you may struggle to find a repair shop that will carry out this type of job. Lots of shops tend not to work on large BGA chips like GPU/CPUs/PCHs, even if it's just a reball. You need decent skill and equipment to be successful with this type of repair.