Dell XPS M1330 Screen Problem...

Fabio

Hi guys,

This morning I had a very strange thing happen on my Dell XPS M1330. I had Firefox open, was actually browsing through here and had Windows Media Player on. It was not a load that the laptop ever struggles with.

All of a sudden the screen seemed to just mix all of the colours up, the mouse still moved but the icon was a big collage of green and red. The worrying thing is though, it happened earlier this morning too when I was listening to radio through WMP 11. A visualizer was on fullscreen mode and all of a sudden the piano that was playing on the radio was repeating itself like a broken record (except much quicker!) and the screen had gone wackey again with it's mixed up colours and no movements.

However I didn't have any visualizer on when it happened the second time...

Both times I just held the power button to turn off the laptop and turned it back on again. The second time I had to do this (when I was browsing boards.ie) Windows Vista did a start-up repair when I switched it back on.

The laptop is just less than a year old as I bought it in early November of last year but I'm wondering now should I ring Dell and get them to sort something under the 1-year XPS warranty while it's still valid or is it worth it?

Voodu Child

Yep, ring them and get it sorted asap.

It sounds like there could be a problem with the graphics card, and since the M1330s dedicated graphics card is known to have a higher than average (and sooner than average) failure rate, it seems likely that could be the case.

Fabio

Thanks for the advice. One thing I failed to mention though is that my M1330 has the nVidia graphics card and not the integrated option.

geezer1234

i had this problem as well. As voodoo said its a known issue with m1330s with the nvidia chip. A dell engineer called out to my house and replaced the motherboard under warranty and its been fine since. If your laptop is less than one year old then you should be under warranty.

Fabio

Yep under a year old. Was it a lot of hassle to get them to come out or was it easy enough?

geezer1234

no it was grand actually. If you email technical support they will ask you perform some troubleshooting steps to identify the problem. Just humour them and eventually they will probably say its a hardware issue and sent out a tech to replace parts. I had to take a day of work to meet the tech but he was very good and it only took about a half an hour.

AlmightyCushion

Moved from Comp and Tech.

europerson

geezer1234 wrote: »

i had this problem as well. As voodoo said its a known issue with m1330s with the nvidia chip. A dell engineer called out to my house and replaced the motherboard under warranty and its been fine since. If your laptop is less than one year old then you should be under warranty.

Same for me. No problems since <touch wood>.

Spipov

yes, same for me. happened last thursday. they had an engineer over by this thursday (only because i couldnt meet tuesday). if you email them, they will get back to you asap. and go through the motions...

Fabio

Gonna send an auld email there so...

Thanks guys!

TGE

Any updates?

I've had the same notebook since September 2007. Within the first six months, no problems whatsoever. Then, the first graphics card failure. It got replaced, and happened the exact same way a month later. Both times it was vertical colour bars on the screen.

I tried to renew the warranty, even offering to pay, but they kept giving me phone numbers that didnt work and I always ended up at a dead end, about 5 or 6 times. Around that time, my notebook showed signs of being ready to fail again, but somehow it just improved and had been five until last week.

In September 2008, Dell agreed to give limited warranty extensions to all those affected. Basically, 12 months additional service for video related problems only.

This week, it happened again, but differently. I got the problems you mentioned. It looks like coloured velcro patches on the screen.

Has your notebook survived since your repair? Are their replacement parts improving?

It has been the ultimate nightmare, especially considering it always breaks when I need it most and have no other computer available...

Overheal

Thats definitely the card then. This entire nvidia Shpeal has been going on for about 9 months now. The sooner you get it repaired the better off you'll be.

TGE depending on the amount of times you've had the laptop repaired I think you're entitled to a complete laptop replacement. But don't quote me on that.

TGE

I'm going to be tougher with them this time, because this would be the 3rd motherboard replacement, and that's not acceptable. The problem is, I'm not covered by a full warranty anymore, just the extended one for video problems.

I tried to extend it fully when I was within my normal warranty, but they either avoided the question or directed me to an out of service phone number.

If anybody has any advice on what my rights are here, please let me know.

I'll buy an Aldi notebook next time

JSKabyie

Dear All,

it is discouraging all these stories especiallty TGE one!
Recently, i start to get as well these strange vertical color bars! but the most strange thing, is that sometime i can reboot my computer either on Vista or Fedora, but not for so long, only a moment (minutes or hours..) , then i get the folowing:
black screen in vista and evrithin g is blocked! so i have to reboot!
in Fedora-LINUX i got colorbarbut not in all the screen but again everinthin g is bolcked, mouse, etc!

So any help?

TGE, please you said that :
In September 2008, Dell agreed to give limited warranty extensions to all those affected. Basically, 12 months additional service for video related problems only.
was it annoucement? my warranty is over now, may i ask for this extension?

Thanks in advance
Cheers
Karim

Voodu Child

JSKabyie wrote: »

So any help?

Ring Dell.

Tell them about the corrupted graphics and they will know straight away that it is the GPU. Don't bother mentioning that you can boot into Fedora, it will just complicate things. Just tell them about the coloured lines, and say that the screen is blank now, end of story.

They've pledged to cover affected machines for 1-year beyond their normal warranty, so you should be fine, but you will have to ring them to sort it out. They will replace the motherboard. When you get the new one, make sure you update the BIOS, and also consider taking other actions to keep it cool (copper mod, undervolt the GPU, notebook cooler, etc).

If you're lucky, you may even get an Studio XPS13 instead. Depends how good you are at arguing over the phone.

JSKabyie

[IMG]file:///tmp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG] Thanks very much Voodu Child for you fast answer.
I need to get back my laptop working asap!

is this warranty extension is announced in their website? my warranty is over now by 6 months, Do you means that t still possible?
2 months ago I called for another problem " irregular noise of the fan including warming" but the DELL-guy told me that he is going "to help?" i.e he is not going declare the incident untill pay the warranty extension(160€ for 3year)?
So, apparently he don't want to give this news about the warranty extension?
Finally, i decided to do not pay and reinstall everything!

it worked with it about2 to 3 weeks then I got this new worst and persistent problem of color bars!

I have another problem is that, I bought my laptop in France but i live in Holland!

What is Studio XPS13, does it add some thing to the computer?
thanks
K

JSKabyie

Please Voodu Child,
May you tell where i can find thid "official" extension of the warranty?
i try to get this information from dell by catching with "dell Chat"! but they don't want to answer and surprisingly they cut the connection, bizarre!
Otherwise, i will try first to extend the warranty before declaring the problem!
One employee that I called a month ago, for another issue, propose me that.
Thanks in advance.
K

Voodu Child

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/08/08/latest-on-the-nvidia-gpu-issue-for-dell-laptop-customers.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/09/12/nvidia-gpu-update-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

Just phone them.

hoppy

this is a known problem with these laptops and there is an extended warranty on them that covers this problem just ring dell the system will need to mobo replacing i was a dell engineer up untill 2 months ago and repaired alot of these with the same problem

JSKabyie

Thanks all!

Hoppy, Since you was DELL engineer,may you advice me?

1) i head in some forum that the probem may come back again, even after changing nvidia card, this really frustrating to work with the fear to get it back and probably lose your work! is it true?

2) i called dell 2 months ago for another problem " irregular noise of the fan including warming", DELL-employee told me that he is going "to help(168€ for 3year).
As you know better than I am if the problem is persistant or not?, May you you please advice me if it is worth to take this extention if they still accept of course?

Thanks
K

hoppy

the warrant is good for 3 years as you would be looking at at least 300 euro to replace the board !the fan noise is more the likely the result of a clogged up heat sink!

JSKabyie

Thanks .
An Advice for all people who have this problem!
If Dell in the country where you bought your laptop don't want to help you, don't hesitate to contact Dell in other countries! in my case:
France DELL where i bought my maptop, dont want to do anything and even wanted to sell me a warranty for 3 years for more than 300€? but i called DELL in Holland and told me that I have an exteded warranty automatiquely for this problem, and for 5 years.

slinky2000

Dell Technician is just finished replacing my fried motherboard cos of the nVidia graphics chip.

I got mine in the uk but dell ireland came out to fix it!