Failed video or motherboard? (bonus Dell rant)

[SuperSubZero]

My Dell Inspiron E1705 has developed some video curruption and I'm trying to determine if it's the system board or video card module causing it.

It runs fine for a while, then I guess the faulty part gets too hot. At this point, the system locks up with blue semi-diagonal lines through the image. Rebooting leaves these vertical bars through the POST screen, each bar is made up of groups of horizontal bars. After it cools down for a while it begins functioning normally again.

Does this sound like a system board problem or video card? It's a nVidia 7900GS Go, and being modular it's replaceable without removing the entire system board. The Dell diagnostics don't find anything wrong, but they are more CPU and RAM intensive than anything.

Speaking of Dell, their warranty system is pretty draconian. The laptop is still under warranty, but because I removed the original hard disk I voided the warranty. First off the thing is SATA, and it's *designed* to be removeable. Secondly, there was no WARRANTY VOID IF REMOVED on the hard drive bracket. In fact there are indicators to SHOW you where to remove the two small screws that hold the drive in. Even though I have access to the original drive, I couldn't boot the diagnostic partition off the drive with her over the phone (since I nuked the thing the day I got it) so she refused to honor the warranty. That is very, very bogus.

 

[seithon]

Call back to them, complain loudly dont curse or be rude.. but be very insistant on speaking to a team leader or supervisor.
Your very right that what you did should not have voided your warrenty.

From the sound of it the video card module is over heating a simple fix, if you want to try yourself would be to remove the casing, using your manual/disassembly guide thats available for that model, and check th heatsink, clean out any dust, check the fan, make sure its thermal paste hasnt dried out and reapply it if needed... some of the laptop GFX cards are replaceable.. so keep that in mind

Remember be polite but insistant, they do have to stick roughly to a script but you remember they are just a normal human being

 

[SolidBladez]

Just wondering, how does it get?

Try using i8kfanGUI to adjust the fans. The only way the CPU and GPU fans kick in is when the BIOS detects them at a certain temp (something really high).
That's why I use i8kfanGUI.

-Mike

 

[Zero82z]

I'm pretty sure they're not allowed to void the warranty if you mess around with the components(look at what happened with the EeePC and the sticker over the RAM slot that ASUS was forced to remove). Call back and if they refuse to help you then just keep moving up the food chain until you get to someone with enough authority and brains to actually do something for you.

 

[SuperSubZero]

Try using i8kfanGUI to adjust the fans.

Unfortunately it has decayed to the point that it will no longer boot anything but the BIOS-based diagnostics no matter how cold I let it get, so running apps is out of the question. Also, unless a fan breaks, the laptop has no reason to overheat. This laptop was on most of the (hot) summer without any problems at all, so why would it suddenly fail in the middle of winter?

I did blow out the fan exhausts yesterday with compressed air but it didn't help any (I blow it out every couple of months anyway). I have fully voided the warranty by taking the laptop apart, and inspection of the heatpipe and grille for the video shows it's clean.

I figure I will try to get an upgraded video card for it. I know there is a process to fit a GeForce 7950GTX Go in the E1705, and the BIOS supports it. Expensive, and I need a bigger power supply, but I figure it's a good opportunity for an upgrade anyway, especially if it fixes the problem.

---

Re: Dell support, I was actually very polite and courteous on the call. I was a bit annoyed when she said I voided the warranty simply by removing the hard disk, and she actually got goofy with me and said that changing the drive broke the system board, despite every test passing (with garbage video). I had this feeling if she couldn't void me for the drive she'd void me for something stupid like "plugging in a USB mouse" or "inserting a CD into the CDROM drive". The minute she started with "IT'S IN THE AGREEMENT" I gave up.

 

[seithon]

Yeah ... sadly Dell isnt quite as good as the group i work with
Tho ironically Dell support is like one room away from me
Tho those poor bastards actually work 16 hour shifts..