Inspiron 8100 - ATI Radeon 7500 (64mb) - Screen distorted (flicker)

You need to tryout with an external monitor. If problem remains with an external monitor, your screen is probably fine; if the problem is not evident with an external monitor, the screen is faulty. In that case it will probably be the video card or the video inverter. I think it will be the screen. I went through five of them once. In my case the continued problem was due to excessive flexing in the structure, which was not fixed each time the screen was replaced. But that wasn't an 8100.

Message Edited by skip01 on 10-12-2003 11:14 AM

I am having the same problem with a similar system, however the lines on my screen turn up horizontally.

I tried the external monitor and the same lines appear on that screen.

Pressing on the wrist pad also helps. I closed and reopened the lid and the lines would go away, only to come back later.

I also found that moving the laptop to a colder spot would make the lines stop appearing for a while.

I sent the laptop to the dell customer service and they told me they couldnt find a problem, that it was probably the software i was using, but the lines appear even while in windows.

Any ideas would be very helpful. Or anyone who has had this problem and has had it fixed.

Thanks

I has this problem too, first i thought it was my battery wich was to strong but it is not the source to the problem.

when this problem comes, I have to power down the computer and take it up and shake it, and after this i can boot up normal.

 

The problem comes only when i begin to boot up my computer, never when it is running, i dont know  why.

First I thought i has hurt my video card when I overclocked it. But I think it is not this wich is the problem.

same problem with my 1.6 years old i8100. and since a couple of days the card loads with only 32mb of memory :(

i will never buy another dell again :(

 

 

Update, again:

I talked to a dutch dell support official, and he let me boot into the BIOS (press during startup). When in the bios screen I had to press (or + ) , which is a way of resetting the bios. (You should see a short 'flash' onscreen to indicate the bios reset). If the problems return after this, he concluded that the video card is indeed broken (as I feared).  I'd like some information on prices for a replacement part (or, even better, a radeon 9000 instead of the current radeon 7500), but I am unable to find any info  (I live in Holland, and we can't order all dell parts here...)   I read on this forum some success stories of 7500 -> 9000 replacements but I can't figure out where to order a 9000...

I'll keep you posted...   I'm working for 10 minutes now but still a normal screen... 

Any luck with reseting the bios? Or did the flickering keep coming back?

Thanks for the info.

Bios reset didn't solve my problem too...

 

I tried to restet Bios but it doesn't helped.

I tried to  reflash the  card with The ATI bios flash from dell with both A01 and A01, but it did not helped me.

I suspect the problem has got something to do with power / powersaving.

This is because, when I keep the screen on (no screensaver, not closing the lid),
the screen works well.  (when not using the notebook but keeping the screen on,
the screen works without problem for > 1 hour!)

When I use screensaver or close the lid, and then reopen the lid or move the mouse,
the problem appears to arrive faster.

Today, I had the problem during windows xp bootup screen for the first time.

:(

I have trouble with this almost every time when i have to boot up, But now i'm going to change graphic card to a Nvidia Quadro 700 go gl, I ordered it today.

I will write here later and tell about how the card works on the 8100.

I have to buy a new card anyway, i dont know when the R7500 want say goodnight forever, and I'm using the computer every day in school, doing homeworks on it and so on.

And when I must buy a new card, why not pay little more and get a very good card?

Hi all,



i have quite similar problems with my I8k. Sometimes the screen will distort in a similar fashion, only the lines appear horizontal.



In my case it is the connector mentioned before, if you remove the (not very solid) plastic part with the power button and press on the connector, the problem is away. Sometimes it doesn´t even start, sometimes it is very bad.



I need the machine for work so i didnt take any action, but now there were several times the screen would not even light up! Thats the backlight, i suppose. I can see a picture if i look to the display from an angle. This could be solved by closing the lid and opening it several times. In the beginning the stripes also went away in this process.



My Question: Does Dell replace the Display? Or do they tell me like several others, the backlight is like batteries dying because of use?





Regards,

martin
PS: System: Inspiron 8100, Geforce2GO, 512Mb, second 60 Gb Harddisk (IBM Disk died ;-), CD-R/W Combo, yellow pads ;-)

Here is a screen shot of the lines i get on my R7500.

This happens very often, even when i was installing windows xp. Ive tried several different drivers but it wont change.

Pushing down on the wrist-pads make it stop sometimes, but it still happens very often.

When i sent it to dell to have it fixed, they said it was probably the software and sent it back to me the way it was.

@shimmer3000:

> I need the machine for work so i didnt take any action, but now there were several times the screen would
> not even light up! Thats the backlight, i suppose. I can see a picture if i look to the display from an angle.
> This could be solved by closing the lid and opening it several times. In the beginning the stripes also went
> away in this process.

> My Question: Does Dell replace the Display? Or do they tell me like several others, the backlight is like
> batteries dying because of use?

Dell HAS TO replace the parts, because it is not reasonable when a screen starts screwing up this way with normal use. How old is your inspiron?

@SoUr:

Can you also post another link to your attached screenshot?  The link is not working now...