Latitude D510 LCD/display issues

Question

Hello World,   I have about 10 clients that are having issues with LCD/Monitors with their D510s.   Background: These notebooks are running Windows XP SP2. The clients are running a variety of software.   Issue: This issue is very intermittent. It does not happen all the time. It could happen twice a day for a client and then not come back for 2 or 3 weeks. While a client is just doing daily work the monitor screen will all of a sudden turn a solid color such as red or blue. The PC is not locked up it is still running in the background. It is just the screen that is a solid color. Most clients have had this happen while they were in the docking station. I have had two clients where they were undocked.   Current Workaround: The current work around is to have the client undock and open up the laptop. This forces the display to go onto the LCD on the laptop. Then the client's screen comes back. All of their documents are still up and running. We do not currently have a work around for the clients that it happens out of the docking station. They are forced to reboot at this time.   Troubleshooting Steps Taken:   First we have updated the video drivers. All the clients that are having this issue are on three different video drivers ( 6.14.10.4308, 6.14.10.4363, and 6.14.10.4396). Next I ran the Dell Diagnostic CD tests all the unattended tests passed. No errors were returned. I ran I BIOS diagnostic test and all tests passed once again. Next I upgraded the BIOS on a couple of the affected laptops with no resolve. They still experienced the screen solid color issue. We also tried to swap out the motherboard thinking that it was a bad video card. This did not help the issue either the screen about a day after turned pink. Other thoughts: I do not think that it could be the monitor. Clients have monitors that range from NEC, HP, and Dell. There are too many variables there. Also these clients all have the same docking stations but it is happening to 10 different ones.    The last thing that I am trying so far is to swap the memory out of these laptops. This is the last factor that we have not tried.   Has anyone heard or seen this before?   Any help will be greatly appreciated.   Thanks in advance.   TGS32

SWAT253 · Answer

I am experiencing the same problem with a laptop at work. The screen at startup is a faint red all over, then black. It comes on briefly while booting up, enouh to clearly see the Windows XP logo and blue, scrolling, status bar at the bottom. It then goes dark and you can vaguely see the log on box. After logging in you can vaguely see the icons on the desktop. I'm at a loss. I cannot see the screen clearly enough navigate into any online sites to download video updates. I've tried the "function/brightness up" keys but there is no change.

When power save options take over, the screen goes completely dark. Upon touching the touchpad, the screen briefly comes alive (full brightness) then quickly goes faint again.

ANY HELP?

Latitide C510
XP Pro

TGS32 · Answer

The problem that I am having I think differs.

It is actually where the whole laptop screen will turn a solid color and nothing else can be seen.

The client will be able to boot up just fine and see everything then the screen just goes to a different color. The problem is very intermittent as well. It could happen twice in one week and then not come back for a month.

We have gone as far as replacing the motherboard. This seems not to have fixed the problem either.

The next step we have taken is replace memory. This has seemed to help so far. Although it may be a couple of months before I truly get to the bottom of this.

For your problem I would call up Dell and generate a case with their help desk. It almost sounds like you have a bad video card.

Download the Dell Diagnostic CD or the floppies from the drivers section and run the diagnostic tests first. This may save you time on the phone with specific error codes that the Dell Daignostic CD generates.

Have you tried swapping the hard drive into another D510?

Have you tried upgrading the video drivers?

Have you tried swapping out the memory in the laptop?

Thanks

TGS32

Message Edited by TGS32 on 04-03-2006 04:17 PM

ctyker · Answer

I am having the same issue on two latitude D610s.  At random times using different applications the external monitor will go all white, blue, magenta etc...    I have updated the chipset and system software so we'll see if that solves the issue.

UDX · Answer

Well I have recorded with my Sony Camera what happens so we can see if problem you have I have also duplicated;

http://www.sitesled.com/members/udxhome/Screen%20Goes%20White.mpg

What works for me is to do the following;

Set the battery and AC LCD brightness to same level in BIOS.

Keep the Brightness always on highest! (very important)

However, you speak of docking stations as well. I always set the Video card to onboard video with applicable settings mentioned above.

How to also replicate the problem;

Keep the brightness level on highest then disconnect it from power; screen should turn black (default bios settings used, Battery set to 3)

Keep the brightness highest while working on something (in my movie I have used audio application); After a while slowly lower the brigthness level to 1. At some point your screen shall start shivering and turn white! (see the movie above).

Also using Hibernate or Standby and only those will relieve the problem. Fn + Switch monitors key (F8 that is) won't fix it.

B.T.W. also to note; BIOS adjustment doesn't seem to remain the same at those levels if you manually change it afterwards during usage with FN keys (definitely a BIOS fix needed). There was something else but have no clue what I was going to say.

UDX

Message Edited by UDX on 04-07-200610:51 PM

NL AMS DBS · Answer

I'm currently looking in to this problem

And send a tech to replace the motherboard with intergrated video.

If this solves the problem i'll let you all know

BTW: thanx for all the info provided here, it saved me alot of trouble shooting ;)

Message Edited by NL AMS DBS on 04-12-200606:20 AM

TGS32 · Answer

I think that we have the same issue. The BIOS setting I have not yet been able to duplicate as of yet. I am currently trying it on two users. I plan to test the BIOS change for a couple of the other users. I am also trying to replicate the problem in a docking station here. I have one of the affected laptops in a docking station with the default BIOS factory settings.   I was pretty sure that the memory swap would not work after the swapping of the motherboard failed to remedy the issue. 2 of the 4 motherboards have failed after being swapped. It still could be something that is happening with the motherboard I am not sure yet.   The problem with this problem is that it is so intermittent. It could happen twice in one week and the not come back for a month. I will continue to monitor this issue.   Thanks again for your input. :smileyvery-happy:   I have one last question for you. How many laptops does this happen to you on? Also is it very intermittent?   TGS32

UDX · Answer

Heh I am guessing you are asking me if I have duplicated this on several laptops?  Well so far I only own one that I bought from the outlet zone, since I am a home user and won't buy anything other than latitude. I also don't have docking station but you did mention that it happens on standalone laptops   Just to be clear here's what I do to duplicate it >   Set the BIOS LCD brigthness level to default settings;   On AC level 8 (max) On DC level 3   During usage while the laptop is on unplug it from power and screen should go to 'darker' mode.  At that point it should turn black.    Another problem;   During usage while the laptop is on start switching brightness to low using FN keys SLOOOWLY (let's say 2 sec delay between key strokes).  Look if screen starts shivering and eventually turns white (I was using audio application that I believe puts some pressure on video card to redraw the waveform).   Someone else had the same problem and they ended up replacing the screen.  Since my laptop works for the most part while the screen is set to max brightness, I'll just leave it be. Battery duration is not important that much to me anyways.

NL AMS DBS · Answer

Replacing the motherboard: Solved the issue :smileyvery-happy:

TGS32 · Answer

Hey UDX,

I did try the BIOS setting with two of my clients. The screen still changed colors on them or went completely black. I am going ahead and try replacing the LCD screen next.

Thanks again for your help though. :smileyhappy: I am hoping that this will help solve the issue by replacing the LCD. Swapping out just the system memory had little or no effect. The clients that I swapped the memory on still had the same issue with the screen just as many times as before.

I will have another posting to update everyone if the LCD screen swap works.

Thanks

TGS32

bromtone · Answer

Same problem here:  Only one of many D610's are doing this.    We have swapped the entire laptop minus the hard drive.  Bios and video drivers have been updated.    Today we swapped the docking station and power supply.

Msxbox360 · Answer

I had the same problem with 1 of 5 new D510's. The user was not using a dock but still the same problem.

Called Dell and they think it is the on board Video so they are due in 2 days to replace the motherboard. Will update once it is swapped out.

IXdubone · Answer

We are having the exact same problem here with 3 of our D510's.We had the problem in some of our other offices around europe also.We ran all the tests in our other offices that dell asked us to run and then we got our LCD's replaced on the laptops in question.I am currently doing tests on the laptops in my own offices but it seems that there is a range of D510's with a defect.This has not been clarified by Dell though!

They suggested the problem was with the corporate image we were using on the laptops but we did not have the problem with all of our laptops.Just 3 in particular would give a dark blue screen at random intervals and the only resolution would be to reboot the machine.Some times when I rebooted back into windows I got an error report from microsoft telling me to reinstall the drivers and reduce hardware acceleration which did not solve the problem.

I have tried a diagnostic boot : hold fn key while powering on the system and it didnt give me any clues.

It seems from anybody I have talked to and from reading this forum that the only way to fix this problem is to change out the LCD's.:smileyhappy:

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Latitude D510 LCD/display issues

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