M1210 NVida Card Faulty?

Hello,

I'm actually going through the same problem.

My xps m1210, I purchased 2 years ago, is now not displaying through the LCD or the external VGA hookup.  I've talked with Dell and they said it would cost $199 to diagnose the computer.  A total of $499 to replace the entire MOBO and Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 GPU.  They both need to be replaced due to the small chasis of our computers, and the fact that the card is dismantled and soldered to the MOBO to be able to fit in the computer.

I would appreciate it if you could give me your LED indicator flashes to compare to mine.

My LED indicators were:   Flashing CAPS and SCROLL LOCKS, with a constant NUM Lock

Dell concludes that these indicators mean NO MEMORY.  This cannot be my RAM since I've purchased new ones to test.  I'm assuming the NO MEMORY is referring to BAD memory on the GPU.

Let me know your LED indicators...Thanks!!!

The M1210 doesn't have a video card, nor was it "dismantled". Like just about all notebooks these days, the video chip is mounted on the mainboard, not on a removeable card.

The M1210 does not have a chip that nVidia has admitted to be faulty - the two series are the 8400 and 8600 mobile chips.  Those have extensions on the warranty.  The 7000 series does not.

Flashing CAPS and SCROLL with steady num lock mean a failed video chip, not faulty RAM. 

It is highly unlikely you'll get post-warranty consideration for these - nVidia is only covering half the cost of replacements on the chips it has admitted are faulty and as a result, the system vendors are spending money just to cover those - a lot of money.  The mainboards cost nowhere near $500 - but if you decide to replace the board yourself, I'd give serious consideration to the Intel-video version.  Though nVidia has not publicly admitted fault, the 7000 series don't seem to be engineered for longevity any more than the 8000 series is.

This is the nVidia-based board:

http://laptops-motherboard.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=92

This is the Intel-based board (note:  you need a different heatsink to use this board in place of the original nVidia one):

http://laptops-motherboard.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=93

@ejn63:

If I paid to upgrade to a Geforce Go 7400 GPU, then why would you say that I don't have a video card...that makes no sense bro.  A video card and a video chip are the same exact thing...the only difference is plug-n-play or solder-away.

"Dismantled" means that the parts are scattered across the MOBO, and not in a box of plastic like a so-called plug-n-play GPU...because we are not dealing with a desktop here.  This is because of the small chasis. Don't take my wording so general.

And for the LED indicator lights...I would like to know where you got your information, since DELL.com noted those indicators were "faulty memory."

A video card is just that - a plug-in device.  Yours is a chip - the system never had a "card" so it could never have been "dismantled".

Is a diamond a "dismantled", "scattered" diamond ring?

The POST codes are here:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/portpostcodes.htm

The bottom line is that your video chip failed - you need to replace the system board.

I am a sad Dell owner of the problematic Dell XPS M1210 which arrived to my doorstep in 2007.  After the integrated camera issues were solved, my XPS ran perfect until June 2009, after about 1.5 years of use.  Taking into consideration the primary use of my cpu—word processing—I was amazed to discover my Motherboard had to be replaced due to a integrated Ge Force Go 7400 Video Card Malfunction.  Because my XPS was out of warranty, I was instructed to send my cpu to the Dell out-of-warranty  repair center and was told the repairs would cost $199 for inspection and an additional ~$300 or so if the issue was motherboard associated.  As this was an expensive laptop at the time of purchase I was amazed to discover that it would cost $500 to repair! Instead of buying a totally new pc, we agreed on a price of $400 for repairs. 

After receiving my hopefully problem free repaired XPS, I discovered the hundreds maybe thousands of online posts concerning the same exact issue I had encountered.  Dell users from all over the US and even the UK and Australia were experiencing the same black screen, video card issue.  Hoping there was a warranty extension or a recalling of parts, I searched Dell.com and found this: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/09/12/nvidia-gpu-update-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

Again, sadly, the XPS M1210 is somehow not included in the limited warranty.  After reading that many XPS M1210 users had this problem resolved free of charge, even if their warranty had expired, I again phoned support.  My intention was not to ask for a refund of money, but to ask for a warranty on the Motherboard/Video Card that was repaired.  I refused to pay any additional money considering I already spent $$$$ for the original laptop and an additional $400 for repairs.  However, the support manager denied my request stating that the support forums were out of his control and counter offered a $200 warranty service.  I refused to pay any more money.  So after paying the $400 for repairs, if they didn’t correctly fix or the prone to failure Ge Force Go 7400 fails again, I’m left without a CPU, and an empty wallet again.  Thank you Dell-- for your products and support that leave the customer frustrated, with no peace of mind and the treatment of a bottomless wallet. 

Sincerely,

The problem is with nVidia, not Dell - these chips fail, period - doesn't matter if they're in a Dell - or Apple, or Sony, etc.

You've been given  your options:  buy a mainboard or replace the system.  The fact is that this system is 2-3 years old, the point at which part failures accelerate, so it's all but impossible to statistically determine the cause.

If you replace the system and don't want to be in the same situation, buy a 3-4 year warranty - that's about the expected lifespan of a notebook computer.

You've been given  your options:  buy a mainboard or replace the system.  The fact is that this system is 2-3 years old, the point at which part failures accelerate, so it's all but impossible to statistically determine the cause. If you replace the system and don't want to be in the same situation, buy a 3-4 year warranty - that's about the expected lifespan of a notebook computer.

Just to clarify: the system started failing even before reaching 2 years (early 2009, bought: may-2007). Furthermore, the fact is that one component in particular (NVidia GO 7400) seems to be the cause for the failure of several notebooks. Evidently enough, either it is a design/engineering problem or a GPU manufacturing flaw.

Since you didn't get it repaired within the warranty period, and didn't extend the warranty, whatever the cause was (and I tend to agree than nVidia hasn't owned up to a more widespread fault than they have), repair is now at your expense.  I've seen nVidia chips fail in many different "brands" of notebook -- not just Dell's.

It  Just happen to me.  Start seeing an intermittent behavior on my XPS M1210, three weeks ago.  Ran Dell Diagnostic last night and got Error Code:5300:0119.  This morning I chat with customer support, and I was told that I needed to replace my mother board at a cost of $599.99 or buy another laptop.  What is very disappointing is that my extended warranty expired last week, and they told me that since I did not report this problem three weeks ago when I started noticing this problem, I was not covered.  What is alarming is that Dell appears to acknowledge that this is a latent defect, since they have replaced motherboards of laptops with this same problem outside of the warranty period.  I purchase this system in Latin America (LA), (one of three Dell Computers I purchased over the years).  If this is the treatment Dell gives its LA customers, I'm afraid it will be the last.

You can add me to the sad, unhappy unsatisfied list of left behind defective xps m1210 owners. After my regular one year warranty expired the computer started showng issues from the video card like freezing video and blue screens of death that would not happen untill many days (or weeks when lucky) after a simple reboot but at least the computer was usable. Had dell been kind enough to notify its costumers of the extended warranty, that would have been a very customer friendly gesture, unfortunately, that never happened.

With 60-thousand-plus posts in here, you are clearly a dell employee. you are right that the chip would fail in any computer brand, however, it is the computer manufacterer who determines what components are to be available for its computers, to ultimately make business selling whole computers to us consumers, therefore, dell in this case, is responsible for a solution with the customers regardless of what the solution from nvidia is for dell, because we baught from dell not nvidia didn't we?

Bottom line is, we consumers bought computers from a company (DELL) that wants to wash their hands, blaming and pointing fingers (and that is after denying it first) instead of fixing a known widespread problem. Let me point out that people that bought xps's are the big spending customers that are now going to take our business somewhere else.

Not only have I been a loyal dell customer, but as a computer technician, I have recomended dell products many many times, well, I gues we live in an unfair world where I give you business and you give me the finger, good thing I can always change my product brand preferences and recomendations and from now on, my goal is to discourage peolple from buying from where they don't get support when they need it. AKA DELL

Dell employee ejn63 - You are not helping us, you alredy told us (in my words) to pretty much go and buy another compter which would be the same price of the repair.You work for dell and as a result you are required to safeguard the brand name, wether its by discrediting anyone who says anything negative (even if they have the reason) or by blaming other companies components that dell chooses for their computers when something is defective. This results in effective brainwashing consumers minds making them forget that dell is the evil here.

So please leave this one to us the users.

With all the posts you have, I will asume that this is your main responsability at dell, becoming smoother and smoother with your answers and replies, I've read some of them and I think your screen name should be "SLICK" , I guess thats why you got the job or you just have gotten good at handling customer complaints.

Again, the goal is to find a solution that we can all use, so we can use our expensive unusable computers, dell simply will not help us, so we are looking for answers from users that may have found an inexpensive solution.

Your post contains so many fallacies, it's not worth reading.

ejn63 said: "You've been given  your options:  buy a mainboard or replace the system.  The fact is that this system is 2-3 years old, the point at which part failures accelerate, so it's all but impossible to statistically determine the cause.

If you replace the system and don't want to be in the same situation, buy a 3-4 year warranty - that's about the expected lifespan of a notebook computer."

 

Quote

User "glsmas" wrote the following and got deleted so im reposting for him and I changed a word just in case that was the reason.

glsmasQUOTE: This is "nonsense".

My girlfriend has a 5 year old Inspiron 2200 and it still works fine. It had a 1-year warranty. She uses it every day. No video problems-- or other problems --ever.

No matter what brand graphics chip failed, Dell ultimately is responsible. In addition, their possibly withholding to their customers their knowledge of the problem is an egregious act, at the least. hisQUOTE

I cannot agree more, I have been a computer technician for about 10 years and I have rarely seen laptos whith hardware issues that after questioning, I concluded were caused by negligence or physical damage (leaving on bed or similar surface resulting in overheating, spilling liquids on them or bumping and/or dropping) and beleive me, I have worked on very old bulky laptops that when the OS is restored, they work just like new. My xps was never mistreated and I even had a 10" fan that I would piont upwads and there is where the laptop would be sitting (while using an external monitor), so it was always cool.

I personally own computers that are working just fine since 2002, they just become outdated. Those extended warranties are for people that mess up the software and dont know hot to fix it.

I totally disagree with enj63 that a computers "lifespan" is 3-4 Years, they may become outdated for sure but should still be working fine if not abused.