Crashing with small square filled with lines

Question

Hi, I recently got an Insipron 1501 notebook (2-3 months ago) and it keeps crashing for no apparent reason. It does this about 3 times a day.   The screen goes black and freezes with a small square (about 1 inch by 1 inch) with multi-coloured lines at an apparently random point on the screen, and I then have to restart. It's really annoying as it often happens when I'm in the middle of work and as it's new I really don't see what the problem could be (I'm not great with computers!). I spoke to someone from Dell who told me that it is probably a software issue. Even though I'm not great with computers, I get the impression it isn't a software issue (or if it is, what kind of software issue could it be?)   I'd quite like to get it sorted as soon as possible as I only have a 3 month warranty which will run out in about a week! Does anyne know how easy it is to send it back and how soon it can be returned? Also, if they maintain it is probably a software issue would they even agree to looking at it?   Any help would be appreciated.

ejn63 · Answer

Since you're outside the US (Dell doesn't do 90-day warranties here any longer) I would strongly suggest two things: Call, and extend the warranty, and Call for service.

Philip_Yip · Answer

Hello   I'm guessing your running xp, as I have the same problem on my xp partition. I am dual booting both xp and vista. I have found that the lates driver for xp gives me the same problem as you. The newest driver for xp is R169723 and gives me the same problems as you.   The earlier driver, R156746 exhibits the problems of a screen with horizontal or vertical bars refer to the link, however may work for your system as it works perfectly in another Inspiron 1501.   http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=3616A755A867671BE040A68F5B2819F5&journalid=400A65C95757B4C1E040A68F5A280A90&Query=VGhlK0RlbGwlZTIlODQlYTIrSW5zcGlyb24lZTIlODQlYTIrMTUwMStNYXkrRXhoaWJpdCtWZXJ0aWNhbCtMaW5lcytvbit0aGUrRGlzcGxheSs=&SystemID=INS_PNT_1501&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false   Dell recommend that you download the newest video driver and BIOS update which gives you the problem you state before. The BIOS driver doesn't ive you the problem, its the latest video driver which is more useless then the oldest one. Go here to download the latest drivers:   http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&dgc=AF&cid=5212&lid=122756   I have found that the latest video and the latest BIOS work fine with windows vista, although the latest drivers for xp do not right now my only solution is installing vista instead of xp but I am still trying to fix my xp installation, I will post up if I find the answers. However I would recommend flashing to the latest BIOS and trying both the drivers to see if they work. Right now I am using the driver 7-10_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_53250 from the ATI website, it still yields problems but less frequent.

DSSStudios · Answer

I have a 1501 and after installing R169723.exe, it crashes randomly while viewing youtube videos. The workaround was to uninstall all ATI software via Add/Remove and let it re-detect the vidwo card itself. Dell should remove or replace that file from the downloads page.

Philip_Yip · Answer

Try downloading the driver from the ATI website then?

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Crashing with small square filled with lines

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