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No display on DELL XPS M1710 Notebook
I guess this system is about 6 years old. A week ago, upon boot up, there is no display. I don't hear any beeps on post or any other signs of error, there is just a blank screen. The hard drive light shows activity. The screen seems to illuminate slightly - that is, the screen is slightly lighter and bluer on power up as opposed to the jet black when the machine is off. There was no physical damage to the unit (not dropped or banged or anything).
Anyway, before I open the machine up, I was hoping that someone could provide some insight and troubleshooting steps to get me on the right path. I've built many desktop systems, but I haven't really messed with taking notebooks apart. My first instinct was that the video card is fried. Does this unit have an independent video card or is the video on the mobo? What are the steps I should try to determine the exact problem?
Thanks for the help.
-Dom
DELL-Roshan L
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June 20th, 2012 02:00
Hi DomTrump,
Welcome to the Community,
Try connecting an external monitor to the system.If you get display on the external monitor its an issue with the system LCD.If there is no display even on the external monitor than it could be an issue with the video card.
System has an independent Video card which can be removed and reinstalled.Use this link from system Owners Manual for Removing the Video Card/Thermal-Cooling Assembly :
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1710/en/SM/video.htm#wp1006368
Thank You
DomTrump
9 Posts
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September 25th, 2012 09:00
Thank you for the reply (my apologies for the delay in my response). Here is the latest development:
I followed your suggestion and hooked up a monitor. I was then able to get video from the machine. As I installed updates and rebooted several times, the LCD screen started to work again! It has been about a week since it has been up and running fine but then this morning the LCD was blank again.
In your opinion, does this point to the LCD as the problem or the video card? How could I test further to get the definitive cause?
Thanks again for your assistance.
DELL-Roshan L
4.4K Posts
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September 26th, 2012 04:00
Hi DomTrump,
If you're still getting display on the external monitor,than its a LCD screen problem.But if there is no display on both system LCD screen and external monitor than its a problem with Video card.
DomTrump
9 Posts
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October 5th, 2012 12:00
Thank you for your assistance. I did some more tests:
All seems to be going wekk until some time passes or the machine enters sleep mode. Then both the LCD and the monitor go blank and never wake up. When I do a hard reset and boot back to the monitor, I get the message that Windows crashed do to an error in the nvidia driver.
Since I know I can get a perfect picture on both a monitor and the LCD, I don't think it is the LCD that is failing. It seems like the nvidia card is causing the problem. I checked for updated drivers but I already have the latest one (from 2/2/2008).
Based on these results, would you concur that the video card is the most likely issue? It currently has an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX. If I replace it, what would be a modern day equivalent card that would be good for this machine?
Thanks again.
-Dom
DELL-Roshan L
4.4K Posts
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October 6th, 2012 00:00
Hi Dom,
Since it looks like its an issue with the video card driver, before you decide on replacing the video card,I would suggest you to completely uninstall the video card driver and than reinstall it.To uninstall the driver completely download and use this Driver Fusion tool(helps with complete removal of old driver).
Use this link for download:download.cnet.com/.../3000-2086_4-75748005.html
After uninstalling the driver using the above tool reboot the system and reinstall the driver from this link below :
www.dell.com/.../xps-m1710
Note:This is a 3rd party tool and not a Dell validated tool.
Let me know how it goes.
DomTrump
9 Posts
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October 6th, 2012 11:00
I've followed your instructions so far. Unfortunately, the link you sent me to re-install the video drivers says it will only work for XP and W2K. I'm running Vista 32-bit ultimate.
I'll check the DELL website and see if there is a link.
DomTrump
9 Posts
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October 6th, 2012 11:00
Not your fault. I went to the DELL website and it gave me the same driver. Very odd since the original driver was pre-installed for Vista Ultimate 32. Going to download the latest I can find from the nVidia site.
DomTrump
9 Posts
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October 6th, 2012 15:00
NO JOY... Same thing happens. Soon as the machine goes to sleep, it never wakes up again with video. Now, I can get video after five or ten reboots ... sometimes on the monitor and sometimes on the LCD. Sometimes I need to shut it down for hours before it will boot up with ANY video.
DomTrump
9 Posts
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October 6th, 2012 16:00
no matter how many times i reboot now.... no video on lcd or monitor. system is booting up. i can hear sound.
this is a critical machine, what are my options?
DELL-Roshan L
4.4K Posts
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October 9th, 2012 05:00
Hi DomTrump,
At this point I would suggest you to get the system checked by a local technician to identify which part is causing the problem and get it replaced accordingly.Here the point of failure could be either video card or LCD screen(connector cable) or even the motherboard.
Francez41
1 Message
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December 20th, 2016 10:00
Hi Roshan,
I am having the same problem at the moment. I have tried to connect my laptop to an external monitor but it doesn't show anything at all. I tried to go to the link you gave above but apprently it no longer exist. What should I do?