I8200 Graphics Problem

Question

Just within the past couple of days, my laptop has begun showing groups of small vertical lines all across the screen, making it almost impossible to read anything.  There's also two thick horizontal lines above and below the cursor.  Sometimes, the screen will also change colors, making pages hard to read as well.  Scrolling up or down a page seems to make the problem worse. If a page changes, the screen will clear up for a little bit, but then when I scroll, it goes bad.  Sometimes, my browser's window will fade just enough so that I can see what's on my desktop.   I'm guessing the graphics card is shot or on its way.  My system has been out of warranty for quite a while.  I've taken the thing apart, and it looks like it might be something I can just take out and replace.  Any suggestions?

winkdog81 · Answer

I'll try that and let ya know.

ejn63 · Answer

Attach an external monitor to make sure it's a card issue and not an LCD panel issue.

bashers72 · Answer

Please let me know as well, as mine is doing the same thing. I pretty sure it's the card as I have already connected another monitor to it and it does the same thing. I have the I8200 2.4M with the ATI 900 grahics card.

toddjumper · Answer

I am having the same problem but its getting worse and worse.  The screen becomes garbled with vertical lines and rainbow colored ascii text.  The only video mode I can now use in windows is 1200x1600, anything lower is un-readable.   Now since the video problems started occuring, the sound has stopped completely and so has the touchpad.   I am using a regular handheld mouse, with no sound from the speakers or the headphone jack.   From others I found the I8200 has had a lot of problems.  And since this started happening right after the warranty ran out, Dell is asking for $500.00 just to open it up.  Anyone have any success in getting these problems fixed?  I'd hate to have to spend that much money just to have it happen again since apparently this is a widespread problem 'Lemon' on several 8200s.

toddjumper · Answer

After talking to Dell and being told the video card for the 8200 was not removable, I read the manual and it is indeed removable and replaceable. They said it would cost $500 to replace the entire motherboard, so first they give innacurate information, probably knowing it would be much less expensive to replace the video card.

I removed the video card last night from the motherboard, cleaned it off and snapped it back on, the video worked fine for about 5 hours of use and then started going crazy again, it seems to happen from the laptop vibrating from the CPU fan. If I hold the right side of the laptop steady with my hand I don't get the vertical lines, but thats just ridiculous to have to do.

I got the sound and touchpad working again though.

If anyone knows any place to buy replacement video cards for Inspiron 8200 let me know, Dell doesn't want to replace the video card, but 500 for the whole motherboard which is unecessary.

bashers72 · Answer

http://www.impactcomputers.com/ This place has alot of replacement parts for our computers. I will be buying my card from this place.

toddjumper · Answer

I removed my video card, cleaned it off and snapped it back in and the video worked fine for about 4 hours and then started getting the lines back in it again, seems the vibration from the cooling fans and harddrive are doing it, so most likely a bad very sensitive video card.   I also saw some auctions on ebay for the replacement video card for around 130-144 dollars, 64 megs too, I'm just worried that I'll spend money and still have the problem ;( hopefully replacement of video card would fix it.

winkdog81 · Answer

I hooked it up to an external monitor and it showed the same lines.  I also hooked it up to my TV using the TV-out option but the lines still appeared.  I'm pretty sure it's the card.

winkdog81 · Answer

I've noticed something else lately...it seems that sometimes the last page that I browsed before shutting down IE will faintly display itself over the desktop, along with all of those groups of lines.

toddjumper · Answer

The video card is fairly easy to replace,  you can find a 32mb card for the Inspiron 8200 for around 99 and a 64 meg for around 144-200.  My Dell Inspiron battery is defective too, you think for a $2400 laptop you wouldn't have so many problems.  I have to now dish out almost 300 just for parts, fortunately I should be able to fix mine myself.

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I8200 Graphics Problem

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