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81988
Inspiron M5010 Garbled Screen & Boot Issues
I've got a year and a half old Dell Inspiron M5010. About a month ago, I was using it and the screen became garbled. Rebooting it didn't fix the problem. I put in the recovery disc and it didn't seem to have any issues displaying that, so I performed a full recovery and didn't have any further problems.
Fast forward to this evening. I was using it and the screen went black. I rebooted, and nothing. The power light and hard drive light would come on, but that was it. Also, I could simply press the power button and it would turn off. I wouldn't have to hold it down. I took the battery out, put it back in, tried again with no luck. I tried it on just battery power and just corded, with no luck. Finally, it booted up with the garbled screen. I rebooted again and it booted right up like nothing was wrong. It also seems very sluggish at times, freezing up for a second or two intermittently.
Does anyone have any ideas on what I might be facing here? All the drivers are up to date and all the Windows updates are installed. I also ran diagnostics at start up and it passed. Thanks!
DELL-Sumer C
46 Posts
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July 14th, 2012 21:00
Hi JP11283
Welcome to the Dell community. The issue you are facing could be an issue with the LCD screen. Follow these steps and observe:
Please revert with observations
Regards,
Sumer
Dell | Social Outreach Professional
DELL-Sumer C
46 Posts
1
July 15th, 2012 18:00
Hi JP11283
Welcome to the Dell community. Since its an intermittent issue, I recommend running the LCD test immediately when you see the distortion on the screen. If you get any distortion during the test, then the LCD needs to be replaced or else this could be an issue with the connector or the motherboard.
Please revert with observations
Sumer
Dell | Social Outreach Professional
JP11283
2 Posts
0
July 15th, 2012 18:00
I don't have an external display handy, though it is working fine at the moment. It's a very intermittent problem. I ran through all the LCD tests and it passed all of them fine.
BAKEMAN30
1 Message
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January 20th, 2013 23:00
im having the garbled screen problem it is the same when hooked to an external display and when i do the display test the solid colors arent garbled can u tell me what is wrong?
Franzino
1 Message
0
July 18th, 2013 10:00
I am also having the same issue with my wife's computer it has worked fine since we purchased it in February till a incident in may where we had to do a factory restore from the hard disk. Well all has worked fine till 2 days ago when this same problem as these other people are having began to occur. I have run the LCD test all the colors come up as solid when it goes through but screen still is distorted when it boots and it is also the Dell start up screen that is distorted. It seems to go back to working normal if I boot with an external LCD hooked up then it has worked fine even after disconnecting the external LCD. So I am at a loss as to what to do to resolve it. When it goes to garbled it does go to the Blue Screen of Death but the error code is obscured by the garbling. Internet use seems to antagonize it into occurring. What can we do to fix this please help
dhawk2
3 Posts
0
September 22nd, 2013 19:00
This seems to be a common problem with this model. The problem is usually an intermittent connection on the motherboard in the vicinity of the graphics chip (an un-admitted Dell design flaw, in my opinion). Fortunately it is easily fixed if you have basic computer surgery skills - someone has posted a youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJKNGJtk2bo showing the entire procedure. You only need some screwdrivers, some isopropyl alcohol and a heat gun (or even a hair dryer).
For the faint of heart there is also a cottage industry of people offering to do this on EBay for a reasonable fee.
Cblair900
1 Message
0
November 12th, 2013 12:00
dhawk2
3 Posts
0
November 12th, 2013 13:00
Some follow-up from my previous posting. The heat-gun repair I attempted worked for about three weeks before the screen failed again. I re-did it and it worked for about a week. The laptop has now been junked.
Many thanks to Dell for another quality product!