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5851
May 21st, 2009 10:00
Display is distorted
A picture's worth a thousand words, so here it is
[The vertical lines are part of the display. The curvy lines and the fish eye are a result of the camera. The bright splotches are a reflection off my screen.]
This is a picture of the device manager telling me that Windows turned off the device (my NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card) because it had problems. The resolution is locked at 800X600 and I can't put the computer to sleep or hibernate (the options are grayed out). The display is this bad the instant I turn the computer on, that is starting with the BIOS loading screen. However, this is fixed with a reboot after the computer warms up a bit, say after 1 to 2 minutes. I'm running two OSs on this laptop (Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 RC) and this happens on both partitions so I'm fairly sure it's not an OS problem.
This problem has been occuring since I got the laptop in late December and it has never bothered me that much, but now that it's summer and I don't necessarily need a laptop around (I'm a college student), I thought I'd go ahead and see if I could get it solved. So my question is, can this be fixed by me (Is there something I'm missing)? Or do I have to send it in to get it fixed?
Thanks in advance!
-Lincoln
[Edit] This is an XPS M1530
ejn63
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May 21st, 2009 10:00
One check you might do before calling technical support is to attach an external monitor - that will tell you whether it's a faulty video chip or a faulty display panel (if it's the panel, the external monitor will show a good image). Then call for repair - most likely it is a faulty nVidia chip and they'll replace the mainboard under warranty (the system has an onboard chip, not a separate video card, so the entire mainboard must be replaced).
ejn63
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May 21st, 2009 10:00
What model system is this?
notLinkin
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May 21st, 2009 10:00
It's a Dell XPS M1530
notLinkin
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May 21st, 2009 10:00
I have thought of doing that, but since this only happens if I leave my computer off overnight or some period of time similar to that, I forget... I guess i'll attach a note onto my laptop or something =P. Either way, I'll most likely have to have something replaced. Thanks for your insight.
Also, If I send it in without a hard drive, will that cause problems? I'd rather keep mine rather than backing everything up.
ejn63
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May 21st, 2009 11:00
You can usually retain the hard drive, but bear in mind that without a backup, you're playing Russian roulette with your data - it's not a matter of if the hard drive will fail, but when.