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MagnumFortyFour
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9816
January 31st, 2004 18:00
Inspiration 5150 video problems
P4-M 3.06 GHZ Processor
512 Megs of Ram
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64 meg
Realtek Audio AC97
UXGA+ LCD
For the past 4 months I have had this problem randomly.
Does this for every 3d application I have. I have tried all video drivers (ATI's, Dells', Omegacorners, etc...) that I could get, installed windows over 10 times, formated the harddrive 7 times, tried different system RAM, used all applications that have been mentioned on the forums, even tried changing sound card drivers for this problem (was that desperate). This all started when I upgraded to Dell's BIOS. I installed it hoping it would make the computer faster, but all it has done is make it worst. I have used all BIOS from A23 to A31. The only time this never happened was with A04 BIOS that it shipped with. I've gone over the forums for the past 2 months looking for anybody that has had the same problems or similar and used the recommended fixes for it, but none have worked.
I know its not overheating problems due to it doing it at 30 degrees celius and everything inbetween to 75 degrees celius. Dell, will you please release the A04 BIOS or ANY Phoenix BIOS that will work on this system. This is the first Dell computer I have gotten, and from the looks of how this ended up within 3 months, it is not looking like I will be a repeat customer.
662
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Posted February 3rd, 2004 14:00
hi,
i have the exact same problem as you do, i also have the exact same computer.
screen:
i think that it had to do with a defect in the video card, as the problem seems to be less frequent, the lower the frame rates.
however, when i dont get this (as shown in the pic) problem, i have another. the game will be running great for about 5 minutes, then the framerates will drop from about 20-30 to 3 then back to 20-30. the drop will get more frequent the longer the game is open.
the reason i think it is an over heating problem is that if i leave the computer off 10 or more hours. the game play is perfect for about 30min before i get any problems. although it might be the motherboard as my sound card will stop working after long use, but return to normal after a few hours.
i am going to try and get this solved with dell today or tomorow, so ill let you know what happens.
pixel---
662
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Posted February 3rd, 2004 16:00
This is a defect that is the result of the ATI 9000 cards. I had the same problem in my original i5150 with the ATI card after 3 months. Call support and get them to replace the video card.
To be honest the entire i5150 line is garbage.
662
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Posted February 3rd, 2004 17:00
Sup
I've got the exact same computer.
Got it early august, began getting a large fps decrease around mid November. Tried almost everything in the book, new drivers, newest bios, etc... nothing fixed it. Just this past week, started getting the above pictures. I finally rolled back the video drivers, even though i was running the drivers that it shipped with. After rolling back, I did not have the above problems, but was still receiving a large decrease in FPS every 3 seconds. Reinstalled direct X, blue lines came back. This time it took 2 roll backs of the drivers to fix.
From what mistrblank said, sounds like the video card dies after a few months of usage. I set the laptop on a huge fan to see if it was heat related. Got a slight improvement, but it could have just been a coincidence, and it wasn't nearly as good as it was in September, besides, who wants to type on a huge fan?
Only thing i havn't done is reformat, and it looks like that won't fix it either. If anyone finds another correction to the problem, please let me know. Otherwize, looks like a phone call to India.662
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Posted February 3rd, 2004 17:00
After installing A31 BIOS and reinstalling the first Dell ATI drivers that came out, I have been able to play the same game for 30+ hours with no problems at all. But when I restart or shutdown, it goes back to acting up till I keep restarting and it will start working again. Don't know what is happening, but it might be a bad memory sector inside the video card itself, maybe. I don't know too much about video cards.662
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Posted February 3rd, 2004 17:00
hey.. I had the same problem with the same exact computer.. i updated the drivers off of dells website and it seems to have fixed it (even though i score half of what i used to on futuremark!).. hope that works for you all
662
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Posted February 6th, 2004 02:00
i'm having a similar problem as well. i only have the 32mb version of the radeon9000, but i doubt it matters much. the longer i've had this computer (august), the worse the video card does. it's to the point now where i can barely even play star wars galaxies anymore even though i was perfectly fine in a while ago. i'm glad to see im not the only one having this problem, i hope dell can help us. perhaps this is why they not longer sell the 5150 with radeons, only with that nvidia card.662
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Posted February 6th, 2004 02:00
I heard about this thread from a forum member. I must have missed it because of the title. (Inspiration, instead of inspiron). I had the same problem. I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to prove to Dell that it was a video card problem and not something else. I had to do a slow format of the c drive, re-install windows/drivers/directX, and then show that the problem came back. I also had to show that it came back with an external monitor. I took screen shots galore. After a while, when I would go into advanced settings under the Display Properties thing, the computer would say I had 32 meg video ram, (instead of the 64 that I knew I had.) I took screen shots of this, found a very helpful service guy on the phone, and mailed my system in. They replaced the card and had it back in my hands in 6 days. (This was over christmas break too... :) My screen shots look similar, but much worse. I let it go for a long time before it started causing problems. I'm pretty sure it had to do with poor ventalation. Videocards shouldn't fry like that. (They usually only do that if you overclock them.) The reason why I think it's a thermal problem, is because my video card worked flawlessly for nearly a month and a half. (I started having problems in mid-September). Then it all went downhill. Plus, the more I used it, the worse it got. Dell tried to make me think it was just one game, and that I should bug the software company, but I showed them that it happened with Unreal Tournament 2003, Army Ops, Halo, and the DirectX diagnostics. Anyway... good luck ya'll...662
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Posted February 6th, 2004 09:00
if framerates are dropping randomly, make sure you have disk indexing turned off (under my computer, right click on your C drive, go to properties, and make sure "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" is UNchecked.) If it seems like an overheating problem, try blowing out any dust from the fan vents. Also, download i8kfangui from http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ and monitor your temperatures (the program was designed for the inspiron 8000 line, so some features may not work). Mine seems to hover at 74C at 100% cpu load, and 46C at idle.
Message Edited by kmak1 on 02-06-2004 05:57 AM
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Posted February 6th, 2004 21:00
hey i checked out the program.. it only tells me my fan speed and nothing else :D ( i have an i5150)
Revolvah
32 Posts
633
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Posted January 31st, 2004 19:00
I have the same problem but it doesnt seem as bad as it is for you. The video card is most likely overheating. I'd call up dell and see what they can do for you.