Check the RAM board. If you have two RAM board in your laptop, take out one. If the problem is same, re-plug in this RAM board and take out another one. And try again.
Two more things to try. Does computer exhibit same symptoms with an external monitor attached? Also try reseating the CPU.
I just repaired one of these under our warranty and it had a bad video cable. Pressure on the plug where it attaches to the video card would turn display on an off.
Heh you wont believe this - just when I was gonna give up I decided to crack it open...there was no insulating cover between the keyboard and the video card - so I fabricated a lexan "shield" if you will, put everything back together and it works like a champ...The metal underside of the keyboard appeared to be grounding on a contact that was on the video card...as well, there was another stsand-off contact that was grounding out as well...who woulda thought...It "appears" to be running great, whereas before I couldn't even start it without a bluescreen or reboot, I can everything without errors now. I can't believe (if that was the problem) how Dell could forget an insulating cover.
Your right that was the first thing I thought of (just reseating) however, before I did this with the lexan shield the same problems occured after reseating it. So the actual GPU chip itself is making contact - I only put the lexan cover over the ram and the bottom right hand of the video card - which was the problem area of grounding...this was an area where the keyboard never actually touched except for the the stand-off and that one outtermost right contact close to the cpu. Hmm, knowing that - do ya think it would really make that big of a deal with heat?
The metal on the back of the keyboard is designed as a heat shield for the video card to keep the video card from getting too hot. You may have solved your problem but be contributing to another. I'll bet if you just reseated the video card (3 screws) and got rid of your insulator it would still work normally.
Cool Cool I'll update in a day or two with how it's operating...gonna run some Call of Duty on this and see if it'll heat it up and pursaude any heat issues to show themselves :) COD for a GF2Go should be purdy good..or maybe I could load up 3DMark2005 rofl
So a while later it's still doing the same thing. Random lockups, random freezes, device errors (no details) and just generally not working. Man - I have no idea
M50_USER
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May 13th, 2005 16:00
funtoupgrade
2 Intern
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937 Posts
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May 13th, 2005 17:00
Two more things to try. Does computer exhibit same symptoms with an external monitor attached? Also try reseating the CPU.
I just repaired one of these under our warranty and it had a bad video cable. Pressure on the plug where it attaches to the video card would turn display on an off.
Double_TAP
5 Posts
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May 13th, 2005 18:00
Double_TAP
5 Posts
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May 13th, 2005 19:00
funtoupgrade
2 Intern
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937 Posts
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May 13th, 2005 19:00
The metal on the back of the keyboard is designed as a heat shield for the video card to keep the video card from getting too hot. You may have solved your problem but be contributing to another. I'll bet if you just reseated the video card (3 screws) and got rid of your insulator it would still work normally.
funtoupgrade
2 Intern
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937 Posts
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May 13th, 2005 19:00
Not if the bottom of the keyboard is making contact with the main video chip in the approximate middle of the video card.
Double_TAP
5 Posts
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May 13th, 2005 20:00
Cool Cool I'll update in a day or two with how it's operating...gonna run some Call of Duty on this and see if it'll heat it up and pursaude any heat issues to show themselves :) COD for a GF2Go should be purdy good..or maybe I could load up 3DMark2005 rofl
Double_TAP
5 Posts
0
May 20th, 2005 00:00