If you read my post carefully you would see that I have already replaced the Hard Drive and tested with no difference. I do not belive that the message always means the hard drive has failed, it just meant that on one other thread on this forum.
I don't know how to explain this to you better, but all I can say is that the display problem I am having cannot mean that the drive has failed, since the problem still occurs with a different (new) drive in the machine, as I have already said.
Yes I have tried it with an alternative monitor plugged in.
I know there is a post in the forums that shows the error I reported in conjunction with a drive failure, however if you read that post carefully the person reporting the error was also reporting boot failures. This is not the case with my machine.
Since the error is intermittent on my machine, I am willing to accept that there could be an intermittent problem with the drive, but that is not the primary issue here, the primary issue is the screen displaying colored lines or fading to white or black either immediately on boot up or sometime after boot up.
Thanks for all your help with this by the way, it's great to have someone to bash out the problems with.
I am still away from home at the moment, so I am going to test the external monitor issue again to try and confirm that the problem happens then. I was thinking that perhaps it was a cooling fan issue too, since a start from very cool seems to be ok (if there disk error doesn't occur). But I also think that it is probably the video card.
I will post again when I have had a chance to test another Monitor.
Well I have found out that the external monitor is the same. This means that we are left with the Vid card or the MOBO. I am inclined to go with the video card, and perhaps the fan attached to it since when starting from very cool it will actualy boot up before the screen goes off.
Am still in the same quandry as I was then when I first posted this thread, buy an new card or scrap the laptop?
I cannot find a replacement 4200 Go card anywhere on the web, or on the Dell website. And I can find no one that sells the mobility 9600 pro anymore either (at least I could do the heat managed upgrade then).
I have also looked around for a replacement fan for the vid card (just in case that was the problem) All I found was one that would take 6 weeks to ship!!!
So I guess I am just stuck now, unless anyone else has an idea.
As a follow up, I found a replacement vid card on ebay, installed it yesterday and so far all is well. I think that the fan on the original vid card was not working correctly.
I have found a website where I can order a replacement fan, but it takes 6 weeks to deliver so I may not bother since the replacement card (and its fan) seem to be fine.
It would be interesting to find out for sure if it was the fan however, so I may get it as a spare anyway.
Note to self:
Clean the fans and fan outlets, once a year, even on a laptop, since that was probably the cause of this problem for me.
ejn63
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
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September 25th, 2005 20:00
ejn63
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
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September 25th, 2005 21:00
Have you tried an external monitor?
peterpj
11 Posts
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September 25th, 2005 21:00
peterpj
11 Posts
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September 25th, 2005 22:00
I don't know how to explain this to you better, but all I can say is that the display problem I am having cannot mean that the drive has failed, since the problem still occurs with a different (new) drive in the machine, as I have already said.
Yes I have tried it with an alternative monitor plugged in.
I know there is a post in the forums that shows the error I reported in conjunction with a drive failure, however if you read that post carefully the person reporting the error was also reporting boot failures. This is not the case with my machine.
Since the error is intermittent on my machine, I am willing to accept that there could be an intermittent problem with the drive, but that is not the primary issue here, the primary issue is the screen displaying colored lines or fading to white or black either immediately on boot up or sometime after boot up.
Message Edited by peterpj on 09-25-2005 06:57 PM
ejn63
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
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September 26th, 2005 00:00
It could be a mainboard problem as well - is the fan running properly?
peterpj
11 Posts
0
September 29th, 2005 01:00
Thanks for all your help with this by the way, it's great to have someone to bash out the problems with.
I am still away from home at the moment, so I am going to test the external monitor issue again to try and confirm that the problem happens then. I was thinking that perhaps it was a cooling fan issue too, since a start from very cool seems to be ok (if there disk error doesn't occur). But I also think that it is probably the video card.
I will post again when I have had a chance to test another Monitor.
peterpj
11 Posts
0
September 30th, 2005 18:00
jongo
4 Posts
0
October 7th, 2005 13:00
peterpj
11 Posts
0
October 7th, 2005 13:00
I have found a website where I can order a replacement fan, but it takes 6 weeks to deliver so I may not bother since the replacement card (and its fan) seem to be fine.
It would be interesting to find out for sure if it was the fan however, so I may get it as a spare anyway.
Note to self:
Clean the fans and fan outlets, once a year, even on a laptop, since that was probably the cause of this problem for me.