Oddy, I have had a very similar experience, almost identical to yours with my XPS 1210, it is running Vista Business by the way and that Go 7400 video card onboard. Just about two months ago I had the motherboard, which includes the video card, and the memory replaced at the same time as it died finally, went to complete black and nothing would even turn on anymore. The precurser to the problem seems to be Nvidia video driver errors, then blue screens to complement them.
Alas, it is now beginning all over again almost as if something is causing the video card to be "fried" or go wonky. The odd thing is the first motherboard and video card (the original one) didn't act up until about 18 months in, while this one is doing so within two and it will only be a matter of weeks before it dies as well, if it goes the same path.
Yes, I too am currently running the full hardware diagnostics, which has not quite completed, but is so far error free.
This leads me to believe that either there is another hardware cause, or this is all related the the newly unearthed Nvidia recall, even though officially Dell has not recognized the 1210 as having any faulty video cards. Is it possible that a bad power supply (or related) is causing too much, or too little power to surge into the board and make this occur?
Thanks for answering. I want Dell to extend the warranty on the M1210's too, but I don't know how to up the pressure. There's no easy way to contact the company if your PC is out of warranty. I hadn't thought about the power supply. I will try running it just on battery next.
This PC ran perfectly well till about 13 or 14 months in. It progressed slowly , then in the last month, much worse. I fully expect it to die soon.
I just realized I misunderstood what you were saying about the power supply causing surges to fry the video chip. That might be the case, but I bet they replaced your motherboard with another defective board which lasted a year and then began dying.
ejn63
9 Legend
•
87.5K Posts
0
September 2nd, 2008 21:00
Sounds more like a video chip/mainboard failure. Run the full Dell diagnostics (F12 at powerup).
Matillma
33 Posts
0
September 2nd, 2008 23:00
I did run Dell diagnostics at boot. It took over 12 hours but everything passed. I was surprised
Its been a few hours since I pulled the battery and the PC is starting to act up again- sluggish, video crashes. I guess it's not the battery.
I have asked Dell to extend the warranty but I don't expect them to do the right thing.
I don't feel inclinded to pay for a new motherboard and I certainly can't buy Dell again, unless they fix this PC
Thanks for your advice
travis_bowman
45 Posts
0
September 3rd, 2008 02:00
Oddy, I have had a very similar experience, almost identical to yours with my XPS 1210, it is running Vista Business by the way and that Go 7400 video card onboard. Just about two months ago I had the motherboard, which includes the video card, and the memory replaced at the same time as it died finally, went to complete black and nothing would even turn on anymore. The precurser to the problem seems to be Nvidia video driver errors, then blue screens to complement them.
Alas, it is now beginning all over again almost as if something is causing the video card to be "fried" or go wonky. The odd thing is the first motherboard and video card (the original one) didn't act up until about 18 months in, while this one is doing so within two and it will only be a matter of weeks before it dies as well, if it goes the same path.
Yes, I too am currently running the full hardware diagnostics, which has not quite completed, but is so far error free.
This leads me to believe that either there is another hardware cause, or this is all related the the newly unearthed Nvidia recall, even though officially Dell has not recognized the 1210 as having any faulty video cards. Is it possible that a bad power supply (or related) is causing too much, or too little power to surge into the board and make this occur?
Matillma
33 Posts
0
September 3rd, 2008 23:00
Thanks for answering. I want Dell to extend the warranty on the M1210's too, but I don't know how to up the pressure. There's no easy way to contact the company if your PC is out of warranty. I hadn't thought about the power supply. I will try running it just on battery next.
This PC ran perfectly well till about 13 or 14 months in. It progressed slowly , then in the last month, much worse. I fully expect it to die soon.
Matillma
33 Posts
0
September 3rd, 2008 23:00