Dell Inspiron N5010 crashing and blue screen, possibly a video card error.

Question

Hi everyone, I've been having a few problems with my laptop and was hoping some of you could offer some advice, I’ve tried to put in as much detail as I can so sorry if it's long winded and thanks for your time if you read through. I have a Dell Inspiron N5010 with an i3 and 4GB RAM running windows 7 home premium (64-bit). A few month ago I needed to install Ubuntu (12.04) for a university project and used the 'wubi' installer to install it through windows. It worked perfectly for months but then started to crash when I tried to boot into Ubuntu. The laptop would simply switch off completely without warning and then wouldn't boot into Ubuntu or windows for several minutes afterwards, though after some time windows would work fine. Sometimes Ubuntu would work and even let me log in and work for a few minutes before crashing but always crashed eventually. There was no sign of overheating when this happened. I ran the Dell PC checkup tool to investigate what was causing the problem and it crashed in exactly the same manner when testing the video card. The laptop has also begun to blue screen on some occasions when I resume windows after it’s been in sleep or hibernate modes. It gives the error: Problem signature:   Problem Event Name:                        BlueScreen   OS Version:                                          6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3   Locale ID:                                             2057   Additional information about the problem:   BCCode:                                               3b   BCP1:                                                    00000000C0000005   BCP2:                                                    FFFFF8000356441F   BCP3:                                                    FFFFF8800C6BD140   BCP4:                                                    0000000000000000   OS Version:                                          6_1_7601   Service Pack:                                       1_0   Product:                                               768_1 Ive googled the BCCode 3b and have seen some comments from people about video card errors. Assuming the video card is the main problem here, is it something I can replace fairly easily and will that solve the problem? This week I uninstalled Ubuntu in windows and tried to boot into it from a dvd, but the laptop switched itself off when I was in the BIOS settings trying to change the boot order. Could this still be the problem from the video card? Whilst running the Dell checkup I also picked up two errors on my hard drive. The first failure was the targeted read test which gave a code WHD20-COK, and then it failed the SMART short self test (WHD16-WM1) and warned me that a drive failure was imminent and to replace it. Does it seem fair to assume that replacing the hard drive and video card will solve my problems? As a student I really can’t afford a replacement laptop so being able to fix this one would be brilliant because I’ll need to start working on Ubuntu again in the next couple of weeks. Would it be fairly safe for me to try to perform the replacements myself? Any advice any of you could give on whether I’m diagnosing this correctly and my best course of action from here would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

ejn63 · Answer

Replacing the hard drive would be the first place to start -- it may solve both problems.

Note that this system does not have a separate video card - if the video chip has failed, the mainboard must be replaced.

DanLambey · Answer

Thanks for your help! Is there any way I could get a hint of whether replacing the hard drive would fix both problems or is it just a case of having a go and see what happens?

ejn63 · Answer

Run a full Dell diagnostic outside of the OS -- if you don't see video errors there, chances are replacing the drive will solve the problems.  F12 at powerup.

DanLambey · Answer

Brilliant, thanks a lot!

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