My recommendation since you're still under the 30 would be to try to get it sent back.   At the very least you'll get the attention of the sales department about the issue, it'll still be fixable under warranty and they may discount to get you to keep the laptop.

 

-MistrBlank

Yeah, I have this problem too. Received a 5150 a few days back, on behalf of a friend. As well as the "horizontal blue rain" issue, had also vertical waves. The waves were fixed by updating the video driver (FX5200) via support.ap.dell.com.

As for the blue rain, it has gradually disappeared, taking longer to appear every time I have started-up the 5150. E.g. it intially appeared straight away, then 1 hour into a session. Now, it doesn't appear at all, at least not after 3 hours of use!

I have updated the BIOS to A28 (using the above Asia-Pacific support site) and that "may" have contributed to the blue rain disappearing. A service call early on to Dell Support DID mention that there was a known issue, and it WAS due to (in part?) to the video driver. The support person mentioned that the default install was "incorrect" or "didn't include the correct files" - something along those lines.

Anyway, I cannot replicate the blue rain error now, and I have no idea "why" it has gone away. Perhaps the BIOS update included a update to the "video bios" - if there is such a thing. What DOES seem consistent is that the more times I use the 5150 (from a start up), the more the effect diminishes.

Have you tried the 3D screensavers as this brings back the problem with our 5150 (this is very consistent). What I further noticed is that when rendering a model in Director using "auto" mode and previewing it in a browser it starts to rain. When we use OpenGL there is no problem at all.

Marcel

Just discovered (as you suggest) that putting on a 3D sceensaver induces the "blue rain" effect. After interrupting the screensaver, the blue rain effect gradually disappears after a minute or so.

I'm gunna call Dell Tech Support now ... and if they say anything useful, I'll post it back here ...

 

Dell tech support didn't have anything much to add, other than:

-- it's a known issue, and Nvidia/Dell are "working on it"

--it's something to do with a "90 degree rotate" feature

--A driver update is due "soon". There will be a general video driver update in January, but a fix for this bug might come sooner.

Does this bug affect 3D games as well?

 

 

Haven't tried it with games by the way (simply because I don't have any :o). But logically thinking most of the games use a lot of 3D (harware/software) functions. So, my believe is that there will most likely games around that access the same functions as the standard windows screensavers and de macromedia director rendering engine. Last mentioned engine gives problems in both "auto" and OpenGL mode (initially thought OpenGL was ok :o(.

Just spoke to sales and customer support. They are really very helpfull (in words sofar :o). Robbert (Dell Customer Service, Australia) is currently (as I type) discussing with technical support about this issue. He will call me back this afternoon. I suggested extending the return guarantee with 3 or 6 months. If they are confident that they can solve the problem I am happy to hold on to the system for now.

Good to hear from you that there is progress with the BIOS update.

Uh oh. Just installed the game "Ghost Recon" and it was virtually unplayable, due to not only the "blue rain" effect, but (worse still) the vertical rippling of the screen image. It makes the 3D screensaver relatively error seem minor by comparison.

Quitting Ghost Recon back to desktop, and the rippling subsided. The blue rain gradually disappeared too ... after a few minutes.

I don't plan to run games on this 5150, it's for a journo friend, so I think MS Office etc will work okay. Maybe I will wait for the patch too ... if that will fix things ...

Did you resolve the issue, Wombat?

No alas. The problem is very persistent. Unfortunately my wife had to take it because she was in a rush to fligh to Europe (sad family circumstances). We don't know when she will be back and that notebook was all we got (Dell arranged it within four days).

The person from Dell Customer Service (Robbert) advised me to get back to Dell at least every other month until the problem is solved. We have a three year warranty, so based on their terms and conditions they need to fix any problems under that warranty. The 'good' thing is that the system (which is further ok) shows the problem with the pre-installed software (3D Screensavers).

How about your attempts? Did you hear anything about the progress from the techies you spoke to, the ones that mentioned:
-- it's a known issue, and Nvidia/Dell are "working on it"
-- it's something to do with a "90 degree rotate" feature
-- a driver update is due "soon". There will be a general video driver update in January, but a fix for this bug might come sooner.