Direct2Dell

Hi Lionel

I also have this problem with my Inspiron 1420. My warranty is 4 months over.  I contacted Tech support this morning and after some online diagnostics they confirmed it was this video issue.  When I mentioned about the extended 12 months warranty for this problem, they said this is true, BUT you will have to pay $720 to get it fixed and then the warranty will extend for 12 months after that.  This is not what I understood from your post, i uinderstood it that the warranty would extend from the time it finished and this issue would be covered under the extended warranty by Dell.  I am not a happy customer at the moment.

Sam (from Oz)

I would like to share my experience with this problem, may be it would be helpful for others and I will be glad to get an advice for my further steps.

My laptop Dell XPS m1330 with nVidia GPU had failed with colorful vertical lines one the screen few months after the original warranty expired. I have decided to third party company specializing in fixing laptops. The problem with nVidia GPU was fixed by the motherboard replacement and for my own expense, as I had no clue about the issued Extended warranty by Dell covering this problem. Since the problem was fixed first time, nVidia chip failed twice and both times it has been replaced. This indicates that the problem may be not fixable, because of the design flaw.

Recently I have discovered about the Extended warranty on the nVidia GPU problem. I have hoped that I can get the reimbursement for my GPU fixes from Dell, as the issue with nVidia GPU was solved on my laptop by the third-party for the reason Dell has not informed me about the design flaw it discovered in XPS m1330 laptops and has not informed me about the changes in the Warranty conditions. My communication with Dell customer service has not gave any positive result so far.

Thanks,

Peter 

Watching this morning in the news the Toyota recall for the accelerator pedals problem makes me think about the GPU issue with Dell ...

Watching this morning in the news the Toyata recall for the accelerator pedals problem makes me think about the GPU issue with Dell ...

Lionel,

Thank you for shedding light on this matter.  Unfortunately, Dell Technical Support has not helped, and your assistance is greatly appreciated.

My Inspiron 1420 laptop is completely nonfunctional due to hardware failure in the Nvidia GPU. As a growing number of other users have described, my computer initially started running hot, then displayed colored vertical lines and now will no longer boot at all. A retail computer repair company has run diagnostics and confirmed that the motherboard needs to be replaced.

After stumbling upon information online about a widespread Nvidia GPU problem, I contacted Dell Technical Support on Feb. 1, 2010, and was informed that my laptop is no longer eligible for free repair, because even the 12- month extended limited warranty period had expired approximately 4 months ago.

Here is the essence of the problem. I have learned that NVIDIA publicly admitted to the problem in July 2008.  My laptop would have still been covered under its original 12-month warranty if I had been contacted at that time about a potential problem.  To take it a step further, Dell should have contacted me during the additional 1 year extended warranty period. Obviously Dell was well aware of the problem or else they would not have gone through the effort of issuing such an extended warranty limited to a specific issue.

Dell withheld this information about a defective GPU and an extended warranty from me. A known problem was left to fester in my computer only to fully manifest itself just a couple of months outside of any warranty coverage – convenient for Dell, while financially inconvenient for myself.

How will Dell rectify this problem?  My family has spent thousands of dollars on Dell products over the years. My level of frustration is only escalating as I learn more about this problem. It is unconscionable for Dell to find it acceptable for a loyal customer to spend over $1000 on a laptop that is totally nonfunctional after barely 2 years of use and, more importantly, after being sold with an inherent flaw.

Again, I would like for Dell to immediately contact me with a suitable remedy if they have any desire to retain myself and family as future customers.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Sincerely,  Bryan Tillery.

Hi, just got off the phone with UK support who assure me that the D620 is not affected by this recall, even though you list it as affected.  The GPU in my 620 is the Nvidia 110m.  My Three year NBD warranty expired in November 2009.  Are they telling the truth or are they lacking knowledge on the subject?  I have a call ref if you require it.

Regards

Joe Said

Im 100% done with tell, both personally and professionally.

Never again Dell. Never ever ever ever ever.

If you recently got this problem and expect any help from Dell at all, you are delusional. They have disavowed all knowledge, and have made it the customer's problem.

NEVER AGAIN.

hi there,

i'm having the same problem here.... the first is i log my screen and go for breakfast. when i'm back and try to log in nothing happen

...

so i try to restart and no boot (screen just blank). i shutdown and wait for a few minute and try to power up again... this time it work but when i start to surfing internet the line come out from screen and it start freeze... nothing i can do so i just shut down....

and since then i don't ever have succes to get it up... just now i call support center and there say it's not on waranty is that true? do i not eligible for waranty? would you help me, thank you in advance

Just wanted to update my particular situation:

After the tech replaced my 8400M GS GPU and my m1330's mainboard in my home, I noticed my video really looked great. There had been what looked like "interference" lines (like the old analog TVs with bad reception) in my 22 in. monitor I use at my desk, but I had thought this normal because of the VGA external hookup and hadn't paid much attention to it. Boy, how wrong I was! The multi-colors and strange characters didn't appear until about 3 weeks before the GPU total failure.

Anyway with the new MB and video GPU these lines disappeared, leaving a clean, flawless picture. My point -- the graphics were failing long before the ultimate failure, and I hadn't even known it. Therefore I feel Dell should be proactive about this nVidia problem and contact everyone that has purchased an affected machine to let them know of their 12-month warranty extension. 

As of this posting Dell hasn't mentioned the problem on their support site regarding the nVidia chip failure (or at least I can't find a mention of it) at all, but I feel they have the responsibility to do so. I think there are unknowing customers out there who are oblivious to the extension and either end up shelling out the $500-600 to fix it, or purchase a new computer altogether.

Anyway, my m1330's video is back to normal and looks great -- for now -- but I'm watching for any telltale signs of failure, and you can bet if there are any I'm contacting Dell pronto.

BTW there's a new nVidia driver download at the nVidia site for the 8400 chip (84 and 86 series), a whopping 144 MB (I got the Windows 7, 64-bit version). I've downloaded and installed, and it works great. I am wondering why Dell doesn't put it on their m1330 support?

If I have anymore video problems, I'll post again. Good luck to all that have to go through this! 

Lionel,

Today a service engineer told me that there were problems with Nvidia GPU's, like the one in my M90. He told me Dell extended the warrenty for this issue. Searching the web resulted in your post and strange enough I did not find my M90 in the list of systems.

I would like to know why not, because my FX2500m is defect for the 2nd time. The first time it was broken within 2 weeks after I received it. They replaced it and it worked fine until about 2 weeks after my 3y NBD warrenty ended. The service department told me they could not repair under warrenty.

I think the M90 should be in the list and should be repaired like the other systems in your list.

Regards,

Stefan

I have the XPS m1330 with the nVidia 8400 GPU. Got it back in September of 2007 with just one year warranty. I just started getting the rainbow colored vertical lines on the screen, did research, and found out it is due to faulty GPU design. Called up Dell, and they said even my one year extended warranty due to this common GPU error was over in September of 2008. They also said I am out of luck, unless I want to go through their out of warranty repair department. 

One thing to note is that, I didn't use the laptop on regular basis till just 8 months ago when my old one finally gave out of me after 6 years. So m1330 has been only used for 8 months, and now I am stuck with bunch of verticals lines, and no hope.

Has anyone tried the out of warranty repair department for this problem? How much should it cost to, I am assuming, replace the motherboard?

And also, does replacing the motherboard really fix the GPU/vertical lines on screen problem?

Any other options I have with that? Should I put it in a freezer and try it? (just kidding about that one, just frustrated with this).

Umang

Hi,

  I guess that I am now part of the family of the "dell nvidia issue". My laptop died last week, and a technician has planed to come and change the motherboard in a few days.

  Usually, people tell you about the nature of the problem, so that you can understand what happens. But the hotline did not want to tell me the origin of the issue, that makes me fearful about the fix of the problem.

  So I have one very simple question : does the new motherboard fix the problem?

  If yes, please explain : new chip release, new microcode, new fan, ... how does it fix it?

Respectfully,

PG

Well just wanted to say thanks to Lionel for his diligence in getting this issue resolved.  I had thought my d820 was immune until the holidays when it decided to rapidly go south.  First it was blue lines on the bios screen but ok in windows now its blue lines in the bios and no video at all once its booted.  I contacted dell and explained what I had done to troubleshoot the issue and the support rep (Kudos to Diana for this one) was aware of the warranty program (my regular warranty expired in november) before I even had to mention it and placed a repair order, tech is supposed to be here Tuesday.  It was fairly painless.  BTW I went through the online chat support rather than the phone.  As usual support was superb, I feel bad for Dell taking the rap on this one...its Nvidia's issue not Dell's but its good to see manufacturers stepping up to the plate to support their products.  After reading the stories on here I was worried but it ended up being as pleasant an experience as you can have when dealing with hardware failures.  Granted this is on the business side (i've never delt with the consumer side) but I am quite happy so far.  Will post again when the Tech arrives and gets it working.

Well just wanted to say thanks to Lionel for his diligence in getting this issue resolved.  I had thought my d820 was immune until the holidays when it decided to rapidly go south.  First it was blue lines on the bios screen but ok in windows now its blue lines in the bios and no video at all once its booted.  I contacted dell and explained what I had done to troubleshoot the issue and the support rep (Kudos to Diana for this one) was aware of the warranty program (my regular warranty expired in november) before I even had to mention it and placed a repair order, tech is supposed to be here Tuesday.  It was fairly painless.  BTW I went through the online chat support rather than the phone.  As usual support was superb, I feel bad for Dell taking the rap on this one...its Nvidia's issue not Dell's but its good to see manufacturers stepping up to the plate to support their products.  After reading the stories on here I was worried but it ended up being as pleasant an experience as you can have when dealing with hardware failures.  Granted this is on the business side (i've never delt with the consumer side) but I am quite happy so far.  Will post again when the Tech arrives and gets it working.

Well just wanted to say thanks to Lionel for his diligence in getting this issue resolved.  I had thought my d820 was immune until the holidays when it decided to rapidly go south.  First it was blue lines on the bios screen but ok in windows now its blue lines in the bios and no video at all once its booted.  I contacted dell and explained what I had done to troubleshoot the issue and the support rep (Kudos to Diana for this one) was aware of the warranty program (my regular warranty expired in november) before I even had to mention it and placed a repair order, tech is supposed to be here Tuesday.  It was fairly painless.  BTW I went through the online chat support rather than the phone.  As usual support was superb, I feel bad for Dell taking the rap on this one...its Nvidia's issue not Dell's but its good to see manufacturers stepping up to the plate to support their products.  After reading the stories on here I was worried but it ended up being as pleasant an experience as you can have when dealing with hardware failures.  Granted this is on the business side (i've never delt with the consumer side) but I am quite happy so far.  Will post again when the Tech arrives and gets it working.

Hi, Lionel
 I`m from Canada, own XPS 1530 almost 2 years.I bought my laptop in US, service tag is

< ADMIN NOTE : Service tag removed per privacy policy >.

Some time ago the screen became black/grey with white vertical lines on it. Called Dell and after spending over an two hours on the phone they told me im out of warranty and this article is not an official Dell article. Can someone help me, please?

Vadim

Just had my m1330 8400 GS nVidia GPU go out on me last week after almost 2 years of ownership. I'm under a 3 year warranty (lucky me). I hadn't known about the nVidia problem, but a few weeks ago started getting those funny characters on the screen, lines, pink screen, etc., then a crash altogether. I was able to reboot for a while and continue working for an hour or so, but it finally died completely -- boot, but no video.

Contacted Dell chat on a friend's laptop and they sent someone to do the old dance-- actually quite quickly, next business day --  replace the motherboard and GPU. But, now after reading all these posts I'm very wary of Dell in general and when it comes time to get a new computer, I will look elsewhere. 

Meantime, I've got 2 more years with the extended warranty left. Hopefully in that time I won't have to contact Dell again about this matter. 

I mean, going through all this for something that is Dell's design fault? Ridiculous. They should pay back every cent we paid on the original system, OR provide a brand-new computer -- no charge. 

I has a problem with NVIDIA GPU on my XPS M1330 laptop

(< ADMIN NOTE : Service tag removed per privacy policy >).

Please look at pictures in attachment.
On the web-site of Dell company indicated 2 phone numbers of technical support service in Ukraine:
* 0-800-5020340** - ProSupport
* 0-800-5020320*

I called 18th of November by number 0-800-5020320 as this phone number indicated as "other support packages". And I recieved answer from expert that they know about such problem but they don't support "basic warranty" . Expert suggested to contact one of distributors of Dell equipment - MUK Company. I sent e-mail with indicating my problem and service tag to this company and recieved answer that my laptop out of warranty.
I sent e-mail to this company again with link to your message about warranty extension. And I recieved answer that they support Parts Only Warranty and only for laptops which puchased through their company, and they suggested to find distributor through wich my laptop was delivered.  
Now instead of doing my job I'm forced to explore the network of Dell distributors... 
Only on web-site of Dell Company indicated 12 distributors in Ukraine. I'm not believe in successful result even if I'll send e-mails to all these distributors.
Please inform: Dell Company have technical support service in Ukraine which undertakes warranty obligations regardless of way of distribution? For me as end user absolutely not interesting how this laptop was delivered, I payed more money comparably to laptops of other producers and in my turn I expected reliable operation.
Honestly speaking I like my XPS laptop but I'm so dissapointed  in Dell technical service which did not proposed me none real decisions in order to solve my problem, problem which arised through the manufacturing defect.

Can you help me in my situation?
I'm living in Kharkov City (Ukraine). All distributors which indicated on Dell web-site are situated in Kyiv, but also indicated that in Kharkov is supported «Basic NBD» package. I hope that Dell company has technical support service in my city which can help me.

Hi hopefully anyone can help me out there.

I have not tried ringing Dell yet as my machine is not listed above.

I have an Inspiron 1720 1 month 14 days out of warranty. It appears the motherboard died 4 days ago.

My laptop has a NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2 Dedicated Graphic memory (according to my invoice).

Could this have overheated and caused my motherboard to get fried? If I ring Dell and explain that I own this computer with the faulty part will they extend my warranty?

Please somebody help

Kirsty from Australia.

Just over two years ago I bought 3 XPS M1330. Within 6 months of its arrival, one of them had already failed and needed a new MB (in this case, it was not an nVidia issue).

Two months later, the second XPS failed. This time it was the nVidia issue and it was replaced within warranty.

Two months ago, the second XPS failed again. This time it had the same problem as the first one so no one-year-warranty there. Had to pay it myself. Fair enough,

A little before the second one failed, the third one failed too. First, it wouldn't boot at all. After *several* attempts and a call to Dell's help-desk it booted but apparently this was not an nVidia related issue because, although the Fn+Power error code clearly stated this was a video issue, it didn't beep or show any colored lines. After this, the computer needed at least 3 attempts to boot correctly and it could then be used for an hour or so before it hanged.

Today, one month after the extra year warranty ended, the third XPS takes at least 10 attempts to boot, and when it does, it shows the dreaded colored lines. Or plenty of artifacts.

I believe that if there's is a known issue with a piece of hardware and the vendor doesn't recall all devices to be replaced for a proper, working device, a one-year warranty extension is not enough: it should be for life.

Anyway, I'll probably never find a judge who believes the same I do so I'll keep it within my possibilities: no one I know is ever getting a Dell ever again. That's for sure.

is lionel actually still active or with dell? is he still alive? or is someone from dell actually still monitoring this?

Hi.  My Dell XPS M1210 (which is not listed in the table above, but clearly qualifies) died 3 days ago.  Or, specifically, the screen died, and when I tried to hook up an external monitor, nada.  Nothing, zip.  I showed it to technical support, and it was the same problem.  Overheating.  Motherboard fried. etc.

I'm in the U.A.E. (Dubai), and Dell Service here has been terrible, starting with unanswered phone calls, and when they are answered, they refer me to "authorized service centers" (non-Dell), who keep passing the buck back to Dell, which keeps asking me to call the service centers....

My laptop is out of the warranty period (a 1 year warranty which ended June 2008).  however, I noticed from the first date of use that the unit ran quite a bit hotter than other laptops I've used and just assumed that that was normal.  It was only now that I discovered of Dell's faulty engineering with using cards which overheat but inadequately shielding them, and that this problem has affected scores (hundreds? thousands?) of other Dell users.

I was sold a faulty laptop to begin with.  I think Dell should make me whole by either replacing the motherboard or getting me a new laptop. 

And PLEASE ask Dell in Dubai to sort out their act.  I don't want to deal with them!

Thanks!

 I've spent a lot of time choosing laptop (reading forums and reviews etc) and bought my Latitude D830 because of Dell's famous "support and service". I had 2 Dell's monitors and 1 desktop, that served me perfectly without any failures.

And what a pleasant surprise before Christmas... My D830 said: "Welcome to the club" :((((

First some purple lines during bootup, then no video signal (even on external monitor).

dell.com replied to my service tag:

System Type: Latitude D830
Ship Date: 7/25/2007
Dell IBU: Europe
Description:Parts Only Warranty

Provider:DELL, Warranty Extension Notification:No, Start Date:7/24/2007, End Date:7/24/2010, Days Left:193

I''ve called russian support and they have answered me exactly like in previous comment: "They don't have any records about guarantee with my service tag". I was crushed.

I had the latest version of BIOS, however GPU failed :(

I am supposed to pay almost half price of the laptop for nvidia's faulty GPU, am I?

Previously this summer my father's samsung laptop failed(because of same nvidia related problem). They fixed it without any problems and called for a feedback about service later.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Lionel,

I have a Dell Latitude D630,I bought in USA february 2008 and i am now in the Russia,my problem:is the vga card,the video card has

failed,BIOS does not start (black screen).

But by pressing start-up and "D"-the screen shows red,green,blue,white and black (I.e the monitor the worker and videochip

does not work).

I have called russian support,but there to me have answered,that I do not have record about a guarantee...

That you will advise to me now?

This laptop is very good and I would not like to say goodbye to it...

I have sent to you e-mail,please answer me.

Thank you,Best regards,

Hi Lionel,

I have a Dell Latitude D 630,on Service tag :Ship Date: 8/31/2007

nVidia finacial report http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1215037160521.html

Excerpt: (See second paragraph)

SANTA CLARA, CA—JULY 2, 2008—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the world leader in visual computing technologies, today provided a business update for its second quarter ending July 27, 2008. Second quarter revenue and gross margin are expected to be lower than guidance provided during its first quarter financial conference call held May 8, 2008. Total revenue is now estimated to be from $875 million to $950 million. The estimated decrease in revenue and gross margin is due to several reasons: end-market weakness around the world, the delayed ramp of a next generation MCP, and price adjustments of our GPU products to respond to competitive products.

Separately, NVIDIA plans to take a one-time charge from $150 million to $200 million against cost of revenue for the second quarter to cover anticipated warranty, repair, return, replacement and other costs and expenses, arising from a weak die/packaging material set in certain versions of its previous generation GPU and MCP products used in notebook systems. Certain notebook configurations with GPUs and MCPs manufactured with a certain die/packaging material set are failing in the field at higher than normal rates. To date, abnormal failure rates with systems other than certain notebook systems have not been seen. NVIDIA has initiated discussions with its supply chain regarding this material set issue and the Company will also seek to access insurance coverage for this matter.

Hi Lionel,

I have a dell xps m1330, i'm having graphics failures too and the BIOS update didn't change that as stated.  I live in the Philippines and have noticed that it's not listed in the registration, my warranty has expired but the 12 month extension should cover it.  How can I get my laptop fixed?   I've practically used up the whole day trying to find out who to contact.  The laptop is one year old but it has been slightly used.  I've just started using it regularly for the last 3 months and then the video problems happened. 

has anyone been getting any responses or replies thru private msg's???

Hi Lionel,

I have an M1330 with the nvidia gpu failure. (computer is no longer usable, vertical lines, crosshatch patterns, etc, etc.) I have phoned XPS support in Canada 3 times and have been given 3 different case and dispatch numbers, going back to the beginning of November. I believe the problem may be that although the support reps admit that there is a warranty extension for this problem, they are not validating my extended warranty. Since the computer shows as no warranty, they will not dispatch a shipping box. Can you direct me to someone who could get me out of this endless loop?

Thanks,

Kevin

I have a Dell Vostro 1400. It was dead on arrival (Nov 30, 2007), video issues, identified by Dell as LCD defective. After trying to service it they gave up and sent me a new system and (verbally) offered to extend the warranty by a year. Since the new system arrived Jan 10, 2008 (shipped Jan 2, 2008 according to Dell), I expected the original warrantee with extension to last at least until 1/2/2010 - today is the first work day after that. They had no record of the extension offer. Just recently, I started having video problems that got worse in a short period of time. At present the BIOS text display is doubled (one copy up, one down). External displays say they cannot display the video mode or refresh rate is too high. This sounds like the GPU failure identified here. I called Dell, they said my warrantee ran out in Nov 30, 2008, no record of an extension offer and besides, teh GPU problem was fixed in the new system (sure). I escalated to a manager. He found the record of the replacement system, with a warrantee date of 1/2/2008, but again no record of extension. He said they couldn't do anything for me, except repair for cost. I said if it was going to cost me, I'd buy a Macbook. After a little discussion, he offered to escalate it to senior management (they will reply in 48 hrs). Wish me luck. 

Please notice your technical support staffs outside the United States about this issue !!

I've got a XPS M1530, no video and fail to boot now.
Called the technical support here in Hong Kong, paid the shipping for inspection.
Rejected the quotation about fixing that faulty GPU for almost half of the laptop price.

I told the technical support guy about this and he said only 8400m GPUs are affected.
Mine is 8600m and together with my expired warranty, I need to pay?

They just don't know about this issue !! My laptop is also on the list !!

Obviously I'm not the first one to have such problem here in Hong Kong, please notice your staff about this policy now.
Only 6 months left for my "Extended Warranty", if it is also valid in Hong Kong.

Could anyone help me to sort out the problem??

Are the Dell support hotline agents aware of this "known defect" with the Dell Latitude D630, I called twice in a row, first agent I spoke to didn't seem to understand english, and the 2nd rep I got, a girl (who sounded more american) couldn't seem to find my Dell tag # "in the system", even though I purchased my laptop through our company's corporate Dell representative w/ 3yr CompleteCare warranty. She said she could still open a service request and they could confirm my tag # once they receive it, however she said that she wasn't aware of any "known issues" with the videocard in the D630 and that I may be charged for an out-of-warranty service.

I know I should still be covered by my original 3yr CompleteCare warranty, doubly-so if it was extended for 12 months according to Lionel's post, however the techs on the phone did not seem aware of this issue or warranty extention....

Is this warranty extention still valid ? Is there a case or issue # I can reference to when I call Dell Technical support?

Case #'s  < ADMIN NOTE : Case number removed per privacy policy > or

< ADMIN NOTE : Case number removed per privacy policy >

Hi Lionel,

I have a vostro 1400 that has an affected nvidia GPU as well. Spent 4+ hours speaking to warranty, technical support, resolution center, etc. Got my computer on august 2007 and my computer first started getting problems on christmas eve 2009. Upon talking to technical support it is determined that I have a defective Nvidia card but because it is past the 2years mark I cannot get it replaced unless i pay $500. 

Please is there anything you can do because I feel it is very unfair to have a computer with a known defect to not work anymore. The guy at the resolution center tells me there's nothing i can do except pay. That since I only paid for a 1 year warranty my computer should only last for 1 year. And any problems after that is pretty much too bad, tough luck. That the 1 year warranty is for manufactur defects but because its outside the 1 year and extended 1 year, they can't fix it.

Let me know

Chris

Hello Lionel, I am an XPS 1530 user. I purchased it in India. I have been facing issues with the video distortion. My system is currently out of warranty. I called the technical support here in India and they told me that the issue is not covered under warranty. After a lot of aruments they finally told me that its the wrong department and need to call back again later on monday.

Could you please help me? I purchased the system in may 2008 and it out of warranty since may 2009.

I ran diagnostics on the LCd by pressing the letter D and the power button and that the LCD BIST passed. Its the same kind of video duistortion on the external monitor as well. I updated video drivers and flashed bios. Still the issue persists.

Please do suggest if my system is eligible for the motherboard replacement and if it is why is the technical support not helping me?

Lionel,

I appreciate the effort you have made over what other vendors are doing with regards to the same issue. However, I am an owner of a Vostro 1400 which just started experiencing the multiple images, unrecognizable characters, and eventually complete inability to display images on my computer. Interestingly enough, although I refrain from saying unlucky because this problem seems to be inevitable, the issue happened some 4 months after what would be the extension of the warranty which your firm has offered. I am not sure what my options are now. If I understand what has happened correctly I reach a couple conclusions.

There was a hardware issue from one of your parts makers and,

The issue is more likely than not going to result in an ineffective computer at some point.

If these two facts are true, I am not sure what the 12 month extension serves to accomplish. If the computer becomes ineffective because of a particular issue that is obviously not via wear and tear then you have already acknowledged an error, and I would expect, to be consistent, that you would honor your decision to help correct the error.

Please tell me your thoughts, and also, what my next plan of action should be to fix this problem.

Robert.

I have a Dell Vostro 1700 laptop with the 256mb nVIDIA GeForce 8600m GT graphics chipset. I recently noticed that I have no video being displayed through its VGA port for an external monitor. I initially think that it’s a driver fault so I wipe the system and put a clean install of the operating system and dell drivers for the video card, however still it doesn’t work. I try using the onboard diagnostics tool and it doesn’t display an output to the external monitor either. i know the computer detects the monitor and the monitor detects the computer but it just displays a black screen. i know that its not a driver issue as the diagnostic tool on the laptop works independently from the operating system therefore is irrelevant. i know it’s not the monitor as it has been tested on other computers. I know it must either be the graphics card or the motherboard.

I did a bit of research and found this topic among many others that the 8600 and 8400 chipsets are faulty. nVIDIA do not know the actual cause of this. They have tested laptops and suspect that it is a problem with the die/packing material however are not certain. Therefore how can dell accurately determine which machines are affected and which aren’t. According to Dell the Vostro 1710 is affected but not the 1700 even though they use the same chipset which has the problem.

This is clearly a latent defect in the machine, which Dell was aware of and did not inform their customers of which is their responsibility. they know it affects machines with the nVIDIA chipset therefore they should have written to or contacted all their customers, rather than keeping quiet about the DEFECT.

NVIDIA announced in 2008 that they knew about detective chipsets and covered it up for a year, which is very interesting as at that time the chipset itself was a year and a half old.

I rang technical support and they were very unhelpful.

Hi Lionel,

I have a Dell Vostro 1510 with nVidia 8400M G graphics card. I updated my bios to version A15 when it first came out. I've had no problems with the laptop until last week when I got the typical yellow lines and now no screen at all. My original warranty ran out earlier this year, but after finding this post I contacted Dell technical support only to be told that the Vostro 1510 wasn't covered by the extended warranty and that if I wanted my motherboard and graphics card replaced it would be £400.

Could anyone confirm whether or not the Vostro 1510 is covered or not by this extended warranty? I see no reason why it shouldn't as it's exactly the same problem everyone else is experiencing due to nVidia GPU failure with a 8400 series card.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Fin

"If you do experience (the issues with the nVidia GPUs), however, we will support you." 

Lionel,

I'm having this exact problem and Dell Support is refusing to support it. I have an XPS m1730 with an 8700m video card. The card is experiencing the die separation issue that nVidia allocated the $200m writedown in 2008 to "remediate." However, since the m1730 is not in the list of laptops above, the SMB support dept is refusing to honor the 1yr extended limited warranty for the video card / laptop replacement.

How is my machine, an incredibly expensive laptop, not covered under the 1yr limited warranty extension? It's got a G84 die that is listed by nVidia to have the defective die separation issue. I ran the latest bios, Dell-released nVivia drivers and still the heat got to the card and caused the die separation.

I sent you a personal email yesterday addressing this issue. I'd really like to know what your reasoning is for not accepting the XPS m1730 8700m video card as a defective card under this limited warranty period (I am still well within the 1yr extended warranty period). Please see the issue and respond at your earliest convenience.

BTW - I'm on a Small and Medium business account and I would have expected much better service from the SMB Tech Support group.

I look forward to hearing your input about this issue.

Thanks,

Trouper

I'm in the same boat as many others (Vostro 1400, no screen at all).  My warranty just expired and I can't afford a new motherboard.  Same old sad story as everyone else - In grad school, no job and a newborn son.  I was promptly contacted by a service support person, but they said they won't replace the motherboard.

My question is, I was sold the model of laptop that had a malfunctioned part by Dell and was not informed of the problem or the fact that updating my BIOS was necessary to prevent a failure in the graphics card.  Since I was not informed (and seemingly had to dig to even find that it was a malfunctioned motherboard), the warranty time limit is irrelivant since it could have failed within one week of me recieving it or 2 years after like I have experienced.  I wasn't even informed that I needed to update my BIOS to potentially solve the problem.  Shouldn't Dell replace these regardless of a time limit?

For example, I have a Subaru with a recalled part.  They mailed me a letter and said I need to go get it serviced at Subaru's expense because they are responsible for the faulty part.  It doesn't matter how late I respond, they were going to change it regardless.  Why isn't Dell doing the same?  Just because my computer faulted after 2 years doesn't mean my Nvidia card wasn't any less faulty than the rest right?

Thanks for the discussion on this issue!  I love my Dell and I just want it back! :(

Colin

Hi Lionel,

I have a Vostro 1400 with the nvidia 8400 card, and like most of the people here I have a faulty GPU. The colors on the screen is all messed up and now my laptop refuses to boot, and when it does, it only lasts about a half an hour before it crashes again. I called dell tech support and they said that both my original and extended warranty were expired in august, but this problem came three weeks ago. I really hope there can be a solution to this because I'm a student and this laptop cost me $700+. I don't have anymore money to buy another computer. Please give me some help it'd be very very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

I look forward to hearing from you.

~ N.C (ohhlif3)

Hello,

I have a 1420 Inspiron and this is the second time my motherboard/nVidia 8400m GS has failed.  The first time it failed was about 16 months ago when my computer was still under warranty.  My computer is displaying the exact same symptoms as the first time and I've checked using an external display and am getting the telltale horizontal stripes. 

However, my computer is no longer under warranty.  With the 12 month enhanced warranty, it is still 4 months out of warranty.  What am I supposed to do?  the enhanced warranty does nothing for me and the new motherboard/gpu that was replaced in my computer failed in a little over a year.  It's ridiculous if I'm forced to buy a new motherboard or even pc in order to replace a part with a well documented defect.

Also because my computer is just a few months out of warranty I can't call Dell's technical support without paying the 49 dollar fee.

I have just been speaking to Dell and they have informed me that the extended warranty is only available for Vostro 1400 models with the 8400 card, this contradicts this entire article. They have told me that my graphics card has failed and that it is not my fault that it has broken; however, they are denying ever offering extended warranty.

My one year warranty expired in October, yesterday, I turned on my laptop (Vostro 1510) to a black screen, it wouldn`t even get as far as the bios. When I plug the machine into an external monitor I am presented with lots of coloured lines. That laptop was always hot but I never really though it was serious.

I cant think of anything else which could have caused this other than a faulty graphics card: I recently installed Windows 7 and the 195.62 drivers but I have been told that these aren't the problem. I have also installed the A15 BIOS update, though this is also not the problem as they have confirmed.

When you say that they are offering an extended warranty, does this mean that it is a free warranty? I am being told that if I would like to have this laptop repaired then I have to pay £120 for another year. Can anyone confirm whether this is right or not?

If anyone has any more information in regards to who I should talk to could you email me at <ADMIN NOTE: Email id Removed As Per Privacy Policy>

Many thanks

Last Monday (LAst week) the technnician was replacing my mainboard for 4th time. A few minutes after the change it failed in front of his eyes. He called the Call Center. they said a 5th mainboard will be sent. They found that my Laptop was sent to me without an important part for heat dissipation of the Nvidia Issue.

I was recording All. My local TEchnician was reporting: "extrem heat, I cant support to put the hand there". the technnician at the Call Center (pressed by me) acceted that "THE NVIDIA IS THE SAME. DELL REACONDITIONED THE LAPTOPS FOR RESISTING THE NVIDIA EXTREM HEAT BECAUSE OF THE "ISSUE"".

Dell was selling laptops with those defective chips after  knowing about they could fail. They just urged people to download a Bios Upgrade for increasing the fan speed.And in some models added extra parts for heat dissipation.

NO. THE CHIPS ARE THE SAME WITH THE POTENTIAL FAIL. NVIDIA NEVER CHANGED THEM. JUST STOPPED THE PRODUCTION OF THOSE CHIPS.

DELL: If that's not true, SUE ME

I've got a recording of the call center accepting that. And I'll posted in my groups with subtitles in ALL LANGUAGES.

I've got a warranty Extension with complete care. But I dont want to waste my time and money waiting for boards, web cams, hard disks, fans, keyboards, LCDs, speakers.

I DESERVE RESPECT. WE DESERVE RESPECT. NO MORE LIES.

Facebook: Dell Dark side http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=374562600009

NING: http://delldarkside.ning.com

Carlos Humberto Diaz Jurado

Customer: 102102111

(taking a screen capture preventing a censorship)

I have a vostro 1400 everything works, until i start to play any graphics intensive games, screen all of the sudden turns pink and freezes until I do a physical restart by holding the power button down.  Do I have the same problem? My warranty ran out what should i do?

Lionel, Dell just replaced the motherboard on my XPS m1330 after the NVIDIA chip failed again; this is motherboard number three for my laptop. I was hesitant to let them do this again but a guy named Saran B. assured me that Dell knew about the problem and has a recall out, as well as an updated part, and that this new motherboard would not fail. I can't find any literature online about this recall and supposedly updated part. I asked Saran about getting me some proof but he just said to look in the blogs and forums... nothing. Seeing as multiple people have reported having their motherboards replaced upwards of six times for this NVIDIA problem, I was under the impression Dell had done nothing to update the part. I took detailed pictures of my old motherboard and compared them to the new motherboard, and it looks identical in every way, shape, and form. Can you confirm that the part has been updated? I just need it for peace of mind because I don't 100% trust that Dell is telling me the truth and might be trying to push me out of my warranty before I demand more action. Thank you!

Hi Lionel,

I'm experiencing the same problem on my Dell Inspiron 1420 (bought in New Zealand on the 18/02/2008), I've emailed you my personal details. My laptop now refuses to display any video at all.

I'm still under the extended warranty period,  so please advise on the best course of action from here.

Regards,

Shreyas

So I called Dell and after spending over an hour and half on the phone they basically told me I was screwed.  They said my extended warranty expired Oct 31 and ironically 6 days later the GPU failed but they wouldn't do anything about it.  Ironically enough two of the guys i talked to admitted they knew what the problem was, but the main support person i talked to said she didn't know it existed and said my only options were to extend my warranty or buy a new motherboard.  No point in doing that since the machine is outdated and i'll probably just wait till the i5 laptops come out and not buy a Dell...

For kicks i decided to take apart my entire system last night and bake it in the oven to try and resolve the issue.  The good news is that it worked and seems to have no side affects.  For how long it will work is yet to be seen but it's at least an option if your screwed from Dell.  

Guide to baking:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=437683&page=4

I did 385 for about 8 minutes... note that the plastic on the 1420s will melt a little bit so you may want to remove as much as possible before doing it.

Well I'm pretty sure Dell lied to me. A very nice gentleman just left after replacing the motherboard and fan/heat-sync assembly in my M1330. It is running about 15 degrees cooler, which is good. So just for fun I popped the bottom off to take a peak at what the "revised" motherboard/GPU looks like. It is 100% in every way possible absolutely positively identical to the motherboard they replaced today. I am just glad I'm not a poor fool with less than six months of warranty left. I have two years left and when it fails again... my evil twin is calling Dell.

Well I guess that does it for me and dell and my business and dell I called again and refered to the article he said there was no article and that my lcd was bad he said I have to pay 40 something dollars and pay for the lcd. Thanks alot dell. I will focus on Gateway systems for now on and resell them.

I posted down a little ways a few days ago. I bought my m1330 in August '08, and already had the motherboard replaced in June 2009 because the NVIDIA chip failed. Now it's failing again. After chatting and talking with an XPS support agent last night, she could only authorize a fan replacement for me. I know the fan is absolutely fine; the air moving through my computer sounds like a space shuttle launch and my processor cores are as cool as can be while my GPU core is sizzling. She also denied any knowledge on Dell's end of this NVIDIA problem. So I wrote an e-mail to some higher-ups at Dell and this afternoon a nice guy by the name of Sarjan (sp?) called me up. He says Dell knows about the problem (so my first service agent was either clueless or lying to me) and has a recall out? He says they have updated the part and are going to send someone out to replace it this week. He promised I wouldn't have any more trouble with it after that. This is the first I've heard of an updated part. Can anyone confirm this?

I was kind of hoping for a Studio XPS 13 to be offered as a replacement. I know Dell has been giving them out. It's missing some of the features that my m1330 has, but at least it's a whole different motherboard/GPU/heat sync setup. As long as my m1330 will work forever after this replacement I will be happy. I just don't want to have to worry about being at school giving a presentation and have neon lines flash across my screen when the GPU fails again! I guess we'll find out in six months if the "new" part is legitimate...

After being told by a Dell Gold Technician via email that my out-of-warranty Precision M65 would require me to pay all of the costs for a replacement motherboard, shipping and service, I discovered this article. (A huge thanks to you, Lionel_Menchaca). I called back to Dell with this article in-hand and, after a few quick diagnostic tests, it was determined that this was precisely the issue plaguing my machine. Not only did Dell pay for the replacement MB, but they also overnighted the replacement and had a technician install it on-site within a business day -- all for no charge to me at all.

I'm very thankful that there was no cost and, once headed down the right path, was quickly and simply resolved, but shame on Dell for making me be the one to identify this issue and specifically request the warranty extension. I'm sure there's no possible way that each and every technician could possibly manually track every issue to this level of detail, however I find it entirely unacceptable that Dell does not have some way to set a flag in the system, inviting technicians to explore a possible warranty-extension related problem.

If you're having this problem you can try the steps I took to resolve the problem: don't email, don't chat. If in the US, follow Lionel's direction to use phone numbers on this page to contact Dell Technical Support.

Good luck!

No offence, but this blog is useless if Dell tech support keep telling me that it's 3rd party information and can't be used to justify an extended warranty on my inspiron 1420.

Is there an actual Dell policy (with a Dell article number) to handle this situation or do I have to keep calling support and hoping to fall on someone who actually understands the situation?

(I WROTE HERE YESTERDAY but today my comment has been censored. Now I wrote again and then I'll take a screen capture)

After multiple changes of parts I can say I've been living in a kind of nightmare. And all the problems are around the NVIDIA 8400M GS, called "The NVIDIA ISSUE". Dell knew about this problem when I bought the Laptop. And when the video failed, they sent me a new board and the TOLD ME: "Mr. Diaz, the issue is fixed in the new board". BUT THAT'S NOT TRUE. I'm waiting for the 4th change of board because of the NVIDIA Issue. Now I know NVIDIA never really fixed the 8400GS M. Dell's solution is just a Bios update for increasing the fan speed, reducing the overall life of the system. THANK YOU DELL: I LOVE YOU.
But the board hasn't been the only change:
REPLACEMENTS:
LCD: 2 times
HARD DISK: 1 time (problems since the second week)
Keyboard, webcam, wireless switch: 1 time.

If you've got a Dell system without failures: YOU CAN BE HAPPY.

But if you've got a "DELL ISSUE"... WELLCOME TO THE DELL DARK SIDE.
Invite your family, friends, neighbors, cooworkers and everyone to these groups
WE DESERVE RESPECT FROM DELL.

JOIN NOW!!

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=374562600009

NING: http://delldarkside.ning.com/

I ordered my third notebook from Dell in August, 2008; an XPS m1330. I pretty much maxed the thing out in terms of hardware so I could keep it for a long time. It's a great computer, I love it! But... in June 2009 I had the GPU fail. The thing ran HOT, the fans sounded like a space shuttle launch, and I got lots of pretty colored lines on the screen. Dell sent a technician to replace the motherboard and it ran great. I made sure I had the latest BIOS and nVidia drivers too. Now, six months later I am experiencing the first stages of GPU failure again. Over the past couple weeks the fan has become much louder. It goes into space-shuttle mode watching a non-HD YouTube video and the GPU core jumps to 90 degrees C (195 F) and retards itself, bogging down my computer.

It's Saturday and I suspect that Dell's weekend support team is not the same so I think I will wait to call on Monday, but I still don't expect to get anywhere. They're probably going to make me wait for the problem to progress to the point where my computer is 100% non-operational, at which point they will replace my motherboard again. Good thing I don't rely on my computer for school and work (sarcasm). Even then, they're going to replace it with the same flawed hardware so I'll be posting back here in six months with it failing again. I love Dell, but if they won't stand behind their product (which I paid a lot of money for), my next notebook will be a MacBook Pro.

It looks like Dell is letting us down this time. This is the first time I'm experiencing such a hard time with Dell customer service.  There seems to be a random treatment of each case and it's quite bizarre that the failure occurs right after the expiration of the warranty in most cases!!! I'm not gonna stop buying Dell's product, mostly because I think the overall quality and customer statisfaction are very good, but I just want the Dell staff to know about the frustration they are creating among their customers. I can understand that big part of the problem is due to Nvidia but, as a customer, I trusted and relied on Dell when buying my inspiron 1420, not Nvidia. Simple ethical consideration.

Hello Lionel!

I'm from Russia. I've bought  My DELL XPS M1330 on 15.12.2007 in Russia (service tag ). Some weeks ago the screen became black and there vertical colored lines started filling up the entire black screen and the computer crashed. 

The first thing I have done was calling to the dell technical support service in Russia, tel number +7-10-800-21561044. My laptop  was checked by Service Tag. I was said my laptop is objectively from those part of notebooks in which scrapped/ flawed video chips NVIDIA were used. They told me if I had a dell warranty, they could exchange my motherboard even if the warranty period has made void, but they said I haven't got that dell warranty. Though when I enter the service tag on the dell website it is written there that I have BASE WARRANTY.

Then I applied to the authorized service center Dell in Moscow, Russia. And again the experts confirmed even with a greater pleasure that I have no dell warranty and never had it. They offered me to repair my laptop (to replace the motherboard) at my own expense: the cost of the motherboard - 16500 roubles (500 $) and its replace - 1500 roubles (50 $).
I hope all this is just a misconception and the dell company esteems its clients wherever they are and doesn't deprive they their warranty.
IPlease, solve this question as soon as possible (I use notebook for remote learning) and replace my motherboard under the extended warranty in connection with flawed chip NVIDIA.

Sergey

<ADMIN NOTE : Service Tag per privacy policy>

Hello,

My Name is Joel Lovelace I have a Dell Inspiron 1420, I just started getting intermitten video issues. I contacted Dell today and the tech told me to check out this site and that there was a recall with Nvidia on the issue that I am having. I was on the call for about 45 min when he placed me on hold to do something and the call got dropped. I called back and the tech said he didn't know what I was talking about and said to contact paid support. I really wouldn't mind any type of replacement as I spent over 1500 for this system and specially added the nvidia card. By the way I never got lines just screen going off and on until now. I am using an external monitor for the conversation and I just seen all kinds of lines from side to side on the laptop screen. I am guessing the reason the tech would not help me is that I purchased the system in 07 and the extended warranty went out on aug of 09.

Please help me with this issue,

PS, I also have been selling these systems as a dell partner but my clients have not had the issue, would this be something I should let them know about?

I had the problem with my DELL XPS M1330 after 18 months, here in Belgium, and I got a funny answer from the tech support. They told me: "Yeah, you're right, but the warranty enhancement covers only the NVIDIA GPU, not the tech intervention. We can send you a new chipset by post, but who will fix your laptop? In any case, if something goes wrong in the process, well, too bad. It's warranty void. You'd better buy an extra 3 years warranty (btw, it costs just €200)." ^_^
I'm by no mean a hardware expert, and I couldn't afford long arguments and long delays before getting my laptop fixed. So I paid. I feel somewhat bitter about the whole business, though.

Thank you Lionel - I finally was able to get my laptop motherboard replaced under the extended warranty program for the GPU failure, and everything seems to be functioning properly again.  Thanks again for all of your help.

Sorry for formating of my last post. In field "Add a Comment" it was normally.

Hello. Sorry for my english. I'm from Russia. I've bought  my laptop (dell XPS m1330) on 05.01.2008 in Russia Ekaterinburg. Some days ago  the screen just went black, then vertical colored lines started filling up the entire black screen and the computer crashed.  When I reboot the same thing happens on start-up until the login-screen appears. Now on start-up i can see only colored lines on black screen. So, I’m find some information about this in the web, because i'm not the first with this issue.

I have exactly this issue with my laptop. And from your post i understand that i have the right for extended warranty.

The first thing I have done was calling to the technical support service dell for Russian users, tel number +7-10-800-21561044. My laptop  was checked by

<ADMIN NOTE : Service tag removed per privacy policy>.

I was said my laptop is objectively from those part of notebooks in which scrapped/ flawed video chips NVIDIA were used.
But the next  thing I heard, to speak carefully, surprised me. They told me if I had a dell warranty, they could exchange my motherboard even if the warranty period has made void, but they said I haven’t got that dell warranty. Though when I enter the service tag on the dell website it is written there that I have BASE WARRANTY. The expert of dell Russian technical support told me that instead of dell warranty I was given the warranty of a household appliances shop “M-Video” (where I have bought my laptop). So he told me to apply to that shop.

In the shop I heard that they don’t know anything about the extension of a warranty period and they have applied all their undertakings. Frankly speaking, I think they are right. They are not the ones who have made a flawed laptop, and they are not the ones who have announced about the warranty extension.
This exact situation seems strange to me because when I bought the hardware of other firms like Samsung and Acer I also was given the shop and the manufacturer warranties but the shop warranty never annulled those manufacturer. I wonder does dell respect their clients in Russia less than Acer and Samsung?
Then I applied to the authorized service center Dell in Ekaterinburg, Russia. And again the experts confirmed even with a greater pleasure that I have no dell warranty and never had it. They offered me to repair my laptop (to replace the motherboard) at my own expense: the cost of the motherboard - 17500 roubles (600 $!) and its replace – 1800 roubles (62 $).
I hope all this is just a misconception and the dell company esteems its clients wherever they are and doesn’t deprive they their warranty.
I ask you to solve this question as soon as possible and replace my motherboard under the extended warranty in connection with flawed chip NVIDIA. I would like your expert to get into touch with me by e-mail

<ADMIN NOTE : Email Id removed per privacy policy>

or <ADMIN NOTE : Email Id removed per privacy policy>

and explain to me how can I execute a guarantee extension and repair my laptop.

Hello,

Thank you for informing end users about the potential NVIDIA issues (not dell's fault).

However at this stage my xpsm1210 nvidia gpu is going bad (lines on screen and junk characters). It is also out of warranty so I have no hope of it being repaired for free ,

I contacted the local support and they were very helpful in answering my queries and informing me about my options which is to replace the mother board and since there is no service center here, I have to pay for the shipping and a new motherboard . Is there any hope of getting it done cheaper (refurbished board or any other option and without the nvidia gpu) ?

I also have had throttling issues with my xps despite  keeping it well maintained and cleaning it frequently (dust removal).

Regards,

Clifford

The warranty extension is real.  I called out-of-service support and explained my failed GPU on my Vostro 1400.  They transferred me to another 800 number that is specifically for Vostro systems.  The person at that number told me I would have to pay for service.  When I asked about the extended warranty work for this specific graphics problem, I was transferred over to tech support.  The tech support person was very helpful and didn't give me any grief.  They're sending out a box for me to return my system for repair.  I'm very happy at this point (except for having a temporarily dead laptop.)  You just need to penetrate the bureaucracy far enough to get the work done under warranty.

Maybe a Dell chief read this forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204772  , is a bad  joke  what is hapening whit XPS 1330.

Hello. I'm having an issue with a Dell D830 with an NVidia NVS140<which seems to be GPU related but it's not one of the symptoms on the list.

Basically the system will turn itself off with no warning, making the sound it normally does if you hold down the power button for a few seconds.

It only happens during GPU-intensive operations which is why I think it's related to the video card.

I note that there isn't a D830 BIOS update specific to the issues you describe.

I'm running the latest BIOS (A14). Dell support suggested running the diagnostics on startup (which passed) and then have said I need to reinstall Windows, but that doesn't seem like it's likely to resolve anything. Also, I work in the field so a re-install would need to be done by IT at our head office.

I found this discussion on the forums:

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19245930/19385361.aspx

which sounds like my symptoms.

Anything I can point Dell support towards that would help them identify whether or not this is a GPU problem?

Regards,

Jonathan

Hello Lionel,

I just got off the phone with Dell's out-of-warranty tech support. They claim to know nothing of this warranty extension. I mentioned this blog, the nvidia problem, and even your name and he just kept repeating that my laptop was out of warranty and there was to be no free repair. He never heard of this warranty extension.

My problems are the following:

a) Laptop screen always black (but LCD backlight working).

b) My external monitor's display is corrupted (green vertical lines)

c) My laptop monitor displays various colors during "Fn" startup test, but no text is displayed at any time during this test.

He also claimed that in addition to my GPU being broken, my LCD is also definitely broken and will require an additional $450 repair cost. Sounds to me like he's trying to call the GPU problem an LCD problem and make me pay for that.

This is a shame.

I Really hope this makes the post...

XPS M1210 Model Replacing the GPU

I've just about had it with Dell, time to take mattes in to my own hands
if you feel the same way read on,  if not, time for you to toss your none working laptop in the trash can.

if you want to try and save it read on... please note this is not for the faint harted

Replace GPU  with same make/type model

mine GPU is a Nvida Ge Force Go 7400 GPU

Things you will need:

A good light is a must

Kitchen Table

Philips screwdrivers small

Flat bladed screwdriver small

a plastic tub

Heat cpu compound/gel

Anti static straps is a must

The Manual that was shipped with the laptop or a down load it!

A Digital Camera

a new GPU

Note: Take out the Battery, and Only take out screws that are marked with a triangle or a "D" and place in plastic tub.

how to take out the top part of the keyboard on the far right there is an indentment, with flat bladed screwdriver insert 1/4 inch and apply pressure and pop  up the corner, then put screwdriver down and with finger slide the rest od the plastic strip from left to right and pop out the left hand side where the XPS logo is located and flip plastic strip up wards 

you will then need to undo the screen hinge screws located on the rear 2 screws on each side one near the power socket and near the RJ45 or network Socket then flip laptop over and lid out screen follow the Manual !!!!

Once you have the keyboard out and the laptop apart  take of top casing and undo mouse controller cable
remove top cover or flip up out the way

locate the GPU, mine is on the right hand side under the heat sink

GPU and CPU handling

Once you have reviled the CPU/GPU take grate care taking out the heat sink, also gentely clean off the cpu old compound again taken grate care......................... then grab the heat sink and clean it off the old compound really good to get the old compound off, it must be removed,

 at this point it is best if you have a digital camera and take pictures of the GPU for refence

Now, locate the GPU, mine in my 1210 XPS is on the far right, take out the GPU set to one side taking note what way it came out normally is marked with a missing pin on one corner, take the New GPU and install in same manor
make dram sure that all the pins line up before final insert

now look at that digital picture you took and make sure it is the same way round as pictures as to what you just installed

once happy insert the GPU, apply CPU heat Gel /compound  to top of GPU and with you index finger just slightly smudge and  let it set for a while do the same with the CPU both must be cleaned before new compound is applied

Once happy, re insert heat sink  on Cpu and Gpu and seat it well and secure it

Apply all the cables you took of and all the screws and re insert all the components that you took out in reverse order

Dont forget to install the Screen Hinge screws i almost did

Once everything is back, snap the ceasing of the laptop together and flip over and insert case screws

make one last check on screws and make sure the case is snapped back together.

Now at this point CHANT or pray, insert battery and power and pray again, then hit the power on button

If you see a post test and then booting to windows and get to log in Your  Done well done!!

you can thank me later.

K4eeZ from the Amateur Radio Community

Hello Lionel .I have oane question:The problem whit this videocard NVIDIA on m1330 if fixed by the producer in 2008 or is in on the all products series?

I have a problem with my m1210 with a 7400go GPU

I had it tested, and was told that the GPU failed

I have tried and tried and TRIED to get Dell to cooperate, even trying to give them reference numbers of individuals who had their problem taken care of for free. Heck, there are people on this thread that have the same issue as me (for m1210), and some had to pay for it, and others had it solved for free.

My sister's Inspiron's Nvidia GPU also failed, and her laptop is useless right now, and I want to get my computer fixed so I can then help her out as well.

Dell, PLEASE help me.

Regards,

Jorge A. Concha

Although it is easy to dislike a large company, and i personally feel sorry for all who are going through hell I honestly have to give credit where credit is due.  I went through dell's chat interface and met with someone who asked me questions, saw this post and then went ahead with sending hardware after troubleshooting.

I have yet to have it repaired and will amend this comment based on how it is fixed, but I feel that Nvidia is the one at fault not really Dell and it has affected all vendors who have purchased such hardware.

This said, while I got excellent service and got an excellent response by going through the right venues, I don't go through phone support.  I've heard too many stories to go through them and personally got hung up on twice when calling.  Amazon really did well going with a US based CS system that is stable and efficient while being large, successful and highly profitable.  I also hope other companies go along with their model and minimally outsource their customer support.

In any case, I purchased an M1530 with 3 years support and wouldn't go less than that when technology is relatively new. 

I don't really recommend HP, Toshiba, nor Asus as I've had WORSE luck with tech support than with dell.  For those who want trouble free machines that require no technical comptency you can't go wrong with a mac.  Expensive, yes but virtually trouble free machines.

Help with support,

I too have tried to wade through the levels of support. Why would it take 5 different support personel to find out that the warrenty being offered is not being honored?

I have been offered  another extended warrenty for $385 for 1 year.

I have been told that I would have to pay $199 to send Dell my laptop to have it tested and then pay $389 to have it repaired plus any other repairs deemed necessary.

I will offer anyone a warrenty for $500 up front and you pay all repair costs.

Could I at least have a replacement motherboard sent to me so I can get it replaced locally?

My 1 year old M1330 sits quietly gathering dust  while my new Asus N81Vg is trying to find help for it.

Hear that Dell?

Lionel-

This whole issue is really souring most of us on Dell.  Repeat business is a cornerstone of the future and we as a group are moving away from Dell.  I'm a senior Project Engineer at a "major" Aerospace company who exclusively uses Dell.  I personally recommend Dell to the masses I work with.  I really don't know how I can rationalize what appears to be a ongoing design issue which Dell is repairing only for a limited time and then only if you can somehow get through the armies of tech support folks who say you have to buy a service contract before we can even talk to you.  I'm out a grand for a laptop and it appears Dell is not interested in addressing it.

I've sent you a couple of emails if you have any influence on the issue.  I really hope Dell is re-thinking this issue.  I think if the real numbers on the problem reports of this issue were known to the public Dell would have a real image issue.

Thanks,

Stan

Hi Lionel,

I emailed you but I figured that I would make a comment about it too. I am terribly frustrated with my XPS M1330 because it has the vertical line problem. When I contacted Dell about it, I got someone who told me she couldn't help me and switched me over to another representative, who just upgraded my video driver. Halfway through, he told me I wasn't under warranty, as it expired in August 2009 but I told him about this blog that said I would be covered for another year. However, he just ignored me and asked if I wanted to extend my warranty for $588. He also said that the next time I phone Dell, there would be a 50 dollar fee for the phone call.

I really don't know what to do anymore. I'm a student that invested a lot of money into a Dell laptop and after a year it's broken down and they refuse to listen to me and charged me even though I'm under warranty. I don't know what I can do anymore.

Good luck to everyone with DELL problems. i have posted the message below about a month ago and i did not get a single reply from Lionel or any Dell representative. I dont think Dell wants to do anything with our problems. DO NOT BUY DELL products again.

i also have this dell m1210. i bought it in singapore february 2007 and i am now in the Philippines. my problem is exactly the same as those mentioned here so it is the vga card. i tried contacting dell a couple of months ago when this started to happen and it is impossible to get in touch with dell singapore unless you still have warranty left. no way to communicate with email or phone call. I've seen that some people here were assisted by dell with this problem even if its a few months off warranty. obviously this is a problem that has to be included in the extended warranty. this is my 2nd dell notebook. is there anyway to get in touch with dell and get this fixed? this sucks.

I am a sad Dell owner of the problematic Dell XPS M1210 which arrived to my doorstep in 2007.  After the integrated camera issues were solved, my XPS ran perfect until June 2009, after about 1.5 years of use.  Taking into consideration the primary use of my cpu—word processing—I was amazed to discover my Motherboard had to be replaced due to a integrated Ge Force Go 7400 Video Card Malfunction.  Because my XPS was out of warranty, I was instructed to send my cpu to the Dell out-of-warranty  repair center and was told the repairs would cost $199 for inspection and an additional ~$300 or so if the issue was motherboard associated.  As this was an expensive laptop at the time of purchase I was amazed to discover that it would cost $500 to repair! Instead of buying a totally new pc, we agreed on a price of $400 for repairs. 

After receiving my hopefully problem free repaired XPS, I discovered the hundreds maybe thousands of online posts concerning the same exact issue I had encountered.  Dell users from all over the US and even the UK and Australia were experiencing the same black screen, video card issue.  Hoping there was a warranty extension or a recalling of parts, I searched Dell.com and found this: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/09/12/nvidia-gpu-update-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

Again, sadly, the XPS M1210 is somehow not included in the limited warranty.  After reading that many XPS M1210 users had this problem resolved free of charge, even if their warranty had expired, I again phoned support.  My intention was not to ask for a refund of money, but to ask for a warranty on the Motherboard/Video Card that was repaired.  I refused to pay any additional money considering I already spent $$$$ for the original laptop and an additional $400 for repairs.  However, the support manager denied my request stating that the support forums were out of his control and counter offered a $200 warranty service.  I refused to pay any more money.  So after paying the $400 for repairs, if they didn’t correctly fix or the prone to failure Ge Force Go 7400 fails again, I’m left without a CPU, and an empty wallet again.  Thank you Dell-- for your products and support that leave the customer frustrated, with no peace of mind and the treatment of a bottomless wallet. 

Sincerely,

-Me and the others who have had the same XPS M1210 issue.

Hi lionel

I'm sending you this comment while I'm so much disappointed with the dell customer service and tech support.

I have and XPS M1330 and it has been about 1 month that I'm experiencing the "NO VIDEO due to failure of video card" issue and I haven't wasted even a day to call the Dell tech. support!

I have spent more than 12 hours talking with different representatives from more than 10 different telephone numbers. each time, after staying a LONG time on the line, I hear contradictory sayings from the representatives; the more I call, the more I get confused.

each time, one forwards me through the other one, one gives me confusing information, one forwards me through WRONG NUMBER!!! and one tells me that there's no such warranty extension. overall, they don't seem to help at all!

I'm living in canada now I since I'm a student, I'm in a big trouble without my laptop. I really appreciate it if you can do some help.
If you need any further information, just send me an email or answer in the same place.

Regards, Shervin

Hi lionel

I'm sending you this comment while I'm so much disappointed with the dell customer service and tech support.

I have and XPS M1330 and it has been about 1 month that I'm experiencing the "NO VIDEO due to failure of video card" issue and I haven't wasted even a day to call the Dell tech. support!

I have spent more than 12 hours talking with different representatives from more than 10 different telephone numbers. each time, after staying a LONG time on the line, I hear contradictory sayings from the representatives; the more I call, the more I get confused.

each time, one forwards me through the other one, one gives me confusing information, one forwards me through WRONG NUMBER!!! and one tells me that there's no such warranty extension. overall, they don't seem to help at all!

I'm living in canada now I since I'm a student, I'm in a big trouble without my laptop. I really appreciate it if you can do some help.
If you need any further information, just send me an email or answer in the same place.

Regards, Shervin

Hi there. I have an XPS m1330 that I purchased last year in December. The warrenty will run out in about a month. About 6 months ago, I had to have my screen replaced and about 4 months ago I had to have my mother board and a power adapter replaced. Today, I just had to call in again to get my power adapter replaced for the second time. After reading dozens of similar stories online, I'm afraid that the screen or motherboard problem will happen again after my warranty runs out.

I'm really disappointed that I have this fear as I've never felt obligated to purchase extended warranties before and after buying such an expensive system, I expected it to not have any problems. My system has all the bells and whistles and was about $2400 before any discounts. I'm on the fence with extending the warranty because it's so expensive (yes, I know the laptop was super expensive but I had a scholarship to help cover the costs.) Also, every time I get service on the laptop, it takes two to three weeks which is time I can't afford to loose when I'm working (I do technical writing, graphic design, and websites so I use my laptop constantly) It seems like it might be cheaper and more efficient to get it serviced by someone other than dell or by a friend.

Knowing more about this warranty extension might help me make up my mind. It sounds like people are having a hard time getting this warrenty extension so I was wondering if the extension would apply to my system and if so, would I actualy be able to get it If I needed it.

Hi Lionel,
I'm hoping you can help me. I'm reposting my message. I have the M1330 and for the second time in the life of this laptop, I'm having the verical line issue. The first time it happened, the warranty covered the replacement. It just happened again and then 1 year warranty has expired. I called Dell with no luck, they didn't seem to know about the extended warranty although they did admit having issues with the video card. I appreciate all the help you could give.

Thank you so much,
-RS

I have a Vostro 1400 with the 128MB nVidia GeForce 8400M GS Graphics Card. My warranty expired  in July 2008.
If I'm not covered by the extended warranty, do I need to order a Main Board or is it possible to just replace the video card? If I have to replace the mainboard, does anyone know the part number and how complicated it is to swap on my own? Thanks.

Hi Lionel,

I am from Belgium.

I have a XPS M1330 and have had the very same nvidia GPU issue.

I have bought my laptop 25 october 2007 .

about 15 months later after a lot of heat the laptop completely crashed leaving me with strange coloured lines on the display.
back then I happened to have professional contact with somebody at Dell Netherlands who fairly quickly solved the issue for me after I asked her about the extended warranty.
A person from Dell came to change the motherboard in my laptop.

I guess he changed it with the very same type of motherboard.
just now I am starting to experience the same issues.
the laptop starts to overheat again, and I get the colors again while shutting down.
It didnt crash yet, but have the feeling that it will happen one of these days.

Since I bought the laptop with only one year garantuee a little more then 2 years ago, I am wondering if this still is under the extended warranty considering that they changed the motherboard less than a year ago...?

would this still be under warranty? or do I start trying to fix the issue myself following this guide?: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268081 (not sure if this works)

thanks

I just wanted to say my XPS M1210 was an awesom laptop while it lasted...paid Dell $3206.94 May of 2007 ...this was my first laptop aswell as being my newest computer in 5 years...so I maxed out the specs..last week I was getting the vertical lines in the display, random characters and, nvlddmkm.sys failing with repeat reboots.  I just spend 2.5 hours on the phone with tech support/customer care...tech support admited I have the GPU issue but failed to recognize the extended warrenty repair specific to the NVIDIA GPU flaw...after being transfered back and forth between the barly understandable "english is my 2nd language" support professionals I called it quits and, told them I was tired of talking on the phone.

Just had to vent...I beleve im done with DELL

I purchased an XPS M1210 in April of 2007 for $1800.00 within three months I noticed a weird faintly colored barcode like square around the cursor. I thought that this was an anomally of Windows Vista but didn't pay much attention since this would go away and only appeared occasionally. The then appearances started to become more frequent so i reinstalled the video drivers and bios upgrades and that appeared to help some what. Them occasionally I would get vertical lines on the screen or the laptop would shutdown. Finally just last month it was completely dead almost. The machine will boot and you will hear the windows sound but no video. When I purchased this machine I opted for the supposedly better nVidia GeForce Go 7400 video card in lieu of the Intel video. From what I see on this blog, talking to Dell Tech Support (Raammadammapaathee "You can call me Frank") in Delhi would be like talking to my Yorkie. I know the Yorkie can understand me but the end result whould be the same as talking to "Frank".  What am I to do??? BY the way since 2006 I have purchased 12 Dell PC's or laptops. I have, just recently,  since July 2009 have purchased 3 Inspiron laptops. Is there any way to get help for my XPS 1210 or am i to look forward to the same problem with all of the other laptops?

Lionel

I (for the second time in the life of this laptop) have the M1330 vertical line problem.  The first time this happened the laptop was in warranty and the mobo was replaced promptly.  It's just happened again and now I'm getting no luck at all with tech support.  The first guy I spoke to said he'd have to get the out of warranty team to call me back but that it should be covered by the limied extended warranty if it was a gpu problem - this gave me some hope!  Soon to be dashed however after the callback when the guy stated that the warranty extension was not available for laptops purchased for business purposes!  I mean, what??  That is ridiculous.  He tried to make up some rubbish about searching on the community.dell.com website where he directed me to some totally irrelevant search results, obviously hoping that I would go away.  I told him that it had been replaced before, and he allegedly went away to check on this, and then told me he wasn't going to do anything about it and that I should call their business line on Monday.  I'm about to message you with my service tag / details, and would be so so grateful if you could sort out this mess please.

Thank you

Phil

Hey everyone,

I own a Vostro 1400 laptop with the Nvidia Geforce 8400m GS graphics card; I bought this March of last year and the warranty expired March of THIS year. During the last week my laptop has experienced all the symptoms characteristic to the faulty GPU issue I've been reading about all over the internet. Right now all my laptop does is display a blank screen as soon as it powers on. 

Ive called DELL technical support concering the problem and mentioned several times the extended warranty supposedly offered to those experiencing the GPU related issues with this particular graphics card. After spending 3 hours and $50 troubleshooting the problem they tell me my motherboard and graphics card needs to be replaced for about $480. They seemed oblivious to the extended warranty DELL is offering to correct this issue. The only response I received was that they cannot extend my warranty until they resolve the graphics related problem I told them about. This doesn't make sense.

I don't know what to do now, I need this laptop fixed and ready to use for my engineering courses immediately; I am useless without it. If someone can please help me with this, I would greatly appreciate it. Why DELL hasn't announced the issue publicly remains a mystery to me, this part is clearly defective.

I emailed Lionel but go no response, so I guess I'll post my situation here. My M1330 had vertical lines and the nvidia GPU had failed, right after my 1 year warranty ended. So I contacted dell support and they said that my laptop DID NOT qualify for the extended warranty because my laptop didn't have the defective chip, when it clearly did. Support said that only laptops shipped within in a certain time frame had the problem. Infact almost all nvidia 8400m's are defective and mine should not be a exception. Dell shipped these laptops with defective chips and should fix ALL laptops with this problem. I like all people with the problem should get a extended warranty, this problem wasn't bad enough then I get rejected on the extended warranty, this is ridiculous.

Lionel,

I just hand up the phone with Dell Customer Care. I have a XPS M1330 that I purchased 18 months ago and having the same video card issue. After 2.5 hours on the phone with Dell, being transferred from one department to the other, Customer Care didn't know anything about extending the warranty because of the defect. The XPS technical specialist confirmed that it's a known issue and transferred me to customer care again to see if the warranty can be extended. Customer care wasn't aware of what's going on. I sent them the URL for your blog, customer care manager read it and said that they haven't heard anything about this and since this is only a blog, they can't honor the extended warranty.  Can you help me/direct me to the right people who can help? I appreciate all the help you could give. Thanks much.

-RS

Dear Lionel and Dell,

Yesterday I've e-mail to you all my case details but I only receive a auto respond mail saying that you are out of office, hope you are well and get back to work soon.   On the other hand, I don't understand why my post here being removed without any notice or reason.

You may not be aware of but I am one of the first who forward about Engadget's  "All NVIDIAll NVIDIA 8400M / 8600M chips faulty?" article in the Community's Laptop Video forum to keep everyone early alert of this incident back in JULY 2008.  I have my faith on Dell so at that time I am not too worry about the warranty side. Beside, why should customers have to spend extra on warranty for a manufacturer defective component in the machine?

I do believe Dell will taken good care of her customers...the out come is that I am too simple and a bit naive!

After two years + one and a half month my Inspiron 1420 finally hit by the GPU defect, it power up with No Video. Dell support people instructed me to test the LCD by pressing "D" upon machine start up, I can see the color test which confirmed no problem with the monitor, the notebook can also boot into Windows with fully assessable network drives.  Everything in the machine behave normal except lost of display.  I was being informed that my display fault is related with NVIDIA's GPU defect BUT I was being quoted ~US$570 for repair and labor charges because my notebook was just one and a half month beyond the NVIDIA defective GPU Limited Warranty Enhancement period.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but I'm not pleased. I paid for a non-defective chip - one with all the normal life expectations. I want Dell to exchange my defected chip with a good one at no charge. I accept that some chips are going to go bad and you just replace them as they fail. But I accepted that risk based on the premise that I was getting a chip without such a major design defect. Customers don't know about this fact when the time they purchase this machine.  I'm sorry, but adding 12 months warranty is just not good enough for such a defective GPU, these machines can go on working for many years... unless there is a defective GPU chip in them. I have 2 x Inspiron 8600 around for more than 5 years and an IBM Thinkpad X20 for 9 years and they are still working fine but why my Inspiron 1420 die on me just in 2 years time?  I believe this kind of manufacturer detect warrants should have at least a 3-4 year extension in order to bring the computer through a reasonable max usage life, 2 years is not what I would call a adequate life cycle for a laptop!!!

I definitely won't spend extra to repair of this Inspiron 1420 because this is more than half of the original purchase and for the same amount I can buy a brand new notebook with comparable configuration. If no appropriate and reasonable arrangement can be made by Dell, this will be my last post and I will say goodbye to Dell - a loyal customer who use Dell for over 10 years both at home and recommended her to every company that he worked for...

I have a Dell M1330, and after 5 months the graphics card failed, since it was under guarentee they replaced the mother board, Nvidia graphics card and the screen, with guarentee on those replaced parts, but around 7 months after that and after the guarentee ran out on my laptop, the hard drive failed too, I bought a new one and installed it myslef, after that the fan started acting up, after reading the past articles on this subjet I understand why, but I would like to know what Dell is going to do about this. My laptop has been a disappointment, and I feel like it may fail again.

Dear Lionel,

i already wrote you an email 1 week ago. I have the same problem with my M1330, it won't boot anymore. The last 4 calls the tech support always told me that they can do nothing for me because my Service Tag is from Europe and I'm actually in Canada. Today I got the Mail that my tag was succesfully transferred to Canada.

Again i called the tech support and they told me that i only can enhance my warranty when my Laptop wasn't affected. Since the problem occured i'm not able to enhance my warranty.

I think thats a really stupid answer. However I don't really know what to do now! Maybe you can helb me!

cheers Roman!

Dear Lionel,

First of all, thanks for the information, as it is quite complete.

I started experiencing this problem this same week on my XPS M1330. A couple of months ago, just on the last month of the warranty period, I started to have trouble because overheating and a fan just running wildly all of the time. I phoned the technical service and they just made me upgrade the BIOS version to the A15. I did that, and the fan noise dissapeared, so everything seemed normal. Until this week. Yesterday the failure was complete, I was just able to continue working some time, so I was able to save my files. This morning my laptop is simply unavailable. It seems to start but as it's not possible to see anything I'm not sure.

The thing is that I talked with support yesterday claiming that I had seen this information about the video card failure and that I was having exaclty the same behaviour. They asked me to make some testing and they told me it was a failure on the motherboard (the problem was all of the time with the graphics card ???) and that my laptop was out of warranty, but nevertheless they were going to change the motheboard. This morning I have just received an email with a "purchase order" telling me to confirm that I will pay more than 500€ (more or less 750$) to repair the laptop.

I was wondering what happens with this warranty extension, as my warranty has not finished a year ago still, but just some months, and this is a well-known problem. ¿Any suggestion?

Thanks. Best regards.

i also have this dell m1210. i bought it in singapore february 2007 and i am now in the Philippines. my problem is exactly the same as those mentioned here so it is the vga card. i tried contacting dell a couple of months ago when this started to happen and it is impossible to get in touch with dell singapore unless you still have warranty left. no way to communicate with email or phone call. I've seen that some people here were assisted by dell with this problem even if its a few months off warranty. obviously this is a problem that has to  be included in the extended warranty. this is my 2nd dell notebook.  is there anyway to get in touch with dell and get this fixed?  this sucks.

Dell XPS M1710 with GeForce Go 7950 GTX, started getting NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error myself this past week.   I'm lucky enough to still have extended coverage on the laptop though since I use it for work.  

Issue started with lookups while left on overnight.  Now they have progressed to crashing while doing anything graphically intensive and even a random video card driver error that recovers while simply browsing or checking e-mail.  Also random graphical anomolies in games.  Once a crash has happened, can be graphical errors on restarts for 5-10 minutes, sometimes until the next day. 

I run i8kfan and control my fans manually, increasing them when I'm running the laptop hard to reduce heat strain on components.  I also use the laptop on a cooler tray and the case is hardly ever above ambient.  I guess this is how I lasted this long.

Laptop will be leaving in a day or two for service and we'll see how things look when I get it back.    All in all I've been pretty happy with the laptop though and I'm not saying I'll never buy another Dell or nVidia product by anymeans.  If this is resolved as painlessly as my other service call then I'll be happy to continue with Dell.

I have an Inspiron 1420, about a month off of original warranty, and now it is having the GPU issues (no video on the laptop display, garbled output on an external display). When I called for support and told them it was the GPU issue, and covered under the Limited Extended Warranty, the agent put me on hold to check with her manager, came back and promptly told me only XPS laptops were covered, no other models.

3 calls, same result, and I'm a Dell employee, so don't think we get any special treatment.

Hey there. I have an M1330 and the warranty expired in February. I've tried to get the GPU replaced, but have not had any luck with Tech Support.  Who can I contact to get this resolved?

Nuevamente me comunique con Soporte Tecnico de DELL de Latinoamerica. Y el señor me responde diciendo que no tienen ninguna orden alguna de ver esos problemas y mucho menos fuera de la fecha de garantia, es decir cuando se vencio la garantia. Tampoco saben absolutamente nada de los problemas que existen en los XPS M1330. Ellos desconocen lo que sucede en DELL.

Le comente de esta pagina web y ellos desconocen totalmente de este blog y servicio que ofrecen a sus clientes perjudicados con la compra de los equipos DEL XPS M1330.

Lo q me pide es que la respuesta que usted me dé, yo se lo reenvie al mail de la persona que este atendiendo mi llamada de servicio tecnico y recien ahi tomaran acciones debidas. Mientras tanto mi reclamo en invalido y NO PROCEDE.

Es decir respuestas negativas por cuarta vez que llamo.

Anticipadamente gracias por su respuesta.

El año pasado decidi adquirir una laptop y escogi una DELL XPS M1330. Lo compre en la tiendas Ripley de Perú, decidí por esta marca por buenos comentarios de amigos extranjeros aunque la marca no ha entrado con fuerza aún en el mercado peruano de laptops. Sin embargo me arriesgue a adquirirla.

En el mes de setiembre se cumplio un año de garantía, y a las dos semanas, comenzó a presentar las mismas fallas descritas en comentarios anteriores.

1. La pantalla se apagaba y luego volvia a mostrar la imagen con una nota del sistema diciendo que el sistema dejo se funcionar correctamente pero se habia recuperado.

2. Luego la pantalla mostraba lineas verticales. Yo reseteaba la maquina y funcionaba normalmente por veinte minutos y nuevamente comenzaba a mostar lineas. Y no funcionana el teclado ni el mouse. Se bloqueaba completamente.

3.Luego aparecio el mensaje de el driver NV.KLLL..... dejo de funcionar correctamente.

4. Duro asi dos semanas , hasta que finalmente al prender mi laptop mostraba una pantalla verde.

Comence averiguar acerca del error y me lleve con la sorpresa que no era la unica de los usuarios de DELL con ese problema. Son muchos!!!!

Me comunique con Servicio Tecnico de DELL (latinoamerica) y no me dieron solución al problema debido a que se me habia vencido la garantia. Ellos me dijeron que no podian hacer nada y que debí adquirir una garantia extendible, pero en las tiendas de RIPLEY (donde venden DELL en Peru) no me mencionaron nada.

Estoy muy incomoda, ya que en mi pais no existe ningun representante directo y toda comunicacion fue via telefonica con DELL, no me dieron ninguna solucion y solo me dijeron que compre otra Tarjeta Madre para la Laptop y  con la misma tarjeta de videl NVIDIA, ademas de pagar el servicio de instalación todo eso por el costo de $500 aproximadamente!!!!

Hasta el dia de hoy no tengo a donde reclamar, no tengo a quien acudir. Yo soy ingeniera Quimica y necesito la laptop para los diferentes trabajos afueras de las oficinas. Yo  trabajo en la empresa TECNA en Peru. Y actualmente mi empresa en Argentina  esta adquiriendo todos los equipos de computo a DELL , mejor dicho pasando de HP a DELL, por lo reconocido que es la marca.

Estoy muy frustrada e incomoda con este problema. Por favor agradecería me ayuden y que me den una solución, hice un esfuerzo al comprar una laptop y solo me duro 1 año!!!!!!. Yo les ruego se comuniquen conmigo para que me digan que puedo hacer. No está a mi alcance adquirir nuevamente una laptop y me urge por mi trabajo tener una.

Gracias anticipadamente por su ayuda.

Here in Brazil the Dell is not cooperating with the exchange. My computer turned junk.

Hi, I have a M1330 and last week it have the vertical lines run on the screen when boot up too!  I've tried to contact Dell Technical Service but they declined to fix it without a fee.  I had emailed Lionel but have not heard anything yet!  Please help!!!  My warranty have expired 7/3/09!

Hi, I have a M1330 and last week it have the vertical lines run on the screen when boot up too!  I've tried to contact Dell Technical Service but they declined to fix it without a fee.  I had emailed Lionel but have not heard anything yet!  Please help!!!

Hello Lionel,

This blog was a great help. I have a vostro 1400 with the same GPU problem, 6 months out of warranty. I call Dell Technical and they simply don't want to take responsibility, i insisted about reading your blog and asked the rep repeatedly to view this blog, which he finally did and bang, he made a special service order. Dell is awesome and Lionel you are the man.

ALi 

Lionel i already sent you a PM... I called my local tech support in Chile and receive no positive response about this extended warranty. Does this warranty cover international users?. My normal warranty expired on February 2009.

Thanks in advance,

Felipe

Great. I just had my mobo replaced 3 weeks ago due to video issues, and I just got the vertical line lockup again.

Lionel - I want a refund. How do I make that happen?

So, My Dell Vostro 1400 with the nVidia Card hit this problem yesterday 2 years and 15 days after I purchased it. The customer service has told me that it will cost me $750+ to fix my laptop since my laptop survived 15 extra days( 1 year normal warranty + 1 year extended warranty for this problem) . Help?

Hello, it's not my first time posting here (unfortunately)

I purchased a XPS M1330 in July 23rd 2007. In May 2008, with 10 months of use, I started having the Nvidia GPU issue.

After writing my complain here and receiving Mr Todd's help, I had my motherboard replaced in 15th October 2008 (delays due to international tag transfer, but that's another story). It solved my problem, even though the cooling fan was a bit noisy with the new BIOS version, but I could live with that...

Until the same problem just came back again! I am surprised that they replaced the motherboard with the same fragility just to postpone the problem once more. Actually, not so much surprised, seeing that this topic is still so active.

The big problem is: now my warranty is expired, even with additional "warranty enhancement".

Is still there anything I can do?

Hi Lionel,

I purchased Dell Inspiron 1420 on 1-Aug-07 in US, after that I moved to India. My system had a similar problem from past one week i.e while starting the screen is split into 2 and all the images are very poor quality. System is also getting overheated, I believe its the same problem which is being discussed in this forum. 

Could you please let me know how to get in touch with techincal guys as my one year extended warrenty that you talked about is also expired last month. Please help me and thanks in advance

Lionel, please help

I have a Vostro 1400 with nvidia 8400m gs graphics card. My warranty has ended 9 months ago. When i turn on the laptop, all i see is coloured vertical striped Iines. I have just got off the phone with a dell technical support worker. I mentioned this warranty enhancement to him but he said it doesnt exist... so instead he gave me phone number to a technical parts service. Does this warranty work for canadians? Apparently not.

I currently have a faulty XPS M7130 with the well known nvidia chipset problem. I reported the fault on the 2nd September and still waiting for a fix it keeps getting delayed with reported shortages world wide. In these posts I have seen no mention of the extended warranty applying to this laptop. Why not it is based on the same chipset.

I had a previous post deleted due to mistakenly putting in "sensitive" information.  But I pretty much posted that I had an m1210 with the same problem as described in these posts.  My 6 hour call with dell's overseas customer service (weekends/non-business hours) proved to be highly unsuccessful as well as a bit stressful as they denied knowing anything about the problem.

However, today I decided to call during business hours in order to see if I could get a hold of a North American rep.  After just one hour, and a simple diagnostic test, I was approved for a motherboard replacement.  Granted, my warranty was still in effect due to (thankfully) purchasing the 3 year coverage, so I'm not sure how much of a factor that played into the quick decision.

Satisfied with Dell's customer service (the 2nd time around), but I'm still a little shaken up as to what my next purchase would be as I have had issues with my laptop that go beyond the failed hardware.  Just hoping that this is the last....

any updates people?

Hey Lionel, I came upon this blog after trying to find out what went wrong on my Dell Inspiron 1420. I have read through almost every post on this blog and am quite concerned about some Dell's support personel not knowing about this issue and refusing to change a new hardware. I am from Singapore and I have a major problem trying to contact the technical support. From the Dell support Singapore website, I called the technical support hotline listed and keyed in my service code, I was told that my warranty had expired and only options I got were 'Press 1 to renew warranty' and 'Press 2 to finish' and therefore got no chance to talk to any Dell personel. I have since sent you a email regarding this issue, hopefully you have a way to get them to contact me or another way for me to contact them.

Sorry for the wall of text. Thankyou

Lionel,

Found this blog this morning and have a M1330 with the issue.  I called Dell and confirmed the issue.  This laptop has been broken since July and the regular warranty ended 9/5/2008 and I was denied by 13 days!

I have the tags from the previous attent to repair the unit to prove when the unit failed.  I asked to speak to a supervisor to plead my case as to the lack of information available and the 13 DAYS!  I was told the the supervisors are too busy to speak to a customer.

DELL CUSTOMER SERVICE ... what happened to service ... and without customers ...

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks for the INFO,

Victor

Called Dell again and was told that no such warranty existed.  Once again I asked them to view this blog and once again I was told NO because blogs are not where warranty information is found.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO FOR HELP!!!  It's obvious that other people are getting their systems taken care of and I'm about to reach through the phone and choke out the next technician that talks to me like I'm an idiot I'm that frustrated in dealing with these people.

Lionel or someone who works for Dell PLEASE ADVISE on what I need to do or who I need to call specifically.

Sean

Update:

I posted late in Sept.  that our laptop was approved, but not without a bit of hand holding on my part and pointing customer service to this blog.  

After the approval process the fix went very smoothly.  A FedEx shipper box arrived the very next day from Dell.  It was overnight to us, but ground back to Dell.  From Michigan it took about 4 days for the box to get back to Dell and 3 days for it to make it to the warranty center.  It took about a week from then to get it back, so all told about 2 weeks to fix.  The warranty paperwork says the motherboard was replaced.  The laptop functions perfectly and we are satisfied.

Per my previous post, I would be much more satisfied if I didn't have to track down this blog to know about the extended warranty.

I will, however, give Dell the benefit of the doubt (thanks to Lionel and Dell's extended warranty) and consider them for my next laptop purchase (Son #2 goes off to college next year and we will be in the market for another laptop.)

Thanks again, Lionel.  

Hi

I bought  a dell xps m1330 in june 2008  in Australia but now   I am  presently now in  US . My warranty got expired and now   i have these issue of lines on my screen due the nvidia gpu  failure . Whenever I contact  the technical support and give them my service tag they are not able to find details of my laptop .They say that they are not able to find any details based on my service tag as they are not on their database .WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW ? PLEASE HELP ME OUT !!!.  HOPE MY CARD IS REPLACED AS  SOON AS POSSIBLE..

Hi

I bought  a dell xps m1330 in june 2008  in Australia but now   I am  presently now in  US . My warranty got expired and now   i have these issue of lines on my screen due the nvidia gpu  failure . Whenever I contact  the technical support and give them my service tag they are not able to find details of my laptop .They say that they are not able to find any details based on my service tag as they are not on their database .WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW ? PLEASE HELP ME OUT !!!.  HOPE MY CARD IS REPLACED AS  SOON AS POSSIBLE..

Dear Lionel,
I got my replacement and I'd like to say thank you! Altogether it took me two weeks to get my replacement after I sent you a message. However in service center they couldn't tell me whether my new motherboard has a special prolonged warranty or not. Could you please tell me that. My extended warranty (including one year of extension) will terminate on 11 Dec 2009.  I would appreciate your help.
Anna

PLEASE HELP!!!  I called the number listed from the link provided by Lionel's post.  They technician  kept telling me that I was out of warranty and I would have to purchase a new motherboard/video card.  Then he told me that the extended warrant only pertains to video cards sold seperately from the original purchase.  I informed him about this website/forum  and he told me over and over that he would not look at it because warranty information is not obtained from Dell Blog sites. 

My warranty expired on 10/11/08 so I only have a couple weeks left to get my system fixed. 

I have the Inpsiron 1420 and my screen only shows vertical lines.  I hooked it up to another external screen and the same problem happens. 

LIONEL - I sent you a private message regarding this issue so I hope you see this and get back to me on what to do next. 

Thank you for any information you can send me.

Sean

Hi everyone,

I did have this issue a couple of months back and was suggested to purchase the extended complete cover for 2000 INR. Well, after a google search, I came this blog post and Todd replied back to me after which a technician called and all was fixed without me actually having to purchase the extended warranty for replacing the NVIDIA.

@Lionel : I think it would be a very good idea if all the technicians are notified regarding this particular issue and made clear that there is an extended 1 year worldwide warranty by Nvidia for the 8400 M GS GPU's as the reply from the technician's is always the same, that the issue is not covered under warranty if Dell warranty is void. It would also be a nice thing if an option be given to the customer from Dell's end or rather Nvidia's if it comes to that to replace the GPU by an Intel GMA X3100(well ... i would say we are at a loss when it come to the extra 100-150$ that we paid, but it is worth it that it is not going to get replaced by 8400 again).

(Is the motherboard that is shipped as a replacement, being shipped with a "mod"ded fan with a newer thermal metal heat dumper? because I have been monitoring the temperatures for over a month and I haven't seen it go beyond 60C(well, i practically gave up gaming and also big computations on my laptop) ... )

Hi,

I'm the proud owner of a Dell XPS M1530. Dual 2.6MHz Centrino and GeForce 8400 GS.

As with most other owners of this system I have experienced higher than acceptable temperatures when running high GPU demand programs and have become frustrated with the lack of fan control with this unit. I have experienced temps as high as 95 Celsius and the system has automatically shut itself down to protect itself several times while playing high demand games such as Crysis and COD4. 

I have noticed that the BIOS update for the M1530 is the A9 version. I have just updated the BIOS direct from the Dell system update service site and it gave me the A12 version and when I flashed the BIOS to "update" to the A9 version you supplied it told me that it was an older version. This makes perfect sense to me but I am wondering which would be the better option.

Regardless, I have up to date card drivers and there appeared to be no other solution to this problem so I called the Dell tech support guys for my region: Australia. 

I just got off the phone with the Dell tech support team and after explaining the problem they were a bit bashful and put me on hold a lot, presumably to confirm the solution with a senior. The solution was simple... "We will send you a new video card. A technician will be at your house next week to install it free of charge as your system is still under warrantee!”

This seems like a simple, elegant solution to MY problem, but if this is a problem endemic to all M1530’s then this could get very expensive for Dell!

So, this appears to be a multi stage statement:

1.        To all M1530 owners with this problem who still have they’re systems under warrantee; give Dell a call for your free, brand new video card, installed while you wait!

2.        To all BIOS and card driver programmers out there; please – for the sake of our sanity (and perhaps for the sake of the Dell hip pocket??!!) – hurry up and code a BIOS update or plug-in program of some sort which will allow for at least some level of manual fan control, if not simply eliminating the problem.

3.        And to all the people at Dell who thought BIOS with no manual fan control was a good idea; just because you THINK nothing will ever go wrong with your system, so no one will ever need to change the fan settings, doesn’t mean it will never happen! In fact, you should include it for precisely that reason! Murphy’s Law: anything that can happen… will.

What are your thoughts Lionel?

Regards,

W

Hi Lionel,

There's nothing more I can say that hasn't been said already about this problem, so what I want to know is whether or not this problem has been fixed, and if not, whether we can choose to downgrade the motherboard to have the Intel X3100? I was told by a rather rude technical support technician no, but I find that hard to believe. This is not something I wish to experience again and having paid $1800 for a premium notebook to have it last only alittle longer than a year is ridiculous. Given the troubles and the fact that the only way to get around this issue is to downgrade from my dedicated graphics which i paid an additional $150 to have, I am really turned off of buying another Dell product again.

Please send me an e-mail on whether or not you could help me out. I have heard of people getting their's replaced with a new Studio XPS 13 and this sort of service would make me beyond enthusiastic to support Dell.

Dear Lionel,

I follow your recommendation, called Dell support to fix my problem with lines on the screen. The agent name Sam, I also have agent id if you want, he said I have to buy extended warranty for $499 to get my XPS 1330 fixed since my warranty ended in June 2009. I just had this problems started last week. When I told him about your blog comment that Dell offer extended warranty, he said if it's NVIDIA problem, I should call NVIDIA to get it fix. Please let me know if Dell really support this problem.

Thanks

Tira

Hello,

          Although I have been with computers for a while, this is my first forum comment. And of course it is a complaint.

So without the moaning here is my problem. I have been using a  XPS 1330 for over a year and have reinstalled the OS at least 4 times

have lost the microphone card and lately getting the NTLDR error finally followed by the standard video chip problem, colourful but useless.

Finally contacted Dell and ended up with the choise of having to buy (n.b my warrentry is out) a new motherboard at around 400 euro OR

extend warrenty for another 3 years at 200 euro. I obviously choose the latter, grudgingly. You see, it is not my fault that Dell choose this video chip for their motherboard and yet I must still pay for their mistake. Ah well, if I have to, as Joe Public, pay for the greed and criminal

behaviour of the banks, I don't see why I should expect any different from the Dell orginisation. Think I'll head back to desktops, which are easier and cheaper to maintain. AND IT WON'T BE A DELL

Hi,

I got my XPS M1330 in January 2008 (bought in Belgium). I've hesitated before buying a Dell, but finally I cracked for this little, taking into account the fact that I've been working on Dell computers for already a couple of years.

I paid +- 1.300 EUR for what was at that time a state-of-the-art laptop.

In February 2009, my laptop got ill ... the same problem as all other XPS M1330 ... the Nvidia GPU killing the motherboard. Since it was out of warranty, I placed it back into the box it first arrived and left it there until a few weeks ago.

I must say that in February I was offered by Dell to have it fixed for an amount around 300 EUR ... I cannot express here my feelings regarding their proposal ...!!!

One month ago I found this page and I contacted Dell Suport to check if I can also benefit from the extended warranty. It took me 10 minutes to talk to a Dell suport consultant and he arranged for a tehnician to drop by to fix it.

And this happened in the next 3 days ... the dude came, fixed the laptop in 20 minutes and left ... no questions asked.

Well, all seems nice until here.

After the tehnician left my house, I've started using again my laptop.

Here are the problems:

- the cooler is working non-stop, making a killer noise and draining the baterry in less than 1.5 hours (please take into account that I have an extended 9 cells baterry)

- the temperature of the GPU core is at this momenet 69 Celsius and I'm only surfing the internet ... I can easily cook something on my laptop

Now, since I work as an IT consultant, having a reliable laptop is mandatory ... it would be rather unpleasant to have the laptop dead in the middle of a Powerpoint presentation ( if I open a Powerpoint slide now, the temperature goes really fast to 75-79 Celsius).

At this point, my confidence in any Dell laptop is really close to NULL. I only have a moral issue ... I would like to sell it, but I cannot ask for money since I know that in a couple of weeks/months the GPU will fail again ...

It is kind of expensive to use a Dell laptop ... 1300 EUR/year !!!

I was hoping that they will replace the defective GPU with a different one, but based on the current behavior of my system, it's the same faulty one.

When you have a laptop that has 3 GB of RAM, Windows Vista Ultima Edition, Intel Dual Core 2.2 Ghz  .... you expect it to be at least capable of surfing the internet .... yet, even this is difficult.

Dell, I'm expecting from you to show that you wanna do business on long term. And this means, among other, to asume the failures.

A laptop is used maybe for 3-5 years ... then it gets old. This means for me that I'll be buying around 6-8 laptops from now on ... it depends on Dell attitude if I'll buy a Dell or I switch to Apple.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Hello Lionel,

I have an XPS m1330 (purchased 5/5/08 from Dell US) that failed to boot since Jul 09. When I turn it on now, the screen is dark and there are some thin, rainbow-colored vertical lines on it.

Following the instructions you provided in your blog, I contacted Tech Support to request the 12-month warranty extension. My call was eventually routed to a rep named John in the Out-of-warranty Support department who told me the warranty extension program was discontinued a few months ago and it would cost $528 to replace the motherboard. However, after conferring with his supervisor, he offered me a $199 discount, thus reducing the repair cost to $329 + tax. But I declined because I was noticing that you were offering to help people in my same situation who wrote you as recent as a couple of weeks ago. When I mentioned I would like to seek your help first, John turned on his hard-sell tactic, saying the discount he was offering is a one-time deal only and if I call back, it will be $528! I hope John was just misinformed about this program and not that he was being less than scrupulous with me.

I would truly appreciate any assistance you can give to get my laptop repaired under the warranty extension program. I just emailed you my laptop's service tag.

Thank you very much.

Dzung

Hi,

I think I need some help...

I have an xps m1330, and my warranty expired in the end of August. My problem is that I live in Hungary where the distributors haven't heard about the extended warranty and they were sure that it is not true for my country...

When I tried to do the steps which were written above, and I choosed my country, there is no contact us and more options... and no green phone...

What can I do in this case? Is this really possible that I cannot get this extended warranty?

(Now I ordered a normal extended warranty from one of the distributors from here, but it is still in process ... maybe I'll wait untill I get it:))

Thank you for the help!

Dear Lionel,

I"ve sent you my personal information yesterday on your e-mail.

Please help me!

Regards,

Vlad

I too had visual and graphics problems with my DELL XPS M1330 after 10 months of it's purchase and called up the customer care, here in Germany.

The system screen going black right at the time of start and sometimes it does start up but within a few minutes the display crashes with a few green and violet line on the screen. Some times it does restart on it's own and recovers but most of the time it does not.

With about 15 minutes of waiting time over the phone (partially due to lack of German Language understanding) and just 5 minutes of conversation, the person at the help disk understood my problem and promised to arrange an appointment with the technical department who would send me a person to replace my mother board and graphics card. Seems this problem is a very obvious with this model and very well known to the customer care executives.

So far so good, but the next question, just like others, which haunts me is that my warranty period would expire in next 2 months. How is it that I can go for this extended warranty without any charge. Do I have to tell them specifically regarding this or what else is to be done from my side. This seems to be a very well know hardware problem and one can not just throw away such an expensive notebook for an inbuilt fault by the designers/manufacturers.

Do I ask the technician who comes to fix up the problem to make a note of this? I am confused. Please guide.

I also had exactly similar problems with my DELL XPS M1330 after 10 months of it's purchase and called up the customer care, here in Germany. With about 15 minutes of waiting time over the phone (partially due to lack of German Language understanding) and just 5 minutes of conversation, the person at the help disk understood my problem and promised to arrange an appointment with the technical department who would send me a person to replace my mother board and graphics card. Seems this problem is a very obvious with this model and very well known to the customer care executives.

So far so good, but the next question, just like others, which haunts me is that my warranty period would expire in next 2 months. How is it that I can go for this extended warranty without any charge. Do I have to tell them specifically regarding this or what else is to be done from my side.

Do I ask the technician who comes to fix up the problem to make a note of this? I am confused. Please guide.

First I'd like to thank Lionel for this blog.  Without it I would never have gotten satisfaction from Dell regarding this issue.

Some advice for Dell.

1.  When there is an "extended warranty" it shouldn't be so difficult for the owner to find out about it.  I only stumbled onto this blog after hours of searching and then it was from a link from a link from a link.

2.  When there is an extended warranty, it should register in the customers account and they should not be directed to pay money, let alone $49, to talk to customer support.

3.  When there is an extended warranty, it should come up when a service representative views the account.  I contacted to reps, online chat and telephone and both did not know about the extended warranty until I directed them to this blog page.

I'm glad I didn't have to pay $500 to have this fixed, or buy a new laptop but I would be MUCH more satisfied if Dell had contacted me on the issue or at least known about it when I called.

My XPS M1210 motherboard completely failed outside the standard warranty period.  The LED error was Flashing - ON - ON which is CPU Error.   I replaced the CPU and the error repeated, proving beyond any doubt that the motherboard had failed.

Although I knew that my issue did not reflect the GPU error as described here and elsewhere, I figured it was worth 'pleading' to Dell for a motherboard replacement, due to high failure rates, and to my surprise they offered straight up they a replacement and had the technician onsite the next day.  They just clarified my troubleshooting steps, there was no fuss at all.

I am mightily impressed with Dells service and commitment.  I shall be sticking to Dell products in future.  

It was Australia and NZ,  XPS technical support dept, that helped me out.

My XPS M1330's GPU gave up the ghost yesterday. My experience with DELL support is good so far: I called them and they immediately made an appointment for an engineer to come and repair the machine for free. So I am happy so far, but I am sitting with one question:

Will the new GPU be improved, means not having this issue, or will I just get the same parts and left with a timebomb that will fail at some point.... As reliability is essential for me - I am using the machine for business - I cannot live with patching and patching and patching, but need a real fix.

Thanks for any clarification - Mark

I wish I had the experience of the 1st poster.  When my wife's XPS 1330 screen issue occurred on 8/20 (a Thursday), I was confident that my issue would be handled.  Lucky me I also own an XPS 1530 (can't wait to relive this nightmare when the video breaks on it....what fun).  Anyway, the rep explained the process where the extended warranty had to be applied and I would receive a call back.  I thought all was good and Dell was going to take care of me.  I am posting this tonight in absolute frustration.

I am now very aware that anyone outside of XPS support is not aware of the issue.  I kept my case number(s)...for reference in calling back and was told there was nothing in the notes about the Nvidia card issue or warranty extension.  Tonight’s call took me through 4 people before I finally got someone who knew about the Nvidia issue.  Unfortunately tonight I was told the same thing as my 1st call.  That the warranty extension needed to be applied...apparently this mystery group at Dell never works.  The rep said they are open until 9pm central, but it is 8:30 eastern and I would have to be scheduled for a call back since the rep couldn't reach anyone there.  So here it is almost a week later and I still have to continue waiting for some magical and powerful group (that I am starting to believe doesn't exist) to update my warrenty so they can create a service dispatch to ship a box (yawn....more waiting) to pick up the laptop.  This rep promised me a call from her supervisor tomorrow.  I now have my 3rd case number....obviously this is the only thing Dell does like giving out these days.  I hope she is able to keep her promise.

I've had many Dell systems and have always recommend them to friends and co-workers.  Guess what.  I'm done.  I realize Dell didn't create the problem, NVIDIA did, but Dell's process is broken and not customer friendly.  No one at Dell has the power to do anything other than refer you to another department....who never handles the issue.  Maybe I should go back to using a desktop from Billy Bob's local computer shop so when it breaks I can stand in his store and address the issue, not be passed around like a hot potato.

Count me as a satisfied customer.  Had a wildly overheating M1330 with screen lockup issue on a laptop that was 10 months past end of warrenty.  Read this post, called up xps service in Switzerland, spent no more than 15 minutes on the phone explaining the issue and noting that warreny was extended, and two days later a technician was at my home replacing motherboard at no cost to me.  Dell charged me approx 15 USD to replace heatsink-fan combo with next version unit. 

Unfortunate that situation exists at all, but this is the way to handle it when it does come up.

Paul

I bought a Dell M1330 on April 2008 in the UK. About 3 days ago, it went to 640X480 resolution after a reboot. After I changed the resolution to what it should be, vista reported a driver issue. I thought it was a driver issue so I upgraded BIOS and video card driver from Dell website. However, last night it couldnot boot at all, the screen went to blink (even no POST) and after while I could see some colourful vertical line on the screen. I tried to reboot it at least 5 times, finally it worked again. I also noticed the temperature is higher then normal if it could not start up, but seems ok when it is working. This morning same thing happeed again!

From reading the posts here and another website it is obvious that this problem is related to the graphic processor. I phoned Dell help line and reported my problem, and I was told I can have the graphic card replaced free of charge but to be able to determine if this problem is cause by the graphic card I need to pay 30 pounds! (I think my warrenty has expired). My question is if this is a well known hardware issue (obviously it is) why should I be charged for the test? Also, I don't want to send my laptop to Dell because a lot of very important stuff are on the hard driver. Why cannot Dell just send someone to my place to fix it ! This is a design or manufactor faulty! Why?

Regards,

Hi  everybody!

I bought my Vostro 1400 with an Nvidia GPU on February 2008 with 1 year warranty.

Now I'm experiencing the typical symptoms of a GPU fail: colored lines on the screen and sometimes no video at all.

So i contacted the tech support and they told me that I can't use the warranty enhancement because only a limited number of Vostro 1400 can be affected by this problem and mine is not between them.

Is that correct? I mean, that's not what Lionel said at the top of the page.

How do you know if mine was defected or not? Do you have the serial numbers of all the faulty GPUs?

Moreover, i bought my Vostro a couple of months before this case broke out so I wouldn't categorically exclude the possibility.

Thanks in advance for your answer and your patience

hello again  lionel

    I was able to call a dell support here in the philippines,  I asked them about the limited waranty enhance ment and they said theiy were only advised with the xps models,I wonder if its because my friend bought her laptop from US. It really feels bad that this happened just more than a week after waranty..I hope you could give me a feed back about this..

Lionel

        just an update with my post just a few minutes back...since the lcd generated outut, I tried to update the bios but the video is still black..the device manager shows that the mobile display adapter is fine.I checked display properties and it shows only 1 display is conected while having an lcd external and the laptop lcd..as Ive said, the waranty expires august 11, not 1...the model is covered nvidia limited warranty enhancement right?does it apply to our situation?

Dear Lionel,

I have been provided a Dell Latitude D630 by my office back home (Oman), which I am using during my stay in the UK for the next year. I have been facing the "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" error. My laptop screen would freeze up, with a purple fade or show either dots or lines after using it for a few hours, usually after watching videos online. Then it would go blank but the laptop shows some hard drive activity. The keyboard would stop working after a few seconds and the computer would either restart on its own or I would need to shut it down manually. Once it starts up again, I would get vertical lines and the screen will split up to 6 individual images showing the same image. I also notice that the laptop would heat up much more than normal.

I flashed the BIOS to A16 and updated the video display drivers to the latest nVidia Driver for my Quadro NVS 135 M one both from support.dell.com website but without avail. I tried contacting Dell Support in Oman via e-mail and they directed me to contact Dell Support UK. When I contacted Dell Support UK, they directed me to contact Dell Support Oman. I explained to Dell Support UK that I am currently in the UK and they gave me phone numbers to call. When calling those number, I was ask to enter a passcode, which I did not know. I e-mailed Dell Support UK about the passcode issue, but did not hear from them for the past 5 days. Which is really annoying.

How can I get my issue resolved?

Thanks

Ahmed

Hi Lionel

Im from the philipines,my friend bought a inspiron 1420 in US. I checked today and the waranty expired last august 1, 2009.while reading your blog it seems clear that tou could posibly help me..the display of the inspiron is gone..I tested an external monitor and it worked but the laptop lcd is just black..Ive been trying to look for contact support here in the philippines but I cant find any..I hope you could help us

                                                                                                                                                                                                 mark dg

                                                                                                                                                                                                  philippines

I've got the same problem... actually living in Spain, bought the PC in Spain, they try changing the motherboard more than once, the fan, etc,... instead of changing the whole equipment, would be easier and cheaper...

Hi -

My dell vostro 1400 just started having the problem. 

I knew nothing about this issue and spent 6 hours on the phone with microsoft trying to troubleshoot the problem.  I called Dell and spent an hour on the phone and no one would help me without me paying 50 dollars.  I finally found this post and I am on the phone again, on hold, right now with Dell.  The person who answered tried to get me to pay again.  I told him about this extended warranty and he was surprised.  I will update as the phone call occurs.

Hi Lionell or Todd!
I bought my Dell XPS 1330 in March 2008. Week and a half it showed the signs of Nvidia GPU failure-lines on the screen etc. My warranty expired on 11 of December 2008. Unfortunatelly i live in Russia- i called to technical guy and a call-operator told me that extension of warranty was not available (full stop)! . So Russian Dell-support refused to help!

Can you please advise me- am i intitled for GPU replacement on extended warranty or not?? And if yes, how this can be done in my coutnry??!!

Hi Lionel,  I bought a used Dell 1720 (a little over a year old now) and successfully changed the ownership with Dell Customer Service.  I have what I think is a problem with my NVIDIA 8600M card, the screen goes mostly black and with a few white lines. Sometimes it runs 20-30 min before this happens, other times it happens on startup. I can power it down and start it back up and usually get it to run. If I run the fan at full speed all the time it runs without any issues. Is my graohics card going to fail on me, and if so, can I get it replaced under warranty. I monitor its temperature with NVmonitor and I have never seen its temp go above 65 deg C.

Dave 

My M1330 died yesterday morning after giving me several "display driver" error messages. Now all I have is vertical lines and nothing. I spent 2 hours with the online chat people but they couldn't help me in the end because apparently I was not the registered owner of the computer (I bought it on Ebay around mid-2008). I spent another hour on the phone with customer service and they gave me the same old line, your warranty is expired. It would help if we could actually understand one another on the phone too. I use this laptop for work and without it I am with much hardship. The Toshiba I am on right now is OLD. I NEED HELP! I gave alot of money for this laptop and here I am about a year later with nothing. My old Toshiba is 5 years old now and is wonderfully reliable. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about those of us that are more than 1 year past the end of our warranty?  Did we deserve to be treated like this?  Last time I ever buy a Dell or allow anyone I know to get one.

Hi, I have just got my motherboar replaced 3 days back because of same problem. The motherboard replaced was refurbished one and hope that this problem was sorted out in the replaced part. Please clarify. 

I have a Dell M1330 purchased on Feb 10 2008. 

Today it will not boot, after one day of intermittent video problems.  The screen displays colored vertical lines and will not complete the POST.  I input my service tag on-line and was told I was out of warranty and would need to pay to talk to anyone at Dell about this dead laptop.

From reading the posts it is obvious that this is related to the graphic processor problem reported by many others;  My M1330 has an NVIDIA 8400m gs.  Sounds like this is a bad piece of hardware.

What I need is a new system board with the Intel graphics chip.  How can I get one, either under warranty or not?

I like the machine and would like to save it if possible.  My technical level is advanced, so I am confident that I can replace the unit myself, if necessary.

Regards,

R

Hello,

I'm having trouble with my XPS1330 since a couple of weeks.

It shows all the characteristic problems described above, and since a couple of weeks I'm not able to boot it anymore, the screen just slowly fills with vertical lines at boot up.

After takling to dell support exaclty one month ago, he just told me that my laptop has no note in the system concerning this problem, and that they would not be able to help me unless I would pay for it.

So I tried to reach Lionel Menchaca over the community, got a short reply that he was willing ot help me, and haven't heard from him since.

Now I just came of the phone with another techsupport guy, who wasn't willing to help me either.

Just can't think of anything else to do anymore, but I'm still not willing to pay because I'm sure that I'm supposed to get this warranty enhancement.

Alain

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On 23 feb 2008, I bought Dell XPS 1330 in Moscow. Unfortunately, one year later it showed the signs of Nvidia GPU failure, as described above (lines on the screen). I called to Russian technical support and a call-operator told me that it is suffering from a gpu failure but the original 1 year warranty expired on December 2008 and the extension of warranty was not available because the warranty of my Dell was provided by a distributor and not by Dell itself. So he refused to change the motherboard and advised to address my request to the shop I purchased my laptop at. After that operator denied to connect me with his supervisor. So Russian Dell-support refused to help me in this case.

With regard to message after Lionel_Menchaca, “NVIDIA GPU Update: Limited Warranty Enhancement Details” I wonder if it will be possible to enhance warranty for my laptop.

I would appreciate your help.

Anna

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Hello,

On 23 feb 2008, I bought Dell XPS 1330 in Moscow. Unfortunately, one year later it showed the signes of Nvidia GPU failure, as described above (lines on the screen). I called to russian technical support and a call-operator told me that it is suffering from a gpu failure but the original 1 year warranty expired on December 2008 and the extention of warranty was not available because the warranty of my Dell was provided by a distributor and not by Dell itself. So he refused to change the motherboard and adviced to address my request to the shop I purchased my laptop at. After that operator denied to connect me with his superviser. So russian Dell-support refused to help me in this case.

With regard to message after Lionel_Menchaca, “NVIDIA GPU Update: Limited Warranty Enhancement Details” I wonder if it will be possible to enhance warranty for my laptop.

I would appreciate your help.

Please note, I will be out of the office for an extended period and will not be able to receive or reply to Private Messages.  If you have questions or need answers please contact Lionel Menchaca for assistance.

My Dell Vostro 1400 has suffered under the problems of the faulty Nvidia 8400M chipset!

At first my LCD display was all messed up and went green and discolored so I used a external monitor and now the video output on the monitor has gone bad as well.

I am 100% certain that I have a faulty GPU but I am out of the warranty period and Dell will not help me!  Is there any sort of extended warranty support I can receive and not have  to pay for because I am a victim of a faulty hardware design and now I have a useless laptop.

Hi Lionel,

I am currently having troubles with technical support. I have all the symptoms of the NVIDIA GPU failure on my Vostro 1400. I tried to contact Dell during July 2009 about it, however my original warrenty expired on 8-1-2008 so when I tried to get a hold of dell tech support was not able to because "my warrenty has expired". I finally was able to get ahold of online chat for expired warrenties (which I just found) and they are telling me they will not help my because it is 11 days past the 1 year warrenty extension. I told them I tried to contact them in July but they say they have "no record of that".

Please Help!

Respectfully,

Greg Sorensen

it's time for Dell to own up and admit that ALL model with the nVIDIA 8400 & 8600 GPU is faulty and claim responsibility. Sony did, even after a year of denial, HP did, Tosh too.. even Apple. So why is Dell playing hardball and not considering to rectify the problem ? The argument that the other models (mainly 1520 and 1720) are using different components which are not affected DOES NOT hold, because it's the same GPU as the one being fit in other models.

Be a man and own up DELL. I'm fighting for the sake of my dead 1520 here in Malaysia, and I'm pretty sure soon, there will be legions of angry customers at your door step wanting explanation.

I'm just a customer who wants what I deserve. A functioning laptop. Not a dead one.”

Hi

I have a Dell XPS M1330 That is showing the signs of Nvidia gpu failure white lines up sceen with a bright blue line in the middle .

After been on to technical support in the UK . I have been informed that it is suffering from a gpu failure but as the original 1 year warranty expired on Feb 2009 i must pay for an extended warranty  to get this fixed they said as the motherboard and gpu are one they cannot repalce the gpu without the motherboard been replaced as wel and this is not covered under the extended warranty

Is this correct . any help would be muchly appreciated

Thanks

Steven

I've been reading reports that Sony is now owning up to using these dodgy Nvidia GPUs and is offering to fix the problem for free within four years of the purchase date, irrespective of warranty status.  Why does Dell only offer a 1 year extension and then make the customer to fight to get their laptop fixed?

What should I say. How good Dell it is. When I call the tech support line (1800-624-9896) and talk about my Inspiron 1420 GPU issue, no one knows this problem, even though the limited warranty extend. Looks like this announcement is just a joke. After asking the technician checking this webpage, he said he wants to send me the "GPU" and I need to replace the "GPU" by myself. What the wonderful service Dell provides. After a long conversation, he said his manager agree to send me a box and ask me to return my problem laptop for repair. I totally agree with this deal. After less than one minute, the tech support suddenly hang up the call and does not provide me any confirmation number and no call back. I know he just plays me like a fool. I totally understand this is the way how Dell treat their customer. I am a small business IT person, I will ask my boss to not to consider buying any machine from Dell if you can give me a reasonable answer. OK~~ Please let me know what should I do next? Call my sales who takes care of our company's purchase about this issue?