Direct2Dell

Hello

I am Jlelovic from Hong Kong. I had an issue with the NVidea GPU causing overheating and eventually vertical lines etc etc.

I tried to contact Dell Support here in Hong Kong but could not get anywhere, (could not actually speak to a human) so I posted here on June 24th.

I have to commend Lionel and Todd as well as Dell, for Todd S promptly getting back to me on this enhanced extra warranty issue specific to the NVidea GPU.

Today a very knowledgable and fastidious tech arrived at my home and replaced my motherboard, and the XPS M1330 is now running much cooler. This was done under the extra enhanced warranty.

The only issue is that unless one spends some time looking around the Dell community forums one generally cannot actually speak to a human concerning this issue.

I understand that Dell could be concerned by tons of not knowledgable and possibly computer illiterate people clogging their telephone lines etc., but I think it would be a good idea for Dell to more openly inform their customers on their main support web site, and issue a special email address specific to this and similar problems, so one does not have to hunt around spending tons of time.

Although my XPS M1330 now runs cooler and normal again, I am going to do the "copper mod", with arctic silver 5 as well. Apparently after this mod the system will run some 25% cooler. If one Googles Copper Mod XPS M1330 there are explicit instructions on how to do this. Enemy Number 1 of all electronics is excessive heat.

Thanks again to Todd S, Lionel and Dell for standing behind their product and supporting the customer. I will continue to be faithful Dell Customer.

Cheers

JLelovic Hong Kong

Hi,

I started having the exact same video/display issues that you described in the article and that others described in their replies. I have a Dell Inspiron 1420 purchased in August of 2007 with a NVIDIA GeForce 8400 video card. I only had the 1-year warranty and the people at Tech Support didn't know what I was talking about when I called and told them about 1-year extension.

 
My service tag is <ADMIN NOTE: Service Tag removed per privacy policy> and my express service code is <ADMIN NOTE: Express Service Code removed per privacy policy>.

My name is Daniel Waltrip (the laptop is under this name as well), and my phone number is <ADMIN NOTE: Ph no  removed per privacy policy>. My e-mail is <ADMIN NOTE: Email removed per privacy policy>

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Daniel Waltrip

Hi,

I got Vostro 1400, with nvidia 8400m GS GPU. Laptop was bought in first quarter of 2008, and worked fine till first quarter 2009, when GPU "died". I was not aware of problem, and not monitored temperature..I not used it for gaming, just for office aplications, surfing web etc..

Since it was under warranty, I went to a service and they replaced motherboard at april 2009. Said that's common issue now with those serie 8 nvidia chips.

Laptop work fine now. I started monitor temperature and did some googling. It has around 52 celzius in idle mode and reaches 62 celzius unders stress (3d, watching video)..it was measured by nvidia aplication, at room temperature. My question: Does this new motherboard with GPU  (nvidia 8400m gs, chip g86 rev. A2) has solved that problem.. As i read articles, i realised that was not problematic chip but its soldering to motherboard.. so is that soldering now proper on my motherboard, since its "fresh" - april this year..

Thanks for reply in advance.

I'd like convey my gratitude to the great service i received from dell technical support in Singapore.  I managed to call up the technical support line on tuesday 30th June, and after explaining the symptoms on my dell inspiron 1420 which were very likely due to the problem with nvidia video adapter, she arranged a technician to come to my home address to fix the problem on 1st July (1 day after i logged the problem).  The technician came on time as promised, did some checking, and replaced a part inside.  Now, my laptop is up and running like before.

Thank you so much for such a great service.  I am hoping that the problem will not come back again.

The case number was <ADMIN NOTE: Case number removed per privacy policy>

Regards

Hariyanto

I have lost the red color display on my external adapter - monitor works fine on other PC's, have the problem with and without a docking station.  I can get my laptop fixed for free if I send it in and won't have it for at least a week (which isn't feasible as a software developer in the field) - but since I'm out of the 1st year of on-site tech support, I'm now in depot only support as we had a 1+1 contract it appears.  Does this extension cover on-site tech support also?

My service tag is<ADMIN NOTE: Service Tag removed per privacy policy>and my service request number is<ADMIN NOTE: Service Request number removed per privacy policy>Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated!

Geoff

Hello Lionel,

I finally found this article which should be the answer to a problem I am having now with my dell inspiron 1420.  I have tried many time to call tech support to inform them about my problem unfortunately never succeeded.  Is there an alternative way of reaching the tech support?

Thanks very much.

Regards

Hariyanto

After a number of calls to Dell Support, 3 on-site service calls, and 3 replacement motherboards, I think I have fixed the problem of my D630 overheating.

My D630 started shutting down a few months ago and after Googling this problem, I concluded that my D630 symptoms matched the reported issue of the GPU overheating, and since my computer was under warranty, I called Dell for service.  

I followed all the troubleshooting instructions Dell gave me over the phone but nothing changed, so they sent out a service tech. He replaced the motherboard and pointing out that this overheating issue is a problem with the D630 because the heatsink is not doing the job of cooling down the chip. Over a 2 week period, the motherboard was replaced 3 times and still over heated. They said they wanted me to send it in to a bench tech, but I was reluctant to agree.

I finally reached the limit of my frustration, and did something I would not normally do. I opened up the notebook computer to look at what was going on. I noticed 2 issues.  First was the heatsink that covered the GPU chip was not laying evenly on top of the chip. The second issue was that there was no heatsink paste/compound at all on the GPU and only a small amount of dried out heatsink paste/compound on the CPU.

So I went out and purchased some Silver Oxide Compound heatsink paste,( which the manufacture claims is 2 times better than silicon based compound), and applied it to the GPU and CPU chip. In addition, I carefully bent the heatsink arm to try and get 100% coverage for the heatsink over the chip.

After getting it all back together, starting it back up, and monitoring it for a while, it never again overheated and shut down as it did before on regular bases. In addition, I used a program by the name of “SpeedFan” to test the temperature of the motherboard and chips, both before and after my work, and the GUP temperature went from the range of 80-95C to a range of 58-68C. The fan also does not kick in as much as it did before too.

 I feel confident that the overheating problem with my D630 is fixed.

I have experienced graphics problems (vertical lines, freezes, no video etc.) and very high operating temperatures with my XPS M1330 for a few weeks now and  stumbled across this blogg earlier today.

I contacted Dell support and was initially informed my service tag indicates the warranty for my machine expired January this year, which is true. I asked the agent to bare with me and after explaining my problems and mentioning this blogg the agent was receptive to my problem but suggested it would be best to run some hardware diagnostics to get to the root of the problem. 

At about 20-30 minutes into testing the machine was near "meltdown" and eventually shut-down presumably on over-temperature protection. The agent said the over-heating is not related to the Navidia GPU issue but would arrange for the motherboard to be changed out under the limited warranty enhancement scheme due to the problems I have been experiencing with graphics, but I would need to pay a charge for a replacement heatsink and fan to resolve to over-heating issue. At the time I agreed to this and  currently expecting a service call in the next working day or two.

After further research, my understanding now is that the two issues are related since it's the Navidia GPU which causes the excessive temperatures. This being the case I have difficulty understanding why replacing a serviceable fan and  heatsink will have any impact unless it's a new improved design. Can you please advise if this is appropriate?

The agent was not able to advise the cost of a replacement fan and heatsink that I have already agreed to pay for, so I guess theoretically it could be a substantial amount. Again could you advise if this is appropriate?

The Dell support agent I spoke with was very polite, understanding and most helpful. I have always had a good experience when dealing with Dell let's hope it continues, afterall I have three Dell machines in my household ,a Studio Hybrid the latest addition.

Well I spent an hour on the phone with an individual from Customer Resolution who wouldn’t give me his name just his number “18”.  Even though he said that he had reviewed all the information in the case he needed me to explain what was wrong with my laptop.  He didn’t even know what model my laptop was and when I explained the GPU problem he said “well we just need to send you a new video card.”  Then I had to try and explain what an onboard GPU was and this nitwit proceeded to tell me that there was no such configuration sold by Dell.  I asked that he get a supervisor and that they pull up a spec sheet on the laptop before they stuck their foot any further down their throat.  He put me on hold and after about 15 minutes he came back on and said “the laptop has an onboard GPU that isn’t replaceable.”

Next he wanted to connect to the laptop to see the problem for himself.  When I explained that the issue was heat related and intermittent he still said he needed to connect to see the problem.  So I initiated the Dell Connect session.  When he connects he asks me to identify which lines on the screen that are causing the problem.  I again explained that he would need to wait and let the laptop idle and go through its power settings, i.e. idle to screen saver, screen saver to standby and standby to hibernate and it could take a couple of hours. 

His response was “well I see no problem with this unit so I am going to close the incident”.  When I explained to him how a warranty is supposed to work he told me that “if the part is no longer available I’m just out of luck and need to purchase a newer model laptop.”

I have 10 months remaining on my warranty and since this is a manufacturer defect there certainly is responsibility to fix this problem.  If they feel that a new laptop is what is needed then they need to supply it at their cost not mine.  I’ve got $5,000 invested in this mobile setup which is now basically nothing more than a paperweight!

Hi

I have experienced this issue three times. The GPU was measured every time to about 93 *Celsius (~200 *Fahrenheit) average when working after a while (e.g. in windows and browsing/listening to music etc) and max temperatures around 104 *Celsius (~220 *Fahrenheit) when playing games, I always had the latest BIOS updates and I would get issues like problems showing HD video, playing games and as it worsened problems just doing simple tasks like listening to music or using windows movie maker etc. Basically, anything that strain the GPU, even lightly, and as it worsen just using the computer for an extended period.

All three times though I have gotten prompt next day service, replacing the motherboard (with the video card integrated), and the technician has in all the cases concluded that the issues was related to the GPU overheating because of the insufficient heat-pipe system. In their words the GPU basically "melted" the system, with the GPU heating up the heatpipe so much that the CPU would also experience high temperatures after a while. The cooling paste at the GPU would basically dry out after some time. The silver lining in all these problems was that I at least got proper service from Dell.

However, this is now happening again, the same issues as before. My system will run hot and experience the same symptoms and temperatures as three times before, my screen will black out and the video driver will reset. Simple programs like windows media player will cause the system to basically kneel from the strain, all in all, the computer is not reliable or usable.
The difference this time though is that I'm no longer in my normal warranty period. When I call XPS support they certainly are everything but helpful. First there is, with every new person, I am forced to partake in a long discussion to explain that this should be covered by the extended warranty given to this issue. Then I've tried to supply the URL to this blog explaining the issue and listing the bullet points for symptoms, which they should have intimate knowledge of when this many systems have the problem (I've read through hundreds of forum pages with posts on the issue just for the M1330), however not one of them will check it out. Then one said they would call me back or send a technician within 4-5 days. I protested and said that I had the right to next business day service, both on the grounds that it is my right and that I would be traveling within 3 days from now and needed my computer fixed.
I was then put on hold, and after 10 minutes or so the technician would explain to me that I was not experiencing issues related to the GPU. I protested and said I am having the same problems as the three times before, and that in all of those repairs the conclusion was that the GPU was the issue. I was then told that this GPU problem was not an issue since September 08. I then said that that was strange seeing as I personally had the issue twice after September 08, I've read about lots of other people having it (including in this comment section), that this information would probably be explained here as well as the fact that my roommate, which has the same system and problems (twice), got his motherboard/video card replaced merely months ago.

They would then say that my symptoms didn't correspond to the GPU issue, whereas I asked what those symptoms were and how they didn't match mine, but he would not tell me. I find it strange that after my normal warranty expires the symptoms I had three times before suddenly are not related to the issue at hand. When I then asked what my symptoms would be caused by, I got the vague answer that it "could be several things", none of which he could state. He concluded that I would have to pay for the motherboard, which I declined, and that he could not help me.

Should it really be this hard to get the service I am entitled to? And if there really was any doubt about the cause, every technician I've had over before have investigated and queried me about my problems before replacing any parts. They've also said they've changed the motherboard/video card upwards of ten times for some customers, so they are obviously pretty accustomed to diagnosing the problem. Shouldn't I, as a customer of a system with thousands of these issues, having it happened three times before to my person and this very blog entry stating the extended warranty guarantee, at least be entitled to having a technician checking it for me for free and then replacing it if it's fautly?

I seriously hope I could get some professional help on this issue as I need my computer on a daily basis, I've had the issue three times before and I'm frankly physically nauseous from talking to the XPS support.

Best regards
KristofferU

Hello

Further to my previous post re GPU problem and enhanced warranty specific to this issue. I summarize again the problem.

Dell XPS M1330 purchased Aug 2007. 3 or 4 motherboards later I still have a GPU overheating problem and yesterday the computer would not boot, and showed vertical colored lines on the LCD display, or a blank disply, and crashed intermitantly. Now it boots sometimes. The computer runs very hot so I use it with a USB cooling fan, plus use it on a cooling base, but still the GPU is failing.

I understand from your 4 posts that the wrranty is enhanced 1 year to solve thisspecific  problem, but I can't seem to get anywhere.

I am english speaking living in Hong Kong. I followed your instructions and tried to contact Hong Kong support but after entering my express code on the telephone, I get a telephone robot telling me to email my problem to <ADMIN NOTE: Email removed per privacy policy> Since it is a Chinese speaking very bad english, it is very hard to understand, and after I emailed to this address, I received a reply from my email service provider that this is not a valid address so my email is non deliverable.

So I need your help how to contact a real person at Dell who can understand english and get my problem resolved. I think that it would be a good idea for Dell to post an email address specific to this problem, as it is impossible to speak to anyone about it.

Help

John

JLelovic Hong Kong

Hello

I am english speaking living in Hong Kong.

XPS M1330 purchased August 2007, already had 4 motherboards, and now have blank or vertical lines and crash due to faulty Nvidea GPU which runs very hot. I live in Hong Kong and followed your procedure but was unsuccessful in actually talking to a tech person, and if I understand the Chinese speaking english recording I was to send an email to <ADMIN NOTE: Email removed per privacy policy>  which I did, but I am unsure if this is the proper email address.

How can I get this GPU problem fixed once and for all. How can I speak with an actual person, and explain that this warranty should be extended due to this specific issue, and get my computer working reliably.

I suggest Dell should post an email address specific to this issue.

Thanks

JLelovic

Hello,

I'm the IT director for my company.  I bought two of the XPS M1330 systems (Feb, 2008) for portability and power, and to be honest I've had more than a handful of issues.  Now I have one of my systems that has been displaying lines on the screen, that now completely refuses to show anything but a blank screen.  I was on the phone with the Dell account manager and we were trying to talk to tech support.  They refused to even speak to me without a $49 charge.  My account manager had asked if the graphics card was a known issue and we were told it was not.  I refused the charge and now I'm posting here.  To say that I'm irritated is putting it mildly.  I've been courteous to everyone I've spoken to, and if I can't get it repaired then that is that.  I can honestly say that I haven't been recommending Dell for laptops of late, unless of course its the business line.  Is there a reason that tech support doesn't know that this is a known issue, and that the warranty is supposed to be extended regarding this issue?  What recourse do I have?  Do I need to email Michael Dell?  Earlier this month I emailed Dell Customer Care and was told it was a technical issue, which I know it is, but how do I get through to them that this should be fixed under warranty?  Thank you in advance for your help.  I'm sure someone will point me in the right direction.

I bought my Dell XPS M1330 on November 2007 with a NVIDIA 8400M GS graphics card with the 1-year base warranty in France.
The LCD screen sometimes turn pink or green and the laptop freezes and then reboot displaying vertical white lines with a black background.
I think this is a NVIDIA GPU problem.
I contacted the DELL's XPS support for France and explained my problem but they told me that I have to pay 35 euros for the diagnostic + 140 euros for a 12-month warranty extension. I refused because I read here that DELL offers a warranty enhancement to customers who's experiencing this problem.
What can I do now ? Is someone can give me some advice to help me to resolve my problem ?
Thank you in advance.

Sandy.

Well I was sent a replacement laptop and received it on Monday June 15^th.  Just when I thought everything was going fine I hit a snag.  When Windows updated to SP3 and IE 8 the computer started malfunctioning.  I tried doing a System Restore but no restore points where available.  So I decided to try and restore to the factory settings but this laptop didn't have the restore partition.  I contacted Microsoft and they felt the issue had to do with the wrong drivers being loaded for this setup so they had me manually uninstall SP3 and IE 8 but the OS has become unstable so they are recommending I reformat and do a complete system install.  I have inquired to see if it's possible to get a factory hard drive already setup as if for a new computer.  Meaning that it has the restore & diagnostic as well as the system partitions and a clean copy of Windows or if there is a way to get a copy of the Dell PC Restore by Symantec utility (DSR- Dell System Restore) or an original iso image file for this setup.

But wait!  We now have another problem and that is the video on the replacement laptop has failed.  I'm having the same intermittent video issues that I have with my original laptop.  The screen will just go crazy with jagged lines from one side to the other and top to bottom.  It can happen when the computer goes into or comes out of sleep or hibernate and after closing the lid.  Again this is an intermittent problem that I can't always replicate but it is starting to happen more often.   I have sent numerous emails and have left voice mail as well and no one has responded.

This is really starting to become a waste of my time and money to try and resolve this problem.  I could really use some help here as I have made quite an investment with my Dell system (about $5,000 USD total).  My business is starting to falter as I haven't been able to do much of anything without my laptop working since April 2009.

Regards,

John Whinery Jr

Thanks for this information. For about a week my wife's XPS M1330 is having similar problems. Sometimes after login and sometimes at login screen weird artifacts show up. Entire is screen is obscured by weird blurry image artifacts and there is nothing we can do apart from rebooting the system. I have tried connecting to external display and update NVIDIA drivers as well as bios (currently running A12), but the problem persists.

The laptop had similar problem within 6 months of purchase and Dell technician came home and fixed it. Now we are having same problems and laptop is a little outside 1 year warranty period. Today is sunday, so tomorrow perhaps I will give a call to Dell technical support, but I was wondering if our laptop is still covered by this extended warranty.

Before reading those blog posts, I was going to buy XPS 1530 with nvidia 8400. I am confused now, why does DELL keep selling XPS 1530 if it is an known issue?

Yesterday, after installing several updates, my Precision M65 began to act very strangely. The windows, when dragged across the screen, would leave a trail behind them as well as leave random sections of the windows on the desktop when minimized. I think that these are the symptoms described in the blog posts above.

I have plugged in a CRT monitor to verify that it is not the LCD on the laptop that isnt acting up, and the same effect of trailing etc is appearing on the CRT monitor.

I have a 5 months left on my warranty which shouldn't be a problem. I was wondering what the replacement process will involve. Do they replace the GPU/problem part with exactly the same product are are they putting in a more reliable replacement part. Is there a way to specifically diagnose whether or not this is the problem described above?

My wife's XPS M1330 started acting up last week by intermittently crashing and  I checked the event log and it had "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has sucessfully recovered" as the error message. I searched the Dell forums and came across this blog so I initated a Chat session with a Dell rep. Eventually we got to the point where they were sending out a new motherboard, heat sink and fan. That was Saturday.

Tuesday we finally got the call from the technican in the morning that he thought that the parts were at the Fedex depot and if they were he would be out later that day. We thought "Great" as my wife uses the laptop for work and had not been able to use it at all this week as now it crashes if you try booting it. Before it was intermittent crashes, but now it would not boot at all. Late Tuesday afternoon the tech called to say that he had the parts and would be over shortly. He came and replaced the motherboard, the heat sink and supposedly the fan. He let it boot up through the diagnostics, but left before it was fully up and running. He said that everything should be alright. Last night, Tuesday, it seemed to be running very slowly so we shut it down and figured that we would clean things up the next day.

Wednesday we booted it up and the cpu was pretty much running at 100% most of the time. It never did that before and it seemed to be running very hot. We werein the process of doing diagnostics to ty to understand why it was running at 100% and it went to BOD and then the nvlddmkm  error message on a black screen and then crashed. I initiated another session with a Dell rep from another computer and described what had happened. He had me run diagnostics on the compter and now there is an error code 0411. The message reads something like Hardware error - Fan 1 not found. Sounds like the new fan is not working. It will not complete the diagnostics without shutting itself off. Now Dell wants her to send the computer back and that will mean another 5-6 days on not having the computer for work. Total down time since this started last week will end up being 2 weeks. We are disappointed with how this is turning out.

I am the proud owner of a XPS M1330, i love my laptop, i love the size the power, the fact that it can act as a personal room heater.

Not so much on the last one there.  I have had my motherboard replaced twice now due to graphical issues and each time i've needed to have it replaced my systems temperatures have spiked. Ever since i've kept close watch on my temperatures usually while watching movies or playing games my laptops GPU will hover around 80 degrees celcius which is quite hot but within the managable range.  Last week my temperatures started spiking up to 95 degrees Ceclius and today while i was watching a movie (jurassic park if it matters) My GPU temperature reached 101 degrees before i decided to shut it down to prevent any damage.  I am running Bios revision A15 (the one with the fan speed upgrade) after shutting down my laptop for a couple hours (the metal felt icy to the touch ambient temp is 59 degrees farenheit). I do not use this "laptop" as a laptop it always sits on my desk and it does have the raised battery to help with airflow i have even raised the front and rear and extra 1 1/2 inches to accomodate more airflow and just by browsing these forums my GPU is hovering at 75 degrees Celcius to give you an idea of the other temps in laptop the cores while browsing are at 50C and my HDD is at 47C it is clear that my GPU temperature is the one causing the heatup yet the dell tech that i spoke with refuses to acknowledge that this is a GPU issue.    This is exactly what happened before when i had my motherboard replaced i just wish dell would do something pre-emptively before i have to spend more time diagnosing the fact that my GPU is fried for a third time.  I am one of those "lucky" people with the 8400M GS so i know that overheating is a known issue yet the tech made it sound as if they had never heard of it.

I am getting the same problem in my Vostro 1400. According to this blog post i am entitled to 12 months extended warranty i have tried using Dell UK tech chat but got refused, have sent email but got automated reply Dell doesn't deal VOSTRO problems by email :(

I have been running BIOS version A09 for months without any issues but its just today at work this problem wasted 75% of my time. As a contractor my Laptop means alot to me Luckly i got to this blog post on google otherwise this repeated system and screen freez had made me panic.

Looking forward someone would help me solve this issue

Hi Todd,

I really need your help on this issue as I have sent emails to the support link that you ask we send it to for the warranty extension on this issue. The machine i have is an inspiron 1420 and my warranty expired on the 17th of November 2008 soo as you know i am only a few months away from being able to have my machine fixed under the limited warranty enhancement. Can you please help me out with this issue

I bought my xps1330 in the US. It has US warranty but I am currently in Vietnam. Is there anywhere I can take my laptop here in Vietnam?

Thank you, Todd!

They fixed my NVidia problem.

HI Lionel,

Thanks for your support.. I have a Inspiron 1520 plus the famous Nvidia GeForce 8600m GT.. Time ago Dell gave me this laptop because they made a mistake and didn't run my order after I pay.. (It was another laptop... but, It's a long history..) finally I had my Inpiron 1520..

Now I have a great problem.. I'm out of warranty, but with the problem in my GPU card.. Dell DON'T WANT RESPOND... Why Dell need a laptop in warranty if the problem is for all Nvidia 8 series??? and the mainly question is WHY DELL DON'T WANT HELP ME?? (HP with Nvidia 8 series do it; MAC with Nvidia 8 Series do it)

I got a lot information about this problem and it's frustrating that a great company as Dell do not respond for it.....

Regards,  

Update on my problem:

Called customer service to get my account info resolved. Got transferred two or three times and finally ended up with "On Hold Collectors Department". He told me my account says my system (identified with service tag) is with Dell (not in my possession) and that I needed to talk to the "Tag Team Department" to have the Service Tag transferred to my name. He trasferred me somewhere else, and I explained my issue and that I needed to speak to the Tag Team Department. I was then given a new number to call to get my account squared away, which ended up being an out of service Dell number. That in turn gave me another 800 number which ended up being sales (I guess they'd rather I buy a new system). Called back the number I had for "On Hold Collectors" and an automated message told me to call a local number for Small Business Support.

The notepad I have in front of me has 7 different numbers scrawled out, some crossed out, and after an hour on the phone and speaking to about 10 people, I've gotten nowhere.

If my account was not somehow locked, I'm sure Tech Support would resolve my issue very quickly, however I can't get to them. Still don't understand considering I've been able to talk to Tech Support before, even had a technician come to my house to replace a DVD drive.

Not sure what to do now, everyone I talk to just transfers me to someone else.

I would just like to thank you for posting all of this.  I have been driving myself nuts the last 24 hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer.  I started having display problems that eventually led to the blue screen.  I tried numerous things (virus/malware scans, driver updates, reinstalling drivers, registry fixes, etc.).  I finally remembered to run the Dell Diagnostic CD.  Once I got the error code that basically said my Latitude D620 could not write to the video memory, I put the code in Google and found my way here.  I am on the phone with Dell Support now, and we are setting up to have a technician come out and replace my video card in the next two days.  Thanks again!

I purchased a refurbished M1330 in April of 2008. Just a few weeks later my DVD drive failed and with the help of tech support a technician was sent to my apartment and replaced the drive.

Now at some point I noticed my laptop getting very hot, and the fan was not running. I read about the BIOS update, which essentially just cranks of the fan to reduce the possibility of overheating, and everything seemed to be ok.

Unfortunately I was blissfully unaware of the much larger Nvidia issue until last Thursday night, when many video glitches began, ultimately ending with nothing but vertical colored lines being displayed whenever I try to boot up. Now I find that there is a limited extended warranty for owners of certain models (M1330 included) to have the faulty motherboard replaced, however I can't receive technical support because for some reason records show my system was purchase outside of the US.

My system was certainly not purchased outside of the US, and I received service while it was still under warranty to prove it. As of now I can't chat, e-mail, or receive tech support over the phone. Best chance I've got (according to the tech support guy I just spoke too) is to call customer service tomorrow (only M-F hours) to hopefully figure out how they can understand my system wasn't purchased outside of the US, and also how I can get my faulty (and now dead) motherboard replaced.

I'm typing this from my girlfriend's Latitude D610 which, although no longer holds a charge, is otherwise fully functional after at least 4 years. If my M1330 cannot be rescusitated I will most certainly not be replacing it with another Dell.

I called the number it suggested to me after I put in my service tag and I got transfered to two different phone# with two calls after I told them I wanted a warrenty repair. The first one put me on hold without warning and then I was disconnected. The second one was completely clueless about this warranty enhancement. I oferred to email him this URL, which I did, but he has not replied or called back.

Why am I not allowed to use online chat just because my warranty is expired (and why does it say "your warrenty has expired... retry chat" instead of something like "we won't online chat with you because you're out of warranty, don't bother trying again" so I would at least be able to figure out what is up the first time?)? I will waste a lot of my time and Dell's money waiting on hold instead...

Hi.

After my post about my XPS m1210...Todd contacted me and ask about my detailes, i gave the detailes to Todd and he forwarded them to the UK suport, and i receive a call today.

This was the good part...now the bad part:

The guy that was calling me today "Eugene" told me that DELL UK knows only about 1 Faulty  XPS system and that is not mine, he told me that  only the 8 series NVIDIA chips were faulty and not 7 series(i know by fact that this is FALS, because i have one HP with the same NVIDIA GO 7400 chip that is curently in repairs for FREE) and he told me that if i want he could put me in touch with the out of warranty team to pay for the replacement motherboard.When i told him that the DELL should give support for the M1210 model he told me that they stiil give suport....the support is that they will fix my laptop for cash(not bios firmware, not bether drivers)....why would i pay DELL for an motherboard that only need the video chip replaced(wich should not be deffective in the first place)?They told me that they would not charge me for replacing but only for the hardware...i can buy a board from Ebay with 6 months warranty for a quarter of the price they charge and change it miself.(They only give 3 months warranty)....another thing ... when i told him that this is clearly an issue with the video chip and i told him about this website he told me that they donn't know about issues that hapend in US...they only know that this is not an issue in UK....so the same laptop may have problems in US but for sure not in UK(i gues is the bad weather and the cold here they were counting to reduce the heat and keep this FAULTY video chip running)....

I can say that i am very disapointed...

Any help would be verry appreciated !

Thx

Hi. After my last post in my xps 1330 was replaced motherboard wiith untegrared videochip Nvidia. Now i want to know- what revision of videochip does not have problems and how can i figure out what revision of videochip i have now, good or bad?

i have referred to the Dell's website; as a link to the blog would be too lenghty for a phone conversation. I believe a tech support person should be well aware about an issue such as the Nvidia failures; but locals pretend they aren't. Anyway, thank you for rising it again.

Shall i expect someone from Dell Ukraine to contact me directly on the issue?

thank you for the prompt response.

the person i've been talking to in the Ukrainian tech support has said that my 1 year warranty is expired and they know nothing about nvidia issue and warranty extension. According to him, Dell is not going to ship any parts for my laptop. I am even more worried now, because my computer has been accepted by the tech service 1 week ago and at that time they promised a free mainboard replacement, and now i discover they are doing nothing about it.

let me know if i should give you more info on that. Would appreciate your help.

'Yevgen,

Did they say why they could not provide support for your system?   If they don't normally support your model in the Ukraine they would not have the parts to repair it.   That's just one reason why they couldn't do it.  If you could give me more specifics on what they said I can try to find out more information.'

Dear Todd,

Referring to my earlier message (see quoted below) i got a phonecall from the Dell service in Ukraine and they have accepted my laptop for the mainboard replacement on June 3rd. However, when i called them today to check the status i got a response from the local support that mainboard was not ordered, because Dell cannot provide support for my computer. The call center person gave me this reference for our conversation - 641 732 148 .

I would highly appreciate if you can help further with that, as it looks the local Dell service cannot cope with their job.

Yevgen

“ My XPS M1330 started to have issues with graphics (vertical colour lines on the screen) last week. Have purchased it in Nov 2007 with 1-year guarantee. Local dell technical line (Ukraine) refused to provide any assistance with the issue, including the guarantee extension. Would highly appreciate your help. Yevgen ”

Hi. After my last post in my xps 1330 was replaced motherboard wiith untegrared videochip Nvidia. Now i want to know- what revision of videochip does not have problems and how can i figure out what revision of videochip i have now, good or bad?

I've owned a VOSTRO 1500 with a NVIDIA 8400M GS card for 18 months, and yesterday it died. I was working and suddenly I was without video. I turned down the laptop, then tried to turn it on again, but nothing happened. I'm almost sure that the GPU got fried but since I'm out of warranty and my model is not covered by the warranty extension, there's nothing I can do. All this time I have used the laptop in the "most standard" conditions, incluiding keeping it clean and in CLEAN places. I know that my GPU is not soldered to the motherboard and supposedly it wasn't going to fail, I tried to believe that, but here I am, having a dead computer.

I am qouting from the user :Jnaddy

"Hi,

I too have an XPS M1210 that ise a victim of this issue.
About 5 month ago I  noticed lots of little blue horizontal lines across the screen and after a few minutes the computer locked up.  The computer does still power up but will lock up after 3-4 minutes.

I feel extremely let down that not only is the laptop model I purchased is not supported by this extended warranty, but also there was no attempt made to help customers who bought an M1210 by releasing an updated BIOS as was done for the other XPS models to enhance thermal control. Why was this not done for the M1210 also?

These laptops are extremely expensive for the average home user, hence the reason we cross our fingers and risk not purchasing the extended warranties at the time of purchase. From what little I have read on this forum I cannot see that anyone from Dell is responding to M1210 owners to even explain the reasons why our systems are not covered by the warranty extension. I really would appreciate some type of response regarding the M1210 systems?"

I too have the same isue and when i try to call someone from dell they just move me around....i even try to write an email , they gave me a case number and 1 day later change it to some number  that i think does not exist because when i try to acces the link provided in the email ....gues what? it is not working !!!Last time i contacted the dell out of waranty and after about 20 minutes waiting i got a guy on the phone who tryed to sell me some cd's for diagnostic and when i ask about the price i was disconected.

One more thing...i have the HP Dv900 and developed the same video problem...it is older than my XPS M1210 by 2 months and was out of the extended warranty but HP send me today a box and take it in free repairs.I bought a small dell because i was reading two years ago that they have a good customer support  and needed a small notebook for my bussines.I hope i did not make a wrong decision!

I would appreciate any kind of help with that ! Thx

  I bought my dell xps M1330 in UK and now am experiencing the dispay problem discussed at this blog

I am presently in Nigeria. I can't find any dell support details at the dell support site (support.dell.com) for Nigeria

Am not intending to travel out of Nigeria for the next 12 months pls how can i get my laptop fixed as soon as possible

The laptop is still under warrantee (30 days remaining)