Direct2Dell

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