Display artifacts - D630

Hi, I've purchased used Dell Latitude D630 and I'm encountering problems just after I firstly used it.

Everything runs great till artifacts appear on the screen. They apper irregularly, sometimes within one hour, sometimes just after bootup. The graphic card (NVIDIA NVS 135M) is about 70C, the OS is newly installed (Win 7), I tried to reinstall few times.
I also updated BIOS but the problems havent disappeared.

I love D630 and dont want any different laptop, is there a chance to do something with it? (replace motherboard or so?)

Take look at the pictures...

 

Your GPU is probably dying. You can confirm by outputting to an external display and seeing if the artifacts persist. If they do, you pretty much have to replace the motherboard...

 

Yup, and that second picture pretty much confirms it. Call Dell and they'll replace the motherboard, even if your system is out of warranty (they extended the warranty for this issue by an additional year).

 

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, the guarantee period has already expired, even the prolonged one.

So it means I must self-help. The point is I want to replace the present Nvidia-GPU motherboard with Intel-GPU piece to avoid these problems in future. I dont need 3D performance and X3100 is sufficient for ordinary work in Win.

Just wanna ask - is there any hitch/catch in replacing the motherboard? (e.g. different/incompatible cooling system, inaccessible screws, display cables or so?). I do expect unmounting the old one, taking out the processor, heatsinks, unplugging all the cables and in the same way putting the newly purchased, cooling fitting + heat-conductive paste to the heatsink and then just simply the all other mechanical stuff).

Would eg. this piece be OK? (DELL D630 INTEL VIDEO MOTHERBOARD DT781 46144631L01 - eBay (item 250631650637 end time Jun-11-10 00:26:44 PDT)

Thank you very much, Im kinda desperate, coz im a student with no money for a professional servicing

However, if I succeeded in the planned replacement, Id post here some guide/remarks for other users. Might by useful.

 

I don't think that is possible, the basic warranty is 3-year, and extended, it would be four years. The D630 wasn't out in May 2006, heck, I think that was around when the D620 was new...

The only problem I can see is that the heatsink for the Intel board is different, although I don't think using the Nvidia heatsink will matter because it will just have an extra arm.

Intel Heatsink:

Dell Latitude D620 D630 Heatsink Fan YD410 PD099 Intel - eBay (item 390185405553 end time May-20-10 07:59:23 PDT)

Nvidia Heatsink:

Dell Latitude D620 D630 Nvidia Heatsink DT785 - eBay (item 280479561947 end time May-15-10 05:15:04 PDT)

The motherboard you linked to would be OK, although I would be hesitent on buying from international. It's also not the best deal you can find though, price is a bit high.

 

OK then, thank you for the details. Problem is that Im unable to get the documents from the laptop. Is it possible just to come to Dell and say - "hey, I have a Dell and Im encountering such problems" and it should be in the guarantee period, can you do something with it?

I dont know exactly how the support work...any closer info would be welcome.

 

Since you picked it up, I'm assuming that you had paid in cash? That'll exclude PayPal dispute or credit card chargeback (which is why I never pay in cash for anything, especially for these types of transactions).

Yes, you can do that, but only if you have his information (order number, name, etc.). You're going to have to contact him again and ask for some more info.

 

Enter the service tag into the Dell support site and you can find out the warranty details.

If you are not the registered owner then you will need to initiate the ownership transfer process. This can take a little time because Dell try to check with the registered owner.

John