Black screen. (Not the sleep mode bug)

Hi,
I've had this laptop for about a year now, no problems what so ever.
But today I turn it on and I just get a black screen. No mouse cursor or anything. Keyboard lights up, fans are working just no picture.
Anyone else have this problem? Is my screen busted?

Thanks,
Zentek

 

Try the power drain first.

 

Already did but to no avail.
Any other quick fixes I can try before I hassle dell?

edit: Also tried hooking up an external monitor but still no picture.
Does this mean my gfx card is fried? : (

 

sounds like a GPU failure.

 

Yeah I believe you are right.
Before I got the black screen it booted up normally. Then It asked me to restart to switch to my gtx 260m and then I just got black screened.
But if I remove the 260m will it boot up from the integrated card?

 

Yes it should do. If it does then the 260m is busted, but at least you can still use the laptop until you get another.

 

Will opening the laptop up void my warrenty?

 

It won't void the warranty unless you break it. Be careful with the touch panel.
It's worth a try to re-seat all the cards and cables.

 

Ok I'll try that after I'm done watching this movie
Thanks =)

 

Bump
Just tried reseating the cards and cables but no luck. Also tried running it without the 260m but still nothing. Also when It's booting I spam f2 to see if I can hear the beep from going into bios but I don't hear that either. So maybe it's not booting at all? I don't know
Any other suggestions?

 

The last suggestion - unplug the BIOS battery for 30sec.
It's a small white connector on the back near the CPU fan. The CPU fan has similar connector, so be careful to pick the right one. Also, it's best (IMHO) to use pincers for the task.
Good Luck.

 

Ok just uplugged the battery. I'm guessing this resets my bios right? I can now start up on the integrated card but as soon as I try to switch over I get the black screen again. So I assume my gfx card is broken.

 

Quite possible that your GPU is gone. I'd remove it and try the system on the integrated just to verify that the lappy is working fine and there are no other culprits.
Then replace it with a 4870 But since you got the warranty - call Dell and let them replace the card.

 

I hope this is not a sign that the 200 series nvidia cards are suffering from the weak die/packaging material set that killed the 8400m/8600m cards due to heat cycling?

 

I'm afraid you might be right. This is not the first time I hear about dead 2xxM card.
One more reason why I'm so reluctant to welcome the 4xxM series.