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    DELL XPS 1200 w/ GeForce 7400 video card problem

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by fsljff, Aug 12, 2008.

  1. fsljff

    fsljff Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm having a very weird video card problem :( :

    when the laptop starts at the "DELL" logo, there are some vertical color stripes on the screen, then before it goes to the "window xp" logo, the screen are full of !! mark like this:
    !! !! !! !! !!
    !! !! !! !! !!
    !! !! !! !! !!
    !! !! !! !! !!
    !! !! !! !! !!
    !! !! !! !! !!

    But once it goes to the xp logo, the color stripes and !! marks disappear. However, it goes into a complete black screen after that, even the backlight of the LCD is off, but the laptop is still on. This is the case for booting window normally. If I go to safe mode, the screen shows up fine and just like a normal working LCD.

    I tried to disable the video card/uninstall the driver, both cases can make me enter the xp normally, and the screen looks fine inside xp. However, when I tried to enable the video card or reinstall the driver then restart, the same black screen problem returns and I can't enter xp.

    I think that's something wrong with my video card, but I'm not sure. Is there a way to check this? I also tried restoring the system, but nothing changes. Would reinstall xp helps? I also tried roll back the video card driver and update to the latest driver, but the black screen problem still exists.

    My system is 1.83G CPU, 2GB RAM, windows xp sp2, GeForce Go 7400 video card. Can someone help me!?!?!? :confused:
     
    fsljff, Aug 12, 2008
    #1
  2. Forte

    Forte NBR's Supreme Angel

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    Judging by what your saying, either you undervolted your GPU, or the Video RAM is just burned out probably from long term usage. You are correct in your analysis. Its your video card, unfortunately, it is a hardware problem and you will have to get it replaced if possible. There is no software fix for it. I could tell you to do a bunch of checks to make sure its not an operating system issue, though it would just be beating around the bush since I'm 99.9% certain its your GPU hardware.
     
    Forte, Aug 12, 2008
    #2
  3. johnny13oi

    johnny13oi Notebook Evangelist

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    My friend had this exact problem and it came out to be the video card was bad. Had to get it replaced. His laptop was a E1705 with a 7900GS but the exact same problem. So if you can get a new vid card then I would do so because there is no way you are going to fix that problem.
     
    johnny13oi, Aug 12, 2008
    #3