Death of a m1210

So I got my Dell XPS M1210 way back at the start of 2007. It served me faithfully up until last week when it died. Basically when I turn it on I can hear the hard drive spinning up and the power light comes on but nothing else, not even the hard drive access light. I'm pretty certain either the motherboard or CPU(or both) are fried. I can see that the CPU fan is not spinning when I turn the laptop on. I disassembled the laptop and gave it a good cleaning, something I probably should of done long ago. The exhaust hole for the CPU fan was nearly totally clogged with dust which is the reason why I think something is fried (Also the temps had been a lot higher than normal the last few weeks). Anyway some questions you guys might be able to help with:

- Should I bother replacing the motherboard or would it just make more sense financially to get a new netbook of some sort?
- Any other suggestions on what I can try to fix the problem?
- Is there anything of practical use I can salvage from my m1210 besides the hard drive?

 

The 12" XPS is such a unique little notebook that I would seriously think about salvaging it. There is nothing offered by Dell that is comparable in that size. The XPS 13 is being redesigned and I would not buy an older XPS 13 due to all the issues they had with that model. I am assuming that the 7xxx series NVIDIA GPU is sufficient for your needs.

On the other hand, you really don't know what the problem is ... you could replace the MOBO and have the GPU still in failure mode. Will Dell/UK give you an estimate first w/o charge? Sure sounds like you fried something?

Bronsky

 

is its the gpu then it would be the solder which has cracks in it causing the failure. sometimes this can be fixed by using a heatgun to reflow the solder closing up the cracks although its a risky process

 

You should read this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/361004-how-get-your-dead-xps-m1210-fixed.html

Let us know how your dealings with Dell go?

Bronsky

 

Cool thanks for that!

 

I saw your post on the thread. You should be able to get some good advice there. I doubt very much that you burned out the CPU. It is more likely that the GPU has failed, a motherboard connection has failed due to the heat or the thermal connections have failed between the CPU, GPU and the heat sinks.

Bronsky