Dell Studio XPS 1640 with 4670 GPU

I bought the 1640 way back in 2009 when it came out i had the 3670 gpu at the time. Up until the end of 2013 graphics started to get blocky and unusable. I have tried the "cook" method in an oven and this will work to about a month or 2 before the gpu starts failing. Done this a few times and gave up and sat the laptop on a shelf to admire as a product engineer/designer. Design flaws aside, the laptop has served me very well and has got me through uni.
I now use a Mac from the company that i work for and the dell 1640 has been gathering dust.
Recently my dads laptop (studio 1555) died and is really not economical to repair. The laptop itself is in tatters and no matter how careful you are the lid hinges bosses break (designed to a price and/or designed to fail?)

Anyway i want to give my 1640 to my dad, who only uses the laptop for web browsing, so i am trying to resurrect it from the dead. My brother blindly bought an 'untested' 1640 motherboard dirt cheap which is actually the one with the 4670 1GB gpu and a heatsink to fit. I reluctantly installed the MB.
Upon startup the laptop boots past the BIOS and windows starts to load but then switches off. (i haven't installed the heatsink yet). I tried again but with an infrared thermometer pointed at the GPU. It reaches 52 degs before switching off.

Is there anything i can do? Would a bios update help ( if a were to get windows to load)?

I would just sell the laptop as spares but i would like to try exhaust my options first.

BTW i have the 130W charger

 

There are two possible causes I'm thinking:
1) It sounds like your issue is overheating somewhere... most likely on the CPU (not the GPU). If the GPU was overheating, you'd get graphical artifacts (and corrupted images) rather than a total system shutdown. However, an overheating CPU will cause the symptoms you've described.
And whatever you do, ALWAYS run the machine with a heatsink on. ALWAYS. If you don't, then you will absolutely get a lockup / auto-shutdown as you described. Trying to measure temperatures isn't going to help, because (1) The chips heat up / cool down so fast that you're likely to miss the temperature reading; and (2) It's the CORE of the chip that overheats. Your infrared thermometer only measures the surface of the chip, and not the CORE.
So, skip trying to "out-clever" the chip by measuring with a therma-pen. Just put the heatsink on both the CPU and GPU, and see what happens.


(2) The other possibility is faulty RAM. This is easy to test. Download MemTest86+, put it onto a bootable DVD / USB drive, and run a memory test. Bad memory could also cause the symptoms you described (where your machine doesn't "access" the faulty memory blocks until you load windows, and start putting data into RAM).

 

Kent,

Thanks for your reply. Noted. Will try with the heatsink on when i get home as well as the RAM test

 

Just wanted to say that your post made me nostalgic. I owned that model XPS and the HP HDX16 and both were great machines in their day. Does your 1640 have the RGBLED screen? If so, it remains pretty much the best lcd screen ever made from the standpoint of color gamut, though it needs to be calibrated as it is way over saturated at factory settings. For that reason alone it is worth preserving the machine for your father to use on a desk for surfing (and he should use it to watch videos too!) What made me sell mine back in 2009 and get the HP HDX16 was chronic overheating by the Dell. When you wee using it regularly, do you recall whether yours overheated? Because if so, I'm afraid you may just be handing your father a headache - if a classically designed one with a truly legendary display! Good luck!

 

Update. Been away on business so was unable to repair the laptop until i came back.
I installed the heatsink and the laptop would boot up but turn off after a few minutes. I can make it stay on indefinitely if i stick in over a tilting fan that is horizontal. I managed to do the memory test which passed. I could not update the BIOS from A11 as i was getting an error. I did manage to install a BIOS update by using doug2060's BIOS force flash tool which successfully updated to A15. The laptop does not turn off now and seems to be working fine. I did a clean install of windows and so far so good. I have now handed to 1640 to my dad and i have advised to use a cooling pad. The laptop has been working fine for a week now for only £45 spend. Thanks Kent for the help and advice.

Jeff, When i bought the laptop new i did not have any heating issues until about a year in. After some use the laptop would turn off when hot. I realised the problem was dust buildup when i opened it and removed the fan. There was a carpet of dust blocking the vent. From then on i would do a regular clean up every few months. The dell was my workhorse at uni and would use it pretty intensely for CAD work. A couple of years ago the graphics got a blocky and unusable. It was about this time a got a company laptop and decided not to repair the dell. I believe the display is RGBLED and is pretty good apart from very slight discolouration in the bottom right corner.
My dad only uses the laptop for surfing the web, facebook and skype so hopefully he gets a few years of use.

Cheers.