M1330 Display Issue (Vertical Lines on Reboot & Crash & Vertical Lines)

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/arch...ment-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

They're offering a one year extension on your warranty on top of your old warranty. Not bad but it's a start...

 

nice. And having to post 10 characters or more is dumb. I couldn't have just said, "nice"

 

I bought mine 12 month ago. 6 months ago the problem started so I got mother board replaced. Now the problem starts again, 6 months later. I have called Dell, they are replacing the MB. That means, over next 2 years of my warranty that is left I can expect 4 more replacements before I get rid of it. Thank you Dell for this guinea pig.

 

Hi I am currently in the UK. I bought my laptop in M'sia about 6 months ago. For the past 2 days, my laptop has been shutting down by itself, or the computer freezes, then white/black screen appears, and there was also vertical lines.. the screen color changes as well.. I called Dell support and the technician accessed my laptop via remote connection and installed BIOS A12 and the latest driver for the graphic card.

I was wondering if anyone has done upgraded to the same driver and if the problem still continues? I am afraid the problem might not occur now, but after the warranty runs out..

 

the only solution for this issue is to change your motherboard.

 

roy_bo, how should I convince Dell to change my motherboard? will they agree to change if I call to ask?

 

tell them that the issue repeated.

 

What temperature do the lines start appearing at? Currently, the highest my GPU has experienced is 76C and CPU about 73C.

 

It is thermal cycling not absolute temperature which is apparently damaging the GPU. The A12 BIOS setting may be setting a narrower window for turning the fan up/down so reducing temperature fluctuations - that might be consistent with some claims that it should not affect battery life (the theory would be on more of the time but at lower power). I suppose it might also help to leave the computer on all the time.
And another thing - cold temperatures might be a bad thing - the material may be more brittle so a given temperature fluctuation at cold temperatures might be a bigger risk than at warmer ones (just as well we just moved our M1330 from Nthn Asia to Africa).

Incidentally, is there any way to downgrade from the NVIDIA graphics to Intel Integrated Graphics? I am thinking if the NVIDIA fails outside the extended warranty - by the then computer may not be our prime 'gaming' computer and we might be quite happy if we could just disable it and revert to integrated graphics.
Are the integrated graphics present on all the motherboards? How to tell? What does it look like?

 

I have an M1330 for about exactly a year now (one of the first batches) and I have a band of flickering vertical lines in the middle of my screen (I'm in Holland BTW). Updated the video driver but now the screen turns off just before showing the login screen. I can start up in safe mode though (which I'm in now), but the vertical band is still there (not constant though).

It sounds exactly like what I've read so far in this topic, except that I don't have the NVIDIA but the Intel integrated graphics! I'm clueless...

 

Hi guys, just curious, is there mobo of XPS m1330 with Intel VGA?

Just found on their site that there is standard VGA which is Intel.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p...spx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&id=xpsnb_m1330&l=en&s=bsd

Is there anybody who get their mobo replaced with Intel VGA?

Thanks

 

Robert,

You should lay off the caffeine first

The joking aside, I understand your frustration. It's a sticky situation... DELL is doing what they CAN do at the moment: replace the faulty GPUs with new ones which unfortunately means replacing the motherboard. The replacement part has to be the same as the original (i.e., 8400GS and not an ATI card) and nVidia is the supplier. Until nVidia runs out of their faulty stocks, we'll keep getting these... Hopefully, at one point, problem-free GPUs will start to surface.

By the way, I've been using my m1330 8-10 hours a day every day for the last 9 months with no problems (except for a faulty webcam, which was promptly replaced in 30 seconds with a new one).

There is already a class action suit against nVidia if you are interested:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/09/10/nvidia_chip_defect_lawsuit/

 

...I'm issuing the same problem with M1330/Vista as all of you describe: vertical lines appear upon doing something - starting a new program (happened with different ones), starting a printing job etc... the system freezes. After shutting down and restarting, the lines appear again, sometimes followed by a black screen upon Windows Vista loading.
I managed to recover the system by retarting in the Pre-boot asessment mode, then re-starting in the safe-mode. After doing this several times, the Vista can be restarted in the normal mode. Until the crap happens again...
Looks like letting some time to cool down is the only real remedy.
I called up DELL, they have no clue about this. They think it might be the graphics card, although it looks more like the motherboard...
Did someone have the nVidia graphic card replaced, and did the problem reoccur?
Thanks...

 

I am interested in a class action suit. I am not sure if the provided lawsuit pertains to our systems or not.

By the way, I am in the process of getting my 2nd replacement MOBO.

 

Your video card (GPU) is gone, and you cant replace it without replacing the entire motherboard. With the symptoms you describe, DELL should replace the mobo if you are under warranty.

There are millions of posts regarding this on this forum. Take a look around to learn more

 

I'm starting to get involved in this sh!tshow but I have an intel based 1330. I have been having a smattering of LCD related problems with this unit. I'm on display # 3 and motherboard #2 in 3 months of ownership. My system has been out for repair more than I've actually used it.

Dell doesn't really seem to give a **** about it either.

Incident 1 - Running fine for 2.5 weeks the laptop suddenly has a single yellow vertical line appear on the display. Send it in and they apparently install a new LCD. Hey look at this it is showing a 3" band of thousands of horizontal blue lines in the 3" on the left, terminating roughly where the yellow line was. Hmm.

Incident 2 - Hey ring ring Dell, yeah I got the laptop back, no I need to send it back again, blah blah blah blue lines. Off to repair it goes, comes back a few days later, new motherboard apparently. Hey look the blue lines are still there, nice QA Flextronics! Hey Dell, yeah problem is still there, WTH are you guys doing over there?

Incident 3 - After an hour and a half run around getting the blue lines returned to me I get a CSR to agree to send someone onsite, great that sounds fine. 5 minutes later she calls back, oh yeah you didn't pay for that we won't be sending anyone out. Let me talk to your supervisor. He says blah blah blah we're replacing the motherboard and display and I'm sure that'll solve the problem. I ask him who do I talk to when it doesn't? He assures me it will and sidesteps my question.

Laptop is now sent off yet again, this time they keep the unit for just shy of 3 weeks, I get 4 phonecalls from the guys at flextronics, they need a password and despite giving it to them each time the guy keeps calling back, I guess they don't own a pen. Not 3 days before I am moving I make a call, *** is my laptop, nobody seems to know, miraculously it shows up 2 days later.

Hey look at this, when it comes out of hibernation just off centre on the right there is some flashing white blocks, well they go away, hard to reproduce and I'm moving. Now 3 days after I'm moved I'm in training and wow lo and behold that same area where the white blocks show up there is a 2" section of the screen where there are thousands of green flickering pixels I can see with certain coloured backgrounds. WEEEE!!!

I can just picture the phonecall tonight, it should be fantastic! Reading above where Dell isn't helping guys with twice the trips in for service I have little hope that I'm going to have a working unit. I love this laptop, but I really just want the **** thing to work properly. If I get it back and it looks even halfways stable I think I'm just going to sell it, it's not worth my effort.

Needless to say this is my last Dell of any type for anyone. I've been a bench tech for Toshiba, IBM, Compaq and HP and this is atrocious. I've purchased for myself or other people over a dozen Dell units from Servers to desktops and laptops in the past 3 years, that road ends here.

 

If this were Apple, you'd get a new computer. I like my M1330 and the only problems were the keyboard and how long it takes to boot Vista. The Geek Squad replaced the keyboard and the new one is great. Hard to blame Dell for Vista. I use my 17 inch MacBook Pro most of the time but the M1330 is great when I need something small and portable. Or when someone else in the household needs small, light and portable.

 

Ok. It's clear that it's a known problem which affect many users.

How do we sue Dell? is it worth to do it together?

 

Has anyone managed to get their laptop fixed out of warranty. I have the XPS 1330, and the motherboard got replaced once in warranty and now 1 month after it expired I have lost it again. They now want to charge me nearly £400 to replace a motherboard which I KNOW will burn out again in a few months, so what is the point ???

Is there anyway of starting some sort of action against them or contact someone who can actually make decisions as I have mailed their customer support but had no response in 3 days and don't expect one!

 

Check:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/09/19/nvidia_job_cuts/

and

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10037632-92.html

I think we have to wait for a solution.

 

Hi2all,

it's been a while since my last post but I'm happy to say my M1330 hasn't been misbehaving and survived the Summer with the new mobo and the Cu mod. The only question is whether it was the new mobo or the Cu mod, lol.

I still have to scratch my head when I consider the power-profile that Dell has on offer for M1330 owners with, and I quote,

"This utility should be used to reinstall Dell factory power management settings if you had to reinstall Windows Vista or your Dell computer shipped before November 2007."

If this particular download has already been discussed in another post, please let me know as I'd like to know what the NBR peeps think about that...

 

I'm just another of the bunch with vertical lines instead of a boot screen. I've had the m1330 for not quite 13 months now and the second tech is coming out to replace the motherboard again. I bet they wish the graphics were truly discrete so they didn't have to replace the motherboard each time. Luckily I got the 3 year, next day, on-site[now 4 year on GPU]. First motherboard lasted 7 months. It was replaced with a refurbished mb and that one lasted 5 months. I only had my browser open, sitting on a cooling pad no less, when it crashed hard and for good. The thing always runs hot but at odd times. The standard vista screen saver kicks in and all of a sudden the fan goes from turned off to full bore. Whereas when I play a game, the hard drive is the hottest part of the machine and the fan is at a normal speed. I have kept my drivers up to date including the bios revisions and that seemed to have no effect. The next day service is being delayed now 3 weeks due to "maybe the hurricane, you know we are based in Texas." Then their survey group calls and asked if I am satisfied with the repair. "Oh, its not done yet? Do you want our number so you can complete this survey when it is completed?" They tell me that they have a new mb with better heat dissipation but my service call lists the exact same parts numbers as that were replaced the first time in May. I am posting this on an 8 year old dinosaur that surprisingly runs; I guarantee the m1330 WILL NOT be running 6 months after the warranty expires . Their service reps don't factor in the lost productivity of not having a fully functional computer for work and school. I saw that Nvidia is taking a $200m charge this last quarter for faulty die material or something. Looks like that they will eventually fix the issue between dell and nvidia[financially at least] but not until most service contracts have expired or the machine is just so out-dated it is negligible. If this is the game they want to play, I guess my investment determines I have to. However, each time it happens, I talk about my frustrations with about 150 people between my employees, family and friends. Their response is most often, 'wow, you have really had a lot of problems with dell.' I know personal recommendations weigh heavily when making product purchases that approach $2000. My only solace is that there are so many posts to this affect so i know my experience isn't unique. This thing is a good computer when it runs but it is all or nothing. Between ordering delays and part back-orders, I imagine I have gotten around 10 months of use of the thing in the 13 months since I purchased it. Those 10 months I never regret the purchase but the other 3 are starting to overshadow. I know they are still manufacturing the m1330 so that is good for me in that they are going to have to keep supporting it over the long run but I can't in good conscience recommend this to anyone who is looking at purchasing one new. If you do, get the warranty for as long as you can see yourself using it. Hopefully by its expiration, they will have a product recall that will actually fix this issue. Respectfully disappointed.

 

My replacement just crapped out with the same problem.

 

I read somewhere that there is an automatic 1 year warranty extension on these laptops . . . it was on an official dell website. I think there was a link a few pages back in this thread.

 

Here it is:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/09/12/nvidia-gpu-update-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

 

Add mine to the list. Was working OK last night. Put it to sleep and when I started it up today it wouldn't post. Just the lines.

Dell is sending someone to my house to fix it, but that's at least two days away. I'm not too happy.

 

How many months its been running with the copper mod? Maybe you are lucky .

My mobo was replaced 3 weeks ago, and now it is showing the symptoms again :-(. Neved did the copper mod but I barely used the laptop. For the last 3 weeks I used it only 3x for 2 hours each and only for internet. Crappy-crappy.

 

You got a new motherboard, used the computer for total of 6 hours, and the GPU is gone??? Wow!

 

Yes that's true & correct. After reading this GPU stuff, I am afraid to use my M1330 after the mobo replacement, so I used my 1525. I'm not sure why it happens so fast but I noticed that the idle temp for GPU using HWmonitor is around 78C.

 

I have this pattten happened to me a few months back (started in May) and I was dumbfounded of what to do back then. I remembered trying to reinstall the OS in hopes of repairing the problem, updating the video driver, and trying in safe mode (it still works even when those lines came out) and it didn't help all that much when calling tech support. I did got it repair a month or so later after the news of this faultly GPU broke out.

 

It's fairly simple:

Code:

powercfg -q 49ef8fc0-bb7f-488e-b6a0-f1fc77ec649b >dell_scheme
powercfg -q 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e >balanced_scheme
diff -u15 balanced_scheme dell_scheme

Among the most important differences are:
[balanced power profile | dell recommended profile]

on battery:
. wireless / energy saving / [maximum power | middle power saving]

on AC:
. USB settings / selective USB energy saving / [deactivated | activated]
. search and indexing / energy setting / [maximum power | balanced]

 

I started having the same issues as everyone else, my screen would get a blue vertical line go black then shut down, it would usually take 3 or 4 times to get it to boot up again, once I got back into windows the screen would go pink or green than black and shut down. The dell tech was here yesterday replaced the motherboard so I am up and running again. This notebook was new Oct. 2007 so it was less than a year before the motherboard crapped out, I have 3 year complete care warranty but does anyone know if Dell is going to extend the warranty for the know nvidia gpu issue?

 

They have already given a 12 month limited warranty extension, for issues specifically related to the GPU...

There is the link for the direct2dell blog, with details on this warranty extension, in the previous page..

You might want to call Dell ASAP and have it replaced... Good Luck.

 

Well, I've no idea how you managed to read the code (Matrix, anyone... )
But the differences are marginal and I now can't imagine that there's a correlation to our GPU overheating issue...

Thanks for showing us the differences though (rep!)

 

Well, it's been three months now but I haven't done to much 3D work since the Cu mod. The idle temps are still high, peaking around 65C before the fan kicks in, so I'm not sure if the Cu mode will save me from another crash...

 

Thanks for the info I will check the link, I checked my service tag it still shows that my warranty is still the same as before so I guess I will have to call them.

 

Today when I got home from school, turned on my laptop and then went to take a shower, when I came back, the screen was all distorted... :'( So I shut it down and turned it back on, vertical lines were all over the screen. I was like ***! My original warranty just expired last month. Well, I am glad that I've been keeping up with Dell's extended warranty news, so I called XPS technical support, as soon as I gave them the service tag, I described the issue to him, and then he said that my warranty expired already so they might not be able to help unless I pay. I thought to myself, don't they all know about the limited warranty enhancement? So I said that I know about "that," he then said he needed to check my laptop configuration. Well, the rest of the story is not important. They will send a technician over to replace the motherboard. My point is, if someone gets this problem and then calls without knowing the extended warranty thing, would Dell just not inform the customer about it and charge him/her a fortune? That's not good.

 

Yeap... that's business. Most car manufacturers do the same. They acknowledge a problem (sometimes even a safety-related one) and deal with it on a "per-case" basis until someone complains/asks specifically. I am glad you were well informed about your problem and took care of it... I'm glad I have 3 years of coverage on my m1330 (well, sort of 4 on the GPU).
Good luck with your repairs.

 

Ya.. I can't believe they actually do that. Morality is so underrated nowadays.

It's a bad timing for me, with all the midterms, assignments, and projects due soon. The fact that I study computer science makes it even worse since I need my laptop to do all the programming. The reason I didn't buy extended warranty is that I underestimate how easy the hardware breaks these days. I have a ASUS M6N laptop since 2004, and it's still running without problems, the hard drive died 2 years ago though, but that's easy to take care of. Hope it's not going to die any time soon once it's been replaced. Maybe I should convince my parents to get me another laptop for this kinds of situation. lol

Thanks, by the way.

 

had the same problem with the nvidea gpu. new mobo replaced today. everything goes well and my xps is running cool with the fan constantly on but barely noticeable. btw, i did notice that the new mobo has no whinning issue inherit in the earlier xps. did anyone notice?

 

I have been posting in the copper mod thread but I figured I post this here. My GPU went south a couple days ago and I called in to Dell to have it fixed. At first they said that since my computer was out of warrenty they would not be able to repair for free. He also said that there is actually no problem with the GPU's and that the BIOS update would fix my problem. I polietly informed him that I have applied the BIOS update in August and the problem has been getting worse. I also pointed out the Direct2Dell blog article about the 12 month extension. Once I made mention of this he change the tone and began writing the ticket to get me a new motherboard.

The tech came out yesterday and replaced the MB on site. I must say, I was impressed by how fast the process was. I called on Wednesday and my computer was fixed on Thursday. I did note that the "new" motherboard was revision A00 while my original was revision A01. Also, the printing on the NVidia processor has a different number. The new board had "G86-631-02" printed on it while the old (failed) one had "G86-630-02" on it. Perhaps the new one no longer has the issue (hey, one can hope no?)

 

I was going to post the same thing. I am really impressed by how fast it is. I just called the XPS technical support two days ago late at night. Some Dell technician called me and said he's coming to replace the motherboard later today. Looks like even after this Nvidia fiasco, I would probably still buy Dell again if I need more PC. I was worried that I won't receive any call until next week, the week I have 4 assignments and 2 midterm exams due. Then I am doomed.

The technical guy I talked to on the phone actually said the same thing as the one you talked to, was mentioning my expired warranty and the extra cost. (I posted it on last page.) Quite bad if that's how they do business. I will keep my eye on my motherboard revision, see if it's any different from yours.

EDIT:
So he came and replace my motherboard. The motherboard is revision A01 like my last one, but it doesn't look like this any more, I took a picture here. The BIOS is also updated, comes with A12.

 

does the m1330 with X3100 have these problems or just nvidia? i have x3100, should i upgrade to bios A12 too?

 

Hi, the mobo revision #s are all but useless in determining anything because we've had A04 owners get A01s and A01s get A00s etc. after the need for a GPU replacement.

The GPU revision number however is interesting. There are several posts in this thread linking to an article that nVidia took a big loss after having to replace potentially faulty GPUs...

When they replaced my mobo (A01 to A04) I got the exact same GPU revision, G86-630-A2 (I think your "-02" should probably be an "-A2").

Check out my detailed M1330 "pictorial" (link in my sig) which has macros of the GPU (as well as mobo revisions and lots more).

 

Actually, both HSF assemblys have been around since day one. Only the fan has been permanently bumped up to A02. I (also) have pics of both HSFs (as well as the M1550's solution) in my M1330 Flickr collection (see link in my sig. below).

 

The m1330 with the Intel Integrated graphics works just fine. I've had mine since July and the only problem that I had was a keyboard issue which went away with a keyboard replacement.

It is so obvious that nVidia really screwed up and has made life miserable for Dell, HP, Apple and us customers.

 

Oh I see, didn't know about that. My GPU is still running hot though, when idle it's about 68 C. Should I consider that cooper mod?

 

after a week of having my 1330 down they finally replaced the motherboard with another refurbished one, lets see how long before i get the vertical lines of death again

 

Hi guys,

I had this problem sometime ago, and by that time they only replaced my motherboard, not my HSF... So I'm wondering if the HSF replaced and pictured here ( http://picasaweb.google.com/lancefu/Others) improves anything and if it still uses the blue thermal pad over the GPU.

I can't play Counter-Strike Source for more than 5 minutes without my GPU goes overheating and clocking down and I'm considering calling DELL and ask for a replacement of my HSF.

Thanks!

 

As I just mentioned a few posts above, the two HSF Assemblies are more or less identical and both are over a year old.

If you (and GamaFu above) are going to do a lot of gaming and you know your way with PCs (building, replacing cpus etc) then I highly recommend that you do the CPU mod.