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

Thanks a lot. I will consider that.

@Ribossomo
Actually, I notice that the GPU temperature is not any lower than before. It's still about 68 C to 70 C when idle. That's why I am considering the cooper mod many suggests here on the forum.

 

bad news - happened to mine last week - windows froze and i had to manually power off and then it started showing the vertical lines

 

I would like to do the copper mod too, but since it's going to void my warranty (till 2012) and it doesn't assure you're not going to have problems again, I'm not willing to do this yet...

The big **** is that I bought this laptop to do some light gaming and it can't deliver it because of a poor HSF design... DELL never again

EDIT: and they are still selling laptops with these GPUs!!!

 

I understand everyone's frustration with this issue, but please try to be objective about it. The copper mod is not a solution for this problem and is not the source of the problem either. If the GPU was not defective, the "not so perfect" insulation would never been an issue. Since DELL doesn't make these cards, and many other manufacturers (e.g., HP, Apple, etc) are in the same boat, statements like "DELL never again" is just laughable. Your alternative will be an HP, you'll experience the same GPU problem that originates from nVidia and you'll be posting on an HP forum "HP never again". Then, you'll move to the next brand.

Reportedly, nVidia fixed the issue and any computer manufactured after August is not effected...

Again, I understand your frustration, but please be open-minded. You are under warranty till 2012 (actually 2013 for the GPU).

 

I've built countless PCs in the past 10yrs and I've never had a GPU (or CPU, for that matter) run constantly above 100C at load.

Perhaps it is true that the series of GPUs released from say, June 2007 to July 2008 were more prone to failure under heat then the standards allow, but I do not accept 104C as a "standard" operating temperature for any chip and so I [also] blame Dell and any other Notebook manufacturer for not providing a more efficient cooling solution.

With the Cu mod, I (and many others) have managed to drop the temp@load from 95-104C to around 70-75C. A similar solution can be found in Dell's own M1530 Notebooks, as shown in the M1530 HSF illustration (link to the pic in my sig.)

 

Hi guys, I've been getting problems similar to the ones mentioned here, but I'm not sure if it's the same problem. It started about a week ago, my screen suddenly turns pink, not completely pink, I can still read text and see images etc. but all the clear spaces go pink and the screen is slightly scrambled where there's a collection of icons, e.g. my toolbars in Firefox and around the Start button, then the computer turns off. Sometimes the screen goes completel black instead. When it turns back on, the screen is completely white, after a few seconds a bar, sometimes a few start to appear on the screen, kinda grayish in colour with white spots. Anyway, after a few reboots, I get the computer back on track and I can use it fine until the next time that happens.

Is this the same GPU problem you guys are mentioning?

If so, can you guys help me with a few questions I have?

I've had the computer now just over a year (just long enough for my warranty to expire, but anyway) but the problem only appeared about a week or two ago, why is that? I didn't change my computer habits.

Will the problem keep getting worse until the computer is eventually unusable?

What exactly is the problem anyway? 'Fluctuations in temperature'? What does that mean?

If I go to Dell for customer support, is the best thing I can hope for a new motherboard?

Is the only way to solve the problem to get a new motherboard?

If I get a new motherboard, will all my files be deleted?

If I get a new motherboard, can I expect this problem to come back in a few months?

Is there any way, instead of a new motherboard, I can get a new GPU, a new labtop or a refund from Dell, or will they only cover replacements of old components?

Thanks

 

I know GPU problem is not only on DELL, but now I'm experiencing overheating (92C on a CPU is not normal) and playing anything for more then 5 minutes causes the GPU and CPU to clock down and turn things unplayable. THIS is DELL's fault, bad design and I'm waiting for a HSF replacement on tuesday...

 

Is this the same GPU problem you guys are mentioning?

>>Yes, your GPU is about to give up.

If so, can you guys help me with a few questions I have?

Below are my recent experiences. Most cases are similiar.

I've had the computer now just over a year (just long enough for my warranty to expire, but anyway) but the problem only appeared about a week or two ago, why is that? I didn't change my computer habits.

>>Exact same happened to me after 10 months. I guess this is a bit of luck.

Will the problem keep getting worse until the computer is eventually unusable?

>> It will die and you will not be able to boot to windows. All you will see is white screen and coloured lines. Windows will be booting though.

What exactly is the problem anyway? 'Fluctuations in temperature'? What does that mean?

>> Problem with GPU.

If I go to Dell for customer support, is the best thing I can hope for a new motherboard?

>> Call them, they will ask you few things and ask you to run few diags. You may be able to run these but you may also not be able to get this far. Tell them you have heard about the GPU issues and you have all the symptoms. Demand for mobo replacement. They know the problem and will replace your motherboard.

Is the only way to solve the problem to get a new motherboard?

>> Yes. It may happen again though.

If I get a new motherboard, will all my files be deleted?

>> No, but do backup if you can ever get to windows. They only replace the mobo. Once replaced you will be able to boot in windows as you were. Hard drive not affected.

If I get a new motherboard, can I expect this problem to come back in a few months?

>> More likely. I modded mine to keep the temp down. I do not think dell are replacing motherboards with new ones. More likely they are changing GPUs on replaced ones and resending until they run out of stocks.


Is there any way, instead of a new motherboard, I can get a new GPU, a new labtop or a refund from Dell, or will they only cover replacements of old components?

>> You can push for those but you will possibly not get a new laptop or refund. They will keep replace the motherboard until your waranty runs out. I only had 1 year waranty on mine with 2 months left. After motherboard replaced I argued on the fact that it will happen again and what will I do as I will be out of waranty. I did not want to pay for additional waranty. I was told that GPU has waranty for another 5 years Once I give the case number they will replace again. This waranty is only for the GPU and does not cover anything else. Hopefully I won't see the day

Call Dell XPS support and open a case. All the best.

 

10 months for me too!


I get blue "grid" allover the screen and then it crashes or goes black.

 

I'm coming up on eight months with no problems with my GPU. I also recently applied the copper mod and my temps have drastically gone down. Hopefully it will help with deferring the failure of my GPU.

 

Wow, longest post I have ever seen. My MB was also changed all is well on the secound day. I never new of this problem so I never check my GPU Temp. Now I am always looking at the temps which rannge from 49c with i8kfangui31 to 65c with HWMonitor. Why two programs looking at the same GPU info gives me different reading I don't know ,go fish.

 

wow...after one year 2 month, i got those beautiful color vertical lines too...

i should call dell right?

attaching image for the gallery...

 

Yep, that's pretty much what mine looked like two months ago. Looks like a lot of us early adopters are running into problems. Anyone make a poll about the defect rate?

 

Hey fresh problem!!!!

just happen.. there some kind of evolution with the lines

just have a look

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N7gDT7EFkhk

all the best Beto

 

lol.. yeah that happens. mine was grey first, them the line number was incresing..

is it really overheat problem?? cuz my m1330's temp looks normal about 60 c

good idea for the defect rate lol

 

See mine! got it fixed though.
Its a pic of the posT screen, then the vertical lines start halfway into Vista boot.
Hope it doesn't get bad again because we don't have any dell service centres in my country, and I actually took it to the EU to get it fixed

 

Is the Intel GPU affected or only the nvidia one? I'm thinking of getting the cheaper M1330 with Intel graphics, won't be playing games on it. Strictly office work.

 

Nvidia only dude

EDIT: if it's only office work you can get a way cheaper laptop...like even the Mini 9 will work for office/school....as long as you don't expect supa cool stuff on it..hehe

 

I originall had the vertical lines problem months ago and got the mobo and fan/heatsink changed. I thought the problem was sorted after the technicion changed the parts anyway i started testing the temperatures a few weeks later to see how they were now and to my amazement the GPU was at 90C and the cores were at 80C. Now i wasn't getting the artefacts or vertical lines but with them temperatures i was concerned by them and thought i might get the same problem again in the near future if i didn't contact dell. So i phoned up dell and a technician came out and changed the board again etc.. The problem is when the engineer came out to sort it i was at work my girlfriend was only here so i couldn't do some temperature tests quickly whilst the engineer was here but the problem is I'm getting the same high temps AGAIN. Both the CPU and GPU are ridiculously high, at this time of writing the GPU temp is 88C and the 2 cores are 75C. Now the only programs i have open is firefox and the temp reading prog hardware monitor.

Are them temperatures ok...
Also i sometimes have an external 24" monitor plugged into this notebook at resolution 1600 by 1200. thought that might be causing the high gpu temps but i unplugged the cable and the temps dropped 2C and that's it.
So what do i do, is it me being paranoid about the temps, i mean i am not getting the vertical line problem any more, well not yet. The temps seem just as bad as before but the engineer has came round 3 times now and changed it, the temps remain the same.

Any ideas peeps, maybe them temps are acceptable and i'm just over worrying about nothing.

 

One more joining the club, unfortunately I didn’t take a picture before sending it.

Got it back last week with motherboard ver A6 and BIOS ver A12. But Still heating up like before; CPU: 50C+ , GPU : 65C+ with room temperature around 20~25C, when idling and doing light work. Is that normal for a replaced motherboard? no permanent fix yet ? just a motherboard replacement ?? do I have to keep replacing it every few months till the warranty runs out ?

 

for those who have their boards replaced, you should try the copper mod. it will prolong the life of the gpu.

 

i wont do copper mod before the warranty expire

my cpu actually is 47. and GPU is 66

 

GPU temps in the 80C-90C range is okay. Definitely not something worth getting a replacement over, since that's not the issue anyways. Many desktop cards nowadays are running upwards of those temperatures under load. It's temperature cycling, not high temps that is causing the problem.

 

My M1330 succumbed to the gpu overheat today. I now have the vertical lines. The irony is that I barely play any games or tax the GPU in anyway. Got my XPS about 8 months ago. Disappointing, really.

 

Here you have my case to add up to the ones in this thread!

After owning my M1330 for 6 months, two days ago, it started crashing, freezing, blue screens, weird display, fan always on, etc. At first, it only happened twice in a day, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. The next day, it was total craziness!

I tried everything: updated the Bios, installed different video drivers, let the whole Dell diagnostics run, cleaned all the temp files, ran different anti-virus and anti-spyware software, talked with Dell, opened it up to clean the fan and vents.. to the point where I ended up formating everything and reinstalling the OS... and, to my dismay, the problem was still there!

The dreaded "vertical lines" where appearing more often, and I remembered having read something about them here. So I took a picture of them on my screen, showed it to Dell, and they said this is 100% an issue with the gpu and video card, and the motherboard needs to be replaced!

They scheduled a technician to come in about 2-3 days to replace it. I was worried about a previous representative saying I'll get refurbished parts, but this time they said my motherboard will be better than the previous one! We'll see. Anyways, I got a call minutes after saying bye to the representative, telling me the technician will call me tomorrow noon to schedule an appointment!! I'll keep you guys posted.

 

LOL.. the background music

 

3 day later i post my image.... the notebook is formaly died today...

not image, when i plug an external the noteboook works fine, except in "device manage" says "can not start the device 8400m gs"

 

Update:

Add a bad screw to those vertical lines, and what do you get? Your laptop needed to be sent to Dell's depot for repair LOL

So, after doing the service call yesterday, the technician came very fast this noon to replace the motherboard. BUT.. there's a very bad screw, and the heat sink is literally stuck in there, so it's virtually impossible to get to the motherboard to replace it In any case, the technician was awesome, very nice and knowledgeable guy.

They said I'll get a box by DHL tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday, where I will put my laptop. Then I should get it back in 3-5 business days (probably by the end of next week).

So, the final score is:

Dell Support: A
Dell Assembly Line (or whatever it is called): D (and I'm being nice )

 

This really is insane. I don't even use my laptop in a setting where criticality exists and I had this issue. For people who rely on the XPS machines daily, they are totally $crewed! Is there a poll somewhere that tries to determine how many users are affected?

My XPS isn't even coming on with anything on the screen. If I turn it on and leave it on, I get the vertical lines after, say, about 5-10 minutes. Occasionally, I can beat it and get to Windows and it looks kinda normal but that's rare. The moment, I log in, it dies. This issue was a pain to diagnose because at first all I got was random reboots and shutdowns after a Vista update and I wasn't sure if it was a bad patch or what.

Anyway, I am in the Middle East, and the support here is spotty, I can get it repaired but I am not sure how good the technicians are. I have alternatives and I am in no rush so perhaps I will wait until I am in the States next in a couple of months.

 

i got replaced my motherboard yesterday... after gaming 2 hours of warcraftIII the highest temp was 104 'C LOL

 

Mine died... again! well, ok, it's been around 10 month since last mobo replacement, so here's to hoping that I won't have to go through this again

 

quick question... if I replace my mobo with intel integrated vga, what else I have to buy? right now I have the mobo with nvidia. Is my existing cooling assembly will fit the integrated vga mobo?

thanks

 

Update:

So, I got the DHL box today at noon, as estimated. Followed the instructions, and put everything inside. Called DHL to schedule a pickup, and in less than an hour, the DHL truck was here! In that sense, everything's moving fast

PS. Here's a summary of my problem, as explained before (just in case): Experienced the vertical lines issue (plus crashes, blue screens, fan always spinning, etc). Dell technician came to replace motherboard, but was not able to do so, due to problems with a screw and a poorly assembled heat sink. Had to send laptop to Dell depot for repair.

 

Ok, so I think my 1 year warranty expired in August, so 2 months after the warranty period my m1330 gets the colour line problem caused by the gpu.

I have had my m1330 repaired once already when the dvd rom stopped reading discs, now the screen issues. I know I need to get in touch with dell, but what am I up against? Is there anything I can do to get it fixed?

Ok so I just noticed that dell has an extended warranty on this problem, thanks for all you guys documenting your problems.

 

hit mine last week too, after 6 months, replaced mobo, don't know when it died again.

 

Mine just started doing that a few days ago too. Started first with that "klmdllm (something like that) error display driver has shutdown but has recovered" nonsense. Didn't think too much of it till all the multi-colored vertical lines showed up. Thought it may have been recent vista updates, but then came across this thread. Dell support was pretty reasonable though....just waiting for them to send me the box to ship it to the depot to get the MB replaced. What I'm worried about is that there's still no "fix" to this problem yet. All they've done so far (as far as i can tell anyways) is to upgrade the bios and keep the fan running more. Well, at least they extended the warranty to cover this....but then what?

 

I was told by at least three different CSRs (take their knowledge with a grain of salt) and a level2 tech support agent that computers produced after August 08 have non-defective nVidia cards on their mobos. Of course, when it comes to "replacements" it's a different issue (e.g., whether they use an older mobo, etc).

Good luck with your replacement.

 

Hey Guys,

Add me to the club of m1330 owners affected by this problem; I had the replacement about a month ago and so far, so good, but I fear this is going to be a recurring problem. The warranty contains a "repair or replace" clause which limits our remedy, yet these clauses are often invalidated when it is demonstrated the merchant can't adequately repair or replace the defective product, as seems to be the case here. If Dell can't provide an adequate solution to these recurring problems, it is feasible consumer effected could recover damages outside the scope of the warranty based on the difference between what was paid for these computers, and what was actually received. Does anyone know of any pending legal action related to this issue, or have any of you discussed legal ramifications with Dell representatives?

 

Time will tell. But it's all BS the techs dont know anything. This is not something that can be fixed just like that. All 84xx and 86xx have this issues and they will fail again and again.

 

Maybe a class action should be brought into play?
If not, its unlikely Dell will do anything other to solve this issue than its current weak policy of an extra years extended warranty.

 

My GPU just failed for the second time:
05-Aug-07 Received machine
22-Dec-07 GPU failed
10-Nov-08 GPU failed
Hope it gets a better part this time!

 

Could anyone confirm me that this lines I get is because of the GPU problem? The GPU temperature was around 68ºC when I took the picture.

 

Yes. Welcome to the club

 

agreed, is this in the works ANYWHERE?

 

Well its because of A gpu problem, what exactly it is, is hard to tell - get on to dell

 

UPDATE!

So, I got my mobo and heat sink replaced, and my laptop spent some days at Dell's depot too (where they also changed the screen and hard drive, which were working fine, but oh well). A couple days after receiving my laptop back from the depot, I had to get my mobo replaced again lol

Let's make things funnier. The technician that was changing the mobo, while disassembling the laptop, found out the depot "forgot" to secure one of the internal parts with a required screw! lol

Let's make it even funnier. Dell made me send my 90W charger to the depot, along with my laptop. But when I got it back, it was a 65W lol. I told this to Dell, and they had no explanation at all for this, but they did send another 90W with the technician.

Although I may be getting another faulty video card (my third, counting the original), I'm relieved the technician came, I believe all is better assembled now (hey! at least I have the screw the depot missed lol)

In any case, I think I'll be doing the copper mod, I already ordered the copper sheet!

 

You won't regret doing the copper mod: it lowered my idle temps by 10 degrees, and load temps by 20.

 

Excellent, I'm glad to be part of this huge and selected group!!

 

yeah, igot 104 C before, now only 80

 

My M1330 bit the dust around a month ago or more, and amazingly i've been using it until now just when it decides to work, and not running anything 3D or that puts load on the GPU. Talk about putting things off.

Someone will be here tomorrow to replace the motherboard, heatsink and hard drive.

The hard drive died about a month after I got it, although I've replaced it with a 7200rpm drive, and the GPU lasted maybe 5 months. Ugh.

Suppose at least I can throw the new 320gb drive they give me in my PS3 now.