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

Oh thought I'd throw in this image I took when the GPU death started

 

So you got vertical lines AND horizontal lines mixed together. Awesome!

 

Woohoo! Add me to the club as of last night! Waiting for the return-to-depot box now....

 

big party of nvidia fail

 

Woohoo! *does a little dance*

 

I've been lucky so far--more than 8 months and no problems (crosses fingers)

 

So was I; almost a year, and then...WHAM! I knew it was coming; that's why I didn't bother with A12 or the copper mod. I figured: why apply these bandages to a GPU that was doomed to begin with, and has already gotten so many months of (ab)use without them (meaning it had already undergone a lot of stress).

According to my tech, they have fresh, non-defective Nvidia GPUs now. "Don't worry, we'll get this fixed right for you!" We shall see.

 

Lucky ones. It was 6 months for me lol

 

New motherboard installed today, now just screwing around in the Dell Vista install, then updating to A13, then I'll swap my 7200rpm drive back in and go back to the way things were.

 

Don't worry sooner or later yours will be run out of luck

 

Yikes, the new GPU just hit 94 degrees, might have to break down and do the copper mod.

 

Wow 94 oC , that all?

I can get to 107 oC lol

 

Easiest test ever: Shut down the computer. Press and hold down the D key and turn it on. that displays the Display Self Test... if the color patterns look perfect the problem is the GPU (note that this issue is only present with nVidia, Intel cards rarely fail). So call Dell and get the motherboard replaced, like I just did >.<

 

So our M1330 was repaired for the GPU failure for the second time.
The tech warned it could happen again and against running it at high temperatures (I was hoping he would re-assure that he was finally fitting a motherboard with a GPU that worked as intended). Still I put that down to ignorance and hope that I do have a improved GPU.

 

so is there a fix or should i be looking for a new laptop and dump this one on ebay. I am really considering the MacBook now that Dell and Nvida are running a con on us all.

 

nVidia has admitted faults on certain GPUs, Dell also admits knowledge but due to it being not financially viable to have a total product recall, they just just repair/replace when necessary, in hope that most Warranties will eventually expire and no more obligations. All in all, it is not a con, they have our cash and they just don't care.

More info from Dell Community (Direct2Dell) in regard to nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.
SOS I am not permitted to provide a direct Link at this present time.

NB. Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm are both Dell Forums and it's bias, any radical Blogs/Post against Dell and your Account will be deleted/Locked out. Waste of time and effort posting at these Forums.

 

Hi! I had my motherboard replace with an A02 revision (A13 bios) but I'm having some doubts (XPS 1330 with core 2 duo 7300).

Under not so heavy use (i'm not gaming but working as a developer), my CPU and GPU are reaching 80 ºC and 90ºC. I thought it was not normal so I contact dell support again and they told me that the temperatures are alright cause the core 2 duo are prepared to get up to 100 ºC, and that the GPU temperature are overstated because of the heat produce by the CPU (maybe this could be true cause if I stop working the GPU heat decrease rapidly).

Is this really normal or the tecnhical support is wrong? I'm a little worried cause I don't know if my notebook could failed in the future because of this, or the CPU were damaged by the previous GPU problem.

Thank you very much!

PS: The attach has the temperatures measure with HWMonitor

 

Although those temps are common on the M1330, they are not healthy at all! I would recommended the copper mod, did wonders for me. Good luck!

 

Lol, my 1330 died 2 days ago, they sent me the new motherboard yasterday but I am sick with it. I just bought it 5 months ago with T 8300, 4 GB memory, 128 Nvidia 8400M. I call the Dell support 3 time and they told me to upgrade the driver over and over again. Untill the 3rd call, they said that because of failure in motherboard.

Any of you guys know how much it cost Dell to raplace the motherboard??? I have warrany for 4 years untill 2012, so if my laptop die again, i gonna change my motherboard every six months and make DELL cost double or triple of my laptop price.
I WANT TO MAKE DELL PAY $10,000 FOR MY $1,500 LAPTOP, that will help them make the next one better.

 

nope! DELL they are so clever that they will just pass all expenses to NVDIA.

 

Well, I finally got mine back from the Depot. It was gone a total of 7 days. Everything seems to have come back to me as I sent it (except for a new motherboard, of course), but I did get a little bonus: MediaDirect button doesn't work as intended any more. When the 1330 is off and I press it, I see a MD splash screen, and then my Windows/Ubuntu dual-boot OS selection screen; so in effect, the MD button is just a second on/off button. YEAH DELL!!!

Oh well, I never really used MD anyway; I just hate buttons that don't do what they're supposed to (on anything).

 

Dont forget also to check the wireless switch on the side. it should correspond to what is set on your bios whether it will be used to turn on/off the blutooth or wlan or both. They tend to mess with this switch

My bad it was happened to me, forgot to check when i received it after mobo replacement despite it was posted here by someone before.it took me a week to find out this, coz busy testing and monitoring the new NVIDIA temp. Anyway it was fixed now

 

Thanks; they're good. Checked all the ports, too, as well as the IR remote.

 

my m1330 made it 10 months before succumbing, hopefully the xps tech calls tomorrow or tuesday to set up an appointment this week........

 

sigh...
...one more item to add to my "Mobo Replacement Checklist"...

 

Hi everyone,

So I was sure that I was going to buy this laptop. Then I found this forum
Does anyone know if these problems have been fixed? If I buy a new M1330 today, will it still fail after a few months?

This really sucks because this laptop looked great (powerful & light), guess I will continue looking. On the same note, can anyone recommend a laptop that is relatively light (<2.4 kg), relatively powerful (no games will be played on it), and relatively cheap (at most the same price as the M1330)?
I was thinking of getting the Lenovo SL300 but apparently the build quality isn't anything to write home about :/

Edit: I keep reading about this copper mod, if I do it when I get the laptop, will that reduce the risk of it failing? also, does this problem happen to pretty much everyone, or does it seem like it happens to everyone because only people with a problem post in this thread ?

 

First off, this is probably the wrong thread to be looking for praises or positive feedback and secondly, if you're not into gaming (and will not be constantly working with any other 3D-intensive applications, be it CAD or what not), then order your 1330 without the nVidia GPU. The Northbridge + Intel graphics solution should me more than enough for you and you will save a $100 or so while you're at it.

So I won't even get into the Cu mode since you don't need the nVidia GPU anyways.

Last but certainly not least, although I've had my share of grief with the 1330, I still think it is a great little notebook for the price and for it's weight class. If you don't peer too closely at it's few minor cosmetic defects, it's still one of the best looking Notebooks on the market, imho. And although I've had to have it serviced a few times, we can't forget that DELL is one of few companies (if not the only) that offers one-year on-location service, which can extend if you pay for the reasonably-priced 3yr or 4yr service upgrade(s).

Even Sony, with their beautifully crafted SZ series that cost considerably more, cannot offer you the same service. And yes, even Sony Notebooks break down...

 

Can anyone tell me what does this Media remote button do? I never used it before I re-installed the OS.

 

It calls a more streamlined version of the XP OS and then loads a Dell-proprietary Multi-Media application ( DirectMedia) that scans your system for content and then allows you to organize, track & play it. The idea behind that is that you can quickly load up your favorite multimedia content...

Personally, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole and I only loaded it once over a year's time...

However... after reading PookiePrancer's post I went ahead and ran it last night, only to find that it now loads my regular OS environment and then calls the same silly application. Said application is now windowed and can be closed (like any other Windows-based application) and normal operation resumed.

This makes the whole purpose of "speedy access to one's content" moot and as PookiePrancer, suggested, acts just like another power-on button... .

However... I don't believe it is a question of updating the mobo, I think it's more likely a question of updated BIOS revisions that generally come with replacement mobos. It would be interesting to hear from an owner of a, ah "virgin" 1330 with an A12 or higher BIOS, if they have still have "true" DirectMedia functionality... !

 

Thanks for the reply!

I would have got the option with the built in GPU but unfortunately Dell only offers me the nVidia option.

Anyway I bought a second hand lenovo t60 today which is in great shape and for a fraction of the cost

 

My new M1330 delivered 8 days ago failed within 3 minutes (out of the box). So in my opinion--no--they have not been fixed. AVOID!

 

hmmmm....I've been lucky so far with no motherboard replacements in over nine months (knock wood)

 

Is the MD partition still there? I had a similar problem when I dual booted another operating system, presumably it messes with the bootloader or MBR or something. Try reinstalling MD

 

Yes, in my case anyways (2.5GB primary partition, but not NTFS & not visible to the standard VISTA environment). I can't boot to that partition... maybe I have to mess with a Boot.ini configuration file...?

I read that MediaDirect 4.0 works as a regular application within the default OS environment, but that defeats the only interesting feature (to me) - which was the quicker access to one's multimedia content. Otherwise I have my own, preferred SW for working with my multimedia... .

 

Say, what BIOS revisions did/do your old and new mobos have?

 

Wow, now that's crazy

 

Greetings from a newbie to the site... Let me tell you my story.

I bought my M1330 in October of last year and about 6 months in the backlight on the display went out. I could still make out the display if I tilted it into the sun, so the LCD display was happily working, just no light. It was under warranty and I limped along until the service tech came to replace it using an external monitor.

About 7 months after that just before the Thanksgiving break my machine crashed hard while running the Windows Flowerbox screensaver. I deemed it odd because there was video corruption and such. I did what every PC owner does when Windows loses its mind: Reboot. Now it is posting and there's video corruption there too. That's not good. I let it cool off a bit and try again. It's still garbled. Each time the machine gets more and more unstable. I view myself as being pretty PC savvy, but I have a friend who does field calls professionally and he's had more laptop experience than me. The M1330 is the first laptop I seriously use. He pointed me at a couple of articles pointing out that the Nvidia parts had problems and that Dell was extending their warranty on GPU failures -- he couldn't find that on Dell's site though.

So I'm at a crossroad. My laptop is 1 month out of warranty and is a glorified paperweight unless I operate it outside during winter. I can try to extend the warranty or just buy something else. My friend also showed me a spec for a comparable HP laptop for what I paid for the M1330. His company was planning on adopting these for general use so I felt pretty good that it may actually hold up over 6 months without a failure. :|

I call Dell and am on the phone and completely hoarse (oh yeah, had a cold bug so my mood was not improved by them being rocks) for about an hour and a half calling and in some cases being very stern and irate with certain reps.

Eventually, I buckle and fork over $350 for 3 years of extended warranty -- figuring that the thing will probably die in another 6-8 months. I then was able to use the online chat to get a service tech out to replace the motherboard and heatsink/fan system. I haven't cracked it back open yet. What I am curious about is where is the board Rev. marked at on the Motherboard? I don't want to pull it completely apart if I don't have to. (read: I'm scared to try to pull the thing completely apart)

Other minor side notes:
I upgraded to WinXP-32 a while ago and figured out the AHCI trick the hard way. Many thanks to the fellow who had notes on how to upgrade the drivers. Intel renamed them in the driver list (new version was released), but I figured it out with a little research.

You can run your laptop in what I call "brain-in-a-jar" mode using an Intel reference desktop board with SATA support. There wasn't full-up driver support, but it found everything but the sound card without a hitch. That at least kept me running while I waited for the repair guy.

Dell refused to acknowledge there was a problem. Even after I gave links to news reports saying otherwise.

Dell also did not regard my issue as being "under warranty" I was at least able to BUY more warranty -- then get it fixed, but that tactic was very likely intentional.

It's only been a day with the new MB, I had to reinstall the Nvidia drivers for some reason, other than that, it's running well so far.

Specs:
XPS M1330 (Red)
2.2GHz Core 2 Duo
4GB memory
Nvidia GF8400M GS
Intel Wireless NIC
5400rpm Seagate SATA drive (XP sp3/SUSE)
everything else is stock.

That's it.

Hex.
[ For great justice, I kick my foes in a place I may not say... ]

 

Welcome to the club (sorry you had to join). We all "believe" that the mobo revision is the long label you find on one of the two Memory card sockets. That's good news since you only have to open the larger of the two panels on the bottom side of the Notebook. I have a few pics of the revision label in my 1330 pic collection (see my sig for the link).

Fair warning: My orignal mobo had an A01 sticker, my second had a partial label "A04" which was pasted over the original label, my third mobo had A00 and I am get a part off a forth one tomorrow so let's see what revision that one will have, rofl

 

If this whole motherboard situation wasn't so infuriating, it would all be rather entertaining.

 

Today my motherboard failed for the third time in less than a month! Two weeks ago when I talked to the Supervisor he assured me that if this happened again I could request a replacement. Of course, although I spent over an hour with a terrible connection explaining my plight with another supervisor, he asked to give them "one last chance" and is sending someone over next Monday to "fix the problem".

I'm thoroughly fed up and am buying a MacBook this weekend. As soon as the Dell's been fixed it's going up for sale. The first couple of times were kind of fun; taking the day off from work, chatting with the technician, knowing that the replacement board will be a newer version and looking forward to a couple of care-free years under warranty. But three visits in one month is bordering on the insane. Why won't Dell just send me a new model? It seems clear to me now that the motherboard alone is not the problem. Do you just keep replacing the fuse every time the lamp goes out or try to find the root cause? I'm afraid Dell just lost another customer.

 

I got three replacements and looked at a fourth today and none of them were "newer", what so ever. So, assuming then, that these replacement mobos are simply refurbished, it is plausible that all your issues were mobo-related after all.

were they all GPU failures in your case?

 

Hi Traveller

Wow, we're in the same boat. Unbelievable! Dell's profit on my machine has most definitely been lost many times over after three visits by a 3rd-party field service technician and 4 motherboards.

In my case, I don't necessarily think the GPU was to blame. I'd applied the copper mod immediately following the last two replacements and didn't have a chance to game much. GPU temperatures never exceeded 75 °C. And I never suffered from a gradual loss of video capability as others have claimed. Each time the computer failed, I'd attempted to resume from sleep mode by opening the lid. The tell-tale sound was a high-pitched whirl followed by total notebook failure. It sounded almost as if I'd suffered a power surge, but in at least one case was operating under battery power.

Just took a look at the new MacBook Pros and they're gorgeous! Would have preferred the 13-inch model but have read too many criticisms regarding the display. I'll stop by the local Apple outlet tomorrow to see for myself. Our Dells have glossy displays already so I don't think that will be a hassle for me personally. And that 512 MB NVidia chip sounds pretty awesome! I'm a bit fed up with Windows Vista anyway, so will probably give Leopard a try, with a Windows XP dual boot option. But I won't have any high expectations with regard to longevity...the days of lugging around your favorite laptop for years are gone.

 

Just a followup, The board rev. of my replacement is an "A00". The heatsink/fan assembly has an A01 and an A02 sticker on it.

I'm tempted by the copper mod, but I didn't see the tutorial -- haven't looked real hard either. The other question is will it void the warranty or is it easy to undo before the service tech starts poking at the box (I'm assuming at this point, that my laptop will break again it's just a matter of time.)

I also think you may be correct on that the motherboards are just being reworked and then put back into service. It really does make me think that Dell really did a crappy job designing this laptop. My wife's Mac Powerbook (powerPC) has been running overall problem free (hardware wise) since she bought it well over 3 years ago. The short answer is don't buy one of the M1330s It's like the XBox 360 of laptops.

Hex.
[ Just does something somewhere when nobody wants him to... ]

 

Joined the club.

.

 

The UNISYS technician arrived again today with a replacement motherboard. Since he's already stopped by three times this past month, we chatted a bit and I asked him a few questions about his experiences with Dell and Apple. He surprised me by saying that the guys over at his office are over their heads in repair orders for Apple computers and couldn't recommend a MacBook or MacBook Pro, although he wasn't sure if the newest models were included. He also claimed that only about 1 or 2 Dell XPS M1330 motherboards, on average, need replacement monthly (albeit in Switzerland). He was quite surprised that mine had failed so often and promised to send an e-mail to the home office requesting a new computer for me if it happens again.

The motherboard he installed had a different part number: 0K984J REVA00 and wasn't labeled as "refurbished". The previous 3 motherboards had all been 0PU073. However, the NVidia GPU Part No. was still G86 631 A2, which hadn't changed. I noted on the Dell spare parts website that both motherboards for the NVidia GPU are now offered, with the K984J retailing for around $100 more. Does anyone know the difference between the two boards?

I promptly reinstalled the copper mod and so far so good. Of course, I'm kind of hoping this one will also fail soon so I can get a new computer, although the technician mentioned the new models won't be out until next February so it might be best to wait until then to stress test again.

 

I dont have an M1330 but an M1530 and my mainboard got changed 4 times,CPU 1 time,HDD 1 time, Heatsink 1 time, RAM 1 time, LCD 3 times.

4 appointments at all with UNISYS here in Canberra.

After stirring the shi* with Dell I will get a brand new laptop from the factory in this week (allready got dispatched)

 

I have 2 1330's bought used from the Dell outlet. Onehad this failure and they replaced the mobo.

I really hope my other one hold up and that the replacement mobo doesn't fail.

Knowing my luck they will both fail shortly after the warranty expires.

 

Hi All,

As you can see, im new here. Have followed link after link to this topic as I think my girlfriends M1330 is picking up this issue, just wondered and had a few questions that all you experts in this field can help with hopefully!

Anyway; Symptoms; Screen turning to random colours or random coloured bars down the screen (was red, then second time green) although I dont think its been scrambled... then just shutting down.

Ive yet to get round there to have a good look and check core temps/motherboard revision etc. One thing I did think of; has anybody had this issue on a m1330 without the nvidia chipset? Its the red one if thats any help, but im not 100% that its got the nvidia chip, but from all the reading ive done, I suspect it is!

Anyway, supposing ive got the dreaded fault; whats the next step who do I contact if its still under warranty? what do I do if its not still under warranty?

Thanks all, has been so helpful so far!

biosbill

 

Coloured bars on the screen sound similar to the common GPU problem. However, I have not heard of this happening to M1330s with non-Nvidia chipsets.

So maybe you have a different problem? I'm not sure about the red chipset thing, but you can go to Device Manager on your computer and look under Display Adapters to see which one you have.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

Hi,

Thanks for your fast reply. Just in case theres any confusion; I meant the laptop is the model with the Red front, if that makes any difference (I wondered if only certain colours came in that spec, but I think red ones still have the Nvidia chipset)

As you say though, sounds very similar to the above issues, and surely it just pretty random what display output you get as its just when it overheats....

Am going to try and find out 100% if she has that chipset... from the symptoms though, id think its fairly certain

Thanks again,

biosbill