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

Dell just agreed to replace my motherboard/GPU under the extended GPU warranty (my standard warranty expired September 08') so you have a good chance, if you persist. You should explain to them (I find e-mailing support is much easier and gets the problem resolved faster) that you still experience the video problem when connected to an external display, such as a LCD TV or a standalone monitor. This then rules out the cause of the problem being a loose connection to the LCD.

I ran the LCD test and it worked fine and I knew it would too. I'm on my 3rd motherboard now to due to the faulty NVIDIA GPU. I'm all too familiar with what happens when they fail.

What I mentioned above is probably the most likely way you'll get Dell to replace your GPU/motherboard. But, in saying that, they could be right. Can you describe any other symptoms you are experiencing? Have you seen a screen similar to the screen pictured below?

 

@rpg-XPS thanks very much for the quicky reply. No I have never seen a screen like the one you have posted. Just now I have managed to get it to boot into a fresh install of Windows. Initially, the laptop display went blank shortly after the boot menu (I pressed f8) disappeared. I switched to an external monitor while it was booting and saw striped vertical blue lines while windows was loading. I can see the desktop now on the external LCD with no problems. I've rebooted now and the laptop LCD is fine, no display corruption. I've leave it on for a while and see what happens - perhaps the fans have helped cool things? I'm not convinced the problem is going to go away though...

 

No, and I wouldn't be either. I've experienced the blank screen after the boot menu too, and it's not an LCD problem, it's the NVIDIA GPU. The fact you've experienced vertical blue lines (which is definitely not normal) on an external display means that the problem does not lie with the laptop's LCD.

I would bet money on it that your GPU is fried. You will find times when you get a couple of hours out of it, possibly even three or four, but the problem will come back. It will gradually get worse though until more often than not, you're greeted with the image on the screen I posted above on boot-up.

You need to contact Dell and explain you're still having video issues on an external display, thus ruling out the LCD. Start a new case if you have to.

 

I had the similar issue recently, Dell was quick to replace the motherboard and fixed the problem. However, checking my temps with CoreTemp now, I see that one of the cores is 7C higher than the other. Is this normal? My C2D desktop core temps only differ by about 2-3C usually..

 

try HWMonitor? i find it to be a good and accurate reader

7degrees seems weird.. even if you only stress one core, both are on the same chip and temperatures should eventually (almost) even out

well.... a few days ago, when i shut down my m1330, the screen was something like the one shown in this thread... had to force shut down...

stressed the m1330 a few times, seemed no difference with either gameplay/fps/temperatures when compared to usual.... guess i have to wait if it dies... luckily i'm at home with my desktop

EDIT:

why... on my......what kind of colorful game are you playing, paper_wastage?

 

I managed to get a photo of my corrupted display. At the BIOS screen there were red vertical lines on the display (except on the the Dell logo). I switched to the external display and got nice vertical blue lines instead. Strangely enough the windows desktop was fine when it loaded. I've contacted Dell by email to refute their 'loose cable to laptop LCD' diagnosis and try and get my GPU replaced...

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yep.. my m1330 acted like that before it totally failed... get it replaced...

that saying, mine is being replaced tomorrow

 

Well I managed to get a result, just off the phone from Dell. I had emailed them the above picture and they finally acknowledged it may be the video card. Engineer coming on Thursday to replace motherboard/GPU. I now have to decide whether to sell it or have a go at the copper mod!

 

Don't know if it's worth putting in my 50 cents, it's more of the same same, but here goes.

My M1330 is approx 1 year now and I'm on my second motherboard. First time happened after about 6 months. I had NO clue what happened and called Dell immediately. I have "next day service included" for three years, so I'm pretty much covered for averything. This happened on a friday, so they didn't fix it until monday. After that, I searched like crazy to find the answer. Faulty GPU....and I needed to be prepared for it happening again.

Now 6 months down the road, it offcourse happened again, on a friday, in the middle of exams. Dell came to my "workplace" (in other words my university) and changed it this monday. So a weeked with my old Toshiba (baah...).

Now, I have about 6 more months before they have to come again.

Just ordered new memory and new processor upgrade for it, even though I know I will have trouble with the mainboard again....

Even though this is crap and I'm lucky to have next day service....The M1330 is actually the laptop I have been most happy with formfactor and performance wise.

 

Ask for a new heatsink cooling unit also send them an email or ring them and give your case number.

 

Well, after many motherboard replacements for the dead graphics chip Dell is shipping me a new laptop, I've had this POS since Sept 2007. If you fight hard enough you can get a new laptop out of them. E4300 had better be better than my XPS has been.

 

Mine just died on me two night ago. After reading this thread, I'm chatting with Dell support and the CSR wants me to send my system to their depot (7-10 business days not counting transport time) or pay $70 for a tech to come and replace it. Funny that no one mentioned the fee for having a tech come and replace the mobo.

 

If you do not have "In-Home Service" on your warranty, then there can be a fee attached for warranty service if you only have mail-in service.

 

Dell had originally promised to send an engineer out to me today. I got a phone call earlier explaining that my warranty had expired (which they knew all along) and that now they would be sending a courier instead to collect it tomorrow. I really hope there's no more messing around...

 

I got my graphic card and mobo replaced April 1st, 2009. Today there where graphical glitches all over the screen again and system came to a halt. After a reboot, system is working again now
Do the new graphic cards still have the same issue? I've been told by the technician when he was here that it should run fine now...

 

you see the temp that the gpu is reaching?... it's still a problem... the heat one, even if they manage to 'fix' the nvidia problem...

 

okay so if you have the intel x3100 graphic card does that mean you are save from these issues

 

Yes, integrated graphics mean no nVidia issues.

 

Has anyone been able to get an Intel X3100 motherboard instead of an Nvidia one when they had a GPU failure?

 

I tried to get it replaced with the x3100 when mine died four weeks ago for the second time. The Dell rep I talked to before sending it in told me he couldn't do it after I pressed him. He said that he didn't have the authority but he would place a note on my account about my request and as I understood they would call me if they couldn't replace it with the Intel as I requested. I also left a note about this in the package I sent back.

Unfortunately I received my laptop back about a week later with the MB replaced with the NVIDIA GPU MB but they didn't make any attempt to call me first.

When the Dell rep called to check on my system I also complained but she wasn't able to resolve it. A week after receiving it back I started to notice a lot of digital artifacts in the screen in a vertical section and the shortcut buttons above the keyboard seem to have a life of their own.

 

That's just nuts...
I've been spared that fate (knock on wood) and I've only been able to attribute one of my two "incidents" to the GPU. I sincerely believe that the CU mod is the reason...

 

Well it's finally happened.
Yesterday I was watching some streaming vid and then the screen went funny and the vertical lines of death showed up.
I restarted it and they appeared again. I installed new nVidia drivers and am monitoring the GPU heat.
Currently the system is running fine though with GPU temps between 60 and 70 degrees. I've backed up my data but don't know how to proceed.
I'm running Win 7 64bit with the newest BIOS (A15) and nVidia Drivers. Also I've upgraded my RAM when I bought it.
Would I have to set all this back to Vista 32bit with original RAM in it before I contact Dell? Also should I wait till the Laptop is entirely dead before I contact them? I'm writing my Dissertation atm so it's a really crappy time for it to be dying.
Is there anyone who has had the vertical lines issue once but then no more?
Any advice on the finality of this symptom would be appreciated.
Cheers
Thomas

 

for me, graphics glitch first, then vertical lines... after cooling down for a while, laptop boots up and works fine for 30 minutes, then graphics glitch... eventually, vertical lines, cannot see at all

 

I'm sorry, but I don't think anyone's 1330 "survived" after exhibiting the symptoms... :-/

Tell Dell it died, description, etc. & they will send someone out. I've had two exchanges and the reps never bothered to test anything. Once they have the HW in their hands, it's a done deal.

 

(They look like they're dead.)
It had to be done,
(I'll just confirm that they're dead.)
So that we could have fun.
(Affirmative, I poked one, it was dead.)

flight of the conchords say it best.
the laptop died. getting it repaired on friday.

there really is no coming back from the vertical lines of death.

 

Im joining the boat, my replacement laptop just got the lovely vertical lines(11 months old), but fortunately it seems to be running now so im backing up some data and getting ready for the phase when I can't turn it on much. Useful thread here

 

Just to leave some info on latest progress:
Dell Call Centre did their job reasonably well (had difficulty understanding the guy and it took quite a while for him to type the information into his system) and I had a technician repair it pretty much the next day.
He told me that he had replaced about a 100 motherboards for the XPS m1330 model so far.
He also told me that the free repair service for motherboard related issues was 5(!!) years. This may be limited to the UK.
I used the M1330: Mobo Replacement Checklist by traveller while he was there.
None of my data was corrupted and he didn't mind that I had win7 and a new set of RAM in the machine. Only thing different is that it reaches higher temperatures faster (70+).
At least for this technician I can so far say that Dell's customer service regarding this was excellent.
The only thing they could have done better (but this is more related to product strategy) is to do an entire recall of the model and reissue a updated model without the design flaw.
So even if you have or are thinking about buying a m1330 you can rest assured that at least in the UK (Glasgow) there are some competent and friendly technicians to help you out.
All the best
Tom

 

Competent because they are probably doing this exact repair everyday.

 

We've gotta get out of the recession somehow

 

FTW - another motherboard failure on 28th June 2009.
Amusingly there was no warning whatsoever, just Spang! and the light on the powerbrick went out.

Even funnier, on June 12th Dell persuaded me to renew the Premium Support - Next Business Day Onsite Support which had expired on June 11th!

How I lollered

 

I bought an XPS M1330 in February 09. I got the vertical lines within a month or so but didn't bother to do anything about it until the problem extended to affecting the color on my external monitor - I guess the heat damage got so bad.

Dell replaced the motherboard in May. The problem started occuring again within a few weeks.

Dell replaced the motherboard again this morning, this time with an nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400M GS (rev a1). The problem happened again within 5 minutes of the engineer leaving!

Dell now say they will collect my laptop and run tests on it and they have given me a '100% guarantee' that the problem will not happen again after this, and if it does they will replace the laptop.

We'll see.

 

The test that they will do is using a jack hammer on the GPU then a 2 ton steam roller to flatten you M1330 so yes the '100% guarantee' will stand after this test.
Replace your laptop if all fails with what model?
Wish you all the best....

 

Rep for you.

 

Well, lasted 14 months and now it's dead. Luckily I do have a 3yr warranty, so the replacement should easy. Still it feels stupid as I'm quite sure the replacement won't last any longer. If the second fails I'll probably change brand, though have to check how Dell handles my case.

 

How did you get 14 months out of your 1330M ? That has got to be some kind of record

 

Yeah 14 months? I think it was a typo and he actually meant 14 days..

 

Lol guys =) Yeah 14 months, not that I'm to satisfied about that either. My probably lasted longer due to nearly any gaming and a cooler living-enviroment. Well, the technician is coming over tomorrow, let's see if they immediately admit that this is the usual problem or will they blame anything else...

 

Well, mine lasted from August 2007 to early July 2009...
I'm not getting vertical lines, though. For a few days whenever I tried to boot mine up, the screen would just slowly brighten until it was completely white. This was after it started to artifact randomly and shutting itself down for a few days.
Now when I try to turn it on, the screen stays black and nothing happens. I know the screen is on, but nothing's going.

Curiously, this all happened after I updated to sp2...

 

Yikes. Looks like the m1330 issues are still going strong. Mine just failed again a couple days ago. No techs in my area trained to do MOBO repairs, so I had to send mine in. Should be coming back soon. Good thing Dell gave everyone an extended warranty... mine ran out middle of June.

But seriously, this is ridiculous. Every six months like clockwork. I've read some success stories about MOBOs being swapped to X3100 and getting replacement Studio XPS 13's. I think next time it fails (probably last time before the extended warranty runs out) I'm going to beg Dell for one or the other. Either that or write an angry letter threatening to switch to Macs .

 

Angry threatening letters to Dell do not work. You want to be nice and firm and explain in detail to them what you have had to go though with the 1330XPS. They will try to tell you that they can only send you a refurb and we all know that is not the true. I will say it again be nice to them and they will hook you up with a working laptop.

 

I was kidding about the angry letter anyways. Would you suggest that I ask for their supervisor/manager if they initially tell me they can't do anything?

 

Wow, this is ridiculous. I got my m1330 back from the depot yesterday, and they said they couldn't find a problem after "extensive testing" so they didn't replace my motherboard. I turned it on, and it died after 25 minutes of use .
Not only that, I noticed that the Lid is noticeably thicker than before. I turn it on, set it to max brightness, and sure enough, they decided to replace the screen! Not only did they replace the screen, they replaced it with a regular CCFL screen instead of the LED! What the heck is going on over there?

 

Hey everyone... I just had the weird artifacts and vertical lines show up on my m1330 screen. It won't even boot up anymore, it just shows a blank black screen. What temperature do you all live in? I'm on vacation here in Vegas and this is when I first saw the problem. It's about 100+ degrees here and very low humidity. I live up in the northwest and I have never seen this problem before. I kept my laptop mostly in its case in my backpack most of the time. Could it be due to the temperature and climate change?

 

I don't see how Vegas causing it could be possible unless it was left on accidentally in the backpack. I live in Vegas and right now I've been traveling back and forth between there and the U.K. It seems temperature extremes can cause more of a meltdown to the GPU than just high temperature so going from a climate that's half as hot as it is in Las Vegas right now probably doesn't help the M1330's gpu. Still, although everyone has been seeing their fair share of GPU failings, and I for one agree that it's a matter of time before the GPU does fail again, I'm on 1 year and 2 months with this replacement A04 motherboard and like I said it's been exposed to various extreme climate changes. So, to answer your question, I don't think it's the cause of why it went south; I just think it just failed on you. It's unfortunately a ticking time bomb with the M1330 which can happen anywhere at anytime and I'm just crossing my fingers I get another year out of mine before it fails once again.

 

Update: After staying in Vegas for about 4 days, we then drove to southern California for the rest of our vacation. At first when I booted it up it showed the lines... but then I left the laptop alone overnight and tried booting it up the next morning and the artifacts and lines did not show up anymore. So far its been running problem free. Are the lines and artifacts a sign of permanent hardware failure? Hopefully it doesn't show the lines when I return home.

 

Yes it is a warning sign and you have less than a week before it goes out if you leave it on 24-7

 

Mine failed me a couple of times with the lines after around one hours sessions. After that it crash during boot-up and then it wouldn't even boot anymore. So yes, the damage is already done and you can start searching for the Service phonenumber.

 

I have the same problem. It will come back, trust me

 

Here's the problem I am having ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ysN3L5asSI

It usually goes away if I press on the bezel enough times. I am wondering if the problem is with the display or cabling.

SEC5441 LED w/ X3100

 

That looks pretty cool