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

My XPS M1330 w/ nVidia GeForce 8400M GS GPU was used by original owner from 12-7-2007 to late 12-2008. I purchased it from the owner in early January 2009 and it lasted until May 20, 2009, when the GPU fried--total 17 months before GPU failure. Dell replaced the GPU/motherboard within 2 weeks and it has been good again so far.

 

I've had this gpu failure problem too several times and the one I am using right now is a replacement laptop. Whenever my screen is all black (while watching a movie or when the laptop is booting with the Dell logo and black background) I see a lighter shade (like a vertical rectangle) towards the middle. Although whenever the screen is not black, you wouldn't really notice it. Today, my laptop is really slow. I am not sure if my GPU is failing. Can somebody please share if this also happens to them? Thanks.

(here is how it looks like..)

 

time to post again, but this time its final, as i don't have an interest to send it for repair, i gave up!! we got two dell to be use as paper weight now both have the same issues and we have run out of warranty( one is my son's xps m1210).really we feel cheated!!

Well DELL it's a family name but for us Don,t Expect to Last Long

 

Repairman is on his way here for my 2nd motherboard replacement for the same issue. Vertical death (but colorful) lines. Happens once every 6-7 months with HEAVY gpu usage. Dual screens (HDMI, VGA, max resolution)

I'm about ready to sell it after this replacement... any recommendations for a good replacement?

 

i'm getting my 3rd or 4th mobo replaced and i have a paper due in 2 days that was saved on my computer, i'm freaking out

 

I wrote them an email, if I got the studio 13 with the nvidia chip would i still have this problem? i'm baffled they still have their comps with nvidia!!

i didn't realize the graphics not showing up on the bootscreen is nvidia, i thought it was an os glitch

 

Hey did you faced any other problem till now. I have an XPS 1330, one year old.. got the motherboard replaced just 3 days back. Now, my warranty has expired and I am not able to decide whether to get a warranty extension or not as it is quite expensive. Please advice

 

I wouldn't get one here in canada it's $220 not worth it for me but it depends do you forsee your slef getting a new laptop in the future? Or are you keeping this one for a long time. If you want to keep get the warranty

 

you could possibly see if it will be covered under your home owners or renters insurance. My computer (laptop) blew out one night after a storm and power outage. The tech came out and gave me a statement because it was due to a power surge when the power was restored. My homeowner's insurance gave me the money for a replacement. Don't know if this helps but I know some policies have different categories of coverage for Home Office equipment and computers. My home owners insurance had an extended warranty part to it where I could get a warranty on all my appliences and computer equipment. You need to check the fne print to make sure. Call your agent.

 

Hi,

My XPS1330 died on friday.. It started off by hanging while running, when I restarted the white lines were visible on the blank screen. When i started my laptop again in the evening it came up normally, but went out again after 8-9 hrs of continous use (I had it on, and in a position with enough space for air vents). It has not come up after that (only the white lines and lots of silence)

I had been using it since Jan 2008 (18 months approx, running Ubuntu) and never faced any problems ever since. My warranty is over (1 yr Complete Care).

Is it advisible to renew my warranty before I lodge a compliant with Dell or seeing this is a known and very common issue will they replace the affected parts (mobo, GPU and screen)?

Will running Ubuntu instead of Vista affect my warranty (if i get it renewed), an will they come to know of it now when my laptop is not showing anything except for the white lines?

I think this must be a problem with excessive heating and humid conditions, coz i have been using my laptop on a bed and the weather was very humid the day when the problem arised. (it went well in the evening until the weather turned humid again)

Please suggest if I should push Dell care to replace the GPU and the screen too (mine is a 13.3 WLED) along with the motherboard ?

Following is my config: 2.1 Ghz / 4GB / 160GB 7200 rpm HD / 13.3'' WLED / 9 cell battery / Fingerprint reader

-Nishant

 

@ nishantgarg25 Hi welcome just contact Dell to get them to replace your mobo.
If you feel it warrants the cost to have the extended cover go for it.
Sods law you dont have any cover and the thing breaks down on you, while you have the cover nothing happens..

 

Thanks BlackRussian...as I mentioned earlier I had been running Ubuntu on my machine, do you think it will have a problem getting the mobo replaced if Dell Support knows about it (my laptop i not turning on now, only white lines)

-Nish

 

No problem at all as Dell do support Ubuntu but it's only the mobo and cooling uint that will be exchanged.

 

Hi

I just joined the club a few days ago, thought it was caused with a windows update, did a clean install, workded for few day and same thing again, just called the dell support, it was out of warrenty, they offerd me a few options, for free, but then you loose your laptop for 10-15 days, 34 euro`s and somebody comes by tomorrow to replace the motherboard or 140 euro`s for a year of warrenty, did the last, because otherwise if it happens again, i have to pay the full costs if it happens again.

And still cheaper then buying a new one, bought this one beginning of 2008.

 

hello

I purchased a Dell XPS laptop on 16/8/2007 from UAE. after a few months I had problem with its graphics and the laptop was showing vertical lines and a frozen display. I contacted the seller of this machine and he took 3 months to repair / change the Mother Board for me . This happened on 5-5-2008.

the laptop was working normally but since two weeks it is showing frozen display. now it is not booting and showing a white background which turns black, white and blue vertical lines.

I red many post concerning this issue and from some post are saying that dell is extended the warranty of this model.

I am in Ghana, west Africa now , I called the Dell customer support, they are instructing me to contact the laptop dealer again for this issue



what should I do

pls instruct

BR



sumanlal

 

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/...ate-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

 

could someone PLEASE elaborate on this? i just had my mobo replaced and i have a black screen without the windows logo at startup is that normal? thanks

 

Normal start up have the logo...

 

I don't know if its normal, but as long as windows boots, then you should be fine. On one of my laptops, I had tuneup utillities 2009 installed on vista. When I removed the software program in order to do a windows 7 RC upgrade, I lost the windows logo and now it's just a black screen until the desktop appears. Why doing a hardware switch would cause this is anyone's guess. Did anyone mess with msconfig and check the no gui ( graphic user interface ) box in system configuration / boot?

 

actually i do have tuneup utilities installed, i think it's that. doh, thanks. i'm also reinstalling vista soon so it should go away.

these refurbished mobos just make me really paranoid. i had one replaced and it died on me like 2 weeks later, i hope this one doesn't do the same. an interesting thing i noticed this time though was the tech support guy had a special bios update cd with him. i guess the problem is so widespread now all the support people know about it.

 

Guys...I need your help.

Firstly I think DELL XPS M1330 has design or reliability problem.
Here's my story.
I bought my 1st DELL XPS M1330 last Mar2008.
After 6 mos, this vertical line problem happened (or can say BSoD).
Since it is under warranty, DELL repaired my PC by replacing the mob.
But again, the same problem happened now which is still in less than a year.
Seems DELL XPS M1330 mob cannot last for a year.
So I called DELL about this and they said that the mob is again the problem.
If they replaced it now, I have to pay RMB3,178 !!!

Here's another part.
My friend asked me to buy for him the same model in HK last Apr2009.
He has the same problem now.

It is 3 out of 3 = 100% mob cannot last for even a year??
I asked the technical support on the phone ( a chinese man ) like this, if I paid for another brand new mob, how long can i used it, less than a year??

Guys, help me what to do?
If it really DELL's quality or reliabilty problem it will not end.
Just we will spend a lot of money buying their unreliable mobs!

Should DELL recall this model?

 

someone told me they can't do a recall unless it's going to cause harm to YOU
this has been a learning experience for me, i've learned i hate dell. sony extended their warranty for 3 years, why can't dell do the same

 

Hmm, my m1330 just dired, after 20 months, but with the extended warrenty for this problem, I hope they will exchange it.

But WHY arent DELL changing the gpu to a newer model, 9400 or something? Seems to me like that would be an cheaper soultion than changing the motherboard several times..?

 

.....because the gpu chip is part of the motherboard. It's not possible for Dell to upgrade the chip, and not financially viable for Dell to do anything with the existing motherboard we already have. Dell's moved on to the Studio XPS and we owners of the M1330 have been left behind.

 

I read earlier in this thread that someone got upgrade to Studio XPS, are there any more people who suceeded with this? With just some few months left of the extended warranty, a new 8400 doesnt seems like a good idea.

 

Hi,
So I had the same problems early on, but was able to get Dell to replace it with the motherboard that has the Intel X3100. Since I don't game, it was a much better option for me. However, with the service calls I think the Dell tech messed up the wires and I have issues with shadows/lines on my LED with low brightness. So Dell is now giving me a Studio XPS 13 as an exchange.

Ask for either a system exchange or swap the motherboad for the Intel X3100(gives great bettery life with an LED screen btw). Highly recommend a swap for the x3100.

 

Well it's about time, considering the problem's over two years old now, lol

But I have to say *knocks on wood* that my almost two year old 1330 is still at it *ouf* Despite all the hassles (I myself had 3 mobos - the original & two replacements) I still love this little puppy!

As a matter of fact, I just ordered a broadband card (Dell 5530 WWAN, from ebay) for it! The way I figure, it's a shame not to take advantage of the internal solution - no usb "stick" to deal with plus the built-in "antenna" looks more useful then whaterver's embedded in a USB stick or Express card...

 

I've been wondering. Has anyone that had their extended warranty period about to expire been able to push their GPU extra hard and "force" a failure? Kind of ridiculous that someone would have to resort to that, but Dell and Nvidia's failure to come up with a proper solution to this problem makes this situation inevitable.

Also, has anyone gotten Dell to exhange their system for a Studio XPS that was in the GPU extended warranty period and not in the regular warranty period?

Thanks for the replies

 

I'm wondering the same thing. The tech today told me to "try to make the card fail in 30 days by looping movies." lol.

My XPS M1330 was shipped from Dell in March of 2008 and just failed last Friday. Had to pay $70 dollars for the service call out of warranty--my GPU extension runs out in March 2010. AND my optical drive failed not two months ago and was a $200 fix. Motherboard was replaced with the Nvidia card again. I asked the tech if she had been replacing the same units repeatedly, and she said out of the ~300 motherboards she has replaced she has only gone back to like 2 or 3. She said it was an updated chip.

The question is: is she correct? Can I expect it to fail again?

If so, I'll be asking for a new laptop here in the next few months and sell this one. What do you all think? All the new 13" offerings are so heavily though and aren't as sleek as this model, but it's certainly not worth all these darn technical difficulties.

 

I wonder how long my new mobo is going to last and am really wary....
Temps are much higher now and the fan is running constantly....besides, the thing now gets really really hot....
It's really frustrating to know that next year the lappy will fail again without warranty coverage anymore.....

 

Just got my mobo replaced and sold my laptop, I decided to be proactive about this situation. I'm never buying a dell again!!

 

Define really-really-hot.

The best way to do so is to download and install a temp monitor like 18kfangui. This particular one will also monitor fan speeds too. Last but not least, Different BIOS versions affect the fan speed to temp "stages" so check your BIOS (or immediately check the screen upon startup) reison and let us know.
You can also check my BIOS revision thread to see what BIOS revision changed what (see my sig for link).

Maybe in the end you're worrying for nothing...

 

Sure, the 1330's been a pain but you're forgetting that other Notebook manufacturers using the same 4300M chip had to endure the same problems... Either way, good luck with your next Notebook!

I myself am shopping for a Netbook for an even lighter, simpler "travel companion"

 

yup I know, I'm glad I didn't go with a HP+Nvidia. Not that I really would've, I've read awful things about hp and they were charging for mobo replacements. sony extended their warranty by three years, which I think is the only reasonable *solution* at this point.

those netbooks are tempting, if i weren't so poor i'd get a netbook AND a notebook

 

don't know if this has been posted, but someone is trying to get together a class action: http://www.milberg.biz/nvidia.html

I signed up; it may be worth looking into for you guys

 

Will do it tonight when I get home. With hot I mean that after couple of minutes, I can have the laptop on my lap anymore because it's too hot....

 

this stupid issue happened to me today and I'm pissed I thought I lost all my important data. I do programming everyday for hours but never play games, I don't understand how a computer could fry like this from such little stress.

 

I've recently been having this problem, it started as occasional graphical corruption of the display, the occasional graphics driver crash and problems then rebooting if the laptop wasn't allowed to cool down. It has now turned into an issue of the laptop displaying the verticle lines whenever it loads, being unable to boot it at all. To make things worse an engineer who fixed my laptop in the past did some of the screws up SO tightly that I now can't remove the hard drive to get the data off of it.

I spoke to tech support who said it COULD be a screen issue or video card issue, despite the screen test coming back ok and it being a well known problem and "kindly" offered to save me the possible £250! charge for a new screen by giving me a discount on an extended warrenty (£110 for 1 year and £120 for 2 years). I was also informed of the 1 year extension to the graphics card warrenty and as such SHOULD be getting the problem fixed soon.

This will be the 4th (I think) motherboard this laptop will have, it is on its 3rd screen, 3rd keyboard, and I'm sure numerous other bits have been replaced, for one laptop to have so many problems over 15 months shows how bad ths issue is, I just hope they'll sort it soon and I can get back to using it instead of this 4 year old XPS Gen 2 (which had its own share of problems initially but has been going strong for over 2 years now).

 

Dear Traveller,

Ok, checked with CPUID and after turning the laptop on and run CPUID right after start, figures do seem to come out high:

CPU 48
GPU 60

In particular the GPU temps rise quickly after just doing a bit of internet surfing and youtube to 70 degrees. If I have multpile apps running and also watching a movie, this goes as high as in the 90s....

Compared to the numbers some of you posted here in the forum, these seem to be quite high. What shall I do? Is this a reason to return it to Dell out of fear that this notebook is soon going to fail again? Any suggestions appreciated!

Btw, I'm on A14 and the fan almost runs constantly....sometimes relatively quiet in the background and getting louder with faster rotation along with rising temps....

 

Ok, did it one more time today.

After Windows start:

CPU:
Core1: 44
Core2: 46

GPU: 66!!!!

Now, after a bit of surfing:

CPU:
Core1: 59 44 min 66 max
Core2: 61 46 min 70 max

GPU: 79!!!! 66 min 85 max

And no, these are not Fahrenheit figures but Celsius!!!

 

Can I join too? Just experienced the issue tonight about 48 hours after getting an error “Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding, but has succesfully recovered”. Vertical rainbow lines everytime I boot.

My standard 1 year warranty expired last month so I'm hoping that Dell (Ireland) will honour their " Warranty Enhancement".

Going to contact them tomorrow. Will try and get the intel downgrade.

Where it may have been mentioned before, it may be worth considering consulting some of the media about this issue:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

I don't feel its right that we as consumers should be living in trepidation of a ticking design fault inherent in all M1330s with the nvdidia GPU.

 

Lol, I hit 104C and averaged 99C while playing Source-engine powered games (Half Life 2 & Co.)

Your temps are standard. CPUID? I didn't know that CPU-Z [now] monitors temps...

EDIT: Ah, CPUID's HW Monitor... any good? I already have 18kfangui, NHC and RivaTuner (for GPU overclocking - nothing for you and your lap, though... ) so I'm not sure I need another... no, wait a sec, I've got HW Monitor too, lol... sigh... I'm becoming senile...

18kfangui will tell you when it's running & how fast (rpm), something that I don't think HW Monitor can do...
My 1330 is now idle (as I type this on my Lenovo X61) but still, the fan ranges from 2980 to 3054. Conversely, my core01 temp runs from 37-40C. Figures are based on an ambient temp ~24C. Power source seems to make little difference (which is really lame, since we'd want the fan to slow down a few 100 rpm in order to save some juice, even if it means slightly hotter temps...). I also have A14, but the "silly" fan control came packaged in an earlier BIOS - see my sig for a "history" of BIOS revisions and their "known" changes... .

EDIT2 - btw, when I got home I swapped out my 6cell with my 9cell and the temp-fan characteristics changed...
Admittingly, it's a deg cooler here (23C) and the 9cell raises the Notebook for better ventilation but I still don't understand quite the reason...

core0 31-40, core01 33-43, GPU 49-57 and fan rpms conversely from 0-3054... I can't even calculate a "trigger" point here...

 

looks like my M1330 is going to bite the dust for the second time... got the white stripped screen after shutting down from my ubuntu partition just now, currently on the windows partition to stress the GPU (and kill it )... there were ominous signs anyways (graphic glitchs, weird shutdown screen behavior...

bought AUG 08, replaced mobo once in MAY 09, probably going to replace in OCT 09

 

Oh well so there time for my to go RIP on me..(Aug 07) still rolling along.
PW hope things work out soon than later on your replacement..

 

Well mine has started a couple of days ago, and of course the wonderful dell (non existant) support makes it impossible to get anywhere.

Unfortunately, and totally unbelievably, I am LEASING my computer from DELL, but they won't fix it - it's apparently my responsibility!!!

Now I always understood that since THEY own the computer, and I'm only renting it from them (they get it back at the end of the lease in 3 months if I don't pay them a fee to purchase it) that it was down to them to fix it.

Otherwise why am I going to pay them every month to rent a broken laptop, especially when it's clearly a well documented problem.

I also think its a legal requirement for them to do so - implied warranty & fit for purpose issues.

The other side issue is that no one there has the foggiest clue what they're doing.

I've spoken to every A hole from bangladesh to bombay and been asked the most incredibly stupid questions like "who did I lease it from" - D'oh!

through to them telling me that I need to speak to GE capital finance (thats who dell use to to finance the lease) to talk about any hardware problems or getting a new computer at the end of my lease - does a bank know or care about it?

does dell care about it - not at all.

Anyway, I won't be paying to fix it, I won't be keeping it, and after this escapade I definitely won't be using dell again - ever. I'll also be telling everyone I encounter to avoid them as well.

Do not lease anything off them - there is no one to speak to and no one cares, they don't answer emails, they're a crock of plop.

 

wierd. Dell were out within 48 hours from I sent my first email about my screen for me here in ireland. excellent service!

 

I'm so depressed. My GPU / Motherboard just went south again with this vertical line issue and I just checked my warranty expiration extension date and it was up August 30th. So, now I don't know if I have any options as even Dell's extended gpu warranty for my M1330 has now ended. For those that have called Dell with their warranty expired looking for options, will they hit me with an extended warranty price tag in order to even want to look at it. Frankly, I just now want to throw this Dell out the window, never go near a Dell again and go out and buy something else, but after upgrading it to 4GB's, putting in a 7200RPM hard drive, and knowing I'll have to install everything from scratch on a new system, I don't know if I completely want to give up on it. It all depends on what kind of costs they'll throw at me. So, as it stands, my GPU has fried again, my DVD drive is broken and I have to take the battery out every 2 weeks to get the USB to recognize anything connected to it. Think they'll fix all this if I spring for an extended warranty or should I just give up and move on?

.............................................

after talking with Dell and getting the run around soooooo many times being told I no longer can purchase an extended warranty, I'm still no further ahead. I refuse to pay the $50.00 out of warranty cost for them to diagnose something in which I've already had a motherboard replacement twice and this would be the third time for the same issue, only for them to tell me that it'll cost over $500 for an out of warranty motherboard replacement which will probably last me another year. I've got a $2100 paperweight now. Dell is dead in my eyes and I'm moving on. I've bought nothing but Dell in the past and now they've lost my business for life. Instead of being reasonable to me for something that was a badly designed GPU which they chose to put in their system in the first place, they decided to be complete and utter dicks. I've vented now, I'm still pissed and frankly I hope Dell rots in hell.

 

Yeh, Dell realise its a losing proposition for them. Better to just screw over the customer.

My m1330 was repaired 3 weeks ago and is already exhibiting the same issues intermittently. Im at the same place as you - I have always purchased and recommended Dell, but theyre dead to me now. This laptop, while still working, is useless to me because I dont actually know when/if it will fail. I didnt pay top $ for a laptop that gets "repaired" every few months until the warranty is gone.

My next step is to price up a macbook pro and wash my hands of Dell forever.

Dont sweat it too much tho, companies like Dell invariably go under sooner or later because they treat their customers as the enemy.

 

Me too -- have 5 Dells in the house. Never again -- now use a Think Pad X301 as my business computer. Runs cool and works. My m1330 is sitting here dead won't boot needing another motherboard.

 

Try to offload your m1330 like I did and get a replacement for a bit more money. It's worth not being frustrated with a company that doesn't care.