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

ditto & ditto again. But I got the checkerboard squares after waking up the Notebook from sleep mode.

The only positive aspect of the onboard discrete memory is that it's rated at 700MHz and run at 600...

 

I got motherboard replacement last month and it has been working well. I decided to update the BIOS to A09 and it has been working without any problem. BTW I am using Arctic Silver on the GPU and CPU.

 

Mine froze then got lines lines, It would just stop working just after reboot, sometimes would not boot up and went strait to lines.

Basically it is the motherboard or graphics card going most of the time, graphics card goes then that also includes motherboard. cause it is soldered on apparently.

They came out pulled my machine apart, put in new motherboard, and working again.

 

What are you saying here, that you placed thermal paste between the GPU and the thermal pad that is attached to the Heatsink...???

 

Here is the official word. Dell's manager has confirmed that problems are with the XPS M1330 motherboard revisions 01, 02 and 03 (probably due to leaking/blown capacitors).

The solution is to replace your M1330's motherboard with revision 04. You can do this by calling the Dell XPS support number.

 

The offical word...
... specficially for the Vertical-line syndrome...? May I ask you where you got this info - was it from a Customer Service Rep, or did you read it somewhere?

Thx

 

I've had the motherboard replaced once for this already, and today I rebooted and noticed the lines again, it's been 1.5 months since mb was replaced. If it happens again I am going to push for a refund and replace it with a latitude.

 

Not only is it the M1330, but my 1420 Inspiron just went kaput. Had it for 8 months now, no issue at all. Sitting on a desk, using it daily to play WOW. Then tonight, bam. Black vertical Lines, right off bat, before BIOS even loads on screen. Reboot, same issue. Reboot, same issue with a tinge of green lines... Reboot same issue. Let sit for an hour. Loads to windows, then poof black lines again.

Got a tech coming out to repair the LCD or the mobo whichever of course is bad.

 

Hi people,

I decided to register just so I could post this.

I'm a lead computer consultant at a... surprise... computer consulting company. We had a customer who had the EXACT same problems you folks have been describing. It all started last year when the hard drive on the XPS M1330 died. I had never thought much of Dell Technical Support, but they overnighted the hard drive, we restored the customer's data and he was in business... except he still had stability issues. We assumed it was just some data being corrupt from the bad drive and did various fixes... despite this, I had my suspicions that there was still another hardware problem but Dell Technical Support reps were ADAMANT that this was not the case.

Fast forward to now. Last week the problem had gotten neigh ridiculous. So I chat with Tech Support and tell them that I think the motherboard is bad. Spend 3 hours with the guy and the whole time he refuses to send in a replacement board. Tells me that since the Bios Diagnostic is not reporting any errors, that the board is fine and it's a software problem. Even has the gall to tell me that a faulty motherboard could not cause graphical glitches or data corruption!!! I even ask to talk to a manager and he ignores me. End up ending the chat. Our CUSTOMER calls Dell XPS Support twice for a total of 3 hours.... and they keep insisting that the graphics card driver is the problem. So last night I swap the hard drive and completely reload Vista/drivers. Same problems. Ran HWMonitor ( http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php) and wow... GPU is running at 93 C. Did a google search and found this thread.

So I call XPS Support and now they're sending a 'Dell certified tech' to the customer's office to replace the board. They wouldn't allow me to do the work. No big deal it'll save our customer some money... but as already started in the thread, to get Dell certified status, you basically take an online multiple choice test.

Every single tech I talked to did not acknowledge this being a common problem. Dell tech support is still garbage.

 

What's even more concerning is that even with the new 04 revision motherboard, there's no guarantee that the problem has been solved. If you don't stress the GPU in your system, you might never come across this issue, but play graphic intensive games or do GPU stressing work and you've got yourself a ticking time bomb of a motherboard. I'm even thinking of buying another notebook just for games ( which played fine on the M1330 until the GPU took a dive ) so as I don't prematurely have to go through the process of having another motherboard replaced. Shame really, because I like everything else about the notebook.

 

Not necessairly. Sure, I play games and I even installed Half life 2 and FEAR on my M1330 but apart from a few tests, I didn't have time to play on it (too busy playing Crysis & COD4 on my PC ). Never the less, my M1330 died on me while I was surfing... and I even had the 9-cell that day. The room temp was 22C (~76-78F).

So I think it's a ticking time bomb even if you don't play games...

 

Add me to the list.
Had some video crashes while playing Battlefield 2.
Then had it crash with the vertical lines appearing when it rebooted.
XPS support was good. On hold for...10 seconds. Tech was easy to work with.
I described the situation. Tried it with an external monitor, which worked briefly, they reinstalled the driver. After a couple restarts, it reverted back to the vertical lines.
Arranged to have a new board installed (they just said board, but I'm assuming both the mobo and the GPU as they're integrated?).
So just waiting for the call from the tech to schedule a time.

 

My m1330 just blew this afternoon. Went into coloured patterns, so I restarted. Did it again after a while. Now all I get are vertical coloured lines on boot now. I have recently been doing GPU intensive work, but at the time I'd just been coding for about 3 hours. I had a suspicion it overheated a few days back when running some GPU code which intermittantly crashed. Better read through this thread....

 

For info, spec is T7300, 8400GS, on an A01 mobo delivered in Sept and 12 cell battery with Vista Ultimate and whatever the original bios was.

 

Thats what Im doing, but the other way round.
My current laptop (spec in sig) is for work and games etc.

Im shortly looking to buy a max spec M1330, but mainly use it as a portable machine, for more basic use over wireless. Anything intensive, and its back to my M1730

 

My M1330 has started doing this how do I find what version/model motherboard I have ?

 

I really would like to see some official word from Dell on this issue. With this many people having the exact same problem, surely they must know what is causing this.

 

Wow. I have had a problem with my M1330 for about 3 weeks... I found this site via google - I thought the problems were mine only! Clearly not...

I was getting the screen going purple, or a complete crash (black), or flashing colours. I got onto Dell, and eventually a techie came out to fix it. All being well, it's working, following a swapped motherboard, new graphics card, and even new hard drive. Polite and quick...

... but it is concerning if the laptop is indeed a timebomb, waiting to happen again. I'd not been hammering the graphics card with so much in the way of games, nor had I had it switched on for so long either.

Dell will replace, quickly, but I'm worried that after my year's warrenty, the thing will go wrong again...?

Stu, Yorks, UK

 

Sadly, I don't have much time to stress the GPU after the board replacement. But I am sure those that do will report back if they have indeed fried a second GPU.

I have still got 2 1/2 years of CC left, so I'm not really bothered. If it was a problem, it would have failed again before my warantee is up.

 

I just had this happen to me (A00 board, A09 BIOS, 8400M). Took almost an hour to convince the XPS Support guy what was wrong and to schedule an appointment. We'll see how the replacement goes. Is there a new version of the heatsink yet?

 

i had my m1330 with nvdia 8400m gs card since august 2007. in the last week of march my computer started crashing.. screen would go blank and then it would restart. This started occurring more and more frequently.. from once a day to once every 15-20 minutes. i traced this problem to nvlddmkm driver crashing and all the symptoms that are described in this thread are present.
Screen flickering then going black, or getting distorted, or completely going black and then having white screen or black/red and white vertical line screen on reboot.

I installed vista service pack 1 and latest nvdia drivers from dell's website and the problem is still occurring. now i'm just using the normal standard vga driver adaptor graphics and the system seems to work fine....

do you think my motherboard and video cards are dying?

 

No, not that I'm aware of and when I filled out the Dell Service Questionaire, I specifically noted that the current version was seriously lacking in terms of GPU cooling efficiency...

A few owners have been informed by their respective Dell reps that is is related to mobo revision and while anything's possible, I find that really hard to believe... .

In any event, I'll soon have the pleasure of testing out their theory as I now have the A04 mobo and summer's coming: I don't think ~25C is an inappropriate operating temp (particularly since many school students work with their Notebooks outside on a nice day) and that's the avg temp of my apartment in July...

 

Well, thats not quite the same symptoms most of us had, which is permanent vertical lines in a multitude of colors, but in any event, it's definately not a good sign.

Note that VGA drivers may not make use of certain HW features of the GPU and thus allow the GPU to run w/o crashing. Example, shaders, etc.

Assuming yours in still under the XPS warranty, then I recommed reinstalling the nVidia drivers and let the Dell rep run his/her battery of tests with you...

 

Hey guys,

I'm having the same problem recently as well (m1330, vista home, nvidia card, latest nvidia drivers and A07 bios), couldnt snap pics as I dont have a camera handy, but my screen shows the colorful vertical lines for a few seconds before blacking out. This coincides with me recently extending the desktop to an external monitor. It works fine when I'm just using the laptop's screen.

I have kubuntu installed as well, and get the same problem when I try to quit X to install stuff. Should I wipe kubuntu off first before calling up dell? Or remove the ram pieces I added myself?

Lastly, anyone have experience dealing with dell malaysia?

 

It seems that there is a batch of bad GPU. I got my mother board replace a while back and everything is running perfectly. I also put arctic silver on the GPU when the tech installed the new board.

 

I called Dell and they will be replacing my motherboard.

 

T7250, 2GB, 120GB, 8400M GS, Vista Ultimate x64

Mine started showing the same artifacts last night and have progressively gotten worst.

Called tech support and (after 30+ mins on hold) they said they'll do a motherboard replacement since it's been reported to solve the problem.

 

How did you do this when there is a thermal pad on the GPU?

 

2nd,

I'm getting the motherboard replaced tomorrow, and got myself some mx2. Would also like to know how do I use the paste to replace the thermal pads.

 

I got my motherboard replaced and it solved the problem.

 

Just to be sure...is this an problem only for those with Nvidia graphics cards? No one has this issue with the Intel integreated graphics?

I have the Intel graphics and just had one time so far when I was scolling a webpage and for a couple seconds all the things/colours on the page "smeared" up along the screen kinda making vertical lines as the page went up, then as I stopped scrolling things kinda "snapped" back into place. Different issue? A one time glitch?

Thanks.

 

Just wondering, how long have you had the replacement motherboard to jump to that conclusion? I'm just keeping my eye on the thread to see if any failed motherboards are still happening even with the A04 revision motherboard. I'm not exactly on the side that this new board solves the issue......so, here's hoping I'm proven wrong.

 

now my m1330 is officially a brick. permanent white screen and won't even go into diagnostics. i'll return it to dell tomorrow and let them deal with this bs. then i'll buy extended warranty to make sure no funny things happen in the future.

 

How do you know if you have the A04 revision motherboard? I have a sticker with A01 on the heatpipe, but I'm not sure if I'm looking at the wrong sticker.

 

I've been having this issue for the past few days and i joined just to speak up.

I took delivery of my XPS last September with 4Gb RAM and the Nvidia 8400M GS graphics. Its been crashing for the past few days. Randomly, watching movies or using MSN or whatever the screen pixellates in some parts, then freezes then crashes. Vista doesn't report any errors of any kind and when i power the laptop back on the screen chucks a matrix and throws all kinds of coloured vertical stripes up!

Its pissing me off, i didnt pay $3800 + Complete Care for a laptop that will push up daisies after 6 months!

But out of curiousity, i rolled back the drivers for the 8400M and that didnt seem to work, but when i disable the GPU, it hasnt crashed (in the past hour i've had the computer on). If i'd have had it enabled, it would've crashed every 20 minutes or so.

So do we really agree that the mobo upgrade fixes it? A04?

 

Wrong sticker. That's the heatpipe revision although A00 seems to have more copper than the A01 version, probably saving money.

 

When did they start putting the A04 Motherboards out or whatever or are they already in new notebooks like mine which I bought 3 weeks or so ago.

 

Got back my M1330 after a motherboard replacement... but the morons at DELL put in a DEFECTIVE A04 motherboard with a broken power cord plug. Laptop does not run on AC power and battery cannot be charged. DELL FAILS ONE MORE TIME! Now i have to waste more time sending in the laptop for a second motherboard replacement.

 

Your M1330 should be okay if it was only purchased less than a month ago ( assuming the Rev04 solves the problems ). Most of the ones experiencing the problem were the first M1330's to be released in the latter part of 07.

 

Ok thanks a lot! That'll makes me feel a little better thats for sure!

 

tech guy came over and replaced my motherboard to revision A06 - everything is working so far.

 

There isn't an A06 motherboard revision. Are you talking about the BIOS version?

 

Something on the bag said A06, but the BIOS version I saw was A08. Nevermind about the motherboard revision. =P

I am experiencing random freezes though... We'll see how that goes.

 

A cold boot should tell you your current Bios version. As for it being ver A08; I only remember the Bios going from A07 to A09. Anyone else with an A08 Bios version?

 

How do you disable the GPU? Is it in BIOS? I am thinking it might be a good workaround to keep the machine usable if it happens again.
(I suppose it means that the Intel built-in graphics is also installed... in which case maybe I should ensure I keep the drivers for it updated)

 

Unfortunately, you can't. I think Sony has a way to dual boot from the Nvidia Gpu to Intel's graphics, but we're out of luck. Might be something nice to add in the future

 

Add another person to the list of people with this problem. It started happening a few days ago. It didn't happen for a few days after I rolled back my driver but it happened again today. I was using it fine and some parts of the screen turned different colors and the screen went blank. I had a youtube video playing and it continued playing though. I used guess work with the touchpad to see if I can average and find the x to close the window and when I clicked the window closed so I guess the computer didn't freeze but the screen went blank. I guess it tried to restart on it's own and then when I restarted the dell screen came up and I thouht all was well. A black screen came up saying that windows was unable to start and it ran startup repair and started up fine. I'm typing this on my laptop right now but I don't know when it's going to happen again. I had thought at first that it was a driver issue. Now I see a lot of people saying that they have to replace their motherboards. I was really hoping I didn't have to have a tech come over. I guess I'll see what happens.

I have pictures of my screen when it first happened. I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet though but they matched the vertical lines in the first pages of this topic. Jeez that was a long message.

 

Another update from my side....

I received my M1330 aftr a SECOND MOTHERBOARD REPLACEMENT. This time the motherboard revision is A00.

The sad thing is that the first motherboard that was replaced was A04 but that motherboard had a broken power jack plug, so i had to send it in. Now the laptop seems to work, but it's back to me with A00 motherboard.

Should i be worried it will crap out in a few months again?

 

I had to send mine back in to replace a broken hinge. But this time, it came back from the Dell Depot with the A09 BIOS. When the Mobo/GPU combo was replaced two months ago, the laptop came back with the A07 BIOS and it was running pretty cool. Now it is running hotter. Should I be worried, and if so how do I change it back to A07?