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

Alrighties guys Well I'm just updating. I updated bios to a09 today (I had a07) and it seemed to have gotten worse. Before I had updated to a09 I was able to start up for about a day and a half without getting the vertical lines, once I didn't run any videos or anything it was fine. After I updated the bios however, I kept getting the vertical lines or color distortions. I had to keep pulling out the battery to take it off and after a good few times then the dell screen would finally come on and it would start up.

I pressed F8 when the dell screen came up at startup and, just to see what would happen, I disabled the driver signature enforcement. After doing that the computer started up and when I played a video (that had previously only played a few seconds before making the computer freeze up) it kept playing and the computer didn't freeze up and the screen didn't get distorted. I just tried it out so I don't know if the problem is gonna come up again after a few days. I'm not even sure if it's just a coincidence that the laptop didn't mess up after doing that but I thought I would let you guys know, if anyone else is able to try that and it stops the lines and freezing then reply here. (If you do then remember you have to press F8 and disable driver signature enforcement every time you restart.)

 

Updating to A09, either by coincidence or cause, was one of the last things I did before my system became unbootable with those vertical lines. I don't know if it was cause and effect, but like you, A07 was more stable and even Dell told me don't touch A09 with a ten foot pole ( don't ask me why he said it so convincinly). The replaced motherboard revision 04 so far is working on my system; I'm even using A09 as the bios, but I'm spending more time using the system on power management mode to keep both the cpu and gpu temperatures down. I'm still not convinced that the motherboard/gpu issue is fixed so I'm treating the system with kid gloves. What can I say, I'm a great big wimp.

Personally, I think it's a matter of time before your system will completely go South on you no matter what you are trying to do. Sorry, but I've been there and also thought by trying different things that I had found a way around the problem which turned out to be a false sense of hope. If it's showing the beginning signs of this issue even periodically, a replacement mobo/gpu is the only solution whether doing that solves the problem permanently or not, time will tell.

 

Yea I know from other people's posts I'm eventually going to have to call in but I don't have the time now because school is about to start again so I'm trying to find a workaround for the time being. I know the feeling of having a false sense of hope because I've tried different things and had them work for a little while just to have the vertical lines come back

Plus it's gonna get pretty annoying even if disabling the driver signature thingie works because I would have to do it every single time I start. I'm afraid of having a tech come and having things get messed up more... but I guess that's a chance I'm gonna have to take.

 

%$#@!

Here we go again. This weekend, weird flashing patterns and/or colors and then BSOD. Upon reboot all was OK for a few minutes, then the oh so familiar technicolor vertical lines. And lock-up.

This is an A04 mobo, - so much for A04 fixing the problem. So, with this mobo that is on its way, it'll be number three. (plus an initial whole machine replacement because of wobble and dodgy screen)

Dell, if you are listening - this is NOT GOOD!!!

 

That's what I was afraid of and unfortunately backs up what I was thinking all along that the A04 doesn't solve squat. Dell will just keep selling defective M1330 motherboards, sweep the issue under the table, and concentrate on the M1330's successor to attempt to solve the thermal problems on a future model.

The whole situation reminds me of a car that you look at fondly until problems start to happen with it and then you no longer have the same appreciation for it and you look at it entirely different. That's the way I'm starting to feel about the M1330

What can I say; if my mobo4 goes down again, purchasing a dell computer from now on will be a distant memory for me.

 

Lord, the previous post is scaring me. Anyway, I came here to say forget my previous 2 posts. That didn't help anything. The day after it started happening again and I pretty much give up now. I'll have to call in and have someone come look at it when school's over because I don't have the time to do it now. This sucks. This was my first laptop and I was really excited about getting it. Now I just have to pray I don't get problem after problem. At least I have complete care :\

 

I don't know if I should be concerned - or pissed.

The mobo was replaced today - but the teg says A00!!!!!!!!
My concern is that this is just another mobo with the same
dodgy GPU and will eventually fail. It is doubtful it is the latest
and greatest. I doubt it has been 'remanufactured' as well.
One can hope it is 'new', but I suspect it is old stock and
I'll be seeing number four someday - unacceptable.

Then I guess, if it works and stays working, I don't care what
number is on the sticker.

What I AM pissed about is the actual replacement done today.
Keyboard was up at 1 corner, button strip was unevenly put back.
So, I had to disassemble and route display/antenna wires
properly. And worst of all, I discovered TWO SCREWS that weren't
put back where they were supposed to go. I didn't fully disassemble
so I wonder how many other screws are still missing.

Dell - if you are reading this - someone should contact me and
make this right - or I will defect as well in the future.

 

Well, my brother's notebook just came up with this issue.

My first thoughts before even finding this site was Video Card or Motherboard.
Contacted Dell via chat. they had me going through diagnostics. Since it was taking forever they said they'd call back in one hour.
Two and a half hours later I contact them again.
They have me do diagnostics again.
I said I've already done this and found no problems.
They said, well we need to reinstall OS.
I tell them I do not believe it's an OS problem.
They disagree.

So, I'm going to do an OS reinstall this weekend.
What did you guys do or who did you talk to to get the motherboard replace?
I honestly don't think it's the OS. I just don't feel like rebuilding my brother's computer. I don't have time for this.

Thanks

 

Seems like I have this problem as well . The vertical lines started appearing last night out of the blue when just browsing the net. How long do I have until the computer is completely broken?

// X

 

Holy cr@p. I started this thread and I had no response for days and next time I look (sorry I have been traveling) it is 26 pages long.

 

Both of mine were within days, even hours - if you are experiencing this, get on the horn and get it fixed - today. I assure you, it's going to rapidly become so bad, the machine won't boot at all.

 

It just goes to show to what extent this issue is and will continue to affect owners of the M1330. What I'm dumbfounded at is how ignorant Dell tech support is down playing this situation with regards to failed motherboards and how many hoops one has to jump through just to get them to acknowledge the problem. I'm really angry for those that have received replacement motherboards that are still either the Mobo 00 or 01 rev, but since rev 04 failed replacements are starting to trickle in as well, I don't know if any revision matters anymore.

rocketscientist, based on the alarming rate of continuingly failing motherboards, the next time you check coming back from travelling the thread will be hitting 50 pages which is a sad omission and nothing to be proud of from a company like Dell.

 

The problem is not motherboard. It's the GPU chip. Mine brand new A04 motherboard got a unstable GPU and Dell replaced the board with a refurbished A04 motherboard. It's been running great ever since.

 

The Gpu is a permanent part of the motherboard. You can't just remove the GPU without replacing the motherboard. Also, just because it's running fine at this point, doesn't guarantee that the problem is fixed. My motherboard didn't have the vertical line issue until after six months. I've had this replacement rev04 for a month now, but it still doesn't mean the problem won't show up down the road. I would like to try to be positive about the issue, but at this point there's no reason to do so especially considering the amount of people that keep getting added to this thread.

 

GPU is NOT exactly permanent part of the motherboard. Board manufacturer can remove the chip and replace it with a new one. That's why I got a refurbished motherboard from Dell.

 

My understanding was that the chip was integrated. If that's the case and the gpu can be popped out, then that's news to me, but what I don't understand is if your motherboard had a bad Gpu and Dell replaced the motherboard with a refurbished motherboard, then why didn't they just pop out the original bad gpu chip and put a replacement back in your first motherboard rather than replace it with another motherboard especially if it was only a bad Gpu and the motherboard was fine. Seems Dell won't replace the Gpu without replacing the motherboard so permanent might not have been the right choice of words, but it may as well be since they throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to repair by replacing both the Gpu and motherboard.

You seem to think it's just the Gpu at fault. I believe it's a combination of both motherboard and Gpu

 

Thanks for the heads up, made the call to XPS Support this morning and they are sending out a technician to replace the motherboard. I find it strange that the problem didn't appear earlier if its a hardware fault.

// X

 

The GPU is not a field replacment part. It needs a special equipment to remove it off the board. It's a surface mount chip and is sonically soldered onto the motherboard.

 

yes, I understand that Dell isn't really involved in the removal of the GPU chips, but I'd like to know why you are putting the sole blame on the GPU itself and not in the combination of the mobo and the GPU. In your case, the manufacturer takes the motherboard back, pops the chip out and puts another one in without touching any other part of the motherboard. I claim they are taking the motherboard back, fixing the motherboard, or replacing parts on it, popping out the gpu, putting another one in and then sending it back as refurbished. Somewhere along the lines the motherboard is at fault as well. I mean the M1330's hasn't even been out for a year and already we're on Rev 04. If that isn't suspect, I don't know what is.

 

hey guys,
add me to the list of victims.
the lines appeared two days ago and have been quite persistent on bootup.
guess I'll have to get dell to come and replace the motherboard.
can someone help me with these questions (some of which have been posted but not publicly answered on this thread):
1. How do I tell which version the mobo belongs to
2. How do I tell if the mobo the techs bring is refurbished or not
thanks.

 

Sorry to hear that.... (welcome to the 'club')
call immediately - it eventually will become so bad that it will
render the machine unusable.

1. On the lower memory socket, there is a sticker with the version no.

2. Per one of my earlier posts - this is a real pisser, for me anyway.
I HAD an A04 that failed. They came and replaced it wirh an A00!!
I find this totally unacceptable and I am in the process of raising hell
about it. Bottom like is that it is very likely they will send refurb.

 

Believe it or not, there's a printed label on the replacement mobo's shipping box with "Refurbished" on it in big, bold type.

It really blew me away that they were so candid about their parts being refurbished...

My refurbished mobo came with a firewire port that mates poorly (loose contact or plug, etc.) but I don't really want to go through the mobo replacement process again just for that...

 

That's just wonderful... so I guess that this just proves it's a GPU coolling issue and an A04 does absolutely nothing to alieviate the problem...

 

how to know the motherboard revision number?thanks..

 

I had to join the crowd on this one. I've been gone for awhile. New baby boy came. But the notebook would have green lines in it, and then a few days later it just would not boot. When i hit the power button it would show green lines and not let me do anything. Got it replaced with A04 rev motherboard with A08 Bios. That is all confusing but that is what i saw on the packaging. Now i'm looking for a blue ray drive to go into the m1330.

 

Welcome back to the er, "club" you started...

So what's your 1330's status? Still on Mobo #2? Is it an A04? Etc. etc. etc...

 

Woah, whaaa...?
Respect!!!

 

It's on a white stick-on label on the RAM bracket (yes, there's a screwdriver & one screw involved ). I have a few pics* if you care to "see" said label

*Check out IMG_3803 (Row 7, col 6)

 

Hi everyone,

I've joined the list. Symptoms exactly as everyone else has described/experienced. Have managed to get my system stable using the standard VGA adapter. I don't dare to try reinstalling the Nvidia graphics driver - seems like it's just asking for trouble and will speed up the complete death of the laptop. Desperately require my laptop at the moment for working, given that I am abroad for a while, therefore it's going to make any replacements/motherboard installations somewhat more difficult, given that I have next day business, not international next day business warranty!

Have emailed Dell support to flag up the issue with them, and I have just received a response. Given that nobody else has been given this response (a copy of which is below) I assume that the technician involved clearly has not read my situation properly. I completely fail to see how given the volume of people who are experiencing the same problem, I seem to have been given a "fix" that to me, seems somewhat irrelevant to the problem in hand.

Response from Dell Tech:
I understand from the mail message that the system is freezing and sometimes goes black.

I apologize for the displeasure caused due to this issue you are facing and I
have all my concerns for the issue you are experiencing with the system and wish to resolve them soon.

Remove the memory by visiting the link provided below:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsM1330/en/sm/memory.htm#wp1180190

Remove both the memory from the system. Then put one memory on 1st slot and try to boot the system with it, Use the memory on the 2nd slot and check the same. Follow the same procedure with 2nd memory. Put it in on 1st slot and try to boot the system with it, Use the memory on the 2nd slot and check the same.

Also please check whether the screen freezes in the BIOS setup or not.
(To go to BIOS reboot the computer and press F2 on DELL logo for 2-3 times, if you miss it reboot the computer & try again)



I will be the first to admit that I do not completely understand all the intricacies of the laptop, but the response he has given me indicates that he seems to think that it is a memory problem?
I have quite clearly told him that it is a graphics problem, but he doesn't seem to have addressed it as such. Wondering if anybody could enlighten me before I email them back? I would really appreciate it.

 

When you talk to tech support, you actually believe that whomever is on the other end knows more about their own Dell systems than you do, but I really believe that can't get any further from the truth and I've failed yet to be satisfied by any response I've received from tech support other than to tell me that they're sending someone to either fix something or sending me a box to send it back to Dell.

The only thing I did to force the issue with tech support is while chatting online with someone, I sent the link to all the threads on this forum that highlighted the issue and when they tried to blame it on something else, I said all I'm asking is to look at the thread.....there's 26 pages of people with the same problem along with pictures showing exactly what's on my screen and I even went as far as to take a picture of my screen in realtime and linked it to a website showing what I was experiencing and how it matched what everyone else was going through. I couldn't make it any more clearer that what they were telling me to do to try to fix it wasn't even close to solving the problem and I went through 3 different tech's all with baffling no help suggestions.

The problem is if you hesitate like you aren't sure what the problem is....that's where they get you and thumb through their tech support screen looking for the obvious answer and stick with that hoping you'll go away eventually.

I can't blame Dell solely, because every company does it. Where I've got a huge problem with Dell is that this issue is documented now and the numbers are getting larger and tech support acts like it's a new issue each and every time.

When I first encountered the problem, I started off taking tech support at their word, that it might be something else; all I can say is thank God for this forum because A) I would have probably doubted myself that I might not have known what I was talking about with Dell tech support and frankly gave them too much credit that they actually knew what they were talking about B) I could press the issue with them by documenting how this mobo/GPU problem isn't an isolated incident by referring them to links and links of what everyone else was going through and it was the same thing C) Since the numbers are growing and we've got a collective place to come to, either Dell is in denial or this forum will eventually highlight how many of us actually have this gpu thermal issue and sooner or later it will be integrated into tech support where their suggestion won't be something stupid like you having to remove your memory and hope for the best.

 

I just bought a 1330 and this is very discouraging indeed, to think that it may fail after 4 months! Do you think Dell has possibly sorted this out by now, or is it a problem that is inherent to newer 1330 models as well?

 

Hello all from Lithuania. May I join this club too ? I had the same issue with vertical lines which have appeared exactly after 4 months when I bought my Dell.

I tried to do everything to avoid the contact with Dell support, but ofcourse no luck, so now I am waiting for my new mobo which will arrive after about 5 business days. I'm gonna post you which revision of the new mobo will be placed in my laptop.

Ahh yes. If you still dunno if you have this popular issue on your M1330, try to launch GPU Stress test for about a half an hour. I've just burned my GPU with such test when the temp. riched ~110C So then there was no problem to show the Dell technician where is the problem with my lappy

Good luck to you all !

 

To be honest, I can't tell you if Dell has sorted the problem. The fact that I'm reading rev 04 motherboards failing and those are the latest tells me they haven't. Penryn chips will run cooler which should help the overall system temperature, but it won't guarantee the Gpu from possibly failing. Look, I'm not trying to scare you and my personal opinion is if you aren't constantly stressing your Gpu with graphic intensive stuff, you may never see the problem. I just think the M1330 has thermal issues that the Nvidia chip can't deal with causing the motherboard to fail. I think we're all just waiting to see if and how many rev 04 motherboards will be added to the thread, because some of us are getting our systems repaired and still receiving refurbished rev 00 and 01 motherboards which makes me wonder what the heck Dell is playing at.

By the way, Welcome Nexas and thank you for your input

 

Sad to hear that the A04 has the same problem, which really concretes my original idea that the HSF is badly designed and not sufficient to relieve the thermal load on the GPU causing it to fail.

Hope dell gets a clue and brings out new HSFs...I'm sure dell is hush hush about it, after all, Dell RMAs all these "defective" motherboard back to its manufacturer...now imagine the can of worms, if the cause of this is the HSF instead of the m/b.

 

was just wondering if someone is able to let the authors of reviews of the 1330 know about this problem so that they are able to evaluate whether they want to update their reviews. And also, maybe dell will pay more attention then.

 

Hello again ! As I promised, I want to share with my own experience. I have just got my lappy back. The new mobo revision is A00 (the old one was A01) so it is very interesting point .. why not A04 ?

 

I figured I would post as well... help the cause!

I bought my m1330 back in September and I just started having this problem a couple weeks ago. It progressively got worse and worse to the point where (tonight), as soon as I log in (if I'm lucky) the screen flashes purple and green and then goes black. Totally unusable.

Dell had me update drivers, update bios, and do a reinstall of the OS. The whole time I told them I found this thread and I was sure it was a hardware problem. Not only that, I had the same problems in Ubuntu and told them that. That, to me, solidified the fact that it was a hardware issue, but I was still forced to do all of the software upgrades.

The reinstall was annoying...considering it didn't help the problem, but at least I got rid of all the Dell bloatware

 

have there been cases of this happening to 1530?

 

Well not in this thread. Keep in mind that most of us with this issue bought our laptops shortly after it was first released. Most of us experienced problems around 4-6 months after purchase. The 1530 is still really new.

Also it is larger, and may have more resources to cool it down. Maybe this is the successor to the m1330 (mentioned by someone else in this thread) that solves all the problems

 

Hi guys, same problem here .
I'm from Mexico, I bought mine as soon as it was made available in my country.

I've just started having problems a couple of days ago. I'm running version A09 of the BIOS, I was searching the web about this and found this thread, guess the problem will get worse .

I think I'll contact Dell support tomorrow or saturday morning, just have a couple of questions for those of you who got your systems repaired:

• What do you think the problem is? Overheating? The nVidia card? I couldn't log into Windows a few moments ago, tried several times, but I'm now running in secure mode and no issues for the moment.
• Does Dell change the Motherboard, and nothing else?
• Does the motherboard change fixes the problem? Have you had any issues again?
• Do they change the motherboard inmediately or have you reinstalling the system and updating drivers?

Thanks in advance for your replies (and please excuse any language mistakes ).

 

Oye, caballero!

I (meaning not Dell, nor everyone here, but quite a few here) believe it is definitely a GPU-overheating problem. If you take the time to go through this thread, there are enough pictures and paragraphs stating why. In a nutshell, there's a thermal pad between the heatpipe and GPU. This is not a good solution for any modern GPU.

Dell swaps out the mobo because the GPU is not a so-called, "Field Replaceable Unit" (unlike the CPU which sits in a standard ZIF socket). The mobo versions (A01-A04) all use the same major chips (Northbridge, Southbridge, Audio, WLAN, Ethernet, etc.) so that there is no need for your OS to "rebuild" it's driver base. Hence, the tech will swap out the mobo and then be on his/her merry way.

I do adivse you (and everyone else who gets their mobo replaced) to prep for a quick test of the "usual suspects":

• Multimedia Touch Keys (volume, eject, etc.)
• Optical Drive
• Touchpad (mouse)
• Webcam & Mic array
• WLAN
• Broadband Minicard + SIM (if you're lucky enough to have one)
• ExpressCard slot / interface
• Fingerprint Reader

All of the above are connected by cables to the mobo and you want to make sure that the Rep reconnected them all correctly. Note that the Fingerprint Reader is connected to the Touchpad and I believe the ExpressCard slot is replaced with the mobo but $hit happens, as they say, so check them anyways. Ah, HDD, RAM & the panel is a given, so I didn't list them...

Assuming your Rep is eazy-going (you can put some $ in his/her pocket to make them easy-going if they're not already ) you should quickly run through some of the mobo interfaces, i.e.

• Audio
• Multimedia Card Reader
• Ethernet
• Bluetooth
• USB ports
• Firewire
• HDMI
• external Monitor

I only got through part of the latter list and thus I only discovered a problem with my firewire port* after the fact...
*Hence, my rather odd Avatar, lol

Let's be honest: a mobo replacement is about as bad as it gets because the Rep has to take apart almost everything and to make things worse, you will almost certainly get a refurbished mobo as a replacement. The chances that something goes wrong with such a complex replacement is unfortunately high.

Of course, Dell will come back and fix whatever doesn't work after the fact, but quite frankly, who has the time to waste organizing a rep visit and worst case, taking time off from whatever you may be doing to supervise him/her. In my case, I wasn't about to let a Rep tear apart my 1330 w/o keeping a close eye on him.

It even gave me the chance to grab a few pics of the old & new mobo

Last but certainly not least: since Dell hasn't made any changes to the cooling design, there is no reason to believe any mobo revision will solve the problem and thus there is no reason to believe the same problem won't happen again.

What Dell could do is release a BIOS that purposely underclocks the GPU so that is will run cooler but of course that would make for some very bad reaction from Gaming fans like myself and we would anyways use appropriate drivers and/or third-party tuning tools like RivaTuner to get the clocks back up to their respective speeds. Such a move would definitely ruin Dell's reputation and I, for one, would never by a product from them again.

What really kills me though is why they haven't tried to redesign the heat pipe. I'm not implying a total redesign, just the part that mates with the GPU. I realize there are probably tolerance issues involved but these should be resolvable through the use of hi-tension springs (as used for the CPU). One 1330 owner even managed to lower temps considerably by placing a smooth machined metal plate between the stock Heat pipe and GPU (of course using thermal paste between all involved surfaces). Although not the cleanest solution, Dell would be better off using this as a quick fix instead of just replacing the mobo and hoping for the best...

 

Hola traveller!

Today I could log into Windows, I'm testing the system, will update the video driver before they tell me to do so . I'll take some pictures of the problem and then call Dell service.

I've been reading this thread messages but have not gotten to the thermal pad stuff .

I wanna send you a big-big GRACIAS (THANK YOU)! for your detailed reply .

 

lol, it's kinda funny, 'cause I was among the first who got this problem back in september 2007. When the mobo finally died (GPU, that is), I got a full system replacement for unrelated issues, so it was kinda a fortunate coincidence. There's no other way around it, you either get mobo replaced, or get a new system if you are still under 30 days from purchase, because those vertical colored lines at boot are DEATH! BTW, when they first start appearing, I've run full dell diagnostics and they picked up NOTHING wrong! just shows how useless those diagnostics are.

 

Alright everyone, I've monitored about 10 different forums now, this is clearly a manufacturing defect. The M1330 laptops (seems mostly pre 45nm cores) are suffering overheating issues and fried gpu/motherboards.

I vote we set up a simple website to create media attention and hopefully an appropriate recall/replacement program from dell.

I am willing to front the hosting and webpage costs, but I don't have the time to collect all the data and create the site. So i'm looking for people willing to do this.

Goals of this site would include:

1. To make dell aware of the defect
2. To make dell aware that it's replacements don't work
3. To create media attention
4. Since dell sold us all a product that simply doesn't work as advertised, an INTERNATIONAL recall program for those affected with options of a refund or replacement with a new laptop, where the problem would be addressed.


Any volunteers, please email me
skamra---at---gmail---dot---com

remove --- and replace at with @ and dot with .

Thank you, please respond to this thread as well.

Cheers!

 

Hi Doodio & the many others on this thread who have posted useful information - Thanks!!!,

My M1330 displays the vertical lines problem. They merge into a white blur even on reboot. I can recover by doing the full startup test (hold down Fn key while rebooting) but this does not stop it recurring. Because the screen can die at any moment the machine is completely unusable. My main reason to recover at all is to retrieve my data.

I've had the m/c for about 4 months and can't undertand why this only happens now... is it:

1) some firmware/bios/driver upgrade? I'm on A06 BIOS and tried both standard vga driver plus latest Nvidia drivers ... nothing makes a difference

2) something to do with the fan being less efficient over time (fluff, wear?)

3) something to do with other heat-related wear (i.e. joints or solder coming loose only after repeated action, i.e. about 4-5 months?)

4) Vista hotfixes? (hotfixes ha ha .. overheating!)

I ran the lappie very happily for 4 months even during hot weather. Why is it only failing now? And it fails very consistently. Why?

Nothing I've done has made any different. I run it and it crashes within a half hour or so. I recover using the reboot+Fn thing and it's okay for a bit. But completely unacceptable.

We need a proper informative response from Dell and we need some kind of warranty option (recall etc). I still have 7 months warranty.

So ... I'm in! I have sent an email to you from a gmail account.

I believe in consumer power and as an affected user I am sure there must be a lot of us out there.

Cheers,

Mark

 

Hi Mark, got your email. Looks like we are underway in starting something a bit more official here. To address a few of your comments, I believe this to be an overheating issue. My system will not recover with the Fn+Power boot. Only after I wait for, what I guess is the gpu to cool, will the system start. I'm going to be getting a replacement motherboard, and apparently an lcd tomorrow. Dell clearly hasn't informed their service reps of the exact nature of this problem.

I found downgrading to 1.69 nvidia drivers have helped substantially. The newer drivers seem to run the gpu a lot hotter than before. That's something else I wanted to explore when we get our site up and running. It seems that when the damage is done, you can't fix it with software. I might have a few less problems, but the whole thing will freeze and go into vertical line frenzy every now and then.

 

I actually had my motherboard replaced when I was on business in China. The tech support knew exactly what I was talking about and they had someone out the next business-day with a new motherboard to fix the issue. My computer kept crashing and after a week I figured I couldn't wait until I returned to the US so I called. Rest assured, they swapped out the motherboard in about 45-minutes and I haven't had the problem since. When I have time I need to ditch Vista as the only reason I hate my M1330 is Vista--IE crashes frequently, the display goes into coma mode when it turns off and sometimes it goes into an endless shutdown loop.

 

PS. I tried updating all the drivers etc. when this was an issue for me (I guess I not only had to wait the longest to get my M1330 (I am #1 on the wait list) but the first to have a defective motherboard). The updated drivers did help and the problem would get worse-and-worse. Call XPS tech support. If they complain then cut-and-paste this thread into an email and send it to them.

 

I had the same problems.. First the symptoms and then my m1330 died completely. A technician came out and replaced the motherboard, but he cut over a cable, and he didn't even know what this cable was connected to.

My computer died when it had the A08 bios (I didn't upgrade it) My GPU temp was about 103 on heavy load.

After downgrading to A06 and with my new motherboard i get about 84 celcius.

But i am a bit worried about the cable he destroyed.. Someone know a way to check what the cable was connected to?

I am not a big computer nerd, so please help me out

 

I ran across your excellent thread in researching the XPS 1330 for my soon to be college student. We wouldn't be getting the Video card upgrade.

Does this problem occur for both the Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 configuration and the Nvidia GeForce 8400 configuration ?

Thanks.