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

Afaik, all the members of this thread have the discrete solution (8400M GS) and afaik, the X3100 requires less heat dissipation and thus the current thermal pad solution may be enough for the X3100.

If you're in the position to purchase a 3yr "XPS Service" contract then I'd say the risk is minimal for what is otherwise an excellent Notebook!

 

This happened to me last thursday. Ive had the computer since September '07(using A05 bios) and ever since i got it ive had these periodical "display adapter" crashes while playing games on it, it would suddenly crash and then either recover or just completely freeze and i would have to reboot it.

Then in April 2008 i started having heat problems with it, it was probably my fault for leaving it in my bed with the fan being completely blocked by the sheets, it would get crazy slow up to the point of not being able to get a reaction in under 5 seconds.

Finally this past thursday what youve all been saying happened. I will be getting an LCD and motherboard replacement this monday and hopefully the problem, along with THE WHINE, will go away.

I managed to get it working by rebooting multiple times until finally everything loaded, then i changed the resolution to 800x600, lowest color scheme and changed the taskbar to the windows98 version so it would be less graphics intensive, so far it lasts a few hours without it freezing if i keep the fan unobtrusive and i refrain from watching videos and such, just web surfing and chatting.

 

After 6 months mine died too. Got it replaced with a refurbish motherboard running Bios A09. My warranty is going to end soon, anyone know how much it is to purchase extended warranty?

 

Shame there's no way to replace the thermal pad with a block of copper with AS5 paste applied to both sides.

 

Hello!

The same problem just happened to me last night, was surfing the net and all of a sudden the screen starts flashing on and off and then goes black and starts filling with vertical coloured lines. I rebooted and vertical coloured lines again. I removed the battery and ac power and held down the power button, put the battery and ac power back and rebooted and it booted up okay. Turned it on this morning and it seems to be working okay now.

But I am worried that it is now a matter of time before the laptop completely conks out, So I've emailed XPS Support about the problem.

Has anyone had this happen once and then not happen again? I'm kind of hoping it was a isolated incident!

P.S. My M1330 is about 7 months old.

 

Okay, so its not a isolated incident, it just happened again. This time the screen just froze. So I rebooted it and the vertical coloured lines appeared again but still finished booting up ok. I'm really worried that soon its won't be able to boot up at all.

 

I think not board (A04 see the problem) and not the BIOS(A05 has problem also).

Pattern is 8400GS and atleast 4 month old.

I beleave XPS 1330 is the first one to shiped with 8400GS in Dell and followed by 142X and 152X followed by xps1530.
Only one case of 142X is reported here and none for 15"

Is there any body has this problem after Feb. shipped XPS1330?

 

CHnezegirl,

Backup all your data. Pattern is once happened it will happen again and getting worse.

 

Don't I know it. It's done. Won't boot up any more. Most of my data is already backed up (luckily). I have a dell engineer visiting today on a unrelated issue, it might be a waste of time though as he probably won't have the correct parts now.

It didn't take lot at all for it to die completely. About 10 hours from first symptom to dead.

Edit: False alarm. Left it for a few minutes and it has booted up. But it does seem like its steadily getting worse.

 

Update: Dell Engineers visited and were very helpful. Luckily the crash happened while they were onsite. Apparently the crash occured due to a parity error (whatever that means) and therefore is definitely a problem with the motherboard. They have ordered a replacement, which will be installed tomorrow. It was all rather painless - which makes a nice change!

Now I just have to hope nothing goes wrong with the installation. *fingers crossed*

 

Were can I buy the membership-card for the club ?


Last week I was chatting in Ubuntu (with Compiz enabled) when my screen became purple.
Not aware of this topic, I switched back to Windows XP, thinking in the way that it could be an artifacts problem, I noticed the temperature of the GPU was arround 100° in stress. Eventually I had the vertical lines appearing on the screen but this was solved - putted off by attaching an external monitor to the VGA output and switching between the modes. For one week I didn't had any problems with the GPU.

But yesterday I couldn't see anything on my screen besides vertical coloured lines and sometimes a totally black or white screen. So that is were this fantastic forum came to the rescue! I'm not alone...

I called the Dell Technical support line and I was redirected to Ireland were the lady at the phone assured me that a new mobo was heading my way. She advised me to make a backup from my harddisk, what I did today with an external monitor and in very unreadible Matrix style.. look @ the pics...)

Keeping you informed about the replacement tomorrow..

 

If it exhibits this behavior even once - GET THE MOBO replaced..

ASAP..!

It is only a matter of time before it won't boot.

 

Hi Everyone,

I would like to take this opportunity to officially join the broken M1330 club

I have had my laptop since November last year. The problem started on Firiday May 9th with a couple of strange video glithes and rapidly went downhill to complete system failure by today 13th May.

I had the usual high-end tech support, with them telling me my machine was fine as I was able to plug an external monitor into it and I should reinstall Vista.
My reply was that of course the screen was ok NOW, as it was working, but when the error occurs (at this stage it was intermittant) then neither screen works.

They insisted I reinstall Vista even though the lines were occurring during or even before POST, but after many under the breath expletives and a small session of raised voices they relented and said they would replace my screen. (I might mention I have already had my screen replaced due to a back light failure).

I asked them how, in their obviously very technically minded minds they thought changing the screen would fix a problem where the screen bombs out and the machine hangs.

After a second call to support (3 1/2 hours in total) and with a now dead laptop, they agreed to replace both the screen and motherboard. The motherboard, in their opion, would be replaced only to placate me and not because there was anything wrong with it.

"So now you are happy?" they asked.

To which I replied "No I am not". By this time I had read this thread and had become aware of how wide spread this problem was, so I said I would not be happy unless they extended my warrenty, given that these machine break on an average of every six months, it seemed I would be making my next call either just before or just after my warranty expires, and if it was the latter then I did not want to have to pay for a replacement.

"Not a problem." They replied, "If it breaks again we will replace it free of charge."
"Even if it is out of warranty?" I asked
"Yes." They replied.
"That's excellent!" I cried. "Now can you send me that in writing?"
Silence
I repeated myself, to which I got the standard Indian (my apologies to any Indian people out there, I mean no offence) reply:
"I'm sorry sir, I am not understanding you?"

I repeated myself once more and asked to speak to his boss.

His boss came on the line and we ended up in a shouting match where I ended up threatening to contact my local consumer watchdog regarding what in my opinion, is a known issue which Dell are refusing to acknowledge and are offering no recompense.

I have since written to Dell, using their Extended Warranty form on their web site requesting a free extention of my warranty, quoting this link and numerous youtube videos showing other owner's issues. I doubt I will get a reply but I have no intention of leaving it at that.

If Dell are so convinced there is nothing wrong with their M1330s then they should have no problem issuing an extended warranty as if the machine works properly then I would have no need to use it.

I would like to suggest that any other people who are in the same boat do the same, why should we have to pay for 3 year warranties to ensure our machines keep working after every 6 month motherboard replacement.

The link for the extended warranty (for Europe) is below

http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...rt/my_systems_info/en/details?c=uk&l=en&s=gen

I urge you all to request extended warranties.

Regards

Paul

 

Looks like more and more are falling victim.

Dell knows about this. I was one of the earlier ones and when I called in and mentioned "lines", a m/b replacement was dispatched immediately. Obviously being a corporate customer also helps. I got a new replacement m/b not a refurbished one. (helps when they make these here so they have lots of spares)

I still say that the GPU is overheating due to the HSF design. But in my case, its moot, when it does die a few more times, I'm going to request a Latitude E series as replacement....I still have 2.5 years of completecare left......

those that still can, try to purchase extended warrantee.

 

A question for someone in the know, have the newer versions of the motherboard be redesigned to mitigate this problem? Alternatively are we going to have this problem again in 6-9 months?

 

I think it's probably the heat sink fan design combined with the small size of the laptop and possibly the placement of the vents. In my case it's moot because I sent the laptop back when I realized how hot the graphics card was running. Even with the fans running all the time the temperature never got below 59C at idle. If only it stayed that low, but its usual temperature at idle was around 70C at idle unless I used i8kfangui or Riva to turn the fans on high. Using a cooling pad didn't have much effect on the GPU (though it cooled the CPU nicely). I hate to think how hot it would get playing a game -- even an old one.

I can easily see the GPU expiring every few months and the whole motherboard needing to be replaced, since the GPU is soldered to the motherboard.

I'm considering getting another M1330, this time with the integrated graphics which should run much cooler than the Nvidia. My T9300 processor was very cool, running between 26C at idle and 50C under load. So that wasn't a problem.

I'm curious about whether the Sony SZ, which is a similar size, ever has these problems. Of course the SZ lets you switch between the integrated graphics and the Nvidia card, so it may not be such an issue -- or the problem may take longer to show up.

 

And yet another member to the failed mobo club. Experienced the same failure patterns (color stripes, etc.) and called XPS support. Of course I had to run the diagnostics which showed everything was okay. The the tech had me uninstall/reinstall the nVidia drivers to no avail. He wanted to do a full reinstall of the OS (Vista) but I refused. After explaining my knowledge of this obvious problem from NBR, he agreed to send a tech to replace the mobo AND the LCD screen. I own two M1330...to say I'm unhappy is an understatement.

 

I find it amazing that tech support "recommends" replacing both mobo and panel for this problem when a simple built-in LCD test would quickly rule the LCD out.

How can it be that the test and this particular problem is not covered in their Support-Ticketing / knowledgebase system...?!?

It's just unbelieveable, really...!

 

I got this problem before, I can use it in safe mode but when I boot normally it turns into a mess. What should I do??

 

did anyone use a cooling solution eg laptop cooling base/fan/pad

 

so, with these problems, it's better for me to bye a hp dv2700 or dell 1330?
of course with same configure!
please answer me...

 

I own two identical m1330s, and they both died last week. On Friday DELL uk arranged an On site repair for each of them. Motherboard replacement for one system on Monday and motherboard + LCD for the other system on Tuesday. They just called saying that they are out of parts and that they don't know when they will be available. What can I do know? Should I call back and complain? I'm supposed to have the next bussiness day on-site warranty.

EDIT: Just call them and they claim to not be able to tell me when the parts will be available. How long did it take for your replacements to arrive?

 

Damn, this issue is bigger than I thought... mine started acting up a week ago and technically, it's dead from yesterday. I'm able to run it through my LCD TV however, so managed to run diagnostics that resulted in this error:

"LCD inverter error, unable to turn lamp ON"

The problem is I bought my XPS M1330 in India and moved to the UK recently, any idea if they will honor warranty here?

Thanks!

 

This thread's about a problem related to dead (/dying) GPUs and although you're certainly not in any better shape than we were (/are), your problem's LCD-specific and not GPU...

Good luck with your new panel (unless of course it's a loose cable...).

 

Mine's a combination of both I believe.... even the display output to my LCD artifacts :/

 

I don't suppose you can tell us why your local Dell Help Desk decided it was only the mobo on one and both on the other?

I still can't phantom a problem that will simultaneously take out the GPU and panel...

 

Ah, that was like a minor detail that you should have mentioned in your OP...

Just out of curiosity... what res are you running your ext. "TV" at? Did you /can you try to connect it to a standard LCD Monitor and verify the same artifacts are produced?

What kind of artifacts are you seeing (snow / 3D image distortion / missing textures / etc.) and is it with all games or are you seeing any artifacts in 2D environments?

 

I think a few did & managed to lower the temps by like 2C...
... but a properly-implemented heastsink could drop it by up to 25C

FYI, there are a few threads on the subject of modding the M1330's cooling "system", Like this one and that one...

Why Dell hasn't come up with (at least) a quick-fix for 1330 owners that have had a GPU failure is beyond me...

EDIT: Of course it needs to be mentioned at least once that a properly mated HSF to GPU will increase the HSF's temps and thus lower it's ability to cool the other components (North bridge & CPU). Considering the CPUs (particularly the 45nm Penryns) run cool per say, I think the existing HSF s/b able to handle the excess heat from the GPU... . If I torture* my Merom-class T7500, I can get it to peak past 80C but afaik, there is no application on the market (*aside from benchmarking / stress-test tools) that will put such a load on both cores on a constant basis...

 

Safe mode resolution is 800x600, and there are vertical lines during boot and a weird green tinge in Windows. No standard LCD monitor handy to test.

 

And you're running in safe mode because...? The vertical lines appear only during boot and then what, disappear when Windows - in safe mode, loads?

Do your vertical lines look like this? If not, how then?

 

We went through diagnostics for both systems.

The first system (motherboard replacement only) happened to get though diagnostics while on the phone with support (i.e. just happened to briefly work). It has been 3 days since it completely died and no matter what, it won’t start. New appointment is scheduled for Wednesday 21st .

The second system however (both motherboard and LCD replacement), was completely dead when I called and therefore during diagnostics I couldn’t see anything on the screen (i.e. the results of the diagnostics). I still don t know when this system will be repaired but the appointment for the engineer is tomorrow. IMHO they put the LCD replacement just in case. I will ask the engineer not to change my panel if not required.

 

Lol, score another one for Tech Support...

Please try this on your "non-functioning" 1330 and let us know what you "see", if anything:

Ripped from Dell's own Field Rep Training Course Manual:

-------------------------------------------------

PAID LCD BIST
The PAID LCD BIST is a way to enable the LCD BIST without having to boot the system to PSA or Dell Diagnostics. The system's embedded controller and power supply are the only items that must be functional to enable the LCD BIST.
[bla-bla-bla...]

Initiating the LCD BIST
Initiate the LCD BIST by holding down the "D" key while pressing the power button. This keystroke causes the system to turn on and immediately begin running the BIST.

The LCD BIST remains active for 20 seconds (the same length of time the PSA displays the LCD BIST), even if there are power-up failures.

-------------------------------------------------

 

Currently my XPS display is blank, the lines used to look like that but now it's just gone. During that time, I could boot windows normally when hooked up to my TV.

Now the XPS only runs in safe mode because a normal boot ends up in a frozen system with no display on the XPS or TV. During safe boot, there are some dotted pink and white lines that only show up while Windows is loading. After that, it looks alright (but sometimes, there is a green tinge within windows).

 

LCD BIST: I see nice solid colours changing for a while and then the screen will turn black with vertical lines and that’s all I get.

If I press the power button and wait for a while, in one system I can hear the vista log in sound, even though my screen is filled with stripes (white screen with stripes). The other system however (the first one to go), won t even log in to windows and the Num Lock LED/ CapsLock LED or any of the touchpad buttons wont give any signal (black screen with stripes).

Sorry if I am confusing trying to explain all these.

 

ROFL, I just had a look at the M1530's cooling solution and it's just what the Dr. ordered (for our M1330s ) The 1530 has both the CPU and GPU directly in contact with the heatsink plate(s) by using tension (springs & screws). I ripped a pic from Dell's M1530 guide and added it to my 1330 pictorial collection (last pic in set - at least it was when I wrote this )

Now I see what the A04-revision 1330 mobo should have had (along with whatever they shielded to pacify headphone jack noise)... two screw-holes more...!!!

 

1. Congratulations, your LCD is fine!

2. Bad news (but certainly not new news...), your GPU is fried (or on it's last leg, to be more exact).

3. In order to avoid confusion, please stick with K.I.S.S.: Keep it simple ...soldier (yeah-yeah, that's-the-ticket...)

Basically, behind the left door, we have a beautiful M1330 with a dead GPU and behind the right door, we have a gorgeous M1330 with a dying GPU.

p.s. Black screen with vert. lines & white screen with stripes... PLEASE TAKE A PHOTO OF THE TWO TOGETHER AND POST IT PRONTO... 'cause that will be the "winning" picture of this thread

 

Going...going...gone. You just haven't made it to the third stage yet. Welcome to the club (unfortunately). I still don't know how you had the "fortune" to loose both (LCD & GPU) at once, but you-da-man now... .

Just one last thing... please run the LCD BIST Test I posted above (press & hold "D" and then press the pwr key.). If your LCD is really pushing up the daises then you won't see a series of color screens...

 

LMAO... you guys will not believe this.

So I've been home all day backing up all my data from the XPS (in safemode) to my file server, of course with it hooked up to my TV via HDMI because there is no video signal on the XPS and it refused to boot normally.

Anyway, I read your last message traveller and shut down the XPS, unplugged it from the TV and hit power while holding D. Test ran just fine rotating through those colored screens, and here's the kicker... it booted into Vista without a single issue lol.

Ran fine for about 10 minutes until I tried to copy a large folder to the network... it froze and rebooted but this time no video signal for a while, then back to those vertical multi-colored lines.

So I run LCD BIST again and it boots just fine... not sure what to make of it but it surely needs repairs

 

I want some answer please... It's as important as air for me!

of course with these system:
vista home p.
ram 4 gb
hdd 320 gb
GPU GeForce 8400
CPU 2.5 ghz
FP-BT-Tv tuner- Modem
please answer me... please... please... please... please...

 

The M1330 is overall a very nice Notebook, but like *most* Notebooks, it has its problems.

But I'd just assume you ask your "this one or that one" question outside of this thread, PLEASE.

 

Aslanaslan,
Check in the HP forum to see if anyone with the dv2700 has had similar problems to those in this thread. I wouldn't recommend getting the M1330 with the Geforce 8400 GPU until this problem is solved. However I don't know if the DV2700 has similar problems. You might try doing a search looking for motherboard problems or GPU problems over there.

EDIT:
Seems the search function may be disabled on this site. You can still search using Google though. Just add
site:notebookreview.com
to the parameters of your search.

 

Lol, looks like that M1330 of yours just refuses to go down for the count, :twitcy:

Well, look at the bright side: despite the original assumption, you don't have to worry about having your panel exchanged anymore!

If you're happy with your current panel, you don't want to risk getting a replacement that's grainy, or has one or more dead pixels... no, in that case, even the GPU is the better of two evils...!

 

Does anyone have this problem with the Intel X3100? Might go with the X3100 if it doesn't have this problem. Also, has Dell redesigned the cooling solution for the M1330?

 

theres no problem with the x3100..... its not a real graphics card ,u won't be stressing it to such a high temperature

i'm tempted to go with the m1530, seeing that theres so much problem with the m1330's graphics card, though i still want portability.... i guess if i get the m1330, no gaming on the go, and need decent vent space if i want to run a game....

 

Well, I have the White LED screen but yeah I'm happy with what I got.

It's alive man, you're right, it refuses to go down. I could complete my data backup (burning + copying to a server) without any crashes after that. Just really really weird, but I'm not going to trust it for long. Maybe the GPU goes nuts when it heats up, especially after running for a few hours.

Keep you all posted. Thing is I might have to wait because I don't have international warranty.

 

I use CPU-Z and says my Model Number for mother board is Revision: C0... what version is that? :/

 

I don't think that says much. Open up your memory panel and remove either or both chips .Look on the back and it'll tell you the revision number. I had the original sticker on the silver beam which stated rev 01, but behind the memory chip it's got rev 04.

 

Quick update: My M1330 still works fine as of this morning, no signs of failing - not sure what changed after those LCD BIST tests lol.

 

I spoke too soon. A little while ago I got that "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding, but has succesfully recovered." error again and after 10-15 minutes, my XPS froze.

The vertical lines were back when I rebooted, damn!

 

Honestly, it makes no sense delaying the inevitable*, so now that you've already backed up your data, I highly recommend that you install & run two key benchmarking routines from Futuremark:

PCMark05

3DMark06

The latter is purely for 3D benchmarking but even if you don't game, there's no reason why your Notebook shouldn't be able to. After all, you did go with the nVidia discrete solution...

If you've got a streak-of-geek in ya, then install RivaTuner while you're at it. Then you can literally "watch" your GPU (& CPU) temps as they rise during the benchmarking process... Just be sure to download the Dual-Core plugin for RivaTuner too.

In my 1330 Set, there's a few screenshots of both 3DMark06 and RivaTuner together in action

Btw, VISTA's built-in benchmarking tool is all but useless, so I wouldn't go settle for that...

*Sounds like Mr. Smith talking to Mr. Anderson, lol:
"You hear [err, see] that Mr. Anderson?... That is the sound [err, are the symptoms] of inevitability... It is the sound [err, preview] of your [M1330's] death... Goodbye, Mr. Anderson ['s M1330]...
My name... is RiO!"

EDIT RiO, I can't keep up with you, lol. So the above applies to your repaired M1330...