M1530 won't start up - No video output (8600M GT)

The laptop was working fine last night, and then when I came to turn it on this morning to do some work, it will not start.

I don't get any video output at all, not even the BIOS POST screens. Also tried connecting to an external display and no output there either.

When I press the power button, the lights turn on from left to righ across the media buttons as they usually should.

Then the bluetooth light comes on for a few seconds. The light then turns off and there's a sound that indicates nothing is happening.

The power light on the front of the laptop stays on, but there's no sound from any of the fans etc, and the HDD stops spinning up.

CAPS lock etc don't turn the lights on above the keyboard, so it's just not responsive.

My worry is that the graphics card has given up. It's the 8600M GT card (DDR3). The card has been fine ever since I got the laptop, despite the problems many people had at the time with this card overheating etc.

I'm going to try taking out the RAM one at a time, but I've never personally seen RAM cause this kind of issue...Looks to be the graphics card.

I've probably had the laptop around 3 years or so. Was hoping to get at least another 6 - 18 months out of it or more.

As it is out of warranty i'm guessing there is nothing Dell would be able to do (without costing me), and I doubt there was ever any sort of extended warranty added to this specific graphics card?

Anything I can try other than the usual steps of checking the RAM individually, checking that the HDD works in another machine etc?...Any advice is appreciated.

 

Looked at a few videos on YouTube and 1 person has identical bahaviour as I do. Lights turn off at the exact time etc. So it is definitely the graphics card :-(

I don't think there's really a permanent solution that is cost effective. It's probably easier to just replace the laptop and cut my losses.

If anybody does know of a solution, or affordable repair in the UK then please do let me know.

The main downside is it will probably be a repair of hardware that is already know to have defects, so if I spend £200-£300 repairing it, I may as well have just put that towards a new machine.

I've seen temporary fixes of heating the graphics chip, but I know this will only ever be a temporary fix, and it's costly to do a permanent repair.

If anybody can recommend an affordable repair in the UK post a link here please, preferably in the North West of England.

 

I had the same problem with my 1530 and followed the heating trick to the letter... that was 8 months ago and it's still working fine with out any problems... 8) cheers