Well then, I OBVIOUSLY have one of the faulty GPUs!

Well guys, I decided since I am n my first 21 days that I should test my GPU out. I watched a movie yesterday and it only got up to 69C, which was ok. But today I decded to really string it out. I found this stability test:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/Video-Card-Stability-Test.shtml

and ran it. On my desktop everything ran fine for 5 minutes. I try my M1530 and my screen starts to flicker like a stobe light and goes BLACK after 15 SECONDS!! My temps never even got a chance to rise. I ran the test a couple of more time just to make sure, same thing every time:

-screen flickers
-screen goes blank for 5 seconds
-screen comes back with a warning (device driver stopped working, driver recovered)



Now, I am in my first 21 days, BUT I don't game and the system will play movies just fine, what should I do?

 

Def. call up Dell and tell them what tests you ran and what happened.....actually try xps chat i think that works better

 

I might, I dunno. I don't game so I don't really want to let go of my system!



I ran a benchmark test and the GPU only got up to 69C. And my benchmark was 137, I have no clue if thats good or bad.

 

If the screen comes back to normal after the test, then your GPU is not fried. That link you showed is a stability test. So I'm led to believe it's playing with your video card until it becomes unstable. Try something else, like 3DMark06. That stresses your video card without trying to kill it.

Besides, your laptop is still new. The GPU failures are happening to people after about 6 months of use. And once it happens, you wouldn't be able to boot up (which is not the case with you). The cause of the failure isn't a "faulty GPU". The GPU is just fine. The problem is that it's not being properly cooled, leading to eventual failure.

 

Nope the system is still working fine. 3dmark06 takes too long to download, its huge!


I guess I'll be ok, all I do is play movies. But watch it fail when my 21 days is up.

 

Then I suggest you try installing a relatively recent game and playing for a little while to see if any problems prop up. You might as well put the video card to the test before your 21 days are over, just to be sure.

 

How about command and conquer generals? It's the only game I have (and I love it). lol




Also, I just did some research, it looks like that was my video DRIVER causing that problem. I read that the drivers can be unstable. And it was telling me that the "driver" quit working. Plus the temps weren't even at 70C yet.

 

Why did you get an xps m1530 when all you do is watch movies and knew b4 hand that the GPUs were faulty? They only reason i can think of is cuz you got your rig for under a 1000.

All 8400 and 8600 GPUs are faulty as confirmed by dell. But i seriously doubt it'll fry in less than a month.

 

Nope it wasn't unde 1000, more like 1600. But I got the good video driver just in case I ever did want to play some games.

 

[QUOTE
All 8400 and 8600 GPUs are faulty as confirmed by dell. But i seriously doubt it'll fry in less than a month.[/QUOTE]

Er...Dude,
Dell have confirmed no such thing, that was just hearsay by the Inquirer.

I think you are getting confused about Dell's recent blog announcement, listing a lot of their notebooks and the new relevent BIOS for each machine.

 

I said something to that effect also, I spoke too soon.

 

Seems it was a driver issue, so you didnt OBVIOUSLY have a faulty GPU...

Maybe you should return it to save yourself some stress as you seem so worried.

 

Ya, it turned out to be the "unstable driver", but this I didn't have this knowledge when I created the thread.


I'll ignore your antagonistic comment this time.

 

Haha, good thing it was caught early or you would've wasted a lot of time going through the return process and everything.

 

looks to me like it was only software failure, the same happened to me when running vista Dreamcene on my other computer, sometimes 2 types of software just dont go together, and it only happened while doing the stress test, so if it DOES NOT happen while in normal use of your lappy, ie: watching movies, then you shouldnt worry about a thing, your temps seem acceptable.

so there is no reason to call dell or anything.

BUT! if you experience increase of temperature ( above 80º or 90º c), or further black screens, or any other anomalities, you should consider telling dell, since there are many known problems with these gpu's.

best of luck!

 

Play a game, run the World in Conflict Benchmark that runs on its own and see if there is any random artifacts or whitescreens if you don't feel like playing it. The stress it puts on the GPU varies, so if you notice any sort of artfacting, whiting, flashes, etc, then it most likely needs to get a Dell call up.

 

I ran the benchmark test that the stability test program offered, and everything was ok.


But later on tonight I will dl the world in conflict. (it's just huge)

 

Thats what I was thinking, maybe that software doesn't jive with vista or something?

But your right, I'm not calling dell. But I definitley will is my temps ever exceed 80C! Just cruising the web the GPU runs anywhere from 58C to 63C.

 

if u really run 3Dmark06....... my GPU idles 60-65.... with 3Dmark stressing, it went up to 104!!! (the fan came on full speed at around 85+ [HWMonitor]

 

Oh wow! I guess they can handle some pretty extreme temps.

Maybe we will all get lucky and none of us will have any failures.

 

well good to know your system is still good...

 

Yep it SEEMS like it was a driver failure, not the hardware. I hope your system stays healthy also!