Would Dell Screen Test work if graphics card broken? (M1530 w/ 8600M GT)

My M1530 was finally affected by the 8600M GT problem.

It lasted around 3 years, which I thought was good considering how bad the problem was.

Anyway, out of warranty support are replacing it for me "free of charge", and they are coming out tomorrow.

When I phoned the support rep they went through the usual scripts, and when it came to do the test where the monitor changes between different colours, it just changed between different shades of grey/black, not red, green, blue like it's apparently supposed to.

The support rep said this means the screen is also broken...So I had to pay £160 for the screen. My question is....could the screen even change colours if the graphics card is fried??

I'm not soft and I did get him to agree that the engineer will test the screen once the motherboard and graphics card have been replaced. If the screen isn't needed i'll be refunded for that....

But then have to pay a £90 call out charge. Fair enough I suppose when they have been so quick to agree to repair it. I've seen nightmare stories of Dell owners in other parts of the world that had to go through all sorts.

Just wondering if the screen could even change colours in that test if the graphics card isn't working?

 

If this is the test that you activate using fn + d (or something like that; I don't remember the exact combination), then yes, it is supposed to test the screen and only the screen. It should work even if the GPU is bad. Obviously there may be corner cases, and what have you, but I think it's rare.

 

Doh :-( Not the answer I was hoping for but at least it will be fixed tomorrow.

Seems too much of a coincidence for them both to break at once...if a defective GPU caused the screen to develop a fault then I shouldn't really have to pay...but it's too late now

At least it is cheaper than buying a brand new laptop. I'll still keep my fingers crossed just in case. You could see it clearly changing between different shades of grey/black, but I do believe that's supposed to be colours.

It was the test which is Fn + D yes.

 

Result! Just ran the test multiple times (Fn + D) and it is working...swear it didn't the one time I did it on the phone to the support rep.

Now questioning whether to take the replacement anyway since I've paid, or just get a £70 refund on the £160 I paid.

If not getting the screen replaced there is a £90 call out charge, so won't get it all back. Still, that's fair enough when its about 3 years old or so. Maybe 4, don't remember which year I got it.

 

I'd suggest you read up at Index page • The Nvidia Defect Forum There's lots of stuff about other peoples experiences.

If nothing else it may prove useful if you have any more problems before your six years are up.