XPS M1530 Problem

A few days ago my 1530 froze and I was left with what I was last looking at but now with some odd looking line fragments across the screen, of different colors. Nothing was happening so I turned the computer off and back on and was met with a white screen that slowly dissolved to black ( I was odd in the way it did this. It started in a few areas towards the bottom of the screen and radiated outward as time went on. I also looked grainy.)

I wasn't really sure what was going on so I went and hooked the computer up to a friends tv using the hdmi port. The tv was saying that it was no receiving a signal.

Later today I started it up to take pictures of the problem, and noticed that aside from the odd dissolving that was going on, the computer seemed to run normally. The leds would light up like normal, the led by the camera would flicker, and I was able to hear the noise that is heard right before the log in screen.

Aside from this recent problem I've had issues with over heating and have had to have the motherboard replaced

Any idea what this issue could be? Ill update with pictures of the dissolving effect.

here are pictures. the color in the last two is a bit off from what they actually are. Though they look brown, its only should be black and white and gray.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/5012/xps1530a.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/2463/xps1530b.jpg
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/487/xps1530c.jpg
http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/3038/xps1530d.jpg
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4784/xps1530e.jpg

 

Your GPU's dead.

If you're in warranty or within a year of the end of your warranty, call Dell and they should replace the motherboard for you. If not, a used motherboard probably costs something in the range of $100 to $150.

 

Alright, thank you. That was apparently the problem.

Anyway I called dell and ended up at the xps technical support. After confirming that there was a 1 year extended warranty for the gpu problem, I apparently ran into another one. For some reason dell is saying that I only had a 1 year warranty, and therefore, the extended warranty would have ended in December of last year. This is not true though. I had a two year warranty, and even had my motherboard replaced in november/december of 2009 and it was under warranty, not to mention all the calls I got about extending it.

I guess the only thing I can do now is call and try to get it all sorted out.

Also, another question, when I asked if the new gpu would have the same problems they said no. But this seems odd considering the fact that my current gpu would only be 9 months old, but they become aware of this problem 2 years ago. So does the newer ones still have the same problems as the older ones. Are they just going to put another ticking time bomb in my computer?

 

Almost certain that they are going to give you another "ticking time bomb". As far as I know there is no evidence that the ball joint issues with the Nvidia 8xxx series was ever actually "fixed". Not sure there's much you can do about it. If you've had enough services, you might be able to ask for some sort of replacement, but I doubt it. I don't even think there is an M1530 motherboard with Intel graphics for which you could ask.

Personally, I'd get the board replaced and sell off the unit...