XPS m1330 Video Problems

I have been having a big problem with my Dell XPS m1330. A few weeks ago, a weird video problem froze the computer. The screen had a type of overlay of pink (it sometimes is green now). After this occurs, I have to hold the power button to turn the laptop off.

Now almost every time I turn on my laptop, all the screen displays is white. The laptop loads up in the background, loading windows, but all I see is white. I know that it is working because if I plug in an external monitor, close the lid the monitor shows windows loading and the computer working fine. Even with the monitor attached, during start up, there are pink lines that go vertically through the screen. When I use the computer with the external monitor, I am able to get into windows and use it as usual for awhile. Eventually, (normally when I open a graphical program) the computer displays the pink or green overlay and freezes.

If I use the external monitor, and choose to load into safe mode, the laptop works perfectly. (except it is in safe mode!).

I have updated the graphics card to the latest version through Dell's website. I have the Nvidia 8400M graphics card.

My laptop is under the 1 year warranty, so if I can't find a solution within a few weeks I will send it in. It would save a lot of hassle if I could get it to work. I am ok with opening the laptop up if needed.

Thanks for your suggestions in advanced.

 

The problem, is with the connection between your graphics card and the screen.
Their is a ribbon cable, which connects the lcd panel to the motherboard/graphics card. This ribbon cable can become disconnected if the screen is bent back to far, or slammed closed.
You can simply take the screen bezel apart and fix this. The end of the cable which is usually disconnected, is the part which attaches to the rear of the lcd panel.

If you do not feel comfortable doing this, I would contact Dell and tell them that the lcd ribbon cable has come loose, resulting in no signal to the monitor.

The cable looks like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-XPS-M1330-Laptop-LCD-Screen-CAM-Flax-Cable-GX081_W0QQitemZ370036878759QQcmdZViewItem

EDIT:
Here is a link showing disassembly:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59533970@N00/sets/72157604189643723/

Good luck fixing it, its not that hard.

K-TRON

 

That makes me concerned the problem is not the ribbon cable. In safe mode it is running with out the GPU? Anyway I am not an expert but with the information provided I would think starting normally with an external should work fine unless issue other than cable? And it is not? And that makes me think problem in GPU or MoBo?

 

When you are booting to safe mode, are you looking at the laptop lcd, or the external?
If the laptop lcd works only in safe mode, than that befrugles me.

Please clarify.

K-TRON

 

Id hate to say it...but i would try changing the drivers again just to make sure its not a software issue

Have you tried using www.laptopvideo2go.com drivers?

Also how about BIOS? have you updated it?

 

If you start in safe mode with internal how does it work? It should work fine like external, if not yea K-Tron is on to something. Please clarify. I was going to say in first post but thought to confusing and long. Uninstall 8400 drivers do not let Windows reinstall them how do external and internal respond in normal start? Kind of an attempt to identify and locate the source of the problem. If LCD works fine not cable. If it does not but cable as said could come into play. But it is better than safe mode for isolating problem. That is what I would do to diagnose. All reasonable free tests are worth doing to determine problem. And as K-T said, please clarify. Good luck.

Edit: Flip not a bad Idea as it does no harm and is free. But sometimes uninstalling the drivers can identify a hardware problem. So if it is not a hardware then yes it is software as you suspect. I believe my approach if it was chess we were playing would save one move at a minimum. Different way of coming to the same conclusion. Both valid in this situation.

I see no reason to go to BIOS at this point and honestly think it might be a bad idea and confuse the issue both intellectually and practically. Unless you can think of some reason for corruption of the BIOS OP did not install new hardware so BIOS is just confusing the already confusing issue. Will only add more possibilities to the equation. To diagnose problems one typically isolates issues not adds, unless a compelling reason to?

 

Most of the time when I turn on the laptop, it displays a white screen. Sometimes, it will load and work until it freezes from the pink/green overlay (while not in safe mode).

After I get into Windows, I can unplug the monitor and it will work until it freezes eventually.

This leads me to believe that the cable is not the problem. Unless it is loose and works part of the time? That doesn't seem possible, it would either be working or not working all of the time.

Do video card drivers even matter before Windows is loaded?

I have not updated my bios.

 

Well it is definitely gpu or motherboard hardware related then.

Since your Dell is still under warranty, I would back up your data by plugging your laptop harddrive into a sata to usb adaptor, and then sending the system back to dell.
This would be very costly to fix if it was not under warranty.

Yes, video cards matter. WIthout one, nothing will come up on the screen.

K-TRON

 

Teach me K-T, even when I uninstalled my drivers for 1150 and Windows did not recognize and used Windows to display? Are you saying it was using generic drivers that even though it could not recognize was still using my card? I wanna know because I don't, but I do remember when there were not GPU's so help me on that.

 

well, dont you need a gpu to get the screen to show up?

when my video card died, nothing would show up, cause the lcd ribbon cable connected directly to my Quadro graphics card.

When my graphics card was on the merge of death, I even had artifacts all over the bios.
This leads me to believe that a gpu is needed to process the data which comes up on the screen.

I have no idea, how the bios can see the gpu without drivers.

PP, if you know otherwise please share.

K-TRON

 

Hey K-T I was asking not joking or trying to be a jerk. With what you just mentioned no display in safe mode? In your situation did external work or not tested? See I pay attention so what you tell me I will know in the future. So no I don't have any deep insight just asking.

 

okay, no worries pp
when I tested my system with an external, I had a black screen. The screen had no signal to it.
At this point, I could turn my system on, the indicator lights would come on, and the lcd showed nothing.
I called Voodoo and they overnighted me a new Quadro. I plugged it into its MXM IV socket, and then booted her up. It worked fine.
Then I sent my broken Quadro back to Voodoo.

Anyways, kronos20, your bets bet is to call Dell and get it fixed.
If a simple driver update does not fix it, than I would contact dell for replacement.

I hope you know that the Greek God Cronos, was known for eating his kids. Its a strange user name.

K-TRON

 

I agree with K-T and flipfire's suggestions (other than BIOS, thinking BIOS flash when running in safe mode not good) to reinstall drivers again is fine if you can do, won't hurt. Looks bigger than we can solve. I suspect GPU and or MoBo. So good luck sorry we couldn't fix it. Thank goodness under warranty!

 

Kronos,

i have had the same problem with the same model just recently. any advice on how this is fixed?

Thanks

 

i dont think it has anything to do with the hardware but with the drivers. if i were u i'd reinstall xp onto the laptop without the driver cd. i'd then just install the required drivers by hand, downloading them from the dell website (or if this is a general issue use a driver program to search for missing drivers and install them - u cud try this http://driveragent.com/?PHPSESSID=cg5g0tvj1phggegeh4hn9opgn2

 

I recently ran into this problem on my M1330. (yesterday). I've had this laptop since January 28 and yesterday was my first real problem with it.

I had the same purple overlay occur that kronos talked about which causes the computer to freeze and I have to use the power button to turn it off. When I tried rebooting it right after I usually got the grayish-black screen with tiny green vertical lines across the screen. After I leave it off for a few hours and try to reboot again it loads Windows fine but then about 15 minutes later while I'm surfing the net I get the purple streaks again.

Anyway I called tech support twice today and the had me run all sorts of diagnostic tests on my comp. and everything checked out okay. The guy upgraded by BIOS from A07 to A10 and then the other tech person had me install the latest Nvidia driver onto it and so far (fingers crossed) no problems have occured again.

 

I hope it works out for you but your description sounds like heat could be a factor. Do you monitor your temps? Are they good?

 

One of the tests that we ran through was to test the heating and the fan and that turned out to be fine. It does get pretty hot sometimes but it's never caused problems before.

I'm still on the laptop going on 2 hours now since the new driver has been installed and so far the problem appears to be gone.

Is there a way that I could monitor the temperature on this laptop regularly?

 

Yes, I use NHC (notebook hardware control) free. Many others.

 

How can I get that?

******EDITED****** Nevermind I found the website.

 

I, also, have a dell xps m1330 with the nvidia geforce 8400m gs graphics card.
I, also, have the annoying issue of the green/pink overlay and then a system failure...
Unlike the OP, I do not have a problem with a driver though. My driver hasn't been updated recently and worked flawlessly for months before this. I also have Ubuntu on my system and the video problem has also happened in that OS... so I think it is a definite hardware issue.

Dell insists that my problem is a loose LCD cable connection. Therefore, Monday a tech will replace my LCD. Although, that's a waste of time.

I beg to differ. It blows my mind. How can a laptop be completely shut down because of an lcd monitor going out temporarily? It doesn't make sense. When the laptop is freezing, how can that be due to an LCD issue? I have had many many LCD issues in the past with other laptops and they have never crashed my system. Can anyone else attest to this not making sense?

Thanks for your help.

EDIT: DELL now rules out that it is the LCD, even though because it was already delivered to a tech, they're going to make him install it. (Pointless, much? Mine works fine.) Although, they still have not concluded what they are going to replace. They want to call after the LCD is replaced. At that point, I'll probably have 10 more crashes to tell them about. I had to run through a million tests on my computer last night and they all came back fine, duh. Because the problem is intermittent. It happens when it's overheated. The tests don't simulate enough stress on the computer. Anyway, so I guess even though they have narrowed the problem down to:
A)heatsink
B)fan
C)mainboard/motherboard and
D)GPU (nvidia card)
they still haven't conclusively come up with anything and haven't put anything on order. I'm getting furious with all this time I'm wasting when they just need to send a damned part. Someone cool me down! (and my computer...).

:/

 

Heya, not sure if this has been resolved already, but for all you guys out there with video issues ie.pink/green lines and crashing or strange behaviour. call dell and have them replace the video card. its a hardware issue on the board. i think its the first batch of boards that have te issue, i'm on my 2nd board at the moment, i have had this happen to me twice. but its no big deal while the systems under warranty. so call to extend your warranty would be my advice.

Regards,
Val

 

Wow, I've been dealing with this very issue for the last month. I believe it's some kind of heat issue and definitely not the driver because I can reproduce it by running the diagnostics multiple times (even without the hard drive). Both LCD and MOBO have been replaced twice! I just sent the notebook to a Dell service center because they can't fix this over the phone or with parts. I have no idea what they plan on doing once they receive it. Hopefully, they're technical enough to diagnose heat or the circuitry for shorts.

 

Thanks to this forum, I was able to convince my Dell technician that this was a hardware problem. Today, they replaced the motherboard (because the video card is attached). It took three calls, and they kept trying to either disable or update my NVIDEA drivers, but I gave the third technician access to this forum and he was convinced.

If anyone else has this problem and comes across these posts, please forward them to your Dell technician. It's a hardware problem.

John
johnastan at gmail

 

The service center replaced the motherboard and now it's fine. Remember, they may replace the motherboard with another defective nvidia chip so keep trying until it's stable. It's pretty clear to me that the chips in our m1330 are the ones giving nvidia's stock some grief.