m1210 Issues and out of warenty support with dell

Hello Folks!

This is my first post to this forum so please let me know if I am not doing anything correctly or if I need to supply more information, alright onto the issue:


I have had my XPS m1210 from dell going on about 3.5 years now. This computer has had a little bit of trouble in the past (lcd screen being replaced and motherboard also being replaced on a separate occasion) but it was nothing serious. I had also bought a new XPS m1730 for some more power for gaming and used my m1210 as a side computer and also for travel seeing as the m1730 is about as heavy as a car

This issue stems from my m1730 having the motherboard and heat sinks die on it (for the 3rd time, thinking I am going to start asking for a system replacement if the issue is not resolved after this instance) and has been out of commission while techs keep coming to fix it. This means the m1210 got dusted off from the lappy bag and was being used as the main computer in my household.

Well now the m1210 seems to be experiencing problems :/ Issues seem to include not being able to boot all the way to windows (it just hangs forever at the load screen), on a restart I will just get a blank white screen (sometimes happens for multiple reboots), on other restarts it will just leave me with a blinking cursor icon at the top left of the screen.

To attempt to figure out the issue with this problem I have tried running system diagnostics through an umbutu live disks which had that freeze just as it got to the mem check area (although it didn't look like it was a memory issue, just happened to freeze up right there). I also tried using the POST boot that dell recommends by holding down FN while booting up. From that I got a blinking CAPS lock and SCROLL lock indicators and when it was running its diagnostics it just froze up and starting making this awful and loud beeping noises.

So jumping on to the dell tech support site it seems like my warranty ran out 5 months ago with out any notice from dell what so ever. I have done some research online to find out that many people have had issues with their GPUs failing (strange blue lines running down their screen) and have had that issue delt by dell even after their warranties have expired...but to me this just doesn't sound like my issue as it sounds to me like it is something with the motherboard.

I will be having some time off coming up soon to sit on the phone with dells out of warranty support but I also wanted to draft up an email to send them as well regarding this issue. Anyone have any tips or suggestions I can use when dealing with dell? Thanks for reading this looooooooong post

tl;dr: m1210 wont boot to windows and cant run diagnostics without freezing. Comp is 5 months out of warranty, can I fix this with dell or am I a owner of an expensive paperweight?

 

The white screen is generally indicative of GPU failure. You can try doing a clean install to verify whether or not it is a software issue... though most of the evidence suggests that it isn't. Might be memory as well based on your experience with the diagnostics; you can try re-seating it or running with one stick, etc. In the advent of GPU failure, you might be eligible for an extra year of warranty on the GPU, but I don't actually know if the M1210 qualifies or to where you should turn for that.

 

Don't forget to extend warranty on m1730.