m1330 8400M GS - step by step diagnose guide

I contacted the Dell support team to see whether my m1330 is affected by the bad batch of Nvidia Graphic card and I got this respond

Hope this would be useful

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On your concern about the Nvidia Graphics, I should say that your system is not affected by it, however I am a Hardware expert with the XPS Team and would recommend to diagnose the Hardware to identify any problems.

To extensively diagnose the 'Hardware', your active participation is requested. Please follow all these steps mentioned below as they are inter related:

1. Disconnect all the devices which are connected to the system, like:internet cable,usb key,etc.

2. Power off the laptop. Disconnect the power cable from the laptop.

3. Close the system, turn it upside down, slide the battery latch and remove the battery.

4. Keep the battery out and put the system back in front of you.

5. Open the system, do not connect the power cable, press the power for 5-10 sec. to release any static charge.

6. Connect the battery and power cable back to the system.

7. Ensure that the system is powered off. Press the [Fn] key on the keyboard,holding it down, press the power button for 3-5 sec. and then release both of them together.

8. Now,the PSA diagnostics will run on the system.This diagnostic will check for any hardware failures.

9. You will soon see "COLOR BARS" on the screen and a prompt will come on the screen for your response. Please press the letter [Y] on the keyboard to continue running the test.

10. Now it will check the memory and will prompt "No problems have been found with the system so far do you want to run the remaining memory test'. Since we are suspecting the memory, so please press the letter [Y] on the keyboard to continue running the memory test.

11. After successful completion of the memory test, It will say 'Press any key to boot to utility partition'.
Please do the needful and it will load the utility partition.

12. In this window you will get three options:
1. Test Memory.
2. Test System.
3. Exit.
Please use the tab key and highlight the option 'Test System' and then press enter. This will further open the various types of tests available.

13. Please use the touchpad and click on 'Custom Test'.

14. The 'Custom Test' window is divided in two halves. In this window, On the left hand side pane, at the bottom you will find 'HARD DRIVE' written. Please double click on the hard drive. This will initiate an extended test on the hard drive and will extensively test it.

15. After the test on the hard drive is complete, please click on "VIDEO" written in the same Custom Test window.

The above tests will extensively check all the hardware components of the laptop for any failures. If you get any errors during the tests, Please note them and reply to us. I assure you that we will take care of any hardware failures for you.

Incase all the tests pass without any errors then the hardware is working fine as designed.

Please reply with the results at your earliest convenience.

 

Most of the GPU failures seem to have occured after about 6-12 months of use so I doubt whether the above test will definitively answer the question of whether you have a defective GPU (since it might fail sometime in the near future but be working OK now). Some say that all the GPUs of the 8000 series are defective and will all fail sooner or later. However a Dell rep told me that they had addressed this issue in laptops shipped after August 2008. I think only time will tell if the issue is actually "solved".

Anyone had a GPU fail on an M1330 bought after august 2008?

The worrying thing is that "solved" to Dell probably means that they can delay the GPU failure time to after the warranty has expired!

It seems to be really difficult to obtain accurate information about this issue...nobody knows if NVIDIA actually changed their manufacturing process after the problem was identified. The heat sink design on the M1330 certainly does seem to have changed recently (I saw your photos in an earlier thread).

If anyone from Dell reads this forum, I am sure that there are lots of valuable customers out there that would love some definitive answers on the situation....Is it safe to buy an M1330 now and not have to worry about the GPU frying in 12 months time...if so please tell us exactly whay Dell did to resolve this issue (new chip version? heat sink design? Bios modifications?)

 

This is very good info. But I think this is more useful in discarding any other problems besides the GPU one. Well, that is of course based on my experience. I performed all these tests, as directed by Dell, and everything turned out well. A couple of days later, I got the vertical lines though.

 

USELESS

When my M1330 graphic card was failing, it still passed the diagnosis.

 

not that useful after all....

I was thinking about doing this test later this weekend

 

mine too. That procedure is what Dell techs asked me to do while is was throwing the strange GPU colors up on the screen on bootup. The diagnostics said nothing was wrong. A few days later, permanent failure.

 

The 'Hardware diagnosis' wont help you to find down if the GPU failing. As you guys know, the problem with the 8400 GPU is the overheat issue. Because of the heat, some metal parts inside the GPU will melt. This melting process is very slow, usually 6 - 12 months. That will cause the electronic connection worse until the GPU corrupt. I have Dell technician replace the mobo and the heating issue is gone. The temperature is very slow compare before. Hope u guys have changes to replace mobo before out of warranty

 

It's not just the extreme temperatures at the cause; it's the fluctuation of temperatures as well. I think you're very brave to assume that just because the mobo was replaced, that the heating issue is gone. The updated bios supposedly was done to regulate the fluctuation of temperatures, but it doesn't guarantee that the gpu won't fail again. Until a complete redesign is done on the motherboard and GPU chip, which won't happen until the next gen of xps notebooks, the GPU issue is still an issue and will continue to be so no matter how much fiddling about Dell does to the bios.

 

As far as I know, the problem isn't with the Dell design but that all mobile GF 8000's we're faulty direct from manufacturing. If these are indeed fixed after August 2008 or whenever, then there's nothing saying that those versions wil ldefinately fail. Time will have to tell.

 

Well, it might not have been the major cause for failure, but the M1330's design is so constricted and the lack of its ability to purge heat only accelerates the GPU's problem whether this failure rate is due to high temperatures or varying temperatures.

My question is who has been stating that these motherboards have been fixed? Dell? Frankly after my problems with the M1330, I wouldn't trust Dell to sit the right way on a toilet seat when it comes to credibility. If these motherboards are taking up to 6 months and longer to die, which a lot of them are, we won't have the statistical failure rate, based on your Aug 2008 number, until Feb 2008 and later to know if these new motherboards with the Nvidia GPU are any better than the original, so as far as I'm concerned if Dell's word is based on how they originally chose to deal with this issue which was to deny that a problem even existed, you'll forgive me as a veteran of ownership with one of these M1330's that Dell saying the motherboard problems have been fixed doesn't exactly hold a lot of weight in my eyes.

 

Hi EDUP, As to your remark in regard to DELL "SOLVED" the GPU issues. I believe that DELL has solved this issue as they have stated. They attempted with some success, many BIOS updates (A13 was "pulled"), reverted back to A12, now A14 is current. These BIOS updates seemed to have lowered many settings which help to contribute to the over-heating. In turn it also seem to have taken the Ooomph out of the CPU (wonder in regard to the legality of this manipulation of down-grade of performance, as the purchaser had the assumption that it had this Ooomph at the time of Sale).
I agree with your idea of the Warranty expiring, but then Dell did say they have "SOLVED" this GPU problem (Expired Warranty=No more problems for DELL=Issues solved).
DELL did solved THEIR GPU issues, but they did not necessarily solved OUR GPU issues.

 

Hi,

Not sure what you mean by "Ooomph"....are you saying that the new Bios results in lowering the clock speed of the processor?...or "under volting" it ?

It should be eassy to check with a program like CPU-Z. Have you noticed any differences with the new Bios?

 

I'm pleased (for all of us 1330 owners) to say that this statement is wrong. I always run a battery of tests after a mobo, BIOS, GPU or chipset Driver updates and I have A14 loaded and the CPU tests are on par with with A05 & A09.

No better, no worse. Well actually, A09 seemed to throttle my cores sooner than later, but A14 is as stable as my original A05 was

What may be a more correct statement is that the battery-charge life may have been shortened due to the fan being on more often... .

 

I bought my m1330 last december, and i didnt know about the gpu problem until today!!! About 2 weeks ago i noticed a major performance drop in all my games, battlefield 2142, oblivion...

i updated drivers, but nothing helped, so today i researched and found that the m1330 8400 has overheating problems?!?!? ahhhhh I have a 3 year wawrrenty, but still, i dont like having my laptop opened.

i decided to check my temps and my gpu idles at 75C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
processors are at 62C

is my gpu about to die soon??