replacing graphics card/system

Recently, on my xps 502x, I've started to have issues during my gaming sessions. At first, I thought it was an issue with the game as the game I spend 99% of my time on is still "beta" but I've tested other games, and I have the same issues. There are three things that can happen:

1. the game will suddenly crash, everything turns black for a second, and then everything comes back. I then recieve an alert saying my nvidia driver crashed and it has recovered. In which case, I end process the game, and restart it in steam.

2. the game will become unresponsive and freeze. I can choose to end task or end process it and it will apear to have closed, but no matter what I do, it is still there in the processes tab in task manager. I have tried going to cmd, and trying taskkill /im /f but even that does not work. So the only solution is to restart the computer. Weirdly enough, after the windows is logging off... is shutting down, the screen turns black, but does not actually shut down. It appears the discrete card is still engaged as the fan and the heat level remain. The only way to get out of this state, is to hold the power button till it shuts down.

3. the game freezes, and I can hear screachy buzing noises(?). The same thing happened to my previous laptop that died due to its graphics card dieing. In this state, I can not move my mouse or alt tab (in contrast to event 2), and the only option is to hold the power button to restart.

I have just recently spent alot of time with the dell people to replace my hard drive and battery and am not looking forward to doing it again. I even, in a last futile attempt to solve it myself, to purchase a notebook cooler. The cooler is nice and lowers a few degrees so its 70ish C as opposed to 80ish, but it does not stop the problem so I do not think its an over heating issue. I have also ran the game on a friend's xps 502x and it seems to play well.

This was a huge wall of text, but basically I'm asking how likely is it I can get a gpu or system replacement, and more importantly, how can I get something done without too much hassle.

Thanks.

 

Unfortunately the XPS line has a soldered GPU (like 90% of all notebooks out today). You would need to change out the motherboard. Have you considered repasting your GPU, sometimes Dell or other manufacturers will use crappy thermal pads instead of proper thermal paste causing your GPU to run hot.

 

lol yeah I knew that, but titling mobo replacement would have been vague. Basically I know theres a hardware problem, and its within my warranty period which should mean I should get it fixed free of charge. I would like to get through this as hassleless as possible. As my previous encounter with tech support was such a headache, I am sure that trying to explain that my discrete graphics card is failing is going to be near impossible, so I was hoping someone would have some advice on how to cut through as much BS as possible and get this over with so I can get back to gaming.

 

I find it best to chat with Dell vs calling them up.

They might point you to drivers (which is a software issue) and won't be covered by warranty. The temperatures seem within safety range for the GPU. Have you tried updating drivers? Have you tried reinstalling Windows?

 

Yeah, I doubt its a heating issue especially I bought a cooling pad.
I mentioned I had to get a new HDD from them, so that meant I had to install a fresh copy of windows ( I'm actually pretty sure the reason why the hdd broke in the first place, was due to the constant hard resets due to the freezing).

Driver wise, I've tried dell drivers, official nvidia drivers, and various drivers from laptopvideo2go, so I'm fairly confident its not a driver issue.

 

I had similar problems with my L502x. World of Warcraft... Dragon Age... Mass Effect 2... Witcher... all would crash regularly on me. Most frequently it would be the freeze w/ annoying buzzing sound coming out of the speakers.

Trying to convince the Dell technical service reps that it was a hardware issue and not a driver problem was... difficult. Finally I lucked out (sort of) because they were walking me through deletion and re-installation of the drivers (yet again) and I accidentally deleted the entry for the display adapter.

When I rebooted, we thought it wasn't auto-detecting (actually it was auto-detecting, but it was putting the entry down under "other" instead of "display adapters).

But that finally convinced them to send a replacement motherboard. Tech came out and replaced it with a new (not refurbished) motherboard.

I game as much as I always did, with the same setup that I always did, and the same drivers that I always did, and it hasn't crashed... not once... since the motherboard replacement. This was approx 3 months ago that it was replaced.

One thing you might check, that will help you make your argument, is to try playing your games with the laptop unplugged from the adapter and see if it crashes. If you're having a driver fault, it should be there regardless of whether the laptop is plugged in or not. But if the crashes are only happening while plugged in, as mine were, then it could point to some kind of problem with Optimus kicking in (ie: maybe something's shorting out).

 

It's a problem with the GT 540M, even if you get another system you will get problems later. A lot of people on the nvidia forums are saying they're having problems with gt 540M. I'm having the same problem too, I'm downclocking the gpu at 600 mhz and games won't crash then, they run fine for long hours. I should've got the GT525M

 

Experiencing 540M problems with Skyrim - NVIDIA Forums

Yeah that seems to be exactly like my issue.

I got this laptop when it was first released, around april '11 and it was fine all the way till october. I'll try to get them to give me a new mobo, but if its like zjacobss says and its an innate problem with the gpu itself, then I'm kinda scared whats going to happen when, half a year later, when my warentty runs out....

 

haha wow...

 

Yep, that's what we see from Canada. Dell does not provide Chat support or E-mail support for Canadian XPS customers. Phone support only.

 

Its kinda weird, if this is an inevitable problem with the 540M, there hasn't been many posts here about it...