Dell quotes me £300+ for replacement grahics card

I have a inspiron 9400 with a 7800 go. Right now i cant do nothing with the laptop because the image always distorts whether i am in bios , safe mode or running the diagnostic. I reformatted the drive and during the installing of xp , it messed up again.

After connecting it to an external monitor and seeing the same effect, i called dell. They told me to get a replacement graphics card, the quote was £300+!. Now this seems over priced to me for a graphics card that is over a year old now. The guy on the phone didn't sound like he know what he was talking about, i asked for the model of the replacement card and he said "ati 9400" and and when i said i'd never heard of that card before he changed and said it would be the same card. Obviously, i didn't go ahead with it.

So now i dont have a clue what to do now, surely it doesn't cost £300 to replace a 1 year + graphics card? and i dont even know if this is gonna fix my original problem!

 

If your notebook is under warranty, that should be getting replaced for free...

Check eBay for pulled parts...often cheaper too.

 

Thats plain and simply too much money. Dell and many other companies in the UK will make up similar fugures, because alot of people will simply pay the money for a repair. Take night_2004's advice, and look online for some replacements. The Go 7900 GS should be compatible with your notebook, and its a cooler and better performing card. Good luck.

 

Yeh, my warranty expired about 3 months ago. I was gonna phone them back and probably try and get a lower quote but i think i'm gonna take your advise.
I proabably would have actually have paid that amount for the repair.
Thanks night_2004, zero.

I definitely will not be buying from dell again!

 

You cannot blame Dell for trying to charge you $$$ to fix an out of warranty laptop...

 

hehe, i suppose i cant but i dont like that they over price the repairs.

Anyways, i found this on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Nvidia-Go-7900-GS-Dell-9400-E1705-M1710-7900GS_W0QQitemZ280123194799QQihZ018QQcategoryZ31569QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Think thats good deal compared with the alternative. It should be as simple as fitting it in right?

 

hehe but then i thought about it, most other companies would probably charge the same for the repair. Probably should have bought the extended warranted in the first place.

 

Eh, crap happens and quite frankly notebooks usually do have problems either in their first year and at the end of life. They are rarely trouble outside of those two time periods in my experience.

But yeah, 300 is a little much if you ask me...but at least not as much as getting a new laptop.

As for that part, you might have to deal with a heatsink or two, but it shouldn't be that hard. Dell has some REALLY detailed guides on how to repair their notebooks that are publicly available.

 

Thats a pretty good deal. The fitting should be very easy, so long as you are confident about fitting it yourself, and you have the expertise to fit it. Even if your not entirely sure, there are many guides on the Internet on fitting new graphics cards into the E1705/9400. Some are very good, and very detailed. Have a look at them for some more information.

 

Well, next time you get a Dell get a 3 year to 4 year warranty, because laptops break a lot. My first Sony VAIO went bad motherboard after 1 year and I lost it total ($1300 MB fix).

My E1705 has 4 year and I used the warranty twice (DVD replacement for accident, now my screen display is shot - maybe bad screen or video card). It's 1 year 5 months old.

 

cool, i think i'm gonna buy it. I really do hope this fixes the problem.
I'll reply with the good news soon hopefully.
Really apprecaite the help guys.

 

Yes, don't be scared of buying off eBay but if your laptop is still under Warantee then they should replace it for free (unless you've opened it up in which case your screwed and you'll have to buy a new one).

Oooo one more post to go until your a Ntebook Ethusiast - one small step for man one heck of a tiny step for mankind. lol.

 

Yes i think i will, i didn't get the extended warranty becuase i take good care of my stuff. So i thought i could get away with spending another £200 or whatever it was.

What irritates me is that it just happened overnight, it didn't fall , i didn't bump it , it didn't overheat. I check the temperature and keep and i keep it under 70.

hehe, but i'm kinda looking at this as a upgrade now if this works.

 

i just got the card , i installed it but i am getting green boxes and vertical lines, i done diagnostic test and it says the video controller is incompatible?

i thought this card was compatible, do i need a bios update?, i have version AO8
at the moment.