Help with graphics card problem - Inspiron 1520 8600m gt

My brother has a two and a half year old 1520 with the 8600m gt.

Yesterday it crashed in a game and the screen froze. Since then it shows a white or grey screen with bars in random places whenever it's turned on.

It still will run an external monitor, but there are noticeable artifacts, and no nvidia drivers seem to work--it only wants to use the Windows 7 default driver.

I pulled the gpu out and checked the board and all the connections, but couldn't see anything wrong. I'm still inclined to think that the card is just fried, especially since this is part of the series that NVidia admitted were prone to this.


Has anyone else had this exact problem? Or do you know for sure it's the gpu? I've seen replacements for 70-90 on Ebay. Also, if I'm replacing the graphics card, can I replace it with a Vostro 1500 card, or does it need to be for the Inspiron 1520?

Thanks in advance!

 

I'd bet that it's just the card as well, given the circumstances. You should be able to replace it with the Vostro 1500 card (as the 1500 and the 1520 are pretty much the same thing), but if you want to be 100% safe, stick with s 1520 card.

 

Contact Dell tech support and tell them what happened. If I remember correctly, there was an issue with the 8600m series and Dell has to replace them if there is a problem. Do a search on it and you should see some info about it.