My Inspiron 1420 may have a frying gpu...

so recently my faithful laptop has started acting funny. the graphics starts messing up. i get artifacting and all kinds of mess. i sometimes also get a horizontal split image thingy going on as well. Eventually it will stop running and lock up.

now it won't even load windows anymore and i just get a black screen that never changes. if i leave it alone for a few hours and try it again it may go into windows but the trouble starts over again soon. i also sometimes get BSoD's but it doesn't stay up long enough for me to get a stop code or any other info.

when the trouble was starting i installed speed fan and found that my gpu was idling at 65 degrees C. is this temperature high enough to cause damage? and if based on my current situation (the computer no longer even running windows and sometimes getting that horizontal mess at POST and BIO's boot up) is my computer salvageable? well it cost money to salvage it? i got this computer like 4 years ago... would dell help me out with something?

Thanks for any comments for suggestions!

 

First I would try plugging into an external monitor and seeing if that helps. Since it BSoD or does nothing at all ... it might be the video card.

Dell extended the warranty on the 1420 to two years from original purchase date (if you had the standard warranty).

The 8400m gs in those laptops have a habit of going bad. I would call Dell and see what can be done.

 

65C generally isn't a temp where things go toast, but it's a really high idle temp. Your graphics board is probably toast though.

 

thanks for the replies. ill try the external monitor thing and see what happens. ill also give dell a call and see what can be done.