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    Precision M4600 - Sudden loss of video + electrical noise (internal)

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by cam94z28, Dec 10, 2015.

  1. cam94z28

    cam94z28 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I recently purchased a Dell Precision M4600 from the Dell refurbished site. It was an amazing deal for a core i7-2720qm + FirePro M5950. It has been flawless, and has been blisteringly fast for about 6 months now. I was using it tonight, just to browse the web, and suddenly the video went wonky. The screen froze, and became a faded/hazy version of the screen at the time of the freeze... eventually going black. I have had this same kind of "frozen screen" happen when a desktop video card was overheating or failing. The only difference being that windows, aside from having no video, was still functioning. It even went into and came out of sleep mode with a blank screen. I checked GPU temps with CPUid HWmonitor while the laptop was working, and it wasn't overheating.

    After power cycling, the next few times it actually booted to windows, and I was able to use it anywhere from a few minutes, to a few seconds. Eventually it would hang again. At first I was thinking "driver issue", but then the screen froze @ the BIOS.

    I tried everything from removing/reinserting every accessory accessible by removing the back cover (2 screws), to removing the hard drive, memory sticks one at a time, etc...with no difference. At this point, the screen almost always stays black, yet windows will boot normally in the background.

    The other weird thing is that, even with secondary hard drive removed (primary is mSATA), and fans not running, I can hear an electrical/static noise coming from inside the laptop. sometimes a louder squeal, other times just a slight background noise or hiss. I wonder if this could be the video adapter shorting out?

    So, with my long story told, does this seem like an issue with the video adapter? I have not tried plugging a monitor into the laptop yet. I guess that will tell me for sure.

    Would the Quadro 1000 series be a drop-in part? Will the BIOS see it, and enable the "optimus" options, or is an update required? Is the fan assembly the same? How about the AMD M4000, which seems to be more reasonably priced?
     
    cam94z28, Dec 10, 2015
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  2. trungthiendo

    trungthiendo Notebook Enthusiast

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    as far as i know the quadro 1000m and 2000m will be drop in replacement, but you will need a different cooler for those cards.
     
    trungthiendo, Dec 28, 2015
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