Screen goes black, and full of dots??

I have an inspiron e1705 notebook that was running perfectly fine, then randomly the sceen went black and I couldn't use any keys to change it, so i rebooted it, and even before the windows loading screen started, there were white dots all over the screen. When windows loading screen started, i saw dots and the image was somewhat distorted, and the pixels were strange. Before I even saw my desktop though, the screen went black again.

I turned it off for 5 minutes, same thing. i started it in safemode, and it was the same as well. the screen was full of dots, and safemode was acting funny, for example, every 10 secs, the message box would ask me if "I'd like to use system restore" or something similar, and all my windows would close. My desktop icons would appear and dissappear.

What do you think is happening, any fixes? I suspect its a vid driver issue.

I can take pictures of the screen if it is neccessary.

 

Since the screen artifacts are appearing even before Windows has loaded, it is not a video driver issue. The screen itself is defective, and probably needs to be replaced, although such regular patterns suggest that perhaps a connector somewhere is loose.

 

If thats the case how would I switch to an external monitor? The laptop is 2 years old and the screen has never had this problem.

 

Plug the laptop into an external, if it's the LCD that's failing, the external should show fine.

 

Right. I should note that it may not be the screen itself that is failing -- it may be somewhere else in the internals. But it's definitely a hardware, not software issue.

 

when i plug in my external it still shows up on my laptop screen, how do i change it?

 

Found out its Fn + F8

I tried it on another external and it shows the exact same thing, what else could it possibly be? Everything is exactally the same, green dots, etc on the external.

 

return it back to dell...no one here would probably give u exact info on ur issue. one def. thing is that it's hardware.

 

i'll just take it to best buy for repair, does anyone know the average costs? Also are they known to go through looking for passwords and other sensitive files?

 

oh buddy..dont take it to BB
its going to cost and arm + leg
basically, your video card is bad since you get the sameartifacts on external display..the vcard is soldered onto your motherboard, meaning your mainboard will need to be replaced, that'll run ya $400ish..not worth it =/

 

"My god, it's full of stars"

 

man what a waste of 2k+, how long has it been, 2 years only? Why would dell make this garbage?

Anways does my warranty cover this problem? WHat should i tell them?

Warranty/date start/date end/days left
Complete Care DELL 6/23/2006 6/22/2008 274
Dell On Call DELL 6/23/2006 8/2/2006 0
Dell On Call DELL 8/2/2006 8/2/2007 0
Limited Technical Support DELL 6/23/2007 6/22/2008 274
Out of Warranty DELL 6/23/2006 6/23/2007 0
Next Business Day BSC 6/23/2007 6/22/2008 274
Technical Support - Phone Assistance DELL 6/23/2006 6/23/2007 0
Technical Support - Phone Assistance DELL 6/23/2007 6/22/2008 274

 

You have complete care, then you are definitely covered.

as for what to say... I'm not so sure