m1330 intermittent problem: vertical fine color lines that grow brighter until screen is white

I'm going out of the country tomorrow, so this is scary. At random intervals the screen starts getting blotchy blocks of color, and the m1330 freezes. If I power cycle it, it doesn't boot at all, not even the BIOS text screen appears, but there are bright vertical multicolored lines developing slowly about 1" from the left edge, getting brighter until they fill the screen and then the whole screen becomes white.

No, I am not on LSD or anything.

I would ask for a service visit except I can't reliably reproduce it. I went on the Dell chat line, and he/she reasonably asked me to connect an external monitor to it. By the time I did it, the problem went away (I had turned the computer off so maybe it has to do with heat). Then the blotchy colors came back again after I'd gotten off the chat line, and it was on both screens. Of course, after I power cycled it, I could not go to the external screen to see the vertical lines. But I think it's the video card. I have the Dell-sanctioned drivers.

It keeps happening every few hours, and it revives after a rest. I am sure it won't happen if the serviceperson arrives, and in any case I have to leave at 3pm on Monday to catch a plane.

All suggestions welcome. I am afraid that the problem will go from intermittent to severe as soon as I get on the plane.

 

Sounds similar to my problem in some ways. I'm also experiencing vertical lines (approximately 150 pixels wide) in which they are colored and eventually go all white. This is on an E1705.

I don't have the boot problems though, but it randomly comes and goes.

 

I saw a video of what you described on youtube, not sure if that is your video but i believe the video card is definitely the source of the trouble, send it in for repair...thats the best solution i can give you.

 

Could you link to that video? I'm curious to see if it's the same as what I/we describe.

 

I've had the exact same problems for about 3 weeks now and its absolutely driving me crazy...havent had time to call dell since I've had finals. The screen will turn blotchy and then just shut off. When starting back up I see vertical color bars on the right side and no dell screen (although sometimes ill see the dell screen just fine) it then will either crash without changing from the vertical colors (they just turn white and then fade to black) or continue to the startup screen where it may crash again or may start up normally.

All of these problems began after a windows update was installed automatically so I am relaly inclined to believe that it is a driver problem even though the colors starts up before the dell splash screen does. Also one of the times it crashed it regained itself and displayed that a .dll had stopped working (nvldd or something) If anyone has had any luck fixing this problem any help would be great...otherwise ill be calling dell in a few days.

Heres a link of someones else computer having the exact same problem as mine.
http://www.vistaforums.com/Forum/Topic12123-9-1.aspx

 

Looks like image#4, except only for a tiny portion of the screen. Guess that this is either early stage or something else altogether.

 

Yep, it's the fourth image shown in the link given in post#5. But the lines get brighter until the screen is white.

It can't be a Windows driver problem if it starts even before the bios screen is displayed. Just not possible.

I called the xps helpline Sunday and they had me press Fn-Power. Apparently this starts a low-level self test. The screen passed this test fine (showed various colors as intended by the self-test) so it is not the screen, it is the video card (nVidia).

They offered to replace the motherboard (apparently the video system is soldered to the motherboard) but I am catching a plane today (Monday) and they can't get the part out before Tuesday. So I am leaving on my trip with a funky m1330. I have found that if I keep it switched off when not in use (not sleeping but fully off) it usually works OK for a while. Since it may be heat-related, I am also keeping it propped up to allow more air to circulate underneath.

In the link given in post#5, one of the posters suggested cleaning the fan(s). I'll try that.

 

Got the same problem, had the computer delieverd to me at 20.00 CET, worked great right out of the box. Installed several programs and reboted several times, at 22.15 I shut the lid (while it's still turned on) and when I open it I see that ther's black borders at the right and lower parts of the screen. I access the screens controlpanel but computer freezes, not reacting to anything. I hit the powerbutton and reebots the computer. When it's booting up I get stripes all over (no graphics what so ever can be seen) but those colourful stripes, computer is booting just fine and I can see how the stripes change colour to resemble what should have been displayed.

Been in a 45min phonecal with a bloody nice American now and within 3-5 workdays I should have a guy here replacing both the screen (w-led) and the motherboard, hopefull the 8400GS gets replaced at the same time so we can eliminate all possible sources.

Note, I have been extremly gentle with the computer and there have been no bumps what so ever. Also, when the stripes first apeared it was standing flat on a table.

As much as I love the support I've goten from Dell so far (which actually was the main reason for me picking them) I must say that I am so bloody frustrated that the computer I've been longing for stops functioning in less than three hours.

Dang, I thought my biggest problem was that I had a hard time geting a good fingerprint scan....