The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Dead laptop :(

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by quarryman, Oct 23, 2009.

  1. quarryman

    quarryman Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Playing a game on the laptop last night the image on the screen became corrupted and pixelated. Assuming it was the game I exited only to find the desktop the same way. I went for a system restore and all seemed fine for a minute before it happened again.

    Then it started happening during POST so its definately hardware. Now it refuses to boot at all.

    The laptop is a Dell Vostro 1310.

    Should i try replacing the mainboard or graphics card?

    Do Dell supply parts as i think its out of warranty.
     
    quarryman, Oct 23, 2009
    #1
  2. PopRoxMimo3

    PopRoxMimo3 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    82
    Messages:
    1,090
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    try a clean install first. works for me ;)
     
    PopRoxMimo3, Oct 23, 2009
    #2
  3. quarryman

    quarryman Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Thanks I'll give it a shot.

    Did you have the same symptoms? The fact that it is happening during BIOS makes me think its hardware though...
     
    quarryman, Oct 23, 2009
    #3
  4. notebooker-hp

    notebooker-hp Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    190
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    you can cook your gpu it is dead.

    if you can reach bios check if it reads your hdd and cpu.then you can change the boot order and install a clean oparating system
     
    notebooker-hp, Oct 23, 2009
    #4
  5. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,779
    Messages:
    7,957
    Likes Received:
    87
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Yeah it sounds like the GPU is dead.

    You can "cook" it back to life, some people call it the "oven trick".

    If the GPU is soldered to the motherboard, forget about using an oven.
    You should buy a heat gun (cheap buy at a hardware store). Make sure it has a 300C setting. then heat up your GPU for a few mins.

    You can watch youtube videos to show you how to do it.

    Look up "BGA reballing" or "BGA reworking".
     
    moral hazard, Oct 23, 2009
    #5