Is my laptop (or display) dying? (Dell XPS m1210 + nvlddmkm + GeForce Go 7400)

Suddenly I've been getting the dreaded nvlddmkm issue.

After researching into this and trying a few things out, I've begun noticing/trying:

At bootup/startup there's artifacts/weird colours on the screen already before it gets into windows
Some artifacts on my mouse cursor/weird squares
Temperature monitoring I BSODed with my laptop at 45 degrees C (with a laptop cooler) (with the same nvlddmkm error)
Tried several drivers
Games will work but will either it'll work for a while and then eventually either bluescreen, or screen goes blank and comes up with "nvlddmkm has stopped responding and recovered" or will artifact/glitch up

This all just suddenly happpened, I have made absolutely no changes to my laptop beforehand, didn't install anything, no hardware changes, nothing.

 

If it's artifacting before windows, it's probably your GeForce 7400 dying.

 

Thanks, that is what I thought. I was typing up a reply 10 mins ago and my laptop BSODed and crashed again on boot up, with funny blue lines everywhere.

When it first happened the driver/card got disabled. Do you think this laptop can still be usable if I disable the driver? It was usable before and although everything looked a bit fuzzy it still worked.

I've heard/am aware the card is soldered on the motherboard, but am not sure what will happen if it completely dies. I believe all motherboards have a basic display mechanism/driver/feature on there in the event of a complete graphics card failure?

 

If the card completely dies, your laptop will not turn on, or there will be nothing displayed on the screen.

If you uninstall the display driver, there will probably be less strain put on the card, but it can still fail.

Unfortunately, there is no 'basic display mechanism', but you should be able to remove your hard drive and access your data from another computer via a USB to SATA enclosure.

 

Ah thank you for your advice.

I'm gonna start backing up now then while it still seems "ok"

 

maybe you could do something like this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=397667

 

lol wow! No I will never be able to do that, I've got very limited room where I am at the moment and cannot afford to have so many things lying aorund.

 

can you update the Vbios?

 

Dell's BIOS updates sometimes update the video bios as well. http://support.dell.com

If your computer freezes during that, it might be toast.

 

i have a 4 year old PackardBell laptop lying at home with the same issue. Its GF6200 is gone, but it still works. Artifacts like hell whilst cold, but gets usable when heats up. It's the same bad solder issue that killed so many 8 series nvidias, and not much can be done about it

 

I'm about to say something stupid, here it is:

If your GPU does die and you're just going to throw the notebook out, maybe you should first try using a hair dryer to heat up the GPU.
That could melt the solder and fix the bad connections?

I haven't ever tried that and I know it's a really bad idea.
Also the fumes could be toxic.

 

Hmm it's been 1 hour or 2 now (I forget) and I have disabled the driver. I haven't noticed one single artifact/glitch yet and the laptop is happily churning away. (I'm performing backups) (even in reboots there's no artifacts)

It's now in the basic 1024x768 instead of the native 1200x800 resolution and everything looks a tad more blurry than usual, however it's useable and just as fast.

I -might- take your suggestion moral, but however this laptop still has 2 years warranty/gaurantee/or whatever dell's 4 year plan was (next business day)

What I intend to do is to replace it very soon and then try to call Dell to fix it. What I don't like about Dell is the huge amount of hoops and basic questions I have to go through with them in order to get someone past their 1st line defences.

This is a good time/chance to do so as I've been looking to replace this laptop for a while now.

 

wow you have warrenty, don't take my suggestion (it's unlikely to work and it will void the warrenty).

Get dell to fix/replace it.

 

Your suggestion is perfectly reasonable in my opinion. I understand exactly what you are wanting me to do to attempt a fix. I'm aware of the dangers as well so no problem

 

Hi.
My notebook is DELL XPS M1210 and videocard is GeForce Go 7400. (Windows 7)

These are tree screenshot for error.

1)nvlddmkm.sys
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/1852/grnt004jb.jpg

2)blue vertical lines
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5894/grnt003w.jpg

3)and zeros..
http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/1643/grnt005cl.jpg

I did something about pres to f12 and tried to repair RAM/Video Card. But didn`t work.

What`s the problem?

Thanks.

 

For the first image it may be an issue with the hard drive. Clearly image 2 is related to either the GPU or the graphics drivers (you may try to reinstall them). I have no idea on the 3rd image.

 

Image 2 is the BIOS Splash screen where there are no drivers. In the case where it is an integrated GPU, it could be a RAM issue, but here it is probably the GPU itself.

 

I tried reinstall all driver. But didn't work.

 

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2026/grnt002jz.jpg

Pre-boot system assesment complete. No diagnostic utility partition identified.

 

If it passed the memory tests, your video card is probably gone.

 

don't replace the computer and then call Dell. Dell likely won't fix your computer rather they will give you a new unit. I know tons of people who buy the dell warranty and after 3 years the machine dies and Dell just gives them a new one.

and just saying it's the "nvidia issue" should tip any half decent tec at Dell off.

seriously call Dell, Dell often gives out new units when they are this old.

Edit: all 3 of those screen shots could indicate a failing GPU.

 

Warranty has expired. Bought in 2007 in USA but I am in Turkey now. Dell still changes to this bug?