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Inspiron 8500: Garbled video, no start up.
Hi,
This all started two nights ago I was working in Afer Effects and the system was running pretty hot, a few minutes after I had finished rendering a bunch of green blinking squares appeared on the screen then it went black. I restarted the system and it seemingly worked fine.
Now when I try to start it up I can hear the initial start up sounds, like the cd rom detecting and whatever, but the screen will either show a band of color, and the rest will burn out to white and then disintigrate to black, or I'll get a field of randomly flickering green squares. The only time I have gotten it to start up was when I pulled out all the ram and put in an old stick of 256 meg, but since then that has stopped working as well. I have also reseated the hard drive and swapped it with another drive.
It sounds like something is burnt out, be it the motherboard, cpu or gpu, Is there a way to find out which it is? I'm confused because if one of the processors or something is burnt out how come I was able to start it up that one time, and not any of the others.
Its a p4 2.4 ghz, with 1.25 gigs of ram and a 64 meg geforce4 4200 go card if that helps any.
Thank you for any input.
This all started two nights ago I was working in Afer Effects and the system was running pretty hot, a few minutes after I had finished rendering a bunch of green blinking squares appeared on the screen then it went black. I restarted the system and it seemingly worked fine.
Now when I try to start it up I can hear the initial start up sounds, like the cd rom detecting and whatever, but the screen will either show a band of color, and the rest will burn out to white and then disintigrate to black, or I'll get a field of randomly flickering green squares. The only time I have gotten it to start up was when I pulled out all the ram and put in an old stick of 256 meg, but since then that has stopped working as well. I have also reseated the hard drive and swapped it with another drive.
It sounds like something is burnt out, be it the motherboard, cpu or gpu, Is there a way to find out which it is? I'm confused because if one of the processors or something is burnt out how come I was able to start it up that one time, and not any of the others.
Its a p4 2.4 ghz, with 1.25 gigs of ram and a 64 meg geforce4 4200 go card if that helps any.
Thank you for any input.
- Well I figured out the problem, its the video card becoming unseated for some reason. I take it out and reconnect it and it will work for a while, then if the green sqaures come back sometimes I can get it to go away by applying pressure to the "gvb" area of the keyboard. Any tips on getting the card to stay in its spot? this is getting kinda frustrating..
claudionieder
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Posted February 18th, 2006 19:00
Hi,
I landed here, because my computer shows the same symptoms, and I have to wait until Monday before I can call Dell support.
Your method of fixing it by pressing gvb keys works!
Did you get from Dell support any hints on how to permanently cure the problem?
claudio
Inspiron 8500 bought in 2003 with WUXGA display which was changed about two years ago.claudionieder
7 Posts
384
0
Posted February 21st, 2006 14:00
Hi,
up to now, they just managed to make me unhappy.
I talked yesterday with them. From the diagnostics they made me do, they are unsure, wether it is the video card, the motherboard, or even the hard disk, which they found defective too.
Because it's a complicated problem, instead of fixing it here - I bought the i8500 with the more expensive "next-day at workplace" warranty - they need to pick up the laptop and fix it in their premises. This should be done by DHL, and they told me someone would come here today between 9 - 17, but they cannot tell me more exactly when.
So I stayed here all day waiting for someone... for nothing. I phoned now, and they now tell me, that this has to go to England (I'm in Switzerland) and that it takes
two days for the packaging to be sent from there to here, then when I have prepared the computer I call again DHL to pick it up.
Great:-( So it will take about a week until I know more, or at least have a fixed computer.
Did you get more luck? Any improvements on your side?
claudioMessage Edited by claudionieder on 02-21-2006 10:39 AM
claudionieder
7 Posts
384
0
Posted March 7th, 2006 09:00
Hi,
They are still in the business of making me unhappy, yet it seems now the reason for the failure is known.
My notebook was picked up February 22nd and it should have been fixed within 4-5 days. Yet it has not arrived, so I called Dell to know what is happening. They told me, that they need to replace the graphic board but have none available and have to wait for a shipment from USA. So from this I conclude that the graphic card is broken.
They also told me they received the laptop only on march 2nd which I find strange as DHL picked it up on February 22nd and according to DHL tracking delivered it in the morning of February 23rd, a whole week earlier than what Dell support tells me.
Strange strange.
Today or tomorrow I should get information about how much more time it will take for the graphic card to be shipped and the notebook fixed.
claudioclaudionieder
7 Posts
100
0
Posted March 23rd, 2006 20:00
Hi,
After four weeks finally I got the laptop back.
At least, while having kept it from me for so long time, they did a thorough job. They replaced the graphic card, the hard disk, which while seemingly still working well, reported faults in the built-in diagnostics, and was thus suspected it could contribute to the problem, and also the keyboard, I guess because it sits over the graphic card, and was not so sturdy anymore and thus could have an adverse effect on the graphic card.
So this ends with mixed feelings, some bad because the "next day repair" turned into four weeks without the computer, some good because just two months before the expiry of the extended three years warranty I got a few new components, giving me hope that this notebook will last for some more time without worries.
theWEEPER: Where you able to fix the problem by just "reseating" the graphic card, or was it faulty too and needed replacement?
claudio
theWEEPER
14 Posts
384
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Posted February 14th, 2006 19:00