Alan Pope wrote:
> 2009/9/27 AdamC <kabads@???>:
>> This weekend, the problems have started again. This time the machine
>> boots, I can see BIOS and grub loading, but it is split six ways across the
>> screen and corrupted. I've even had it once where it booted with a
>> good screen to
Have you tried attaching it to an external monitor? If the problem
persists you know it's the GPU or shared memory and not the LCD panel.
> I have a Dell which also exhibits broken video card syndrome. Dell
> want 200 quid to fix it out of warranty, and the cards go on ebay for
> a similar amount.
>
> My laptop is now sat doing nothing :(
It must be time of year for damaged laptop GPUs. My Dell XPS laptop has
just started corrupting output to screen (green pixel streaks on the
BIOS, bootloader, boot splash and GUI and flashing white blocky
corruption on a physical tty). X on Ubuntu fails repeatedly to start
before throwing me a bunch of Nvidia driver errors and dumping me at the
low res bulletproof X 'fix your X config' GUI.
My laptop is 2 years and 4 months old and also out of warranty but Dell
will extend warranties for up to 5 years from the dispatch date. I
called them Saturday and explained that I had Googled the symptoms and
discovered that the same flaw affected the Nvidia chips in the XPS M1330
that prompted Dell to offer a free graphics card replacement for all
customers who experienced these issues. They're coming tomorrow to
replace it, though it's not the same chip as the M1330 and I have doubts
that they will bring the right one.
I also extended my warranty for another 2 years (I didn't have to!),
despite my previous warranty expiring nearly 18 months ago. The 2 year
warranty cost £120, but the laptop cost over £1500 (I went crazy with
the upgrades), so I expect to use it for another 3 years as a full-time
desktop replacement/games machine and it will probably go wrong in the
next 2 years. While warranties can be considered money for old rope, I
considered it far cheaper than buying a new laptop in the next 2 years.
If that's your case Alan, it might be worth buying a new warranty rather
than a new card. Are your symptops the same as mine or more like AdamC's?
Note here that mine is a discrete graphics cards, not an onboard one. As
somebody has already said and Dell explained before looking which card I
had, if it's an onboard graphics chip and the GPU is damaged you'll have
to replace the motherboard replacement, which means it would be easier
to get a new laptop if yours isn't a current model.
</life story>
Regards,
Adam Sweet
--
http://blog.adamsweet.org/
