Dell Vostro 1510 Display problems

[parry]

I have a Dell Vostro 1510 and warranty expired in Sep 2009. I recently formatted my hard drive to re-install WinXP. As I install VGA display drivers for Graphics Card nVidia 8400M GS, the screen goes weird something pinkish or sometime blank with some lines moving up/down. I have installed drivers that are provided to me my Dell. Is it hardware or software problem? How do I approach this problem? Please help..

 

[fpsdominator]

do you have that problem before you install the drivers?

 

[wa1]

check the cable connector from your monitor to the card.
reseated the card and make sure it's free of dust.
check your temps and posting here again...

 

[parry]

do you have that problem before you install the drivers?

I clearly don't have this problem before I install the vga drivers(nvidia). But as soon as i install and restart the problem appears.

 

[parry]

check the cable connector from your monitor to the card.
reseated the card and make sure it's free of dust.
check your temps and posting here again...

Sorry I forgot to mention that it's a laptop.
I have updated the BIOS software. I connected to an external display monitor and it worked fine but not always. I have extended by warranty and the Dell Tech support says it is a LCD problem. But am not really sure. I have searched online and some people had opinions like NVIDIA display cards have such problems and some say it's the DELL LCD that has problems.

This has also put me in a dilemma as to which company provided good laptops and services!

 

[parry]

Hi All,

Thanks for ur answers here.

My problem has been resolved by dell. Fortunately I had extended my warranty before the problem arised.
Dell support was real cool. Though they took some time figuring out the issue, I finally got the laptop repaired and in better condition with worn out parts replaced with new one's.

The problem as guessed was with the motherboard. Since the Nvidia graphics card comes built in on motherboard. So entire motherboard had to be replaced with the new.
It seems this may be because of heat sink problems affecting motherboard or faulty graphics card.

Please make sure your laptop is under complete coverage warranty you will save lots of money!

 

[sky castle]

Lucky you... i bought my dell vostro1510 two years ago, and needless to say, i havent got the extended warranty done. it was working fine, till one fine day, the screen just goes white with a black vertical band in between. then it changed to flickering white lines and then just goes black with a burnt colourful weave at the corners. at first i thought it was an lcd problem. but voila! my tech told me its the graphics card, and since seemingly it's soldered to the motherboard, he cannot guarantee that my comp will work afterward. basically... i suppose, I'll have to chuck the laptop!!
Dell support is cool, but they are cool sonsofbitches. kudos to bad craftsmanship and useless dell..

 

[parry]

Lucky you... i bought my dell vostro1510 two years ago, and needless to say, i havent got the extended warranty done. it was working fine, till one fine day, the screen just goes white with a black vertical band in between. then it changed to flickering white lines and then just goes black with a burnt colourful weave at the corners. at first i thought it was an lcd problem. but voila! my tech told me its the graphics card, and since seemingly it's soldered to the motherboard, he cannot guarantee that my comp will work afterward. basically... i suppose, I'll have to chuck the laptop!!
Dell support is cool, but they are cool sonsofbitches. kudos to bad craftsmanship and useless dell..

Completely agree with you Sky castle. I am planning to buy another laptop, but this time am totally confused as to which brand. Along the year, I had multiple issues with my Dell laptop. It was all fixed at no cost as it is under complete coverage. But how long can we extent the warranty? Instead I would rather invest more and buy a Mac.

 

[sky castle]

mac is the best, no doubt. there are some pretty good configs, and also, i must add... the refurbished mac is a Great Deal. but to people who arent so comfortable with the mac configs, for windows--ibm is the best. its a tad too heavy and you cant do much about the preset configs, but this one's reliable.

 

[parry]

Tom hardware is bugging me to choose the right answer on this post! While I have answered my own post which is right. There is no way I can choose my own reply as the Best answer!! Should I SPAM it or choose something as Best Answer!!

 

[parry]

Best answer selected by parry.