D630 Issues

Okay So I have a D630 with maybe the Nvidia Graphic issues started happening the other day the screen would freeze with lines then I would turn it back on and would get a blank screen the screen was backlit BUT BLANK even no BIOS logo then I`d wait say 5min and it would turn back on! Fan was running normal cool air not even hot air blowing out.

The today I desided to take it apart and look at the heatsink and see if it was dirty/Dusty, This laptop was CLEAN! not hardly any dust and things look good I put a little thermal paste on the CPU to maybe help didnt know if I could put it any on the Nvidia thing or not Put it back together now I can NOT get it to display anything what so ever (Yes EVERYTHING is hooked up properly like it should CHECKED TWICE!) Screen`s backlight lights up but nothing else shows up the laptop DOES Boot up as I can watch the HD indicator and it will boot into windows I can hear the sound, Also the Fan no longer spins for some reason I checked the connection and its fine and the fan should be spinning, the fan and the computer booted before I took it apart so why not now?

 

At this point, I would suggest trying an external monitor and see if you get any display.

but it does sound like the dreaded GPU failure.

 

The blank/backlit screen is typically a good indicator of GPU failure; I concur that it's hosed.

 

My D820 failed last year when it was about a week out of the extended warranty. I purchased the extended warranty for a total of 5 years. Dell was kind enough to still replace the motherboard for me and a year later it is still going. Read an interesting article over at Anandtech last week that I stumbled on by accident. One of the guys over there was telling more about the Nvidia issue and a work around for a temporary fix that some people have had luck with by reheating the GPU chip for the solder to reconnect. Article is located at
AnandTech | Hardware Tricks: Can You Fix a Failing Mobile GPU with a Hair Dryer? in case you want to give it a shot. I was told originally that the D820 with the Nvidia chip was not a problem, but I have seen too many postings over the internet of owners with the D820 Latitude and the NVS120 GPU.