Defective Graphics Card on Vostro 1400

Hi i believe i have a defective graphics card and was wondering if u guys could give me some help in finding out for sure and some possible solutions. I took a picture of the laptops display which shows the problem.
Heres a link:
As u can see the display is split in to six parts all showing the desktop. This happens even when i start the computer it will show the same display on the bios loading screen, even also in safe mode. I have installed and uninstalled my graphics card drivers for the 8400gs which didnt work, i have reset all my services and settings to their factory settings which didnt work either. All other hardware on my laptop seems to be workin. Problems wit the graphics first started a month when i noticed that the graphics card would now idle at about 60C instead of its normal 45-50C range. It really got messed up when i was playing a game of america's army and the display just completely froze and then everything got a wierd pinkish hue then it just crashed. It doesnt even show the bsod when it crashes it just simply freezes and then restarts. I have heard claims about defective graphics cards but was under the impression that dell vostros werent affected. My warranty doesnt expire till late next month so thats my backup in case i cant fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

That is a pretty much stock case of a bad graphics card. have it replaced.. Nothing you can do about it.. Could have been due to overheating, since you have seen a temperature rise from the usual..

 

Ok thanks, il send it back to dell. Do u kno if they only replace the graphics card or everythin under the hood?

 

They will test it, and determine what needs to be replaced.

 

Does it do this in safemode?

Or in the bios?

 

Just got off the phone with dell support and they are sending me the box to ship it to them in. Yay!. Nizzy the problem happens in both regular and in all the safe modes as well as when i try to repair my system using the vista os disk. But it also seems to happen randomly in that sometimes it will start or restart normally into the desktop, but as soon as i do anythin even remotely graphics intensive like a game or even viewin an image it will freeze and the color will get corrupted and then it will just completely crash and then return to the messed up display. The dell rep told me that they have been aware of this issue and said that the apparent fix is to replace the motherboard not the graphics card. Does that make sense?

 

just a lil update, i had taken apart my laptop to look around inside for any obvious problems and found none. yet after putting back together it worked perfectly for the day. even thru the high settings world in conflict. yet same problem happened next day. Its gotten worse cuz now it happens even when watching video. now im getting nvlddmkm error and after searchin there is no clear cut solution which blows. one thing i have noted in my searchin for a solution is that most people believe its an issue between nvidia hardware and vista, so looks like il be heading back to xp(again).

 

From what I hear, it's Nvidia's fault due to them having massive amounts of faulty graphics cards. XP won't help, the card is most likely damaged and needs to be replaced.

 

Oh yeah, just came about this thread, and I would just like to share this link of affected Nvidia GPU laptops below:

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

The Vostro 1400 is listed however.

Just a quote from the site:

The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations. If your GPU fails, you may see intermittent symptoms during early stages of failure that include:

* Multiple images
* Random characters on the screen
* Lines on the screen
* No video

Judging from your provided screenshot, yours could be multiple images appearing on screen. I suggest you check it out on that link and see if the BIOS fix does it. If not, you may have to get it replaced. I wish you well and all the best for your 1400 GPU fix. Good luck.

 

Thanks for your input guys. I got my laptop and works just like when i first got it. Temps are back to normal. I was pretty surprised by dell actually having good customer support.