serious problem with my vostro 1400

Ive been having a pretty bad problem with my vostro and its getting worse, I hope someone can help.

So once in a while my computer completely freezes- keyboard and mouse too. I used to be able to restart it and it worked fine after.

But lately it started going into startup repair after I try to restart it. The colours get messed up too. It does system restore to be able to start back up.

The last time it happened, it was really bad, it took about 6 or 7 restarts to start normally - it would either keep doing the repair or freeze again when I entered my password.

So any ideas on whats causing this and how to fix it?

 

Do you have an Nvidia GPU? Can you take a picture of this? Does it happen every time the machine locks up?

 

I suggest you try booting off a Linux live CD. If this works OK then you you know the problem lies either with the HDD or the Windows installation.

You can then run the Dell diagnostics to find out if the HDD has a problem.

John

 

It didnt used to happen but it does now, some of the things that happen are the dell loading screen turns blue and low resolution, I get vertical lines across the screen and a screen full of brackets like (( flashes.

And yes I have the Nvidia 8400 GPU

 

Where would I get a Linux CD?


Also, this happened again, I am actually using a different computer because my laptop keeps restarting and running startup repair then crashing again. This is getting worse and worse, please someone help me.

 

Here.

Suspicion must also fall on the GPU, but this will result in a corrupted display and not a boot problem.

John

 

Im trying to boot off the Linux CD, and it gave me this error

Ubuntu is running in low-graphics mode

(EE) NV(0): couldn't find the DDC routing table. Mode setting will probably fail.
(EE) Screens foud but none have a usable configuration

it then started up in the low graphic mode with low resolution

So does this mean it is a GPU problem? How can I be sure and how do I fix it?

 

That definitely sounds like a failing GPU. Fortunately, Dell extended the warranty by 12 months on select notebooks: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/...ment-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

(I only wish they had done the same on the Vostro 1700, which I once had...)