Vostro 1500 has weird graphical errors

I've had my 1500 since fall of '07 and it worked fine until winter of last year. Ever since then I get jagged pink lines and distortion effects like shown in the picture below. Occasionally I'll be able to boot up without any glitches, but that's rare and even then the lines reappear within minutes of use.

The lines/distortion appear on the task bar, videos, pictures, and other places.

My GPU is a GeForce 8400M GS

To be honest, though I've had to laptop for almost two years, I've probably only put about fifty hours of use on it.

 

Your graphics card is probably defective; a while ago, the majority of Nvidia's 8400 and 8600 mobile GPUs were defective due to poor quality thermal materials used. Over time, the thermal material used begins to crack to due expansion and shrinking of the processing die... this leads to a GPU failure.

 

This certainly looks like GPU failure to me. If you're still in warranty, call up Dell and they should replace it, as the problem is widespread and known. If you're out of warranty, you're basically out of luck - although you can still call them and beg.

 

Unfortunately I foolishly didn't renew my warranty (but in my defense, like I said, I used the laptop for about fifty hours which in my mind didn't seem like long enough to incur damage) which expired last fall.

I imagine a problem like this is beyond being fixable by non-professional like myself? Also, what are the odds of me being able to get it fixed for free or at least receiving a discount at this point?

 

Stick an external monitor on it to rule out the screen. If you see the problem on the external too then it's the GPU.

 

Sorry to bump this topic, but I've been looking around and I see that the 1500's GPU is capable of being upgraded. If it is the GPU at fault (and I'll check with an external monitor to confirm that later on) would it be cheaper to buy and new GPU and upgrade it myself, or would it be better to simply send it to Dell so that they can fix it?

Further, how difficult would upgrading it be? I've found some guides online and it looks quite daunting.

 

The GPU on the Vostro 1500 (assuming you have a discrete GPU, which you do) is replaceable. You can use an 8400 or an 8600, but you need to find one specifically made for an Inspiron 1520 or Vostro 1500. Dell has instructions on how to change the GPU assembly: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/sm/graphics.htm#wp1179839

If you're comfortable doing that (and really, it shouldn't be that hard, if not somewhat time consuming), it'll be much cheaper to do the fix on your own, and there's no warranty to void anymore

 

Did Dell discreetly bury the one year warranty extension for certain nVidia GPUs?

Read this or Google for "Dell nVidia warranty extension".

John

 

Thanks for your help. I'd like one final clarification. The tables for the affected notebooks do not include the 1500 and the post says

"This table above contains the list of laptops that are eligible for this limited warranty enhancement. If your system is not listed, no action is required."

The table DOES, however, include the 1510. Do you think my 1500 would still be under the new warranty?

 

No - your 1500 isn't there as it has better cooling and a seperate GPU card, the 1510 has the GPU on the motherboard and the cooling isn't as great. What it basically means is all GPU's are susceptible to the problem but the 1500, 1520, 1700 and 1720 are deemed "not affected" by Dell because they have better cooling and presumably they haven't had any complaints from those users. It's a bit of a cop out for those that have those systems and have problems (you may be the first example I've seen) - I'd speak to them and give them the benefit of the doubt but I think you'll just get hid round the head with the "this-system-is-not-affected" spoon.