M1530 - Graphics Card on it's way out?

I've got an XPS M1530 with an 8600GT graphic card and for the last couple of months I've been unable to play Blu-Ray discs without the video stuttering.

I've tried reinstalling Windows, updating to the latest graphics drivers etc but nothing seems to make a difference

I did recently upgrade the hard disk from a 320GB drive to a 750GB one but can't see this would be an issue as the spin speed is the same?

Am I going to have to live with it or is it likely to be something Dell can fix? I do have the extended warranty till October this year so I'd like to sort it before it runs out!

 

You have Blu-Ray software? Hard drive shouldn't have anything to do with stuttering. Don't know of the M1530 comes with the drop sensor, sometimes those can make Windows stutter.

Any M1530 with the Nvidia GPU will die, the question is when.

 

I am having the same problem with my m1530 8600gt blu-ray. It recently started choppy playback of blu-ray discs. Streaming HD is fine. I have been unable to correct the issue as of yet. I recently upgraded to a SSD drive (brought new life to this lappy for daily use), but it is still choppy when i slip the seagate 7200k back in. I am running win7x64. Only thing I can think is an update to windows or drivers may have caused a conflict somehwere.

I know my gpu is fine and not the faulty print. I went through the battle with Dell until they installed a brand new motherboard with the non-faulty chipset. I was able to reporduce the fault with the bad gpu boards using orthos and Dell finally gave into a new mb.

Any luck fixing your blu-ray playback yet? I am going to try some older nvidia drivers and sort through the windows updates that occured since i watched the last blu-ray without problems.

 

I have to say, Dell is pretty good about replacing stuff if you're adamant with them that it needs to be replaced. I would try and get the mobo replaced now while it's under warranty so you can at least hit the reset button on your time bomb.

 

Well after a period of working ok - which seemed to be down to a dirty Blu-Ray drive, my laptop died this evening. Screen froze with graphics corruption and now won't display anything at boot - so I guess that's confirmation I've now got a Graphics Card issue

Luckily I've got 38 days of my next day warranty left (less that I thought!). I would hate to think what would have happened the other side

What can I expect to get? Will it be repaired. Is that likely after all this time? Do I want to accept that? Or will they offer a replacement like some people are getting?

 

If you have an M1530 with the Nvidia GPU and still have warranty, I would look to extend it as the Nvidia GPU is a ticking timebomb. Nothing like it dying right after the Dell warranty ends.

 

I've already extended it. Originally had a 1 year from when I bought it in 2008. By the looks of this, best money I've ever spend

 

Well, engineer is coming tomorrow with a new motherboard and they've offered another 2 years on the warranty for £140 - so taking that!

 

Well engineer came, replaced motherboard and all seemed ok so I let him go. But new motherboard's ethernet connection doesn't work, and WEI has gone from 5.7 to 4.7 and it won't let me install the Matrix Storage Manager/Rapid Storage drivers so I think the chipset is a bit messed up

Got another engineer coming on Tuesday. If the 2nd replacement isn't any better on the WEI or there is something else is wrong, can I reject 3rd attempt and start asking for a new one?

 

Have you had previous service? After 3-4 services you can start contacting Dell for a replacement unit.

 

Had to have the hard drive replaced within a month when I got it 3 years ago but that's it

 

Well that counts as a repair, it is counted by the Service Tag and XX repairs done on it. Service Tag = Serial number for Dell.

 

Don't suppose someone could post the IDE and drive bits of the drive manager? I'm pretty sure what mine is showing isn't right - as I said it won't let me install Intel RST/MSM. Want to remember what it should look like for when they come to replace the board again

 

Also just worked out I've been short changed on the graphics card

Old one was 256MB, this one is 128MB.

 

Did you install your OS in IDE or AHCI mode?

Also 128 MB should be the 8400M GS motherboard. 256 MB is the 8600M GT motherboard. Think you got gipped. o_o

 

I just let the Windows 7 install do it's own thing, never had a problem with doing it that way before. BIOS is definately set for AHCI though

I'll see what the replacement does

 

Well second motherboard is in. Everything is now working as it should and WEI is back to 5.7 where it should be

Only odd thing is Matrix Storage Manager still won't install, although seems to have zero impact on performance so not bothered really.

 

^
Yes, that's me. I'm still irritated about it. They replaced the LCD, ribbon cable and motherboard a few months before my warranty expired. The disgusting thing is that I've concluded that they ended up replacing my good MB with a bad one that failed a month past warranty. I was getting vertical green lines from what I suspect was a bad ribbon cable.

Long story short Dell wouldn't fix unless I got a warranty extension for $320. I tried replacing everything except the MB and I'm still SOL. I finally ripped the screen off and use an external monitor with it, it works most of the time. It's definitely a good thing you extended the warranty.

I've moved on and bought a 13" 2011 MBP and it's more capable than my old XPS. After having gone through all of this I'm pretty soured on Nvidia. I think they have lost my business for a very long time. Dell, not so much. I'm not happy with some of my experience, but for the most part they are just the guys caught in the middle.