A Word of Warning on Dell E1705 + NVidia 7800Go

If you have landed on this post because you are considering purchasing an E1705 off of Ebay, Craigslist, etc... and want to know more about the Nvidia 7800 Go and Dell Inspiron E1705 / 9400, then a slight word of warning first:

Yes, these systems at the time I'm writing this (Sept, 2008) are getting into a sweet spot to buy right now. Great power still in comparison of CPU speed, hard drive technology hasn't changed much (in forever, too) RAM is still respectable if the owner upgraded it to 2GB like he/she should have, and they can come with a 256MB Nvidia Go 7800... a great card by gaming standards... all at a nicely depreciated price.

However, here's the scoop-- the Nvidia Go 7800. Nvidia has dropped the ball lately with the recalls and it appears that I've either gotten REALLY unlucky, or there might be a problem with this line in general too.

I am not a heavy gamer, (once or twice a week at night) and don't play demanding games ... but the system is on a lot (used at work). I feel like this combination of on time might pull problems out of the woodwork that ordinarily might not be seen as quickly. Twice now, after 1 year and a couple months (each time) the Nvidia graphics card has gone bad in the system.

Dell told me that this had happened to other cards, and they were at least familiar enough with the problem to replace it. Now, here's my system, out of warranty, with the card ruined once again.

This is just one person's experience, but I'm definitely not getting an Nvidia 7800 in it again... if I decide to resurrect my laptop of misery.

If you too have had problems with the 7800 failing on you (the behavior I see is streaky graphics on boot up, and then blue screen when windows tries to initialize the video drivers, thus failing to load at all) share them here...

Also, if any of you have had similar / better success with the 7900 that would be appreciated to.

Lauski

 

Have they replaced just the card or the motherboard too. Since the card uses dells version of MXM there could be something else going wrong.

 

The video card only was replaced after having the laptop for about 1.5 years.

I had an on-site service and watched him, so I can verify he only replaced the Nvidia video card.

Following the replacement, the card just went bad again at 1 year, 3 months later (2 days ago) ... exhibiting the exact same behavior as the first time it popped.

I don't think I'm going to pay a warranty reactivation fee, or the ridiculous price dell wants for another 7800 ... out of fear it would just happen again after another year and a half, to me, or anyone else I would sell it to. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing so...

But so you think that with behaviors like this with the video card failing the exact same way twice, that it could be something to do with the motherboard? Let me know if you'd like screen shots or anything, we can talk about it.

Lauski

 

Exactly the same thing, artifacts and horizontal lines from the startup on my Dell Inspiron E1705 with the NVidia 7800 go card. As far as i can see i think its a problem with the cards memory. And again as you said, exactly a year and 2 months after i bought it. But I dont have a warranty any more!

The only game I played (once a week) was PES 2008. so it wasnt used too much, the card broke while i was surfing the net. I must say Im mad at Dell now, they should have stopped the cards when they noticed that first time.
They should do something about that, it's obviously a huge problem.

I used to have a lot of faith in them though, my Latitude C610 is still functional or I wouldn't been able to finish my job and the consequences would have been much worse.
But after paying all that money a year ago I feel cheated...

If you want screenshots just ask.

Have you found some kind of an answer for the problem, the only thing that saved me was that it can enter safe mode, so i rescued my data.

 

Sadly Alushi, I haven't found any fix other than replacing the video card. You have the option with Dell to say you "forgot to renew your warranty" and they will charge you $50 to reactivate + then a minimum of a 1 year warranty ($220ish, right?) and you could get another 7800...

HOWEVER... like I said, my second card died in about the same length of time!

What I recommend for you, is what I'm doing... get another other video card that is compatible, but not the 7800Go. Of that, the options are:

Nvidia 7900 [OR] ATI X1400 128MB

I've heard people enjoy upgrading their E1705's up to a 7900, but frankly, NVidia and I are going to be parting ways for more than a little while...

If you game heavily, replace your card with an X1400 and then sell the laptop to get something to replace it with the cash you get. If you don't need it for heavy gaming, then just replace it and enjoy the X1400.

I have 2 E1705's... made within 3 months of each other. One with the X1400 (still running solid without a glitch after 3+ years)... and a second with the 7800Go... died twice now.

 

Hmm i heard that it could be possible to downgrade the card so it could be functional again. Maybe ill try that out before.
But I think ill be parting with dell after that, maybe sell this in parts or fix it with a x1400 and sell it as u said.
To bad thou, i was so happy when i got it =(

 

My 7800 died in my e1705 the VERY SAME DAY that all the stories about faulty Nvidia cards came out. Consequently I was very skeptical about Nvidia products in my next purchase; this is why I went with the studio 17 and the ati card. Ati = a big performance cut, but atleast I have some security (false or not) that I dont have a ticking timebomb packed away in the guts of my laptop. However, if dell actually offered some legit nvidia cards (anything 256 bit), I probably would have sprung on one anyway... with an upgraded warranty of course.

 

My Inspiron 9400 with 7800 Go (about 2 1/2yrs old) just died 3 days ago as well. Same issues with screen corruption on POST/bootup and horizontal lines showing. I can also get into safemode, but the screen is still scrambled up with lines. Dell is sending out a replacement 7800, but reading this thread I'm a bit concerned that the card will die again after my warranty runs out next april. Are people having the same issues with the 7900 GS as well? if not then I might try and push dell to replace it with that, but if it is affected as well then I have no idea what route to take. At this point it seems like the 9400 is just a disposable laptop.

 

Hmm should the 7800 be a reliable and well performing card (should be better than the 8600 GT as far as i'm aware?)

 

Nope, it doesnt perform as well. I have the ATI 3650 which performs similar to the 8600 GT. I also had a 7800 and my current card is faster. So.. to put it simply:

8600GT = ATI 3650 > 7800

Hope that makes sense

 

GunMetal, here's what I did:

After my card died the second time about 2 weeks ago, I bought a used ATI x1400 for E1705 off of Ebay and got the system up and running. I'm now going to sell it and the money will go towards a new laptop. I learned a long time ago how to disassemble the E1705 from some nice things you can find on these forums... It's pretty easy and the video card removal isn't more than pulling the old out and stuffing a new one in.

Needless to say, let the warranty expire (renewing for what, 1-200 bucks for a system that sells on Ebay for 500ish? You're probably thinking it's not worth it...) and if it craps--- do what I did. Cost me $99 Shipped.

Cleared the problem up immediately and now I can sell it with confidence, knowing I'm not passing along a time bomb to an unsuspecting individual.

 

Why does this sound like the fan may of gone bad. I know about a year and a few months in the fan went bad in mine. I wouldn't of caught it though if it wasn't for i8kfangui reporting an 88C temperature reading for the video card. I forced the cpu side on high to compensate and got dell to replace the fan. Noting here that they don't have anymore 7900GS units in stock and they may not have any 7800 either.