dell vostro 1310 with nVidia 8400M display problem

Question

i hope someone can help me with this problem.

I have a Dell vostro 1310 Laptop with 32 bit vista and a 8400M nVidia chip.

Recently i have noticed performance issues when my girlfriend was playing Sims 3, and then one day i turned it on and all i got was a thick white line at the bottom of the screen.

i heard the OS start up so automatically i thought it was a damaged screen, but i had doubts so i plugged it into an external display via the vga port. it worked but everything appart worm the OS choice menu looks distorted beyond belief.

even the bios screen had multicoloured lines running down the screen.

The resolution is non existant, the screen only shows a 256 colour pallette and is heavily distorted. i barely managed to get to the device manager where i found the gfx card with an exclamation mark.

does anybody have suggestions? should i buy a new mobo or are repairs possible?

thanks in advance

Answer 1

It looks like a graphics problem. The Intel graphics chip is built in to the Motherboard on the Vostro 1310's the only economic solution would be to purchase a new Motherboard. However the models with a Geforce 8400M GS uses a graphics card made by nVIDIA with 128MB video memory. I would suggest that the fault lies within this card. Best thing to do would be to replace this card only. A local Laptop repair centre should be able to isolate and identify the fault and only replace the correct item.

Answer 2

The Nvidia 8400/8600 chipsets were alledgedly faulty. Dell sent out a letter saying they settled a class action lawsuit about defective systems with these chips and that owners should contact them about reimbursements/repairs... Before you go further, do more research about this issue.