Friend's laptop froze and now doesnt show picture

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 1:25 am

A friend said he was playing Everquest on his Dell Latitude D830 and that when he looted a corpse the laptop froze and made some weird colors on the monitor and then he shut it off, by holding the power button, cause he couldn't do anything else.

Now, when he turns it on, he doesn't get any picture on the monitor and seems to stop loading, after a few secs, cause he has that finger swipe/password lock on boot-up. We tried connecting the laptop up to a regular monitor to see if we get picture but it's still no go. Tried with just the battery and then just AC cable, no difference.

Has anyone ran into an issue like this or any clue on how we can troubleshoot this? I was thinking trying his HD on another laptop to see if that was the issue or re-seating the ram. Then again could be a hardware defect, so many things could have gone wrong, was just wondering if someone has a suggestion.

Thanks

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:53 am

Nvidia graphics chip? Do you here any Beeps when you try to power it up?

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:05 am

Yea it's got NVidia but you hear no beeps, just the fan kicking on and a few sounds as the laptop works but that stops like 10 secs in, cause it usually goes to that Security screen to login to your HD and continue the boot-up. But it seems you can't even type the password in and try to continue

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:36 am

Check w/Dell to see if there are any recalls on that model. Some widespread issues with laptops with certain nVidia discreet GPUs.

As for the boot up to login...try booting from the CD, recovery console, and run a chkdsk.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 10:20 am

are you able to see the boot screen to get to Bios? If so tap F12 to get to Diagnostics then let it test..might even test extended for the hell of it.

If you've plugged up the external monitor to it did you Function/F8 to flip the video over to it?

Next would be to pull out all the ram chips and startup with just one and so on.

I'm going to assume the chipset in that is a Go 7300 so it could require a call to Dell to setup a tech to come swap out parts providing its covered under warranty. I tell anyone that buys a laptop from dell to get the complete care coverage..for the extra cash you'd be crazy not to!

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 11:19 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Check w/Dell to see if there are any recalls on that model. Some widespread issues with laptops with certain nVidia discreet GPUs.

As for the boot up to login...try booting from the CD, recovery console, and run a chkdsk.

Thats what I was thinking when I asked if it had nVidia graphics. Laptops can be a real pain to trouble shoot.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 12:16 pm

The Dude wrote:Thats what I was thinking when I asked if it had nVidia graphics. Laptops can be a real pain to trouble shoot.

There is no current Latitude D830 recall or issues with the graphics chips on that model.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 12:41 pm

Eh..just Googled it..the lowly onboard Intel GMA.

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 1:12 pm

Sava700 wrote:are you able to see the boot screen to get to Bios? If so tap F12 to get to Diagnostics then let it test..might even test extended for the hell of it.

If you've plugged up the external monitor to it did you Function/F8 to flip the video over to it?

Next would be to pull out all the ram chips and startup with just one and so on.

I'm going to assume the chipset in that is a Go 7300 so it could require a call to Dell to setup a tech to come swap out parts providing its covered under warranty. I tell anyone that buys a laptop from dell to get the complete care coverage..for the extra cash you'd be crazy not to!

There is no display at all once he turns on the laptop and when we hooked it up to his desktop monitor, we didnt try Function/F8. When he gets home from work ima stop over there and try the ram. As far as I know his warranty expired cause he said he only had a 2 year warranty through his school promotion. I also told him to call Dell to see if they have an suggestions or if there is a defect, but he hasn't called yet so I'll do that when I get there too.

Thanks for the responses, I'll keep you updated as soon as we try stuff

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:03 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Eh..just Googled it..the lowly onboard Intel GMA.

The graphics are optional..so really depends on what he asked for. The highest I've seen was a Nvidia Go 7300.
http://www.dell.com/downloads/ap/produc ... 007_RF.pdf

Choice of integrated Mobile Intel® GMA X3100; NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 135M or NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 140M graphics cards

d2fanatic007 wrote:There is no display at all once he turns on the laptop and when we hooked it up to his desktop monitor, we didnt try Function/F8. When he gets home from work ima stop over there and try the ram. As far as I know his warranty expired cause he said he only had a 2 year warranty through his school promotion. I also told him to call Dell to see if they have an suggestions or if there is a defect, but he hasn't called yet so I'll do that when I get there too.

Thanks for the responses, I'll keep you updated as soon as we try stuff

I think the bios battery is located under the battery under a little tab... pull that out for about 10mins then put it back.

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 8:56 pm

Hey guys, sorry about this confusion but it was a Dell Latitude D820 and not the D830, I thought it was the D830. So it's def a D820 cause I'm looking at it now, and we tried to use external monitor and tried removing ram and it didn't help at all. The integrated graphics that is in there is the 256MB NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 110M TurboCache®.

We had the tech support from Dell on the phone and their troubleshooting was a no go and now they are going to send a tech here to try and fix it. He also found the paperwork and he has the 3 year next business day parts and labor on-site service. His laptop is a little more than 2 years old. The statement below is him typing exactly as he said happened:

I was playing Everquest and went to go loot a corspe, and as I did the laptop froze and then the screen showed alot of regtangles and colors and alt + ctrl + del and alt + tab didn't respond, so I held the power button down and turned it off. Then I booted it back up and didn't have a display on the monitor and tried with the battery and just ac adapter.

Thanks again guys, if we can't fix this and the tech guy does, I'll fill everyone in so they know what the deal was.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 9:59 pm

d2fanatic007 wrote:Hey guys, sorry about this confusion but it was a Dell Latitude D820 and not the D830, I thought it was the D830. So it's def a D820 cause I'm looking at it now, and we tried to use external monitor and tried removing ram and it didn't help at all. The integrated graphics that is in there is the 256MB NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 110M TurboCache®.

We had the tech support from Dell on the phone and their troubleshooting was a no go and now they are going to send a tech here to try and fix it. He also found the paperwork and he has the 3 year next business day parts and labor on-site service. His laptop is a little more than 2 years old. The statement below is him typing exactly as he said happened:

its likely they will bring a motherboard with them cause that is what sounds like died... The D820's do have motherboard issues from what I've seen. I believe I've swapped out over 100 of them in the last 2 years. I lost count on LCD's.

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:18 am

lol, yea that's exactly what the tech guy told him. Said that the motherboard was fried and that the tech is gonna replace it under his warranty. Should be done on the next business day so either Monday or Tuesday.

BTW, thanks all for the tips on troubleshooting this issue and my bad for the mix up of D830 to the D820

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:16 am

Well, he came by my friend for about 20mins and replaced his Mobo, then left. So, he turned it on and tested his Everquest game to see if it froze or turned off and it did. Happens when he is outside and sees spells. His fan gets loud and then really fast and even louder then it turns off his pc.

We tried updating the video driver, cause the fan only makes noise like that during games like EQ or playing videos in YouTube and such (only in full screen tho :wth

and then the bios driver (which made the fan superloud during the installation, but seemed to help a little :confused

He called up Dell support and the tech was like IDK, we have to send the tech back with a new Mobo and a fan....

I said just get a new laptop, cause it never gonna be the same. And a pc for desktop games but w/e.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:31 am

d2fanatic007 wrote:Well, he came by my friend for about 20mins and replaced his Mobo, then left. So, he turned it on and tested his Everquest game to see if it froze or turned off and it did. Happens when he is outside and sees spells. His fan gets loud and then really fast and even louder then it turns off his pc.

We tried updating the video driver, cause the fan only makes noise like that during games like EQ or playing videos in YouTube and such (only in full screen tho :wth and then the bios driver (which made the fan superloud during the installation, but seemed to help a little :confused He called up Dell support and the tech was like IDK, we have to send the tech back with a new Mobo and a fan....

I said just get a new laptop, cause it never gonna be the same. And a pc for desktop games but w/e.

The fan speed during a bios update is normal...mostly when its flashing the Keyboard rom. At this point I'm curious if it plays other games ok or not? I'd also like to see what else is on the laptop cause there may be something else causing a issue. Update DX files.... I mean at this point if there isn't a whole lot on the computer I'd back up what I wanted to keep and format it then see what happens from a fresh install.

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:07 am

I had him update his DX files, after we checked dxdiag to see if there were any errors. He always uses his external cooling fan system he brought, so it shouldn't be really hot and when he didn't use it, he said that it wasn't really that hot anyway.

Umm, he played Starcraft on the laptop for about 6 hours and it didn't make a peep. He then tried EQ again and within maybe 3 mins it shutoff the laptop. I asked him to give Hellgate London a try but he freaked and said he was gonna leave the laptop off for a while.

He doesn't want to format the laptop cause, the last 2 times he did it, he kept getting BSOD's all over the place and when he called support they said try system restore

I noticed that when he does their factory restore they install ATI and NVidia display drivers so we I have em always completely uninstall both in safe mode and use DriverCleaner and then install the latest NVidia driver for his card.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:11 am

so he's getting blue screens after a reinstall of the fresh OS? Error codes?

As for format yeah a deep format then a raw install of the OS and start from scratch downloading drivers directly from website not using disk cause the disk gets outdated quick.

terrancelam · Post by **terrancelam** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:13 pm

BSOD while installing Windows?!?!?!?! holy ****! Excuse my language but something is definitly wrong with the hard ware and it would most likely be either the Ram or the videocard. My guess would be the ram, as most systems tend not to BSOD if the videocard doesn't work, but if there is an issue with the graphic ram, then it can cause some BSODs. But since you've changed Mobos and still have the same problem, I think it is most likely a ram issue. Installing windows should not cause ANY BSOD at all! Get the tech to swap out the ram and let him know that you get BSOD when trying to install windows and when the system runs at full load.

The alternative to this (this is for when you system is out of warranty) is to underclock the ram specs and see if it'll run more stable. I suggest going with the above.

d2fanatic007 wrote:I had him update his DX files, after we checked dxdiag to see if there were any errors. He always uses his external cooling fan system he brought, so it shouldn't be really hot and when he didn't use it, he said that it wasn't really that hot anyway.

Umm, he played Starcraft on the laptop for about 6 hours and it didn't make a peep. He then tried EQ again and within maybe 3 mins it shutoff the laptop. I asked him to give Hellgate London a try but he freaked and said he was gonna leave the laptop off for a while.

He doesn't want to format the laptop cause, the last 2 times he did it, he kept getting BSOD's all over the place and when he called support they said try system restore I noticed that when he does their factory restore they install ATI and NVidia display drivers so we I have em always completely uninstall both in safe mode and use DriverCleaner and then install the latest NVidia driver for his card.

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:47 pm

No no, my bad again, it's not BSOD on install of windows. As for fresh install he doesn't have a cd, when he got the laptop they never supplied him with a cd cause it came through his school (discount/recommended). When he does a format it's the factory restore and after he does the factory restore he gets BSODs while doing things.

I noticed everytime he does the factory restore they install drivers for hardware that doesn't exist in the machine. Example: They gave him both ATI and NVidia drivers

cause I guess the tech that setup the system didn't know what card they put in. But, when you check Dell online for the specs it clearly states NVidia graphics.

terrancelam · Post by **terrancelam** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:42 pm

hmmmm could be driver issues or hardware issues. I'm sure of your school supplies academic copies of Windows for sale. Most universities or colleges do have licence agreements wth Microsoft and you can usually pick up a "downgrade" licence for about $80-$100CAD/USD. This is what I would do:

1.) Get a copy of Windows XP 32-bit SP3
2.) Download all the correct drivers for the system (if Nvidia the detonator). Key drivers to download are:
- Network (access to the internet is a must)
- SATA or IDE controller (SP3 discs usually solves most issues, but sometimes you might need to slipstrem ((see http://www.n-lite.com)) into a custom copy of windows)
-video card (its nicer to be able to see things)
3.) Install a fresh proper version of windows + EQ2 and then see if it crashes. This way you'll have eliminated the operating system as a variable.

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:38 pm

Well, the tech came back and replaced another Mobo, he tried EQ (original, not 2) and the fan kicked on n powered off the laptop. He then replaced the fan and tried it again and it still turned it off. Now, Dell said it might be the processor and that the tech will come back n try that.

Wouldn't have been easier or cheaper for them just to replace the laptop since the tech has been called out 3 times already and switched crap and still didn't fix the issue?!

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 6:45 pm

d2fanatic007 wrote:Well, the tech came back and replaced another Mobo, he tried EQ (original, not 2) and the fan kicked on n powered off the laptop. He then replaced the fan and tried it again and it still turned it off. Now, Dell said it might be the processor and that the tech will come back n try that.

Wouldn't have been easier or cheaper for them just to replace the laptop since the tech has been called out 3 times already and switched crap and still didn't fix the issue?!

I sent you a PM

d2fanatic007 · Post by **d2fanatic007** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 9:47 pm

sorry, i didnt get a chance to talk to him today or see the laptop, ill let you know asap