My poor hubby's XPS M1330 bricked..

I've got the same problem , can You tell me, it was motherboard or something else? , how much dell charge you for new part.

This sounds a lot like the problem that happend with the NVIDIA cards and a LOT of notebooks. My m1330 would also not start-up and acted "bricked" by having the blue light go off when the power button was depressed. Dell had to come replace the motherboard. I would argue with dell that it may be related to the Nvidia graphics card problem, and warranty or not, Nvidia has issued some sort of recall that Dell should honor.

If Dell won't replace for free under the Nvidia recall - work with a local technician to troubleshoot the problem before jumping to cause and replacing the board.

Good Luck

I haven't called yet so I don't know what the motherboard will cost. Didn't the gpu problem manifest with flashing lines and other graphics glitches?

Yes, however it crashed with lines/small graphic glitches about 3 times before mine fully did not boot up or show the Bios/DELL Logo. They all seemed like normal crashes (not a screen full of glitches as some may have you belive)

My thought is to still try claiming under the GPU recall if possible as the remaining evidence ("bricked PC") looks the same as one with the GPU issue.

I am afraid it's not the GPU, but it iyour power rail (where you plug in your adapter) that gone kaput. You would need to replace your motherboard in order to fix it.
I had the same problem, and was out of warranty. I just spent 200 bucks and bought a motherboard off ebay. Now everything works fine.

In the UK motherboard replacement from DELL for the XPS1330 is £413.36

My problem is fixed. American express refunded me the full cost of the laptop plus diagnostic fees. I love the extended warranty offered by Amex! Of course, I still have to get a new one, but I'm not going with Dell this time.

More on the Dell Hell...
read here:

http://getsatisfaction.com/dell/topic...

It's amazing how these Dell Hell Reps on this website have "selective hearing" on the concerns of Dell owners. For example, IF you need to BUY a replacement part like a known defective MB, they respond almost immediately. But when it comes to the well know defective NVidia MB issue on the above thread and many others on this website, they just turn a blind eye.

As a purchase agent for clients across Canada, I have owned and operated 3 Dell XPS M Series laptops that have the defective NVidia chip MB.
All three of them failed within the warranty periods that I owned them. 2 of them failed 3 times in the warranty period and the third one failed
me twice. I was lucky~ only because I had the warranties. That being said, they replaced each of my defective NVidia chip MB with the SAME defective MB,
hence the multiple failures over the waranty period.
After these incidents, and in each case I spoke with supervisors (all of them having their heads up their @ss) they still to this date refuse to acknowledge
this problem as there fault and in all these types of cases, they make all customers run through the gauntlet before they will even consider a repair for your
laptop.
As I said, I was lucky, I had warranties on my units. For those of you that have laptops that are out of warranty that may possibly get a FREEBIE FIX, realize this:
This is NOT A FIX!!~they only replace your faulty Nvidia chip MB with the SAME defective MB. This is only a bandaid solution. IT will fail again - GUARANTEED!!

After these incidents, I recommended to my clients to no longer purchase any DELL units because of this fiasco and how they treat their customers.
Lucky for me, they continue to follow my recommendations.

DELL is HELL~ Just look at this forum as an example....when was the last time they even responded
to any of these complaints.... there are plenty of other forums that continue to voice the same concerns here.

I cancelled many $$$$$ orders with them and they know this. In my line of work I continue to keep all my clients informed of their shady past practice~
in fact, there is presently a pending class-action lawsuit against DELL here in Canada based on a similar situation involving their laptops that was approved
earlier this year. There are plenty of other laptops in the market that will outclass DELL.

Also, all of you should know that (in my line of work) I did find a relatively inexpensive FIX $250 cdn (outside of DELL, of course as they've stil got their head up their @ss) based out of
the westcoast in Canada. Cheaper than DELL and a reliable shop that has the proper equipment and knowledge to replace the NVidia chip on the MB (so long as the MB has not been damaged).
The problem lies with the original design - the way the NVidia chip has been soldered onto the MB.

Dont be fooled by DELLS offer of a freebie fix - it's only a bandaid that WILL unravel quickly.