useless 2-yr old ($2500) Dell xps M1710 with a fried NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS card

I've managed to make my Dell M1710 usable by disabling the nVidia video card. It ain't pretty, but it works. It's slow, but usable. Dell has sent me a box to ship the laptop back to them, and they will fix it... for $550!! I'm just going to live with what I have for now, and once they start making laptops with Windows 7 instead of Vista, I'm going to get a new one. It will never, ever be a Dell again, though.

First, you have to boot in safe mode. When you turn on the computer, wait for the Dell logo to disappear and then hit F10. You may have to turn the computer off and on a few times before it works. Once you finally get it to work, choose to boot in safe mode. When the pop-up window comes up, click OK. Then, click the START button, and right-click on My Computer. Choose Properties. Go to the hardware tab and click on Device Manager.

Once Device Manager opens, click Display Adapters, and then right-click on your nVidia card. Choose disable.

Now reboot and hopefully it will work!

Good luck with the HP!!

yes i have the same problem after only 13 months though the 7950 gtx gpu died then the hard drive which i replaced then the screen all within 1 month of the card dying which when that happened i disabled it so i could use it for email now i have nothing $3000au for 13 months use go figure i see dell ads now and just feel sick

dear Wife, sorry about your issue but front line agents can only setup pay to repairs. If you feel like getting it replaced. Try calling in the support que and ONLY talk to mangers. They are the only ones that can replace it outside of the warrenty. And if you get an HP it will be even worse. I just want to warn you of the horror storys, if the system doesn't "ship" anymore they don't support it. Meaning there systems only ship for a few months then a year later you call in and they can't help :-/ I would say go gateway but there support closed down and now dell took over.

Update on my problem: I was doing great having the graphics card disabled, and then one day it all started going wonky again. I was seeing new artifacts on the screen, kind of like someone had poured a nice cup of tea down the inside of it!

I had called Dell a while back, and they basically bullied me into agreeing to let them fix it. In order to get rid of the annoying woman who kept calling and calling me, I agreed. But when the box arrived, I did NOT ship my laptop back. THEN, I got a bill. They had actually billed my Dell account for the repairs, even though I hadn't sent them the laptop!

Once I started having problems again, I went ahead and shipped it, thinking that since I'd already paid for the repair, they might as well do it. In about a week, I had my laptop back. I works now, but it is still overheating, even with a cooling pad.

Just the other day I got a call from Dell Financial offering me some deal on their credit card. I let him give his spiel, and then told him I wasn't interested, because I have no intention of EVER buying anything from Dell again!

That sucks vicki, call tech support back and said "I just paid for the system board to be replaced. And i think they forgot to put thermal greese on the cpu. The system is burning up and i put it on my cooling pad and it doesn't help. Is there anyway you can replace this before it starts to burn my cpu?. " If they can't replace it. Then talk to cx care and give the same quote. Make sure they give you a case number. Maybe you can get a new system since they messed up the repair ;) ;) ;)

Oh if they want to repair it again, say no. Say you think its an issue and it might "burn the cpu". And if they say anything other then replacing your computer. Just keep saying burn over and over and over and over.... lol have fun with it.

Hi all,I just got a quote from dell spain for 1.030 euro (1200bucks )same problem dead nvidia card,wont be buying from them again.

Hi all,I just got a quote from dell spain for 1.030 euro (1200bucks )same problem dead nvidia card,wont be buying from them again.

OK, I've just been through the same scenario: 18 month-old M1710 laptop, coloured lines all over the screen, dead video card. Out of warranty, so no help from Dell.

I brought my laptop back to life by replacing the card myself. You'll need some basic confidence with a screwdriver and about $460.

1. Google for and download the 'm1710 service manual' - it has clear instructions on how to take the laptop apart.
2. You will need a new card. Search eBay for 'nvidia m1710 7900' (or 7950, or whatever your dead card is). Make sure you get a NEW one, NOT refurbished! Should cost you no more than $450 (ouch).
3. You will need a screwdriver that fits the laptop. Search eBay for a 'screwdriver for Dell inspiron' or similar.
4. [Optional] I'd recommend getting some new screws, because they may strip when disassembling (especially if you don't use the official screwdriver). eBay for 'screw dell xps'. There are two kinds, the 'back cover' and 'palm rest' screws.
5. Buy an air duster (a can of compressed gas).
6. [Optional] Buy some Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease, and a cleaning kit to go with it.
7. Take a deep breath and follow the instructions. While the internals are exposed, give the fans and vents a good cleanout with the air duster (helps keep the temp down). If you're keen, take off the CPU heatsink and replace the sticky mess with the grease you bought.
8. Switch it back on. Celebrate.
9. Download i8kFanGUI, http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/ - use this to monitor/control your fans and stop the GPU temperature from going into the high 80s.

I don't expect the new card to live forever - I'm moving all important data to an external drive. When this second video card fails I'll be selling my M1710 for spare parts : )

Hey there Coaches wife and all you poor folks that have been stung by Dell / Nvidia. I have the exact same problem with my XPS m1710 and the Nvidia 7950 GTX. It ́s truly unbelieveable that they are completely complacent to the fact that they are responsible for the failure of these cards ' it comes down to poor design and lack of serious testing prior to commercial release. It also seems that the pattern is the same. Round about 1.5 to 2 years the card burns out. Thats incredible!!! And they are persistent in not admitting that it ́s their problem, however when there are so many people with the same system and the same problems, you have to ask how is it possible that there isnt a higher international body that can resolve this problem for everyone as its pure poor product production on their behalf, I ́m also suprised that a recall was not done seeing as so many people with the same systems have suffered exactly the same problems.
I have called Dell here in Spain and am awaiting a quote for fixing... saw the above quote and there is no way I would pay half the cost of ́the system to fix the card. I was told my warranty was out, but I informed the technician that under European consumer law of electronic goods, you have a standard 2 year warranty, that should the product fail in this time, you are entitled to the correct compensation and replacement. The lady in Dell told me that that only applied for 6 months... ha! I guess the consumer gods of Europe must be wrong if someone from Dell says so...
Waiting for a reply as to the situation... Will post back.
P Durkin

I suffered the same problem as everyone else. My solution was to have premiselaptops@gmail.comrepair the card for me. Send them an email with info about your situation, and see if thier price makes it worthi it.

I think you'll find premiselaptops is significantly less than trading in your current card (for $45 or $50), and buying a refurbished card for much more (the least expensive one I could find was in the upper $400 range).

I didn't like the refurbish route for three reasons. 1) why pay marketing overhead for the replacement card, when I can pay for the repair only. 2) the definition of a "refurbished" piece of electronic equipment is pretty loose and may apply to used equipment that is still working. I think we all know that this card expires after a certain amount of time due to the ambiant heat of the M1710. In my mind, "used"/refurbished was not a consideration. 3) The cost of a refurbished card would get me a significant part of the way to a new laptop.

I've contacted a class action lawyer about this problem, but my initiative fizzled when I learned two things: 1) most performance laptops don't last much longer than a couple years, anyway, and 2) I could relatively inexpensively have the card repaired (by premiselaptops).

I can't promise you that you'll like premiselaptop's price, but for me it was the only way to go. The only con is that you'll have to wait for shipping, and the repair -- which for me only took a little more than a week. If you can go without our your laptop this long, go with this company in Atlanta.

Wow everyone....It's kinda of strange seeing all these problems posted here. I'm having the SAME exact issue. My build "was" the latest M1710 latptop 3 yrs ago. Had the latest 512mb Geforce Go graphics card in it (7900 I believe). Yesterday I was watching a movie on my laptop and all of sudden the screen went completely black.

Now when I power on my laptop it's always completely black. No BIOS, no Dell screen, no windows, no nothing. If i memorize the button pushes my laptop logs in and i hear the windows music, but no display.

After reading forum posts it looks like the laptop's video card is hosed. I cannot believe this. The Kicker: My 3 yr warrenty expired last month. Now dell has shut it's doors to me and I'm getting no help.

I can't believe this is happening because I really don't have the money or time to deal with this crap. It seems like EVERYONE with this M1710 build has the same problem. I just dont understand how Dell/Nvidia can let this happen.

I might try contacting premiselaptops at gmail for help, but are they reliable? How can they "repair" it for such a cheap cost? What do they know we dont?

Suggestions are welcome...

To Lou

I have done a little reading on the subject as I also have a dead Dell M1710, mine matches Vicki's picture posted above. If you do enough reading, you will discover, the suspected issue is ambient heat vs bad solder. Enough heating and cooling causes expansion and contraction, cracking the solder on the gpu chip. This is referred to as a cold solder join. The problem is cheap solder with low or no levels of silver, making the solder brittle. This issue is also what was suspected to cause the Xbox 360 "Red Ring" issue, at least one of the issues :-) The repair can be done by anyone who is experienced with soldering micro electronics and can detect which solder join has failed. From the reading I have done, it is mostly the same spot on all the 7900 / 7950 cards. I'm personally thinking of cutting my losses and not repairing mine as I have spent enough on this product. Dell will NEVER get me back as a customer. Lesson learned.

Hey all

I found a solution to our collective issue and although a bit unconventional, it worked.
I have done a little stress testing with a graphic intense game, my gpu hit 61c and no problem. Now to be up front about this, I'm not sure how long it will last, I will report back with my findings as I only fixed my card yesterday Sept 4 / 09. I also installed i8kFanGUI, as per Airburst's instructions posted above. The instructions on how to fix your gpu came from a Dell community site http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t... and is a little advanced to actually do, as you must be comfortable with completely disassembling your lappy.

Here is the direct copy and paste from srenna7's post.

"Put your NVidia 7900 GS in the oven !

Yes ! In the oven ! This is not a hoax, even if it seems really odd, but it solved the problem for me! I do no longer have vertical bars displaying on my screen and can use it as before.

The solution comes from these french websites :

- http://www.espacerezo.fr/index.php?re...

- http://www.commentcamarche.net/forum/...

They are in french I'm sorry, but you can google-translate them.

To sum up this is what you have to do :

* Take the NVidia 7900 GS out of your laptop, remove the metal cooling case around it, even the black one under it.
* Pre-heat the oven for approximately 10 minutes at 150 °C - be carefull, do not use a Microwave oven, and in btw these are Celsius degrees, not Fahrenheit
* Put your NVidia 7900 GS in the oven - naked, without the cooling casing, not directly on the cooking plate use a cooking paper to avoid metal contact - for 3 minutes on each side (for a total of 6 min)
* Take it out and let it cool down completely
* Once completely cool, put it back in the computer. It should boot without any problem, there might still be some little artifacts or bars left on the screen the first 2 boots, but they should dissapear.

The website says that the problem with these video cards come from the contacts between the layers of the chip's printed circuits that get a little bit messed up with time, and a bit of heating put them back to order !"

This worked for my 7900 go GTX. Just remember, the instructions say 150 c, that is 302 f, and I used regular printer paper, 4 sheets folded in half, so 8 thick as a bed. It won't ignite until about 450 f so it's pretty safe. I also reapplied heat sink paste after my card cooled, but I'm not sure it was really needed.

Good luck to those who would try this, I will post back if my card fails again.

--Michael--

Quick tip on recovering data from your dead laptop - buy yourself a 2.5" Disk Enclosure. This allows your new computer to read data from old laptop hard drives.

I bought this for $10: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product...

Then you can remove the hard disk (it slides out from the back panel) and plug it in via USB.

Yep, had to send my Dell XPS M1710 back in the first year to have the motherboard, gpu (Geforce Go 7950 GTX), memory sticks and keyboard all replaced. A year and half later the motherboard and 7950 GTX is fried again. Never even played a game on this over-priced paper weight. Dell knows the problem exists but would rather lose lifetime customers than even meet you part way. live and learn.
Do a little research and you'll see that it is quite common that when your gpu goes, so does the motherboard ... happened twice to me ... cost is around $1500 to have Dell repair. good luck
Dell will never get another dollar from me, ever.

I can also confirm that the oven trick works (Thanks Michael)! Graphics card at gas mark 2 (150C) for 3 minutes on each side.
My screen too was looking a lot like Vicki Leigh's, Windows only booting into safe mode and the Dell video diagnostic tests were reporting graphics memory errors. My card is the Nvidia 7900 Gtx and the M1710 is 3 years old although I've only been using the machine daily since Nov 2008 - it has not been used for any heavy GPU work (no demanding games or cad) and actually failed whilst browsing the web!

Thank you Micahel for sharing the solution!!!

My XPS m1710 stopped working today and I was really upsad - my warranty just expired 1 month ago.

This solution fixed the problem. Yes, I also put my video card in the oven....and it worked!

Thank you! :D

Thanks for all the great suggestions and updates on here. I had this problem with my Dell E1705 two years ago. I bought and replaced my original Nvidia 7900 Go GS with a refurbished 7950 Go GTX card off Ebay for $400 and it had the same problems within 2 months.

I plan on trying out the oven trick and will report back within a few weeks.

I too will not be buying another Dell computer.

To all who have been a big help...The oven trick WORKED with my M1710 laptop and Geforce 7900 card!

This is FANTASTIC. My laptop is running smooth again just like it used to! Thanks to everyone in this forum for helping me out, i very much appreciate it!

Still won't buy DELL ever again. But least i'll have a laptop for a little while longer!

Best of luck to everyone else dealing with this problem.

Well, I just re-installed my newly repaired 7950 GTX and no thanks to Dell I too am now happily using my XPS M1710 again in all its splendour. I did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions concerning the repair or replacement options of this now notorious 7950 GTX that has failed for the 2nd time in 2-1/2 years. In the end I went with the guys at CADis Ltd for the repair as they claim their engineers have pin-pointed the manufacturing defects in the NVIDIA cards that are actually causing them to prematurely fail in the first place. They apply their own unique "permanent fix" when they repair your card so it will not fail again like the Dell "refurbished" replacement cards do. Their fee is very reasonable and their customer service excellent with a quick 5 day turnaround. If interested, you can find CADis Ltd on EBay by searching "NVIDIA 7950 repair". Apparently they also repair other failed models.
Now, I've only had their repaired card in my notebook for a few days now so I can't offer much of a “review” at this point except that my M1710 is up and running like new again. Yee haw!
I've now installed i8kfanGUI31 and CPUID HWMonitor to monitor and control the CPU & GPU temps and fans. I was surprised to see Dell's stock BIOS settings (A07) had the GPU running between temps of 70 & 80*C, with the fans kicking on Low speed at 80*C and off at 70*C. At the same time the CPU was running between 40 & 50*C so that seems fine ... but why is the GPU always running so hot for no apparent reason? You can't even hear the fans running on Low speed so why not use them to keep the GPU cooler, especially when AC powered? I have no idea what the optimal temp range should be but it’s sure nice having everything running about 20% cooler now. The fans barely run any more often and like I said, you can't hear them anyway. You have the option to run both fans on High with i8kfanGUI31 and wow, does that work well at cooling things very quickly. I would highly recommend installing these programs as they work extremely well and are easy to setup and operate. One note: you must adjust the GPU temps within i8kfanGUI31 by +8*C as it initially reports that temp 8*C cooler than it actually is. Very easy to do within "Options" under "Advanced".
I am running under "Automatic Temperature Control" with settings I have tested and feel comfortable with. It certainly feels better knowing what is going on with the temps and fans now, that's for sure. If all you want to do is "Monitor Only" then you also have that option.
Dust is a huge factor with these machines, especially when they tend to run as hot as the M1710. I always thought I was doing an adequate job in this area but when I finally opened the thing up I was shocked to see the amount of dust packed in between the heat sink fins and the fans themselves ... under the Mylar flaps. All the sucking and blowing you can do from outside the case will never remove this compacted dust. Actually opening the case up and removing the fans every few months is now going to be part of my maintenance routine. Having the ability to run the fans on High once in a while may help to keep the dust from accumulating so quickly ... I guess I'll see in a few months.
Anyway, my only intention in adding this comment was to hopefully help others that have found themselves in a similar predicament as myself. I have spent a ton of time trying to find a solution to this failed Dell/NVIDIA experiment ... I mean other than throwing this still very capable $3000 notebook in the recycle bin and purchasing a new one. When I first began I had no idea anyone would even be capable or willing to repair this particular video card for such a reasonable price ... properly and professionally so it should not fail again for the same reasons. It was only by chance that I came across the CADis repair and so far I am obviously very grateful. One thing for certain, cooking your $800 video card in the oven to try reflow the solder is not the best solution and may likely render your card unrepairable after it ultimately fails again shortly thereafter.
Either way, good luck whatever you decide the next time your card fails prematurely. At least now we have options besides dealing with the exact same refurbished junk from Dell.
Dan

It should be clear to all Dell Laptop owners that Dell simply doesn't give a Damn about their customers. The XPS-M1710 isn't the only Dell Laptop affected by bad Nvidia chips. There are thousands of people who put their trust and hard earned money into the Dell Corporation and got royally screwed by Dell. This is even in light of the fact that Nvidia has acknowledged that their chips were BAD and paid Dell close to 200 Million Dollars to resolve all the customer complaints and problems. Dell is not doing this. They are declining to help anyone "out of warranty" and pocketing Nvidia's money (in my humble opinion). Warranty should have absolutely NOTHING to do with a product that was defective the very day it was built. I have had TWO GeForce Go 7950GTX cards go bad on my M1710. Dell support told me that the 7950GTX was not one of the cards affected. Nvidia says the opposite and I have that in writing. Even my Pennsylvania State Attorney General could not get anywhere with Dell. Needless to say, Dell would rather lose lifelong customers than make good on a defective product. They are most likely waiting for a Class Action Lawsuit because that will cost them less than replacing all the Laptops even after Nvidia gave them close to 200 Million Dollars. Some Attorney SOMEWHERE needs to help all the people that have been given the middle finger by Dell! I don't care what the Attorney's get paid as long as Dell is held responsible and all defective Laptops are made working----one way or another. Needless to say (and I realize that Dell could care less), Dell has lost another life-long customer. My business and those of all my friends will not be using Dell either. Simply put, Dell is raping the very people who put Food on their Corporate Tables.

well for those who doubt the "homemade reflow" i can garanty you it worked for me i had the same problem as the image posted here (green line and dot on the screen and been unable to run nvidia drive) i was also unable to get any image on the laptop screen without booting the laptop connected to a secondary screen.
*****THE FOLLOWING IS TO BE DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND IS NOT 100% GARANTIED*****
so basically here is how i did it:
1- open laptop and take out gfx card
2- unscrew hsf and carefully pry out hsf taking care not to squach or loose any of the blue thermal pad
3- clean gpu from the excess thermal compound
4- turn on oven at 190c "take note that the use of a oven thermometer is recommended as oven are not precise and you might have to play a bit with the oven temperature to get it close to 190c"
5- wait for oven to reach its temperature
6- while oven heat up prepare the gfx card by sitting it gpu upside up in a alumunium pie plate with little ball of aluminium to prevent it from sitting directly in the bottom of the plate also try to place the ball so that they touch the least amount of electronic part
7- carefully ounce the oven as reached its temperature put the plate with the gfx in the oven and close the door "this operation should be done rapidly as you dont want the oven to turn the heating element for to long to restablish its temperature"
8- wait 4 to 5 min and turn off oven "do not open door" leave it for another 4 min with oven at off and door closed, at this point you gfx should have been in the oven for ~9min at this point slightly open the door of the oven to slowly let the temprature fall for a good 30min **DO NOT TOUTCH THE CARD OR MOVE IT WHILE IT COOL** after that 30 minute periode fully open the oven door and wait another 15min before taking the card out of the oven, now be carefull even if the card might not feel that warm to the toutch the soldering joint are still weak and the card should be left for another good 15 min to cool down to room temprature.
9- you card is now ready to be reassembled i recommend you visit your computer shop prior to the whole operation and ask to get some ARTIC SILVER COMPOUND this will help eleviate part of the temprature problem *** carefull when applying the compound A.S. is conductive so care should be taken not to put any on the rest of the gfx and should be only a thin layer on the die itself ***
10- reseat the card in the laptop and reassemble the laptop, turn on the laptop and if all went fine you should be greeted by a fully working m1710

ps:mine as been working now for a full month without a bug playing a good 1 to 2 hours a day (r6 vegas2, graw, left 4 dead) and running some cad/cam around 4 to 6 hours (mastercam x3 and inventor 2009)

i also recommend you use I8Kfangui to monitor temp and set the fan to operate at slow as soon as it reach 40c on the cpu side and 50c on the gpu, i know this will shorten the battery charge but its that or a rapidly overheating lappy.

a little on how i decided to do my reflow i have based myself on how i do air tempering on metal part in my everyday job as a machinist.

hope this will help other as it did for me

Hey all

Bad news, my 1710 died again, November 5 /09 so basically 2 months. I have to say, I didn't run it many hours either. All told maybe 20 hours total. I re baked the card as per Felix St-laurent's higher temps and longer times and got it back working again, but I am resetting the counter and once again will post when / if it dies again. The only thing I can confirm is the card can be baked at least twice, lol. At this point, the hardware is aged, and there are so many better, cheaper options available that I'm just not willing to send it away (and pay) for a fix that may or may not be any better than the oven method. So if it stays working after attempt number two, then great, if not, it finds it's way into a dumpster. Either way, Dell never see's another dime from me, and I ruin Dell's name with as many people who will listen to me. And being as I am the guy people come to every time they have a computer issue, I have an audience ;-) So I guess that is kinda satisfying on it's own.

humm if you plan on trowing it in the garbage let me know ill pay shipping to get the rest of the laptop ...:)

I have the exact same problem. 3 cards down. Don't think it's worth replacing it again. Dell should do a product recall.

Please sign this petition if you have the same problem.
http://www.petitiononline.com/XPSM171...

Please pass and post the petition URL around for others with the same problem to sign.

Thanks

thx! i signed it

Add me to the list of people who have had the card replaced an am now experiencing similar problems. I've also signed the petition. Dell should be ashamed of themselves. I don't care how "pretty" they make the outside of their new laptops. The only graphics that count are the ones on the screen--and they continue to fail.