larzke

Some time ago while working on my Dell Latitude D620 laptop, all of a sudden the image turned fuzzy. It seems as if the rows of pixels don't line up perfectly anymore, creating a fuzzy image. I suspected a virus, but even in the BIOS the problem appears. No problems on external displays. I replaced the entire LCD as well as the connection to the motherboard, but the problem persists. Could the video chip have turned defective? WinMSD says it's an NVIDIA Quadro NVS 110M. Can I replace it or will the entire motherboard need replacing?

Here are two photos of my screen.

http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1tr0.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img3gx8.jpg

Thanks

TriggerFinger

I assume you replaced the flat video cable too. If you can, could you please post a screenshot of the BIOS setup screen.

In your BIOS settings, is there a setting for the DISPLAY or at least related to the display?

feranick

I have exactly the same problem with my D620 (with NVIDIA graphics) as described at the beginning of this thread. I am "lucky" enough to have two identical D620 so I could do some more testing. As follow I will call the working D620 as D620good, the one I am having problems: D620bad

I swapped the complete screen (including LCD, cable, inverter) with the D620good, and everything works just fine. This suggests (as the original poster) that the actual screen+cables are OK. I then mounted the screen of the D620good in the D620bad, and although I could see the backlight to power on, the screen remained completely dark. I tried all different combinations of cables+LCDs, with the same results.

So if there is a problem, I am inclined to think that problem is with the motherboard and specifically with the NVIDIA chip.

Any suggetions?

TriggerFinger

If you get the fuzzy screen even in BIOS, then it could be the video card. Thank you for sharing info.

larzke

Since my original post, the problem had magically disappeared and everything seemed as normal. Then some time later, the screen went completely dark, and (unlike before) hooking up to an external display did not give any screen either.

So it had to be the video card, thus requiring an entire motherboard replacement.

I ended up calling Dell Tech support and found out I had another 9 months of warranty left. Nice surprise. Guy came over the next day and replaced the motherboard, and everything worked as normal. He pulled a big ugly chunk of dust out of the fan -- the video chip had obviously overheated and died.

Lessons learned:
- blow out your fan with compressed air every month or so
- if you don't get video on your LCD but do get video on an external display, the video card can still be a problem (normally you'd blame the LCD)
- check if you have warranty before you buy a $120 LCD replacement on eBay

To feranick: I would indeed strongly suspect your NVIDIA chip, if only because they are known to be flawed in the D600 series and it sounds like you already tried a different LCD. I hope you have warranty because if you have to buy a replacement motherboard it may be more worthwhile to buy a new laptop.

feranick

Thank you all for your help. I ended up calling Dell support and with my great pleasure I found out that my laptop qualify for the additional warranty for the faulty NVIDIA chip. So they Strain calculatorwill replace motherboard and screen (although the latter works just fine...) free of charge.

TriggerFinger

As for the others.. here's a good information on the topic...

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/d...t-details.aspx

doseedo

Ignore my question. Couldn't see the whole thread.