Anjing

Hello and thanks for having such a awesome community!

My friend gave me his inspiron 9100 a few months ago which had been working. After using it for a bit the screen started getting strange lines and blocks through it and eventually went black. I wanted to see if it was the screen so I plugged it into a monitor and nothing showed up on the screen...in fact it had the small blocks and lines on the screen still. So I assumed the problem was the video card.
I bought a used card and put it in...it worked for a few minutes then the same thing started happening. I thought i had a fan problem but they all seem to work. The laptop would work when I didn't stress it with video games but it did eventually. So I started using it just to check email and stuff but then it started to melt on me and now I just have a black screen. I am very confused as to what the problem is...I am usually pretty good with trouble shooting. I still have a feeling it may be a fan somewhere but I just cant see that being the problem since it happens so quickly. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions as too what may be the culprit? Thanks in advance!

TriggerFinger

Attach the external monitor before you boot up... see if you can see POST in the external monitor.

Anjing

Thanks for the reply. I cant see anything on the external monitor even when I plug it in before booting. I don't think it is even booting to Windows now since it boots quickly and powers down w/out pushing the button for 5 seconds.

TriggerFinger

So you mean it shuts off right after power ON? Are running on battery, ac adapter or both? Have you tried replacing the RAM with good/working modules just for testing purposes?

Anjing

I put in the old video card again and I get square blocks up and down my screen (kinda matrixy..but no movement). It now boots up but after I enter my password to Windows, the entire screen has small gray boxes covering the entire thing..this lasts 3-5 seconds and then the screen goes black. But now the screen is entirely black. Any more thoughts?

TriggerFinger

Seems like you have the replacement video card died the same way (not so sure if it is the video card indeed since it was bought 'USED')...

Before jumping into any conclusion, try reseating the video card and apply thermal compound between heatsink and video card. Also reapply thermal compound between heatsink and CPU.