Flattery

Hello all.
I've been lurking here for quite some time, and I've learned a lot from everyone.

Now, I require some serious expertise.

About two weeks ago, my laptop (Inspiron 8500) screen began to shake and "pixelate" while playing Half-Life 2. The game froze, and I could not exit it at all, so I powered off the machine, and upon reboot, the screen immediately began to white out from all sides of the screen. I powered off the computer again and let it sit for about 15 minutes.

Afterward, everything seemed to be fine. The next day, I experienced the same "screen shaking," with occasional OS crash or freeze, and it's happened again and again since then. Now, it occurs at random -- whether I'm playing a game or not.

I've inspected the hardware, and everything looks fine. All fans are clean and working properly.

My graphics card is an nVidia GeForce4 4200 Go 64mb, but I was using GeForce4 Ti 4200 drivers (version 78.01) for a loooooong time without any problems.

Since this problem began, I've tried everything -- I've tried various driver packages, including Omega drivers and those available from laptopvideo2go. I've used almost every 4200 Go driver package I could find (and used Driver Cleaner every time). I've tried the latest nVidia drivers, and several past versions. I updated my BIOS. I inspected the hardware again. Nothing seems to solve this problem.

The only time I do not experience any display issues whatsoever is when I revert back to the original 4200 Go drivers supplied by Dell on the resource CD. However, these drivers are very out of date and do not allow me to make any demands of the computer, i.e. games, DVD video, etc. I understand that laptops are not ideal for gaming, but this computer has served me well since 2003, so I see no reason why this problem should just "appear," unless the hardware is crapping out on me. I firmly believe it is a driver issue, though.

Specs:
Inspirion 8500, 2.5ghz, 1GB RAM, BIOS A08
Windows XP Home

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
~Flattery

Terrister

Welcome to TSF.
I think this may be an overheating issue. Download the program below and report your idle temps and temps after gaming.
http://www.pbus-167.com/

Flattery

Hi Terrister,
Thanks for such a speedy reply.

After downloading NHC, I shut down my computer and let it sit for 20 minutes. While Windows was loading, my primary fan came on for approximately 15 seconds, then shut off.

After windows had finished booting, these were my temps:

CPU: 66*C
HD: 40*C

I then opened and closed a few random programs, and loaded a video on Youtube just to give the computer a little activity. (By the way, my primary fan just came on as I'm typing this, if that matters at all.) Those temps were:

CPU: 67*C
HD: 44*C

I then loaded Counter-Strike: Source and played for 20 minutes. I then quit the game, and here's the temps:

CPU: 52*C
HD: 54*C

Immediately after I noted those temperatures down, the screen began shaking again -- little squares everywhere, as if the screen had been shifted, but pieces were left behind in their original spots. The entire OS was frozen -- no ctrl+alt+del response, no Windows key response, nothing.

I powered off the machine and let it sit for a while.
Upon another reboot, here are my temps:

CPU: 65*C
HD: 44*C

While I was playing Counter Strike, the keyboard was very warm. I could feel the heat radiating off of it if I held my hand and inch or so above it. ...this laptop has always gotten to be very warm, especially on the underside, but I may have mistaken that for normalcy and maybe this heat has finally taken its toll.

I'm pretty much a layman when it comes to hardware and graphics issues, so I'm uncertain as to whether there is a way to manage these temperatures without any excessive hardware modifications.

Hopefully this info will help with a diagnosis. Thanks again for replying.

Cheers,
~F.
P.S. As of right now: CPU = 46*C, HD = 46*C

Terrister

The above readings are ok, but it seems odd the temps went down after heavy gaming. Go ahead and get some canned air and give the cooling vents a good cleaning.

How long have you had this laptop?

Flattery

I spent an hour yesterday doing exactly that -- I followed Dell's instructions for removing the thermal assembly as well, and there was quite a bit of dust under there. The vents were fairly clean (impeccably clean, now), but I did dig out some dust bunnies. Afterward, I uninstalled display drivers and installed laptopvideo2go's 84.10 drivers (with modified .inf). Since all of this, I haven't experienced any further display problems. I'm still keeping a close eye on everything, though, and NHC is proving to be most helpful -- thank you for the link.

I may have solved my own problem, it seems. If I experience any more issues, I'll gather as much data as possible and post here again. For now, thanks for your advice and replies. :)

EDIT: Oh, and I've had this laptop since May 2003.

DellCA

It definitely sounds like the GPU was overheating. Chances are that when you opened it up and cleaned everything you removed the dust was insulating the video card and causing it to overheat.

Another utility you might want to try is the i8kfan utility. While it was designed for monitoring/controlling the fans on an Inspiron 8000, it works on just about any Dell notebook that came out after the 8000. For most systems that utility will also give you the GPU temperature in addition to CPU temp and fan speeds.

I think the CPU temp went down because CS was putting more of a load on the video and network cards than on the CPU.

I'm glad to hear you're 8500 is still working strong, by the way. They are one system I did not get many calls on when I worked phone support here at Dell. They may be getting long in the tooth by computer standards, but they are nice and sturdy in my opinion.


Larry
Dell Customer Advocate

Flattery

I must say, the I8500 is indeed a sturdy machine.

Update:
So far, no more display issues after cleaning the thermal assembly and using laptopvideo2go's 84.25 drivers (previously I posted that I had used 84.10 -- my mistake). I would have to perform some searches again, but to anyone else out there experiencing the same issues (with an I8500 -- presumably what I did may work for other I8000 models, but I can't be certain), I believe laptopvideo2go called the 84.25 drivers their "recommended selection."

I'm confident that I can say this problem is "solved." For now, at any rate.

DellCA -- I've been using i8kfan since your post, and I love it! What an incredibly useful program.

DellCA

I am very glad to hear the problem has not come back. Hopefully you will get quite a bit more use out of the 8500. If you had any other questions about it just let me know.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate

dama520

hi,

I am currently experiencing the same problem on my Inspiron 8500. The screen shakes and "pixelate", and then goes to white out. Once I reboot the laptop, there will be pixels or lines or random symbols showing on the screen. It will be normal only if I let it sit for 10 to 15 mins.

The interesting thing is, I can play CS for as long as I want without having the problem to occur. But once I start using the normal mode (as in msn/aim, word processing, webs urfing), this problem will occur after 15 mins.

I have the same BIOS A08 and GeForce4 4200 go 64mb video card as Flattery, but with 2.2ghz cpu, 512mb RAM, and XP Pro.

I have followed instructions to update driver, using the 82.45, and also cleaned (vacummed) thermal assembly (heat sinks, and both the main fan and the one on video card) as well as other dust i can see.

After doing all those, the problem is still occuring, and I am seeking solutions to it. Also, if I need to replace the video card, what are my options and where can I get it? (I have tried newegg and frys websites but have no luck)

Thanks.

donadoni

I also got the same problem with you guys and has follow the instruction above but the problem still occurring on my I8500. Anyone know, where i can buy the nVidia Geforce4 4200 Go?

dama520

donaburi,

i did some researches, u can get it from DELL for $180ish for a brand new one, or some other websites for $150ish. U can also try EBAY for used ones, I havent replaced mine coz i am thinking about getting a new laptop xD

good luck on finding it.