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no image on LCD screen, but sometimes lines and weird colors
Hello,
This is on a Dell Inspiron 5160. Yesterday the LCD screen suddenly went blank. Then I noticed that sometimes it showd two vertical bands on the screen (around 1.5 inches wide) but otherwise no image.
Today morning I booted up the laptop again and this time the XP welcome screen appeard (nothing appeared when BIOS was booting up, same as before) but it was not clean and crisp. It was distorted in small rectangular pattern.
I then connected an external monitor to the laptop got a similarly distorted image there too.
So, I know now that the LCD is okay, the video cable is okay and the problem lies either on the video adaptor or on the motherboad (or both?).
Any suggestions how to test this further to narrowdown the problem? Or are the symptoms pointing toward a video card problem.
By the way, reseating the video card once got the good image back. It was okay for a few hours and it went back to the problem state.
Thanks.
ejn63
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July 7th, 2008 10:00
It could be the video card, or the socket on the mainboard that holds it. A video card should be inexpensive - try that first. If you have to replace the mainboard (i.e., the problem persists with a new video card), you're probably better off retiring the system and replacing it with a new one.
delguy
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July 7th, 2008 13:00
Any suggestions where to look for a video card? This laptop has a 64 MB Nvidia video card.
I don't suppose one could buy a video card like this from Best Buy or similar stores? But I could be wrong, never looked for laptop parts like these before.
Thanks.
ejn63
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July 7th, 2008 13:00
No, the card is proprietary, as are all notebook cards - you won't find one at retail.
This is the card:
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=1146&prevaction=search&previd=&prevstart=0
delguy
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July 7th, 2008 14:00
Thanks for the information and link.
Regards.
delguy
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July 8th, 2008 18:00
I was also wondering, apart from the link for parts that you gave before, if I were to buy a new Nvidia graphics card (64MB) for the Inspiron 5160 from Dell directly, any idea how much it would cost?
I tried finding this part on Dell's website but didn't get much luck.
ejn63
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July 8th, 2008 20:00
You'll have to call them for price/availability. I'd guess as much or more than what parts-people.com wants -- if they still have them. Once a line of notebooks is too old to be in warranty, Dell often doesn't keep parts in stock.