Dell laptop starts with green vertical lines through all LCD display
I have a Inspiron 9400/E1705 with a nvidia geforce go 7800, when i start the system (DELL logo) appears green vertical lines through all lcd display, when i tried to test the 3D the display die and then a blue screen say the hardware is something wrong and the driver, i’m not sure if the card is bad, because it works for a time and then failed, i tried to reinstall O.S.(windowsXP) and drivers and it works for a while and then fail so now i have uninstalled the nvidia driver when i started windows the display is good with no lines but poor resolution due to video card is uninstalled.
If you see vertical lines as soon as you turn on the laptop and they run through the Dell logo, most likely this is a hardware related problem and this problem is not related to the operating system or the video card driver.
Test your laptop with an external monitor. Attach the monitor to the laptop, turn on the laptop and press Fn+F8 to switch the video signal to the external screen. If you see the same green vertical lines on the external monitor, most likely you have a problem with the video card.
December 17th, 2011 at 4:04 am
my dell precision m90 has same problem of dots and then black screen comes after windows sign.i baked the graphic card at 200 C for 10 mins.after cooling when i pick the graphic card from oven two skin color components d solded(dropped from gpu) and then i resold them on gpu with solder.after that when i put back it in laptop .the latop won’t start only the power light blinks continously.the system does not boot .kindly help in order to resolve this issue.
regards,
usman
December 16th, 2011 at 7:06 am
i have same problem of dots and then black screen comes after windows in dell precision m90.i baked it up at 200 c for 10 mins and then after cooling two skin color components of gpu d solded(dropped from gpu) and i resold them with solder. Put it back into my laptop but it won’t start only the power light continuously blinks when i press the power button.system won’t boot.any sugestions or advice is realy needed.
regards
usman
March 8th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I was having the same problem with green squares on the video what I did and it worked vise putting in an oven I took the heat sink off of the card and used a heat gun on the gpu for about 5 min reassembled the card with new thermal past and everything is working perfectly now saved me around $150-$250 that is what used video cards for the e1705 go for on ebay
December 28th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
This is so un-real!
Same problem with the video except it was horizontal lines. I however removed the board from the heat sink as I did not what the solder on it to melt. I just cleaned off the old thermal paste and reapplied new and put it all together.
10 minutes at 325 degF and I have my Dell M90 laptop back.
Thanks it really does work!
December 5th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
The video card went into the oven at at 325F for 10 minutes. Nothing melted or fell off. I put it back in the Dell m90 that had green dashes on the bios screen and would not boot into windows. Problem solved!!
December 4th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Same problem, green vertical lines when starting my laptop, followed by a crach because the driver could not be loaded.
First I thought it was a joke! I had nothing to loose, no warranty anymore so i did some surgery on my Inspiron 9400, took out the Geforce 7900 GS and put it in the oven for 10 minutes on 200 Celcius.
After a cooling down I put the card back, switched the laptop on… and it worked!
Thanks!
November 18th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Allright, so i baked my card for 10 minutes. The copper-heat-sink thing fell off as promised. Although now my computer is fully dead and my kitchen smells like burnt plastic.
It was worth it.
November 17th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Baked graphics card. That sounds … delicious!
I got the same problem: Inspiron 9400, green lines etc.
Tomorrow i will see if some baking will toast those green lines back to black!
Cheers for the recipe!
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:06 pm
Dell Precision M90, QuadroFX 2500M, been having same problems as everyone;
first it worked to boot to safemode, and reboot to normal mode.
When that didnt solve it, tt worked to do a fresh install from the cd’s that came with the computer – though first boot after installing the driver was very laggy and weird. Did not succeed with any other operating-system than the version on the original cd (might just be random).
3 days later: same problems – found this thread, laughed a bit with the baking, but figured I didnt have anything to loose – no warranty to void…
in the oven an 200 deegrees C for 10 minutes. The copper-heat-sink stuff fell off, so people, DO try to fasten them with something before baking. They’re not gonna stay in place even if you figure the weight will hold them down if you just place it carefully. In my case, the long one loosened from the blank metal towards the end, while the short one got bent up from the middle, so had to tear it off and then try to get it stright back on again. Tried to solder it back on, but my cheap soldering-iron wouldnt do the job. Fastened it with some (hopefully) heatproof tape.
Anyway, typing this right now from my M90 at a resolution of 1920 x 1200. Havent seen any artifacts whatsoever – yet.
Will post back if something changes.
Hmmm.. smells funny here… wonder if that tape might be all that heat proof after all…
July 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Confirmed the Baking solution.
Ready your ovens!!. I baked my old Go 7900 GS ( i also have an 7900 GTX Green-lined ). I was going to AS5 but didn’t want to wait ’till tomorrow so gave it a try. I even filmed it. i’ll upload the video so anyone suffering from this find an easy solution.
I haven’t don extensive testing, nothing more than Atitool exactly, but in a few days i’ll see if it holds so i’ll bake the GTX and make another vid from that.
Great thanks for the DIY, i could not bealive it just yet…
May 14th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Ok I applied some normal Arctic Silver thermal compound and tested the card…
IT WORKED!
I love the internet, thanks for this site!
May 11th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
“Only one problem that I’ve had was with the solder/paste that glues the copper heat pipes to the card’s metal base, melted on the 2nd baking and the a pipe fell off.”
Just happened to me, what’d you use to fix it?
April 13th, 2010 at 2:30 am
Further to my last response…
About an hour after the post to this forum, the laptop hung (assume the display was not responding) and I was back to the same symptoms.
Running with Standard VGA drivers got around the issues as before; installing the NVidia drivers meant I saw the same issues.
I was still reluctant to bake the card – so removed the card, tidied it up, and added more paste.
The lines appeared when I powered on the laptop… but after reinstalling the NVidia drivers – the green lines did not appear on start up, and the laptop is running again at full resolution.
Hoppefully this is a longer fix! But as suggested, it does seem to be a hardware issue with the video card.
April 12th, 2010 at 11:58 am
I had the same problem with the green lines and the screen going blank after the windows logo, and before the windows login.
I managed to get it working without a reinstall of the OS.
Here’s my experience:
System: Dell XPS M1710 running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit). BIOS was A06
I could get into safe mode with F8.
I tried updating the BIOS to A07:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen
But this in itself, did not solve the problem. (BTW the BIOS update would not run for me in safe mode – so a ran it from DOS using a DOS-on-USB utility)
I then found this forum, and couldn’t believe that people were baking their hardware. I didn’t want to resort to that so…
I uninstalled my NVidia driver. (and another piece of software that I no longer needed Virtual Audio Cable). I then used this utility to figure out what graphics driver I needed from NVidia (it recommended a different one from the one I had already installed):
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us
For me it recommended:
GeForce Release 179 for Notebooks
Version: 179.48
Release Date: February 11, 2009
But your mileage may differ…
Anyway once it reboot the greens lines were gone… fingers crossed I won’t see the issue resurface – and hopefully these avoids anyone needing to bake their cards.
Good Luck,
Jonny
March 30th, 2010 at 4:46 am
DemoDan,
I baked my card as you suggested and it worked perfectly! I was certainly skeptical, but as you put it ‘had nothing to loose’. Thank you for miraculously turning my 17″ paper weight back to a high performance 3d graphics machine again. I have never found such a helpful tip on a post before! Thank you, thank you, and thank you!
March 15th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
There is a problem with the nvidia cards used in the Dell e1705 / 9400 / m90 / XPS and other laptops caused by a manufacturing defect. Something like not enough thermal paste between the wafers and micro cracks in soldered connections forming with the tempurature fluxuations. My e1705 came with the 256mb card (#DG008) and it got the 4 green vertical bars with artifacts at logo and failure to complete boot-up. Same trouble shooting and results as most of these previous posts. Of course it was just out of warranty.
I found refurbished cards for around $200 or repair jobs for about $150 on ebay. I also found that the upgraded card with 512mb fit right in place with a very minor trimming in the case. The 512mb card has a huge added heat sink arm and radiator that looks like it would never fit, but it does just fine. These 512mb cards are the 7900gtx or quaddro2500 (YF227) refurbished sell for $350-$400 on ebay and up to over $600 other places. There are ebay sellers that will refurbish your card or sell one and give a partial refund if you send them your old card.
I purchased a refurbished 512mb card with a 90 day warranty for $275 and got a $50 rebate for the dead 256mb card from premiselaptops on ebay. The upgraded card was a huge improvement for gaming!
Because all these cards have the defect, this card lasted four months and died just like the last one. The guys at premiselaptops graciously replaced the card even though it had gone beyond the 90 days… for $75.
This third card lasted about another 4 months before crashing like the others before it. I was looking at another few hundred in buying more defective parts and doing without the machine until I could afford repairs. This was when I learned about the manufacturing defect as well as a free sloution. I really had nothing to lose so I tried the unbelieveable and amazing DIY repair.
Bake the video card! Seriously, it works. Put the card in the oven for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. This re-flows the stuff between the wafers and makes the card work again. Mine lasts about 2 or 3 months now before requiring another reheat. This last card has been baked four times now and has revived just fine each time. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass but it’s quick and free. I can have it out, baked, installed, and working again in under an hour. Only one problem that I’ve had was with the solder/paste that glues the copper heat pipes to the card’s metal base, melted on the 2nd baking and the a pipe fell off. Since then , I use a half dozen folder clips to hold it together until cool and solid again.
So if your Dell laptop with the expensive nvidia card has died and you’re hesitant to spend the hundreds for a refurbished (home baked?) card…give it a try!
Hope this helps!
February 28th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Update! (From April 2009 post)
As I’ve been mostly using the desktop, I’m now revisiting the video issues with the Toshiba P100 ST9012. There seem to be two (possibly related?) problems:
1) LCD stripes – the LCD screen itself is showing solid 1-pixel wide colored columns
2) there are vertical green-dashes in columns of 4 appearing since BIOS load. The computer then goes through the whole Windows loading and hangs just before the logon screen.
First, #1:
)
The stripes are on the laptop’s LCD screen. Originally were just 3, two yellows and a magenta. Then over time additional yellows, magenta, and a cyan would appear, first by flickering several times, disappearing for a week, then reappearing, flickering, finally staying solid. About 1/5th of the screen is covered. (Can still make out text and use the computer, but viewing images = ruined.) (Darn another flickered-in while verifying some of the observations below.
Plugging it into an external display via analog or dvi-d makes a crisp, clear (and beautiful!) image. So I’m fairly certain the stripes are an LCD issue.
For #2:
From the instant the power is on, I get an even pattern of sets of vertical dashes down the screen. Each set has 4 columns, each column has vertical green dashes. Then there’s about 50 pixels of blackspace before the next set. The dashes are pixel clumps, not characters, starting with circular, then flat flat flat flat, circular, etc. No horizontal pattern, just vertical.
These appear at the “Toshiba” logo. Then they disappear (and you briefly see a flash of a similar pattern in red.) Then they all * disappear * during screens like boot menus, bios setup, choosing to run in safe mode/ normal, and remain gone when the “Starting Windows” loading icon shows. (Win7) (Same experience if plugged into a display via analog.)
But then instead of showing the blue logon screen, mouse cursor, or even hearing the startup sound, I just see black. The LCD is still on, I can see the backlight (and the stripes from #1), but it’s all black. No green dashes, no HDD access, no respone to any keyboard inputs (even numlock/capslock). Fan might or might not be on. (I had tried compressed-air’ing it out in case if heating issue to no avail.) If plugged into a display, it tells me “signal incompatible with this input.”
Rebooting in safe mode and disabling the nVidia driver allows me to run the computer. I still get green dashes at startup, but Windows loads and I can use it (minus full resolution, nice colors, no 3D, etc.)
Now the interesting thing is, there is a temporary fix everytime:
i) install latest BIOS from Toshiba
2) do a clean install of Windows 7
Note that ONLY installing the latest BIOS * does not * fix the problem. You have to ALSO reinstall Windows. And by that I typically mean Windows 7, as Vista/XP had mixed (and mostly negative) results. Surprisingly, ONLY reinstalling Windows doesn’t seem to work either – you ALSO have to do the BIOS.
The first couple times Win7 restarts while installing, the green dashes persist.
Then the final time it restarts (just before the asking for name/date/time setup), the dashes are gone!
nVidia then loads properly, all acceleration, colors, etc. work. (Well the LCD stripes from #1 persist, but not on an external display.)
So it’s fixed!
… or not. Within 2 weeks if you do something like watch a Youtube video (most common cause), or your background changes wallpaper one last time, or you’re doing something as simple as typing in Excel or looking at camera pics, the computer would FREEZE.
If there was a sound playing, the sound loops. No mouse cursor movement, no response to any keyboard command.
Only solution is to hard reset/reboot.
Once you reset, the green dashes are back, nVidia/Windows won’t load, and the cycle continues…
*SO*
This is probably a hardware issue, but then how come it’s temporarily ok by reinstalling BIOS & Windows?
Why do the dashes only appear at the Toshiba screen and not at “Starting Windows” or in the OS itself?
Does the video driver crash when you call a specific API one too many times? A buffer overflow of sorts? Does Windows wait forever for it to respond, hanging the computer at startup?
Are the connections simply loose?
Could this be related to the LCD screen? (Like maybe the nVidia card’s connections are loose, so it’s not sending the full signal to the LCD, but also causing this buffer overflow or something?)
Maybe it’s just the nVidia card driver? Though every driver I’ve tried for it inevitably doesn’t work…
What would the FIX here be? Completely replacing the nVidia card?
Any pointers / insights would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Laptopfreak!!!
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Hello, same thing with me. I have a dell, vertical lines on start up. After start up the computer usually goes black, ie it doesnt even get to where i normally would enter my password, the screen just goes blank though the computer does not shut off. It runs on safemode but has the messed up screen. Also, i ran a degrag on the system last night and restarted my computer and it was fine for a while, at least until i restarted it again, leading me to think its not a connection problem or hardware issue, its a virus. Anohter thing – i ran AVG but it doesnt find anything. however i ran super antispyware when i could when the computer was alright after i degragmented the system and that crashed my computer as soon as i started a scan – back to the black screen it does after start up. anybody make any progress? looking around everywhere and nobody seems to have solved the problem.
September 10th, 2009 at 5:23 am
just wanna give a few tips:
case 1: the lcd is totally black:
connect to external monitor.
1.a. if u see the image on the external monitor, then the problem is in the lcd of the laptop:
use a bright lamp/light pointing to the lcd and see if u could see any thing on the display.
1.a.1. if it is black and u dont see anything, the FL inverter needs to be replaced
1.a.2. if u see the image on the display, means that the lcd bulb is burned and needs to be replaced
1.b if u dont see anything on the external monitor, the problem is deeper, and u have to look at motherboard or video card.
change a different video card. if it works ok, the problem is in the motheboard.
p.s. before all these, just make sure the cables are pluged in firmly and the cables is working properly.
p.s.s. if u think u got a virus or there is a problem with the video card driver, just boot some linux Live CD and see if the problems persist. if the problem persist – its hardware; if problem is gone – its software issue and u can go on and reinstall OS or update the driver.
stasik
August 26th, 2009 at 8:56 am
I have had the same problem with my Dell Precision M90. This is the 4th time Dell replaces both the motherboard and the video card. Once they also replace the LCD. Video works for about 45 days and fails again. Bios is A08, Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M Bios is 005.071.022.016.016.000
At first I manage to get around the problem entering Windows Safe Mode and then restarting, maybe a kind of soft reset to video mode, but now that trick isn’t working anymore
August 19th, 2009 at 11:17 am
hi guys, I have inspiron 9400 and havıng same problem. I got virus last week. Cleaned the system, formatted. Than green lines came up. That can’t be coıncidince. And there is no solutıon.