Dell Laptop RMA Decision

[Tonka777]

The other half tried playing the Sims on her 3 month old Studio 15 Laptop last night, and was met with some severe artifacting in game. A quick scan with ATITool also showed artifacting. I updated the drivers last night, and checked again, still getting errors. Then ran the Dell Diagnostics CD, no errors found.

Today i have spoken to Dell, and convinced them to take it back and put a new GPU in it, but, i just switched it on to do a backup, and thought I'd run ATITool again. That is now running fine for short periods with no problems. The temps are ~10 degrees cooler on the GPU today, its hitting 55 in ATITool toady and it was hitting 75 yesterday.

So, do you think the GPU could have been damaged and i should get it repaired under warranty, or should i just stick RivaTuner on there to keep the fans running higher and stick with it? Also, isn't 75 degrees a little low for a GPU to start overheating?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[defgn]

It shouldn't be showing any artefacts at all really unless it is overheating and there is a more serious hardware problem.

I would just send it back under the warranty just to be safe.

[Tonka777]

Forgot i made this thread!

I sent it off on friday. I figured that a new gpu in it when it returns, and me setting up some fan profiles for the gpu should make the whole laptop last a bit longer.

[Tonka777]

I got the laptop back from Dell today, bloody quick turn around i must say!

But, they haven't replaced the GPU, instead, they have put in a new HD LED screen! My res before was 1366x768, now its 1920x1080!

The big problem is that this GPU is still artifacting, even at temps as low as 45 degrees. None of the dell reps i have spoken to thus far seem to know what artifacting is, so is there a better way i can describe this to them?

The machine obviously passed their diagnostics before they sent it back, but their diagnostics cant be pushing the gpu hard enough to show a fault, or they are testing it in a nice cool air conditioned room.

What can I do to get through to these numpties?!

[Lee H]

The big problem is that this GPU is still artefacting, even at temps as low as 45 degrees. None of the dell reps i have spoken to thus far seem to know what artefacting is, so is there a better way i can describe this to them?

Video it and then send them a link to the video file either on youtube or something else like this. They can then see the video with all the evidence to hand and it should help them progress in getting it rectified.

[Agent]

nVidia card or ATI?
The nVidias had a major issue with the packaging. The BGA just doesn't seat properly on the motherboard.

[Tonka777]

nVidia card or ATI?
The nVidias had a major issue with the packaging. The BGA just doesn't seat properly on the motherboard.

ATI, 4570.

The shocking thing is that even with the fan set to 100% RPM, the temps do not drop when the card is in 3D clock mode. Is this a sign that the card has died, or perhaps a sign of the heatsink not being seated properly? If this was a desktop machine things would be a lot easier!

Thanks for the video idea Lee, I shall do that later.

Could drivers cause this sort of a problem? I upgraded it to the latest catalyst's before I RMA'd it, is it worth trying some older ones?


Thanks chaps.

[Agent]

Corruption, certainly in ATITool is almost certain to be a dead GPU/Graphics RAM sadly.

Reseating the HSF is reasonably easy, but if it's under warranty, don't bother just in case you break something

[Tonka777]

Excellent, thanks Agent.

Yeah, i am none too keen about opening it while it still has warranty, i dont trust my self with all those plastic clips!

Another question if i may, would it be ok to make the video of ATITool or Furmark showing the artifacting, or would this open me up to overclock claims? - Note, i haven't overclocked it, there would be no point, and this can be proven due to ATI tool not loading the driver properly, so the clock control settings are not active.

[Tonka777]

Update;

The Technician came out today and put a new main board in there, so we are back with a stable GPU now. Dell no longer put any thermal grease in the packaging with the replacement boards now, (apparently they used to) Seeing i was a bit tech savvy, the tech asked me if i had any he could use, no worries says I as I hand over my AS5. Then it struck me, if he doesn't have any, and dell don't supply any, then what would he have done if I didn't have any?

I asked him, and his response was some what incredible - he said he would just re-use whatever was left on the CPU and GPU cooler when he removed it! Of course he agreed that this was a bad idea, and that it just resulted in more returned products, but was all he could do.

So, the moral is, if you have a main brand repair tech coming out to fit a new main board in your laptop, make sure you have some thermal grease at home!

[vicar]

Priceless lol

[vti_786]

that is poor from dell, replacing a motherboard worth 100's and risking damage for the sake of a few quid.

[defgn]

Wow. That's incredible....

So is the problem fixed now?

[Tonka777]

Yep, problem was fixed with the new mainboard. Just got to try and keep it cooler for the time being.