Dell D830 strange video problem

[pceinc]

Hi all,

We have a Dell D830 laptop that was brought in due to not booting to Windows XP. Fixed that issue via chkdsk. The problem is, as soon as the XP gui loads the LCD goes black. Bios screen, and XP loading screen is fine. Safe mode works fine. VGA mode does not work. Connecting a VGA monitor and using FN+F7 to toggle between does nothing. If we boot laptop with VGA monitor connected, the BIOS and XP load screen display on the laptop, as soon as XP gui loads, the display switches to the VGA monitor. Using FN+F7 to toggle output does nothing. We have disabled startup items, non MS services, reloaded video drivers. There are no hardware profiles loaded. The BIOS settings are all default.
There are also no video profiles loaded in the Intel Display software. When booted using the VGA monitor, we tried extending the desktop to the LCD. As soon as setting is applied, it reverts back to single display.

What could it be? We're at a loss.

 

[Onouris]

The D830 is part of the nvidia chipset fiasco... sounds like your problem.

Affected: Dell Latitude D830: March 2007 – September 30, 2008

More info: http://nvidiasettlement.com/index.html & http://nvidiasettlement.com/pdfs/IdentifiedSymptomsList.pdf

Best of luck!

Edit: Think I misunderstood symptoms, been a long week, above is good reference tho...

 

[fixitdaz]

functions won't necessarily work unless underlying software is set up to handle them. Switching to an external display is basically the job of the graphics card driver, so the graphics card driver needs to be set up to do this. Setting up multiple displays with the NVIDIA driver isn't terribly hard, fortunately. Run the NVIDIA configuration tool.

 

[myPCTechs]

I have two of these laptops. With the chipset problem the entire system would freeze when playing video or if the card got too hot. If it is a chipset problem I would recommend to the client to get a new system, rather than trying the 'fix'. I sent one in to Dell previously and the system developed the same problem shortly after, freezing when playing video. Just not as frequently.

What you're describing could also be a video driver issue or possibly malware loading at boot.

Did you try windows repair?

Try removing video drivers entirely and boot to standard VGA mode?

Scan for viruses?

 

[AdamsAPlus]

Normally if it's the nvidia chipset problem then it wouldn't work in Safe Mode. Are you sure the video goes out or does the boot just freeze with a black screen?

Sounds to me its a boot issue. I would run a repair from the WinXP disk. Also try using a live disk and see if it will boot up all the way to a live disk.

 

[TLE]

Is it definitely NVidia GPU installed? Some D830's, like my own have Intel Graphics?

Sounds to me its a boot issue. I would run a repair from the WinXP disk. Also try using a live disk and see if it will boot up all the way to a live disk.

+1

 

[pceinc]

1) Intel Graphics.
2) Not a boot issue. System boots fine. Video only disappears when gui loads. We spent some time working on system via logmein, checking display settings. Also uninstalled & re-installed Intel drivers.
3) Attempted XP repair earlier but the repair options does not detect any previously installed versions of XP, only shows the partitions.
4) Negative on viruses unless it's something brand new we haven't seen before.

Strange one this...

 

[gikstar]

Since you seem to be out of options, I would suggest that you install a new hard drive, reinstall the O/S and the divers from Dell.

Let us know how this comes out one way or another, please.

 

[myPCTechs]

Not showing any previous Windows version probably means drive failure or file corruption. Second the new hard drive route.

 

[red12049]

Not showing any previous Windows version probably means drive failure or file corruption. Second the new hard drive route.

Or you are using a CD that does not match the version of Windows on the machine, eg; using a Home CD on an XP Pro install. It won't show the old installation to do a repair.

Rick

 

[pceinc]

It's a Dell so we are using a Dell CD.

Our plan was to install another hard drive and load Windows to see what happens. Just wanted to get your take on it before we condemned the whole repair effort. We have a bit of time with this one as it's a business client's personal machine. He has many computers to use so it's not an emergency. Otherwise I would have made the decision to nuke and pave many hours ago. It also has our curiosity peeked.

Surface scan with Ontrack was one of the first diagnostics we ran. It passed.

I'll let you know how a spare drive loads up.

 

[red12049]

It's a Dell so we are using a Dell CD.

Our plan was to install another hard drive and load Windows to see what happens. Just wanted to get your take on it before we condemned the whole repair effort. We have a bit of time with this one as it's a business client's personal machine. He has many computers to use so it's not an emergency. Otherwise I would have made the decision to nuke and pave many hours ago. It also has our curiosity peeked.

Surface scan with Ontrack was one of the first diagnostics we ran. It passed.

I'll let you know how a spare drive loads up.

Do you know for CERTAIN which version of XP is actually on the hard drive?

Rick