K, I have a Dell Inspiron 9400, and I put a Intel 2 duo processor in it about a year ago. I was playing this game called world of warcraft on it, and it worked fine for months. I tried to play it again one night, and within minutes of playing it, the screen kinda blended with white pixels, then went all white. I tried to restart it, and the computer did it again within minutes. I waited till the next morning, and the computer worked fine. I could use 3Dmax, starcraft...ect. Anyways, I tried to play world of warcraft again, and it happened again within seconds. I would really appreciate any help that you can give me on this.

Things ive tried:
System restore-
Hooking it up to another monitor-Display on both monitor and laptop goes white.

Hi Toadsage, and welcome to BleepingComputer.

Could you pleas supply us with some information, how much RAM do you have, what is the wattage of your PSU, how much free space do you have on your hdd, and what video card are you using?

Thanks.

lets see
Ram 2.00
Graphics card Nvidia Gforce Go 7800, 256 MB
27GB free space
70GB total
2.33 ghz
960 mhz

Oh yea, I had my computer on for about 15 minutes, just looking at information on this, and it pixilized to white again.
Anyways, I appreciate the help, and I hope that information will help solve it.

Be sure to check it the graphics card fan is operational and not plugged with lint. Maybe even reseat the card
Mark

K, I took the graphics card out of the machine, and put it back in, and cleaned out the fan. I left the keyboard off when I tuned it on, and the heatsink over the graphics card got extremly hot within 5 minutes of it being on. The fan seemed to be working, as in I could kinda hear it, but it didnt feel like it was blowing any air out of the back.

Soo.. I'm thinking it might be the fan, or the graphics card, what do you guys think?


Edit: K, I put a toothpick through the back of the machine, and I didnt feel any resistance where it should of hit the fan, soo... the fan Is not on. I have a duplicate computer, and it does hit the fan when I put the toothpick in. Im assuming there is a chance that I might of ruined my graphics card if it heats up that much in 5 minutes right... or is that usuall for no fan being on?

Do you have another graphics card you can try in your PC other than your 7800? Chance are that if your fan isn't wizzing around on the graphics card it would appear to me that your card is knackered, in that your card isn't being cooled!

So should I take the graphics card out of my duplicate computer, put it in the broken computer, and see if it turns the fan on?

Providing that the card from you duplicate machine is fits I would, its definitely a cheap way to sort out a problem!

Yea, they didnt fit. It was soo close too, the hole that would of let it set in there only needed to be another cm and it would of been perfect. Oh well, I did manage to hook the fan from the other computer into the broken one, and it still doesnt turn the fan on.

I have noticed that both fans are not turning on in my computer, chances are that its my motherboard then ?

What make and model of motherboard & PSU do you have?

The power supply is built into the motherboard, and its a dell inspiron 9400 motherboard.

Let's clear up some confusion
Your post title says "laptop screen goes white". The remainder of this thread is talking about a desktop, correct?
There is no power supply attached to the motherboard (it plugs into the motherboard). The power supply is the metal box on top of the case, in the back.
What is it you are referring to?
When you say both fans are not turning in your computer, which fans are you referring to? Both graphics card fans that you tried or the graphics card fan and the fan attached to the CPU heatsink?
Mark

Wait, I am talking about a laptop, not a desktop.
K, I am still, and at least thought I have been talking about a laptop this entire time. Yes, I do plug the power cord into the back of the motherboard. There is two fans in my laptop, one that cools the cpu, and one that cools the graphics card. Both of those fans are not turning on.

Bit of a mixup here sounded like a laptop problem then turned into a desktop! Oh well.... Is your laptop still under warranty? Sounds like a motherboard problem especially with the CPU fan not comming on!

Yea, It doesnt have a warranty, but I can buy a new motherboard for it off ebay for like.. 125$, So not way to expensive. Do you think I should buy one and see if it fixes it. I can always put it back on ebay if it didnt fix the problem, and only be out like 10$ for shipping.

Probably a good bet. I'm looking for a slightly different model myself
Mark

I'd agree with garmamma