Posted 01 October 2010 - 05:03 PM
I just want some confirmation on this one, I have a Dell inspiron 1420. The graphics chip is an Nvidia Geforce 8400m GS.
About 3 weeks ago now, I was playing a PC game (Guild Wars, if it's important) and right in the middle of it the computer locked up and wouldn't let me do anything, so i had to hold power for 5 seconds to turn it off. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and turned it back on, everything seemed fine, until i relaunched Guild Wars, it did it again.
So I turned it off, turned it back on, and reinstalled the graphics drivers. the computer then said new hardware was found (normal right?), it asked me to re-run the windows experience index (the thing that rates your hardware) i did, during all of the Aero tests the screen started getting covered in white dots anytime something on the screen moved. I let that finish, the rating went up from 3.6 to 3.7 i then shut it down and turned it back on, the POST test appeared on the screen 6 times, in 6 little boxes with parts of the logo missing. I let it run, until it got to the windows loading screen, it still had 6 displays but this time with a lot of blue dots and lines all over the place, it stays like this until it locks up and crashes again, then it just starts over. But, when i connect an external display to it it's fine as long as the display is connected before I power the laptop on. even with the external display I can't do anything like play games, or it locks up.
So, is my graphics chip dead or dieing; or is it something else?