Dell....why oh why did I buy a Dell?

My Dell has been working pretty good for 17 months but yesterday it BSOD'd while idling and when it was restarted it has big green square artifacts on the post screen.
After post and windows is scrolling there was 15 lines very small white rectangles going from top of screen to bottom of screen.
After the windows loading scrolling was done.......black screen......jeez!!!, then you will hear the Windows XP welcome tune but screen is still black .

Booted into Safe mode where a few artifacts still appear but now they are faint, small green squares.
In safe mode the Go 7900gs drivers was removed and restarted to normal Windows startup.....cool, got a viewable screen but the faint green squares are still there.
Installed the old faithful 84.69 drivers from a year back and.......black screen again .
Booted into safe mode again and removed drivers, screen is back with the same dull green artifacts.

Called Dell, some person from India had his mic/ phone so close to his mouth that he had to repeat 80% of what he was saying because of the muffled speech added with his accent. After 20 minutes of frustration I informed him I needed to speak with somebody I can understand so he transferred me to another. After 4 transfers because they said I needed to speak to purchasing I ended up with the same person I started out with .
After repeating my Dell service tag # 7 times he informed me a Go 7900gs will cost me $362.97 . I asked him to repeat and he did, I heard him right on at least that part.
Too expensive for my blood for an outdated VGA card.
So the question is, any other place to get a new/used Go 7900gs card?
Maybe Ebay might be a better choice than Dell BUT isn't that taking a chance?

That is right for a laptop GPU, laptop GPUs are very expensive like 300-400$

Go for a 8800 512mb laptop gfx card, much better in games or maybe new ones will be released just after the gtx280, who knows. It isn't worth buying another outdated card that won't last long at all...

Will a 8800 work on a Inspiron 1705?
I thought a Go 7900gs was the fastest VGA that can be installed in that model.

Is it possible to install intergated graphics on the E1705?
I am currently on a US military base in Iraq so getting a VGA card anytime soon is not possible.
We do have internet, slow but usable but integrated graphics would at least make watching movies and surfing the web a bit less painful.
Got the 945GM chipset.
Not very familiar with integrated graphics so any help would be appreciated.

No it's not possible to add an integrated graphics chip.

Maybe your laptop is dying of dust clog. Have you tried cleaning it up and making sure things are running cool?

Glaze132 said:

Maybe your laptop is dying of dust clog. Have you tried cleaning it up and making sure things are running cool?

Click to expand...

I am starting to think that is exactly what happened but that would mean Speedfan has been giving me bad readings.

I have been using canned air to clean it many times but between GPU cooler fins and fan there was a wad of lint and dust. It was about 80% covered and CPU cooling fins was about 40% covered.
Disassembled laptop last night for the first time.

I have sprayed air into the fans countless times but I'm guessing the only way to get it right is to disassemble laptop then use compressed air but then you void the warrenty.
Been using Speedfan to monitor temps and readings looked kinda warm lately but still acceptable ( GPU 45-68C), (CPU 35-52C). That is idle to load range.

Did a bit of research and it seems I was mistaken that the Go 7900gs was fastest card that can be used on this laptop.
It seems that a Go 7950GTX can easily be installed with a small mod which consists of slightly trimming one of the cooling fin guides on both sides as seen here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Case-S...ard-of-a-Dell-Inspiron-E1705-9400.4187.0.html
Has anybody done the mod?
If so, what was the results?

take a look at the classifieds section for some nice cheap 7900 caliber gfx cards. They go for under $100 more or less

It needs to be a laptop GFX card jokers, so it won't be that cheap.

anyway, sounds like the original card had a failure in the memory. almost cirtainly due to heat. Been there, seen that. Replacing it is the only answer. the fact that there are artifacts in the BIOS post screens tells me that.

GL

No warranty? When I got my dell it was only another $99 for 3 years on-site support. So if something breaks down they will come to my house and fix it for me. Something like that should definitely be covered under warranty.

DumpALump said:

No warranty? When I got my dell it was only another $99 for 3 years on-site support. So if something breaks down they will come to my house and fix it for me. Something like that should definitely be covered under warranty.

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Not in reference to the OP but more of a frustrated rant on the salesperson's end....

Most semi-tech savvy people refuse to buy warranties because they think they can 'fix it themselves cheaper than a warranty.' Little do people know, while labor is indeed outrageous, it's only half the cost, you still end up paying half the cost in a single part than if you had gotten a cheap warranty.

Moral of the story? Despite what consumer reports says, extended warranties are almost never a bad thing.

That depends opn the cost of the item being covered and such. For laptops I would probably buy extended warranties simply because it's a pain in the butt to take it apart and fix it properly plus many laptop uses propriety parts that are harder to find. A desktop PC OTOH I wouldn't bother with extended coverage. It's too easy to fix desktops anyway.

$100 TV? $25 DVD player? nah I had a BB sales drone try to push a 3 year plan on a clearance sale USB mouse (only $5 for the mouse)

It all comes down to: if you're willing to spend a little extra for insurance or not.

That depends opn the cost of the item being covered and such. For laptops I would probably buy extended warranties simply because it's a pain in the butt to take it apart and fix it properly plus many laptop uses propriety parts that are harder to find. A desktop PC OTOH I wouldn't bother with extended coverage. It's too easy to fix desktops anyway.

$100 TV? $25 DVD player? nah I had a BB sales drone try to push a 3 year plan on a clearance sale USB mouse (only $5 for the mouse)

It all comes down to: if you're willing to spend a little extra for insurance or not.

Well, wife bought it for me after I told her what I wanted for christmas.
She is not computer savy in any way or form so she was a bit upset that I wanted such a small item with such a high price tag ( $1900).
She still refuses to let me upgrade her old Dell Dimension 4600 w/ 1.8 ghz P4 and 20GB HD.
So after she was quoted appx $1,900 for the laptop I am guessing she decided including even more money for warrenty extension was out of the question.
So, when you are married sometimes it is best to sit back, keep quiet, and pray nothing goes wrong with it and remember to purchase it yourself next time.

Hmmm... Wife faction, oh yes very important. Swallow your loss and don't mention anything to her.

ebay.

4GHZ_or_bust said:

Hmmm... Wife faction, oh yes very important. Swallow your loss and don't mention anything to her.

Click to expand...

Ditto

galador said:

Well, wife bought it for me after I told her what I wanted for christmas.
She is not computer savy in any way or form so she was a bit upset that I wanted such a small item with such a high price tag ( $1900).
She still refuses to let me upgrade her old Dell Dimension 4600 w/ 1.8 ghz P4 and 20GB HD.
So after she was quoted appx $1,900 for the laptop I am guessing she decided including even more money for warrenty extension was out of the question.
So, when you are married sometimes it is best to sit back, keep quiet, and pray nothing goes wrong with it and remember to purchase it yourself next time.

Click to expand...

Yikes, sorry about that man =/