Need some help diagnosing a M70 problem

Can always plug in an external monitor and see if the display is better. If it is then probably just the notebook screen. If not, then I would go for a clean OS installation first before playing with the video card itself.

cheers ...

It is a bit touchy here. I would say it's the GPU but in the same time I am inclining to re-install the OS first-

Your call, and let's wait for some more input if anyone else has it.

cheers ...

x2 try a OS reinstall and see what happens

I don't know.... maybe its because I spend so much time running Linux that I'm not a fan of the reinstall Windows first school of thought. Most of the time when Windows crashes as described it's because of some underlying reason. Either your hard drive is flaky and you've got file corruption (which is quite possible in a 5 year old laptop), your son caught something online (possible), or your video card is crapping out (which is also quite possible).

The version of Windows that came with your machine is old. It will take you many hours of downloading updates and service packs just to get Windows up to date. Then you've got to deal with reinstalling your apps and data. That's going to be a heck of a lot of work to do on a system that might have flaky hardware and still not work right when finished.

These Nvidia Quadro FX1400Go cards are notoriously problematic. The GPU used in these cards was not a mobile chip, but instead an underclocked and undervolted desktop chip that when combined with the inadequate heatsink on the M70 makes for an unreliable combination. Exacerbating the situation was the conventional lead solder balls that were used to attach the GPU to the PC boards that have a much lower melting point than the lead-free type used on later cards. There has been a constant stream of literally dozens of these cards for sale on ebay for a couple of years now and most have been "baked" to repair at one point or another.

I know this first hand as I've purchased 3 in the last 6 months from different sellers as inexpensive replacements for my 6800 and 7800 GTX that died on me last summer. All three failed within a week or 2 of usage even with the dual-pipe GTX heatsink. I got so fed up that I downgraded to the ATI card that I'm using now. All three exhibited similar symptoms as described by the OP before biting the bullet.

One way to tell what's wrong would be to see if it boots into safe mode after heating up and failing in Windows. If it boots fine in safe mode when hot but refuses to boot into Windows my bet is your card is failing. If it fails to even boot into safe mode then test your hard drive. Remove the hard drive and place it into a caddy and run chkdsk on it from another machine. If the drive checks out OK then you know you've got a video problem. If the hard drive fails you know that's your issue. If both check out then reinstalling Windows would be my last desperate attempt to repair it. Then if that doesn't work it's goes back to the video card.

One thing you can check before doing any of this is to take the machine apart and make sure that both the CPU and GPU have a good quality thermal paste on them. The stuff Dell used from the factory was crap that hardens, cracks, and looses effectiveness over time. In fact, I'd try checking them first before proceeding with the other tests. You might just get lucky and find this solves your issue.

I hope this helps

Ciao

You have a few choices actually. The easiest would be to find an ATI x600 128 meg card. They made them to fit the M70 and Latitude D810. It's a drop in replacement. All you need to do is uninstall the nividia drivers and install the ATI drivers. The X600 can be had relatively cheap on ebay and would be the way to go if you want to ditch Nvidia.

Any of the GPUs that fit the Inspiron 9300 or M170 will also work but you'd have to swap heatsinks. The Nvidia cards for the 9300/M170 will run way too hot in your laptop so I'd stay away from them. It's a shame but the heatsink on the M70 is pathetically small.

There are 3 flavors of ATI x300 for the 9300 that will fit. One that's 32megs onboard but shares 32megs of system memory. A 64meg version that shares 64 megs of system memory and a 128 meg version (that doesn't share any system memory), this one would be preferred out of the three.

However, if you're looking to replace your Nvidia with another, you may want to look here http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-NVIDIA-GO-1...item20b6fc7bf8

The only thing this guy sells is Dell laptop graphic cards. I don't know if he gets them refurbed from Dell or if he has the setup in-house to properly recondition / refurbish them. Either way he obviously doesn't bake them like others on eBay, or there's no way he could give a 60 day warranty. He's sold thousands of them over the last few years with a 100% rating and at $65 including shipping, you can't really go wrong. I would have bought this card myself, but the seller has banned me from buying from him and refuses to respond to my messages. (I made the mistake of asking him a while back if an ATI x1800 from an Inspiron 2010 would fit in a 9300 if I switched out the heatsinks.) He must have thought I was a flake or crazed modder. But I've kept him in my favorite sellers list in the hope that he gets another 7800GTX. When he does, he sells them cheaper than anyone else. Last time he had one for only $178, but I was in between paychecks and it sold hours after listing. The next one that pops up I'm having my mom buy for me (since I'm banned) before it gets away.

I hope this helps.

Ciao

Please do us a favor and post back if and when you get this resolved. I'm sure many would be interested in hearing how things worked out for you.

Good luck,

Ciao

Another crazy baker just graduated Now don't push the GPU too hard, take it easy on it

cheers ...

i bought an ati x600 128 mb to replace my dying nvida 256 in my Dell M70 but cannot find a driver on the Dell Driver Download with Dell. Chatted with Dell tech and he said wont work, hardware incompatibility. I dont believe him as I have read so many posts like yours about people doing it. But were did you get the driver for the ATI ??

HELP.

James Nish

It is not just the driver alone, you would need an appropriate BIOS version first.

cheers ...

Thanks for the update Chris. Too bad it did not hold old longer for you

cheers ...

Search the forum for M70 BIOS flashing Chris. Should be plenty of tips around here. In a nutshell all you have to do is going to Dell support site and download the appropriate BIOS version. And welcome to NBF

cheers ...