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My screen blinks every once and a while?

post #1 of 16
3/13/05 at 4:43am
Thread Starter 
Is this normal? Every now and again the screen will blink into total blackness for about .5 seconds. Only happens once at a time and usually at random, never more often than once every 2-3 hours.

Is this normal or a sign of a failure of some sort?

jon!
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post #2 of 16
3/13/05 at 5:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by joncivicSi
Is this normal? Every now and again the screen will blink into total blackness for about .5 seconds. Only happens once at a time and usually at random, never more often than once every 2-3 hours.

Is this normal or a sign of a failure of some sort?

jon!

weird that you mention it, my 700m has been doing it for the last month or so, not every day, just sometimes. And when it does, it does like you say for about .5 seconds and usually will do a group of about 3 flickers about 20-30 sec. apart, then will quit for a day or two.
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post #3 of 16
3/13/05 at 5:41am
Hmmmmmm, so I'm not the only one! :-)

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67382

I bet a fault like this maybe difficult to track down. It looks like it's on other Dell machines other then the 700m too.

Chook
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post #4 of 16
3/13/05 at 5:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chook
Hmmmmmm, so I'm not the only one! :-)

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=67382

I bet a fault like this maybe difficult to track down. It looks like it's on other Dell machines other then the 700m too.

Chook

interesting thread,

yeah it hasn't worried me either because it does it so infrequently. I sent it to the depot for repair a few months ago, and they updated all drivers while there. I can't remember if it did it before I sent it in though, to far back to remember.
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post #5 of 16
3/13/05 at 6:10am
Hi jslessley,

Just had a look at the Dell "Community Forums" - did a search on "blink" and there are plenty of posts about it but I can't see any answers from Dell support.

Dell Forum

Chook
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post #6 of 16
3/13/05 at 3:02pm
My 9200 did that a few times then stopped. I haven't seen it for weeks. My wife 8600 also did that according to her.
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post #7 of 16
3/13/05 at 3:14pm
You may have an program downloading in the background such as a virus program.
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post #8 of 16
3/13/05 at 3:16pm
Flickering, especially while on battery power, is caused by ATI's powerplay feature on notebooks with ATI cards. The 700m does not have an ATI card so something else is wrong there. If you unplug your 8600 or 9200 and see the screen blink, nothing is wrong it's just powerplay reducing power consumption for the video card. If the computer is plugged into the wall and you see it blink, then something could be wrong. Try disabling ATI powerplay in the ATI control panel and see if the blinking stops.
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post #9 of 16
3/13/05 at 5:29pm
It's also sometimes caused when Windows Explorer crashes - I don't mean Internet Explorer, but Windows Explorer. In the '95 and '98 days this would kiss your session goodbye - reboot, but with XP Windows can recover. Causes that crash Explorer are typically viruses and/or really bad spyware as Tummypony says or just a faulty old install. I think there are several possible causes...the ATI powerplay is another very good recommendation.
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post #10 of 16
3/13/05 at 9:45pm
My 9200 does this, and when I called the Dell support, they said it was either the video card or the screen. Of course they told me to check it on an external monitor, but since I don't have another monitor laying around, they didn't want to do anything.

I don't know if this is the case, but if this continues after this week when they replace the mobo, that part can be ruled out.
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post #11 of 16
3/13/05 at 10:20pm
Thread Starter 
I doubt i have any virus's yet (i have only had the machine for a week and a half, and run mcafee and pestpatrol.

I noticed the blinking about 3 or 4 days after i got it. Its not something that happens every day. Its so infrequent that pinning it down would be next to impossible.

Maybe its
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post #12 of 16
3/13/05 at 10:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joncivicSi
Is this normal? Every now and again the screen will blink into total blackness for about .5 seconds. Only happens once at a time and usually at random, never more often than once every 2-3 hours.

Is this normal or a sign of a failure of some sort?

jon!
it's just winking at you saying "you know you want me"

my 700m does it too. i still haven't gotten around to complaining to dell about it yet though...started after i updated the newest driver too. it does it more when i'm checking out some other laptop though
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post #13 of 16
3/14/05 at 10:42am
I guess there's comfort in numbers, my Inspiron 1000 does the same thing. Maybe once a week a half second blink. That's been the only wierd thing in almost six months with this computer which is why I'm back here researching the 700m.
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post #14 of 16
3/14/05 at 12:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Carver
I guess there's comfort in numbers, my Inspiron 1000 does the same thing. Maybe once a week a half second blink. That's been the only wierd thing in almost six months with this computer which is why I'm back here researching the 700m.
After reading the Dell Community forums, the common fix for the 700m seems to be reinstalling the video card drivers.
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post #15 of 16
3/14/05 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Speedde423
My 9200 does this, and when I called the Dell support, they said it was either the video card or the screen. Of course they told me to check it on an external monitor, but since I don't have another monitor laying around, they didn't want to do anything.

I don't know if this is the case, but if this continues after this week when they replace the mobo, that part can be ruled out.
It does that when plugged in or when on battery power? That makes a big difference with this.
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post #16 of 16
3/14/05 at 5:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrontierDriver2
It does that when plugged in or when on battery power? That makes a big difference with this.
Both, the part that bugs me is when it flickers when it's on AC. I understand that the screen flickers when switched to battery, but it shouldn't be happening when it's just plugged in.
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