Dell M60 video card issues
Bogdan Macri
I'm having the following problem with my M60 laptop.
When connected via the port replicator using DVI to an external LCD
display, some of the colors are no longer displayed and there's
something akin to a background color storm in certain areas (similar to
interference).
Connecting to the laptop VGA display yields no image but there is sync.
The laptop display is flawless.
My question is... is this a video card issue or is the motherboard to blame?
Regards and TIA!
Bogdan
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bogdan Macri - Photography & Consulting
bogdan dot macri at geemail dot com
Bogdan Macri
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm having the following problem with my M60 laptop.
>
> When connected via the port replicator using DVI to an external LCD
> display, some of the colors are no longer displayed and there's
> something akin to a background color storm in certain areas (similar to
> interference).
>
> Connecting to the laptop VGA display yields no image but there is sync.
>
> The laptop display is flawless.
>
> My question is... is this a video card issue or is the motherboard to
> blame?
>
> Regards and TIA!
> Bogdan
>
>
PS. The video card is a Quadro FX Go1000, 128MB...
BillW50
Bogdan Macri typed on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:46:21 -0800:
> On 01-04-2010 11:45, Bogdan Macri wrote:
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I'm having the following problem with my M60 laptop.
>>
>> When connected via the port replicator using DVI to an external LCD
>> display, some of the colors are no longer displayed and there's
>> something akin to a background color storm in certain areas (similar
>> to interference).
>>
>> Connecting to the laptop VGA display yields no image but there is
>> sync. The laptop display is flawless.
>>
>> My question is... is this a video card issue or is the motherboard to
>> blame?
>>
>> Regards and TIA!
>> Bogdan
>>
>>
>
> PS. The video card is a Quadro FX Go1000, 128MB...
I have been noticing that Dell laptops will only show POST on the
internal display only. Nothing to change in the BIOS to change this. I
don't know if this is true of all Dell's or not. This is point one to
consider.
The second is that you to toggle the display once Windows loads up. You
know this right? On my four Gateways I have three displays (also
selectable in the BIOS). Internal, external VGA, and S-video. Although I
can only pick the internal plus one of the latter two. Meaning I can't
toggle between VGA external and S-video. As only one can be connected at
a time.
And I am thinking the same is true of yours too. And you shouldn't try
to have VGA external and DVI hooked up at the same time. If you do, I
think one of them will play dead. So that might be what is happening
with the external VGA anyway.
As for the DVI, I would double check those cables. Make sure they are
nice and tight. Trying a spare DVI cable would be my next step.
Otherwise it doesn't sound too good for either the docking station or
the laptop. Especially if you can't get the VGA to work from the laptop
alone.
--
Bill
Gateway MX6124 ('06 era) 2 of 3 - Windows XP SP3
Bogdan Macri
Thanks for your input.
I did try a different DVI to DVI cable, with the same results.
I also have a spare dock that I used, also with the same outcome.
Now, I can probably get another video card from eBay, but I'm uncertain
if that is the problem vs. the motherboard.
Bogdan
BillW50
Bogdan Macri typed on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:44:23 -0800:
Wow! You sure did your homework! Yes, it is either the motherboard or
the video card now. If it makes you feel any better, 99% of the time it
is the video card. So a bad video card is the safe bet. <grin>
William R. Walsh
> When connected via the port replicator using DVI to an external LCD
> display, some of the colors are no longer displayed and there's
> something akin to a background color storm in certain areas (similar to
> interference).
Is the connector in the bottom of the machine (the one that the docking unit
plugs into) clean and in good condition? Are the little doors that cover it
up when not in use intact?
I've seen a pinout for this connector, perhaps it was in the Dell service
manual. (The Latitude D800 and Precision M60 are one in the same system.)
I believe that the DVI connector on these systems only supports
DVI-D(igital) output.
> The laptop display is flawless.
That's why I don't think it's a video card problem. If there were a problem
with the GPU, I'd expect that every display would be affected. If display
memory was the problem, the problem could hide until another display were
attached (which requires more video RAM) and the demand for video memory
went up. The LCD panel itself plugs directly into the video card, so the
motherboard is worth considering as it contains all the system ports AND the
docking/expansion unit connector.
The video card plugs into a connector inside the computer. It is unlikely,
but maybe it came loose? You can see the video card here:
http://greyghost.mooo.com/d800fanrepair/
> My question is... is this a video card issue or is the motherboard to
blame?
I'd think there is another possibility, and that is display drivers. If you
are using the Dell supplied drivers, they are quite out of date and buggy.
Since you have the nVidia Quadro video system, you might be able to get
drivers directly from nVidia. Should that not be the case, look at the
offerings from laptopvideo2go:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/
The only drivers that actually work properly with the GeForce Go Fx5200 in
my Latitude D800 are from laptopvideo2go. As an added bonus, their driver
packages enable more features than the Dell or nVidia drivers will enable.
Most of these features work perfectly well, as the hardware is capable of
doing the job if the drivers will let it.
William
Bogdan Macri
William,
I did check the connector and the doors that cover that connector. All
seems intact.
I also re-seated the video card as well.
The drivers that I use are from laptopvideo2go and are very robust.
Nothing has changed in my setup. I've been using this docking
station/DVI connection for years until about a 1.5 weeks ago, when it
started acting up.
As you stated, I also suspect that it may not be the video card, but
maybe the mobo circuits from the video card connector onwards.
Unfortunately, the only way to validate that is to connect any other
video card that would fit and see the outcome.
In the meantime, I ordered an M4400 from Dell. I was going to update
anyway in a few months.
Thanks for your help.
Bogdan Macri
As of now, my display issues are fixed. Here's what happened.
My system is a dual boot (WinXP Pro and Fedora 11).
I had to go into Linux to do something and upon login, I noticed that
the display was in low resolution (800x600). I changed the display
settings to 1920x1200 and everything looked as I expected... with the
odd color shifting in the background and the limited color palette.
Restarting back into Windows, I noticed that everything was fine...
My guess is that GRUB has a way to control display modes right after
Post and it was somehow able to nudge some settings into place (yes it
sounds silly).
Bottom line... WinXP is 100% normal, Fedora 11, doing the same thing as
before...
So... there you go...
BillW50
William R. Walsh typed on Mon, 4 Jan 2010 23:34:43 -0600:
>> The laptop display is flawless.
>
> That's why I don't think it's a video card problem. If there were a
> problem with the GPU, I'd expect that every display would be
Huh? Most modern laptop video supports two displays. On another note, my
four Gateways also support three displays. Although they can only
display two of them at a time. And if one of the two displays doesn't
display correctly, it very could be the video card. As the video card is
generating both displays. Even different displays at times like when you
are using extended desktop.
Ben Myers
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm having the following problem with my M60 laptop.
>
> When connected via the port replicator using DVI to an external LCD
> display, some of the colors are no longer displayed and there's
> something akin to a background color storm in certain areas (similar to
> interference).
>
> Connecting to the laptop VGA display yields no image but there is sync.
>
> The laptop display is flawless.
>
> My question is... is this a video card issue or is the motherboard to
> blame?
>
> Regards and TIA!
> Bogdan
>
>
problem. It could be any one of: port replicator, LCD display cable,
M60 video adapter, even the LCD itself. Or software drivers.
After reading several responses, I have to ask a new question. Did you
connect the external LCD display DIRECTLY to the M60 laptop, not through
the port replicator? If so, what was the result? You may need a
DVI-SVGA converter to do this.
If the LCD monitor works flawlessly connected directly to the M60, then
the port replicator is the culprit. If you still get the same result,
then the problem is not the port replicator, but it could still could be
one of the other elements.
Same reasoning applies to the external LCD's cable. Try a different
one, to eliminate suspects... Ben Myers
William R. Walsh
> Huh?
Keep in mind that nearly all modern graphics solutions are heavily
integrated and do not have separate components (other than simple
support components) to produce video on each output they support. The
same major parts are used whether you're driving one display or more,
they just have more to do.
GPU failure is the most common problem I've seen. And since there is
only the one graphics processor that is used to drive however many
displays, a fault with it will show up across all attached displays in
some way or another.
Clock generator problems should also show up across multiple displays
and in multiple ways since most GPUs have one reference clock that
they adjust to meet their every need.
"Last mile" circuits that would be display-connector-or-signal-type-
specific are mostly passive stuff or under very low stress and
therefore unlikely to fail. It seems that this is in fact what may
have happened to the original poster.
Video memory failure is the next most common problem that I've seen.
The pool of video memory is shared across all displays that the GPU is
presently driving. It's quite possible that a memory chip could
develop a bad region that's normally unused with a single display
under most circumstances--and the user would never notice that until a
second display showed up and pushed the video memory requirements up.
I suppose RAMDAC failure is a possibility that could only affect one
display--if your video system uses multiple RAMDACs (required only for
analog video signaling methods). Most laptops will only have the one,
for the analog VGA output. (A TV scan converter or TV output would
probably have one built into the TV encoder itself. Don't know--
haven't researched that.)
From what I've seen, video and other memory chips usually don't
develop just one bad location, they develop several. And GPUs
typically work their memory hard enough that even marginal-but-not-
really-bad memory will show up in the form of drawing distortions,
incorrect coloring or unstable pixels. Really bad video memory results
in heavy colorful snow that won't go away, severely distorted video,
no video at all, or an outright system crash.
William
BillW50
news:142d937b-5fe6-4dd7...@a6g2000yqm.googlegroups.com,
William R. Walsh typed on Wed, 6 Jan 2010 09:54:09 -0800 (PST):
Hi William! Well if I have never seen a video card block diagram and
that would help a lot. But the VGA part has nothing to do with the
internal LCD display. As it doesn't use VGA to display its image, only
external displays do.
--
Bill
Gateway M465e ('06 era) - Windows XP SP3
Bogdan Macri
See my reply from last night... the problem is apparently solved,
although I'm still stumped as to what happened.
My only guess is that the video card external output was placed in a
state of limbo, from which it recovered.
BillW50
Bogdan Macri typed on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:56:07 -0800:
> See my reply from last night... the problem is apparently solved,
> although I'm still stumped as to what happened.
>
> My only guess is that the video card external output was placed in a
> state of limbo, from which it recovered.
I too have had my share of problems after running Linux. <sigh>