Hey guys, i may have found the solution on the problem that u guys have descired.
This worked for me atleast.
I called Dell Support and they told me it was a problem with windows, which i found pretty wierd.
The told me to unplug everything, then plug the AC adapter and the battery in, then hold the power button for 30 seconds, let go of the power button and wait for 4-5 seconds, before pressing the power button again. The first 5-7 seconds it looked like the computer would have the exact same problem that id had before, but after 7 seconds or so, the computer turn on completely normal, and everything worked!!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
The guy i spoke with said that windows stored some info on the RAM's when the computer went to sleeping mode, and sometimes windows wasnt able to get that info running again. With holding the power button for 30 sec, u delete everything on the computer, exept for data on the harddrive ofcourse, and therefore the RAM info would have been deleted, and the computer would start normally.
Really hope this works for you guys, cause its a pain in the *** to have this problem
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FN+Power Button trick mentioned here worked!
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Function and power button: got the 1 flashing, 2 solid leds.
Tried: dell support (said motherboard replacement)
Holding power button for 30 seconds.
Nothing.
Unscrewed heatsink from video. 2 screws. Applied a little upward pressure to lift the heatsink. Maybe about the force you would use with a canopener to puncture a can. And the heatsink snapped up leaving the GPU. Left the unit sit with the power on. The fan kicked in a few minutes. Then after about 10 minutes I saw some video flash on the display. Shut the unit off. Rescrewed the heatsink and back running.
Any explanation. The heat fixes connections? Unlatches the GPU?
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based on the following posts i fixed the issue (THANKS to you folks!)
w ww.techspot.com/vb/post1013366-45.html
w ww.techspot.com/vb/post996928-42.html
1) disassemble laptop
2) locate nvidia chip (a single heatpipe explicitly for the nvidia chip, below the fan... the processor and another chip are on the left heatpipe...)
3) do a cleanup of the chips, get new heat-paste since old one was dry already (clean like shown in post 42)
4) without heatpipe i used a normal fan to heat up the nvidia chip approx 1.30min. be sure to only heat the nvidia chip (but i think you can leave this step out)
5) install the heat pipes (especially for the cpu), grab some isolated wire, wrap it around the nvidia heatpipe, insert battery, plug in AC, power ON, use the wire to get the heat pipe away from the nvidia gpu ... this way it gets hotter and hotter..
5.1) carefully listen to your fan.. at first it will be off, after some time it gets hotter and hotter and gpu sensor tells fan to start pulling away the hot air... after approx 3-5mins the fan will consantly be on full speed..
5.2) now stop pulling away the heatpipe, let it snap onto the gpu, apply some force (i used the back of my isolated screwdriver and hit it a few times.. be gentle!), seat it
6) power of (screen is still black)
7) power on -> screen shows dell logo!
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1. I got Dell to fit a re-conditioned motherboard. They didn't charge me a penny, and I'm well out of warranty. They know all about this problem, try calling them.
2. There are quite a few laptop repair places offering fixes for this problem on eBay. The price is about 50 pounds, very reasonable.
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You're welcome. I rang them up on the uk customer service line, they put me through to the 'out of warranty team'. In India. They were *reasonably* easy to communicate with. I explained the problem I was having (black screen) and that I knew it was caused by the faulty nvidia gpu. They clearly have received a lot of calls as straight away they said they would send someone round to fit a re-conditioned motherboard. Before I even had to threaten them with going to the small claims court, which was what I was going to do! I suggest be polite, let them know that you know about the faulty batch of nvidia chips, abouth the free repairs offered in uk and us (i don't know if they did the same in europe and asia?)and the american class action lawsuit. If they don't offer a free repair, up the ante, tell them you know your rights as a comnsumer etc. Good luck! Let's know how you get on.
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Resources:
http://www.techspot.com/community/topic ... 791/page-3
DELL XPS M1530 bad video card fix! ( the redneck way)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHxLC1vi0Xw
Recuperación de un Dell XPS M1530 Chip Nvidia Black Screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt9bIc0XVV0
Call Dell XPS Support 1-866-398-8977 .