Laptop trouble - pls help

[Phaat]

I am playing on a Dell Inspiron 8200, which has a 2.0 ghz processor and originally comes with 256 RAM. Graphic card is a Mobility Radeon 9000, 64MB ram.

My original problem was just slow reaction while in toa or rvr, and very slow zoning. So I bought a new 512 mb ram chip (original one, from Dell) and installed it. All seemed fine, zoning time was halved, and much less lag.

But then I got a new problem, all of a sudden I see blue lines and blurs on screen, all the way from boot picture to dekstop and ingame. Sometimes the game really freaks out and I can see the layers of graphic "behind" the chars/environment in Daoc... anyone got an idea, pls help

 

[judas]

seems this person had problems like you not sure if it will help or not.
taken from this thread.

 

[Klonk]

<-- Phaat's GF irl

Comp is still fecked, mb just turn it in to Dell... had I known where to deliver it, physically

 

[Mojo]

<-- Phaat's GF irl

Comp is still fecked, mb just turn it in to Dell... had I known where to deliver it, physically

I know of your problem, i know how to fix it.

Have u sent your laptop to dell?
is it under warranty?

 

[Klonk]

I know of your problem, i know how to fix it.

Have u sent your laptop to dell?
is it under warranty?

Oo Great

Haven't sent it, and not sure if it under warranty, it is approx 1.5 yrs old iirc.

 

[Mojo]

Oo Great

Haven't sent it, and not sure if it under warranty, it is approx 1.5 yrs old iirc.

About the same age as mine, so unless you took out the 3 year it wont be covered as standard.

The problem is caused by a loose connector which attaches the ribon cable from the LCD to the mainboard. What i will attempt to explain is how to reaseat that connector.

Things u might want to do before hand

Discconect Power
Disconnect Battery

(not neccessary, its the kinda of advice u give to people with zero common sense, but on your head be it if things go bad)

Getting to the connector

Step 1

Set the laptop up as you would normally if you were goin to use it
Push the LCD back as far as it will go, no need to force it just push it back so its nearly touching the desk.

Step 2

That rather flimsy peice of plastic that has "Inspiron 8200" printed on it, shud lift off (now that we got the LCD out of the way) its clipped but not screwed in place, it runs the enitre width of the laptop has some holes in it for the power and volume buttons, simply put 1 hand either end and lift it off.


Seating the connector

Once this peice of plastic is out of the way you should be able to see a ribbon cable and connector, simpley push that connector down (it will be in fact connected, just a little loose) so push both sides down untill your happy it's seated correctly.

Job Done, assuming all my assumptions about your problem were correct

If you have any probs understanding my instructions i will take piccies of the entire operation for you when i get home.

 

[Klonk]

Thx for nice instructions, will try it when I get home from work!

 

[Klonk]

I tried now, it helped, but after some hours the graphics reverted to former poor state

Maybe I should just turn it in to the Dell-ppl

 

[Boobz]

Check to see if it came loose again? And if so find something to hold it in place instead of paying dell £100's to do the same?

 

[Klonk]

I unplugged the cable going from the graphics card to the screen just to measure it's degree of "looseness", but it seemed ok to me.. tried to push it further down, no luck.. maybe try some glue that's designed for use in things with power in them...

 

[Mojo]

I unplugged the cable going from the graphics card to the screen just to measure it's degree of "looseness", but it seemed ok to me.. tried to push it further down, no luck.. maybe try some glue that's designed for use in things with power in them...

Maybe send it back to dell or try it again, mine comes loose on occasion but usually after a trip in the car, not while it sat on my desk

I was quoted £200-£600 to repair mine as my LT is out of warranty so you know, but they wont know the cost for sure untill they look at it.

I would be inclined to fiddle a bit more, maybe look at re-seating the gfk card into the mainboard that cable plugs into the gfx card which is raised a tad of the mainboard if i remember correctly. So long as you dont do any dammage you will be no worse off for your efforts.

 

[Klonk]

I was quoted £200-£600 to repair mine as my LT is out of warranty so you know, but they wont know the cost for sure untill they look at it.

Wow, I will rather buy a new comp then, if it's not covered by warranty. That's insane cost for a repair tbh. Altho I am not surprised, Dell charged at least twice the market price when we were upgrading the RAM too.. guess that's what you get when you buy a brand comp.

 

[sibanac]

maybe try some glue that's designed for use in things with power in them...

we used to use nail polish to fixated all kinds of electronic stuff