Dell XPS 420 dying... think the problem is GFX card but it doesnt appear to be...

[Kayote]

Hi all,
I have a problem with my PC.
My Dell XPS 420 was bought last year in April and is now unfortunately out of warranty period so I truly hope this is not a major problem, and I was made redundant at the start of the year so really really hope its not costly.
My Dell XPS 420 started acting up about 4-5 days back. While games like TF2 & ?Left for Dead? would load up fine and the frame rate would be consistent, the games would crash after about 10-15mins of play. It even happens with Windows Chess (I have the awful Vista Premium installed which I hate with a passion). Anyways, I could do the normal windows tasks without problem, even after the crash but now its come to a point, the system crashes within a few minutes of bootup.
I was convinced (based on past experience) that this is graphics card (Geforce 8600 GT) problem only and thought the graphic card may be heating up due to some cooling problem (maybe the fan is dead or power supply issues) but upon opening the case, I can confirm the fan is running (quite loudly too) and I also installed CPUID?s HW monitor software which gave a max reading of 75 degrees C prior to one crash. Based on a few reads online, 75 degrees doesnot appear to be that high a reading for a graphics card...
So, I am confused, what is going on? I have installed reinstalled DirectX, Nvidia drivers but that changes nothing. The blue screens of death appear and disappear far too quickly for me to note down the error type.
Would anyone have any ideas as so what the problem is? I really really donot want to end up buying a new graphics card only to find that the problem is with something else. Now my suspision is on the power supply as I donot hear/feel any fan at the back of the system.
Cheers for the read.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Have you checked to make sure there isnt some dust blocking the cooling? Also, if that looks good try removing the heatsink and reapplying the thermal compound.

 

[Kayote]

Thanks RadiclDreamer, I am kinding of dreading doing that as I have no experience and it sure sounds complicated.

I do wonder how much dust can settle in a years time, my PC is in a closed room without any pets nor do I smoke...

Here is a pic of the blue screen... if that helps.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albu...Kayote_80/IMG_2618.jpg

Cheers

 

[Lanyap]

First thing you can do is turn off auto restart so that you can see the BSOD info. Search google for the BSOD error.
Start > Right Click "My Computer" > Properties > Advanced Tab > Startup and Recovery > Settings > Uncheck Automatically Restart > OK > OK

Dell PSUs don't normally make noise or generate a lot of air. Look at the PSU fan while it's running to make sure it is spinning. That doesn't mean it's not going bad but at least it confirms that it's spinning. Also check the CPU fan and make sure it's spinning.

You can run Dell diagnostics to see if it will tell you what's causing the failures. Could be a hardware component like RAM or hard drive going bad. Click on "Diagnostics" section to download.
http://support.dell.com/suppor...H&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Did you make any hardware or software changes before this started to happen?

 

[Lanyap]

Originally posted by: Kayote
Thanks RadiclDreamer, I am kinding of dreading doing that as I have no experience and it sure sounds complicated.

I do wonder how much dust can settle in a years time, my PC is in a closed room without any pets nor do I smoke...

Here is a pic of the blue screen... if that helps.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albu...Kayote_80/IMG_2618.jpg

Cheers

The nvlddmkm.sys / 0x00000116 BSOD seems to be a fairly common problem but I did not see any clear solutions. Maybe you can find one.

http://www.google.com/search?h...0x00000116&btnG=Search

http://en.community.dell.com/S...ts.aspx?q=nvlddmkm.sys

 

[Kayote]

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, my google search brought up lots of results but none was very useful, even the Nvidia forums were of not much help.

Im convinced its not anything to do with my Graphics card but rather the powersupply. The reason I say that is first of all, I do not feel any air out the back of the supply which is odd and the graphics card is 8600GT which does need a lot of juice, hence the failure.

The processor fan is working as well.

I am trying to extend my Dell warranty so I can get them to have a look and fix it, not happy about the fact that the system died in little over a year!

Cheers again for the help.

 

[Kayote]

Dell is asking for £130 for 3 years warranty, thats insane!!!

 

[funkymatt]

Does dell have a version of the video card driver? What about the driver disk that came with the system?

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: Kayote
My Dell XPS 420 was bought last year in April and is now unfortunately out of warranty period so I truly hope this is not a major problem, and I was made redundant at the start of the year so really really hope its not costly.

Did you by any chance pay for it with a credit card that includes "Extended Warranty"?

 

[liquidmix303]

Originally posted by: Kayote
Hi all,
I have a problem with my PC.
My Dell XPS 420 was bought last year in April and is now unfortunately out of warranty period so I truly hope this is not a major problem, and I was made redundant at the start of the year so really really hope its not costly.
My Dell XPS 420 started acting up about 4-5 days back. While games like TF2 & ?Left for Dead? would load up fine and the frame rate would be consistent, the games would crash after about 10-15mins of play. It even happens with Windows Chess (I have the awful Vista Premium installed which I hate with a passion). Anyways, I could do the normal windows tasks without problem, even after the crash but now its come to a point, the system crashes within a few minutes of bootup.
I was convinced (based on past experience) that this is graphics card (Geforce 8600 GT) problem only and thought the graphic card may be heating up due to some cooling problem (maybe the fan is dead or power supply issues) but upon opening the case, I can confirm the fan is running (quite loudly too) and I also installed CPUID?s HW monitor software which gave a max reading of 75 degrees C prior to one crash. Based on a few reads online, 75 degrees doesnot appear to be that high a reading for a graphics card...
So, I am confused, what is going on? I have installed reinstalled DirectX, Nvidia drivers but that changes nothing. The blue screens of death appear and disappear far too quickly for me to note down the error type.
Would anyone have any ideas as so what the problem is? I really really donot want to end up buying a new graphics card only to find that the problem is with something else. Now my suspision is on the power supply as I donot hear/feel any fan at the back of the system.
Cheers for the read.

HI KAYOTE I HAVE THE SAME EXACT PROBLEM! DID YOU FIND OUT IF IT WAS THE VIDEO CARD THAT WAS CAUSING THE CRASH?? PLS LET ME KNOW ASAP... THANKS!

 

[gimpycow123]

I had the exact same issue as well in my XPS 420 and posted in a separate thread. I changed to an ATI Radeon 4850 and now I can boot into Windows without the bluescreen. I tested BF2 for about an hour without issues. However, I ran 3dMark 05 and while all of the video card tests seemed fine, it crashed when it got to the cpu test. Hmmm...

In my case I believe it was the 8800GT that went bad. My guess is too much heat over 2 years did it in. However, there might be something else going on as well...which may lead to another crash or video card failure.

If a lot of XPS 420 gamers are starting to run into this issue a couple years after purchasing, maybe there is something about the system that is just not good. That would really stink. My pc is just over 2 years old and I had least wanted it to last 5 years. Any thoughts on how best to monitor the temps of one's pc?

 

[pcgeek11]

Dell is asking for £130 for 3 years warranty, thats insane!!!

No more so insane than trying to get a warranty for a system that is already broken.

Hmmm, Maybe that is why they charge so much.

 

[dajeepster]

i installed windows 7 on mine.. seems to be running fine... i would have problems with corrupted data when I was doing distributed computing on it under vista