I have a Dell Inspiron e1705, with a nVidia video card, a 7800 or 7900 go I think. Yesterday when launching a game, the computer locked up, and when trying to restart, the screen stayed black. Today, I tried booting up again, it seemed to work fine, so I tried the game again, this time I saw some artifacts in the form of small colored squiggly lines, and again it locked up. The computer then gave some more black screen, but a little while later it's willing to start again. This time I get the same artifacts in Firefox, followed very shortly by another lock up.
Now it won't start up, most of the time the screen's back light will not come on, but it did come on once. The time the back light came on it also booted far enough for me to hear the windows start up sound, but the sound skipped a bit, and at no time did anything appear on the screen. I've tried using an external monitor, but nothing there either (though I am not sure how to set it up without being able to see my screen, I did try Fn+F8). The time it booted with only the back light on, both fans did kick on.
Any ideas? I'm new to laptop troubleshooting, but maybe the video card has gone out?
Now it won't start up, most of the time the screen's back light will not come on, but it did come on once. The time the back light came on it also booted far enough for me to hear the windows start up sound, but the sound skipped a bit, and at no time did anything appear on the screen. I've tried using an external monitor, but nothing there either (though I am not sure how to set it up without being able to see my screen, I did try Fn+F8). The time it booted with only the back light on, both fans did kick on.
Any ideas? I'm new to laptop troubleshooting, but maybe the video card has gone out?