I did the hair dryer fix, it worked for like two days. You need a new board trust me.

Hi, just want to share my story.
I got a Dell 1530 which turned black yesterday.

First I tried the hairdryer trick without success, but then I tried tintintin trick to turn the PC on with the GPU heatsink a little bit away from the GPU itself.
The GPU got very hot after approx 5min and then I removed the spacing material (isolated cable), screwed the heatsink thingy back (2 screws) och carefully tapped with back of screwdriver a couple of times (with PC still on).
Then I turned the PC off with long press on power button so fans turned off completly, and after that turned it back on and it worked!!!

It will probably fail again soon, but I got it running, and could extract some documents I needed.

For a more permanent solution, I belive this is the way forward:
w ww.youtube.com/watch?v=wt9bIc0XVV0
Just have to find a shop who can do it for me, looks to fiddly for me

Lastly, big thanks to all in this thread and forum!

Hi there, first off, many many thanks to everyone for all the informative posts.

I would really appreciate some advice; anyone here managed to fix the problem permanently, either by applying new thermal paste or by using a heat gun on it to reflow the solder ?

I have used the 'lift heat sink above GPU' trick three times now to revive my laptop, I might try the heat gun method next before I go ahead and get a new laptop .. although one of my heat sink assembly's screws are stripped, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it.

Thanks in advance!

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.

Thanks for your reply. May I know how exactly did you explain the issue to Dell ? So that I can try to do the same thing. I'm in Australia though, so I'm not sure if they're as generous over here!

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

Alright sounds good, thanks for the tip!

Hey superduffio

I have the same problem with my XPS M1530, called the Dell XPS support and even though my warranty has expired they will come a fix the issue for free.
BTW I am in NZ and Dell support is in OZ, so you should get the same service.

Cheers

Thanks for the update spidernz! Thats good to know, I haven't called them up yet, but will soon.

Before You Heat Gun Your Motherboard...

Call Dell XPS Support 1-866-398-8977

I have experienced the same problem with my XPS M1530 laptop. XPS support was awesome. I have never had a customer service experience, with a piece computer equipment, like I just had with Dell. Three years out of warranty and they still fixed it. I was very close to cooking my chip...very glad I didn't.

Just call Dell

I just want to say thanks. Just called Dell for my almost four year old M1530 (year past waranty) and they will be repairing it for free. Never would have though of just calling them if it wasn't for the posts here. Title of this thread can be changed to add <solved> imo.

Hi there, I'm having the same issue with my M1530.

I've had this laptop for four or so years, so it's well past its warranty.

Here's what I've tried:

- fn + power: num lock blinks while caps and scroll are solid; screen is off
- D + power: LCD does the colour thing, turns off; computer remains running
- the 30 second thing: nothing
- lifting the heat sink: the bloody thing won't budge, I guess I don't have the right screwdriver; don't actually know what the hell I'm doing because I've never taken apart a laptop in my life

Anyways I nearly broke the damn thing and chucked it out the window.

I only need to get the bastard working at least once so I can get my files. After this I can't be bothered. I'm buying a desktop.

Hey guys,
I did join the club and must say I am so happy I found this thread. Really a nice example of how people help each other out in the most effective way.

I am only posting this because I want to add a detail:
I had the same diagnose ( left led blinking, other two leds constant) and I tried to overheat the GPU. I unscrewed the cooler over the GPU, lifted it a bit and let the laptop run for ~5min. Because I earlier read something about the RAM I also took out the RAM to check. I probably put it back in the wrong order, because when I wanted to start after that I got another diagnose: left led constant, middle one blinking, right led constant. This indicates some problems with the RAM. First I thought the trick didn't work with my laptop because the same black screen appeared. But then I realized that I got another diagnose. So I looked it up, took out the RAM and put it back in the right order. And: Everything worked, just as other people told here.
So the LED diagnose is very important and the solutions told here refer to that particular GPU problem. Not a big insight but might cause some headache to people who don't make sure they have the right LED diagnose.

Thanks to everyone for sharing his solutions.
Jakob

Hi there, hopefully you guys are still reading this thread and can give me some advice:

I just called up Dell XPS Support and told them about the black screen. I said I suspected its the faulty NVIDIA GPU and wondered if they could send someone to have a look.

I told him I've heard of people getting refurbished motherboards, but he said that since I'm out of warranty and that there is no note in their system about any known issues or free/extended service (for my particular service tag), the only thing I can do is a diagnostic test and then purchase some replacement parts from them.

I called the Australian XPS Support on 1300 790877 (the call goes to a service centre in Malaysia). Did anyone have any luck with the Australian XPS Support ?

Thanks in advance.

Hey there. Bad luck. The best thing to do now is write a good letter to Dell in Australia. They can't ignore that. Collate all your evidence about the problem, ie. that you are certain it's the faulty nvidia chip, tell them you know about the successful class action law suit in the US, and also state that you know users in other countries have received help when out of warranty. State that you are very disappointed blah blah blah, and hope that they can help you. Best of luck!