Well I have a solution for you guys all if ur dell xps wont boot....Just to make sure we are all talking about the same problem:
Symtoms:
-Well the answer is....and will be if first you believe in Jesus Christ.
The fault is form the video card... just loosen it and the main problem is from the silver screws named A,B,C and D...loosen that screw and refix then and keep loseen and tighting the screws till the screen appears....Well for mem I loosen the video card...prayed nover it and fixed it bk and Lo and Behold...IT God fixxed I know is a miracle cos there was no where for me to get that video card cos I live in Ghana...as Im chatting you now Im writting with my Dell xps
Hello goys and birls,
I've had the m2010 for a year now and have run complete tests (motherboard replacement & video card replacement) to figure out what the problem is for most people. Motherboard replacement doesn't do anything for most. Video replacement works only sometimes... And the reason is because almost all video cards manufactured for this laptop have the SAME problem.
dadarexz is somewhat correct.
It involves the heatsink gel/thermal paste inside the video card melting and shorting out the card OR the gel getting too old/hard to conduct heat properly. This is why some M2010s will boot eventually if you leave them on long enough and let the video card get warm enough (this re-melts the gel/paste, moving it around and preventing it from shorting the card). This is essentially like the "towel trick" used to fix XBox 360s with the RROD problem (do a search on google/youtube). You'll need to take apart the vid card and put in new gel like Artic Silver to fix this. Note that when you place the vid card back into the laptop, it will still stay blank for a while. Playing around with the ABCD screws doesn't do anything (correlation != causation, unless the heatsink is loose, which it usually isn't); dadarexz just happened to be doing it while he was waiting for the laptop to reinitialize.
And no, there's no need to pray to a higher deity for this badly manufactured piece of tech.
This worked for me...
Amen! Not only is this system badly manufactured, but it's poorly supported. I'm surprised there hasn't been a class action law suit against Dell considering the cost of these machines and the number of people that seem to have problems with them.
I've called Dell many times and had either the motherboard and/or video card replaced on 8 separate occasions. Luckily I had enough vision to purchase a 3 year warranty and then after the first 4 failures, an additional 2 years to keep my $5000 POS running. This last time Dell finally gave me the option of replacing the M2010 with a Precision M6400 because I’ve had so many repairs, but the exchange process (or any Dell process) is taking so long, I started browsing on-line for possible solutions while I wait.
I removed the video card (which was a refurb from Dell) and took off the heatsink (which had been removed before and only partially cleaned by Dell) cleaned the 2 types of paste off, put some new back on, reassembled and the computer finally booted. The video did freeze during the boot process (still had HDD activity), so I turned it off and back on. Same non-booting problem again, so I left it on and after about 20 minutes of no activity, it finally booted again, this time into Windows. I'll use the opportunity to back-up my information as long as it stays on and say my good-byes. I enjoyed using it when it worked, but am looking forward to a (hopefully better) replacement after countless wasted hours on the phone with Dell (on hold) and waiting for parts and repairs.
Motherboard needs to be replaced. Contact Dell. This seems to be a common problem with this machine... perhaps a motherboard defect.
Motherboard replacements average $80 plus labor, or over $150. New Dell motherboard are over $150.