flyingme
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Dell XPS M170 with GeForce Go 6800 Ultra, some bad flash? - 2008/05/02 02:12
Hi gang, this is my first post to these forums. I own a Dell XPS M170 with the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra card. Apparently, my son was trying to flash the BIOS on the video card. Long story short, the BIOS flash must have failed, because all I have now is a 12lb brick! When I try to boot, all that happens is the computer starts, the lights light appropriately, then all the lights mentioned go out and the computer just seems to hang there. I have no video, no greying of the display, not anything. It does not beep at me, it doesn't do a thing.
After about 30 seconds the num lock will light and remain steady green. The system fans will activate after a period of time, but other than that nothing. I should mention that I can push the num lock, and the caps lock keys and activate them. Meaning, they will show a steady green, or if it was on, as in the case of the num lock light, I can make them go off. I had understood that to means that the computer had gotten by the boot sequence. Though I am not convinced. I've tried to re-flash the video card, and the BIOS using both a bootable USB, and a bootable CD.
In the case of the USB drive, the led on the drive just stays a steady blue, and does nothing. In the case of the CD, the computer seems to recognize it but does nothing. I know that both of them should have worked, as I own another Dell XPS M170, and they were both able to boot that computer to DOS perfectly fine. I also know that the BIOS in the broken computer was set to boot CD first, then hard disk and then USB. I don't think the computer was getting far enough into the boot to recognize the USB, or the CD drives but that's just a guess.
I should mention I tried to boot this thing every way I can. With th hard disk in or out, optical drive in or out. On battery power alone, on AC alone, on AC power with battery in, and every other possible combination. They all produced the same results. So, after having reading these fine forums, and heading the advice of some helpful people here, I did the old function key power on test, also know as Dell's Diagnostic Boot. The lights all flashed briefly, indicating it was booting into diagnostic mode, and then after a time, the lights all went out, except the num lock light which just sat there blinking.
After more time passed, the num lock light would go out, and the caps light would start blinking. Finally after some time the sytem made this funny melodic noise followed by the code of one short, three long beeps. It did that three or four times, same code, and then stopped doing anything. That's the long and short of it. I contacted Dell, who of course told me that I had already done everything they could have done with me over the phone. Cost me $39 to hear that and being out of warranty.
They diagnosed it as a mainboard failure. I personally don't think it is, I am almost 100% sure it's the borked BIOS on the video card. So my question is, should I order the mainboard at $500 and assume the video card is good. Or, should I order the video card at $399, and probably the GeForce Go 7800 upgrade and presume the mainboard is fine, or lastly, should I order them both, then try the new video card on the old board, and if it works sending the new mainboard back for a refund, and if it doesn't try the new mainboard and the old video card and if that works send the video card back?
In any event, I am looking at doing something quickly, and my personal feeling is, I am going to be hard pressed to convince the Mrs. to put over 1K in repairs to an, essentially, 3 year old laptop. If I could get away with one or the other, that's fine, but I am pretty sure she will just tell me to get a new one if it comes to the 1K in parts option. This is because she doesn't know that then new XPS hotness is over 3K configured my way. I thank you all in advance, and I welcome anyl advice. Take good care, and thanks for taking the time to read this.
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