Duff Laptop Graphics?

[Daz]

Fire up the laptop this morning, see the BIOS post, see my OS start (default Ubuntu), hear startup sounds but screen is blank at logon screen.

I'm using Jaunty, so figuring something's just borked in an update, I jump to a terminal, change to the open source rather than binary driver, restart X and I'm in. Digging through the logs, I find this:

[    3.025604] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): No display devices connected; falling back to: CRT-0
[    3.026501] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Unable to read EDID for display device CRT-0
[    3.027697] (II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce Go 7400 (G72) at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU-0)
[    3.027709] (--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 524288 kBytes
[    3.027719] (--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 05.72.22.21.fe
[    3.027729] (II) NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 16X
[    3.027753] (--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU
[    3.027765] (--) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on GeForce Go 7400 at PCI:1:0:0:
[    3.027774] (--) NVIDIA(0):     CRT-0
[    3.027795] (--) NVIDIA(0): CRT-0: 400.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[    3.038425] (II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: CRT-0
[    3.038444] (==) NVIDIA(0): 
[    3.038455] (==) NVIDIA(0): No modes were requested; the default mode "nvidia-auto-select"
[    3.038462] (==) NVIDIA(0):     will be used as the requested mode.
[    3.038471] (==) NVIDIA(0): 
[    3.038537] (II) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes:
[    3.038548] (II) NVIDIA(0):     "nvidia-auto-select"
[    3.038562] (II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1024 x 768
[    3.038856] (WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to get display device CRT-0's EDID; cannot compute DPI
[    3.038866] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     from CRT-0's EDID.
[    3.038876] (==) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (75, 75); computed from built-in default

I highlight the first line because that's an obvious problem, and the second because that's not my graphics card (it's a Quadro).

I couldn't remember which Quadro I actually had, so thinking the quickest way to find out was to jump into Windows, I reboot and tell it to start Vista.

... same problem. I have a picture when I start up, but when Vista itself starts, no output on the screen.

The conclusion I've come to at the minute is that when loading the binary driver in either OS, the card is damaged or otherwise reporting itself incorrectly, which leaves me without any video.

Luckily I still have 150 odd days worth of warranty left, but I'm open to suggestions for things to try in the mean time to see if I can sort it myself. I have yet to hook it up to an external monitor, that may have to wait until tomorrow now.

Consider the floor open

[Mark]

Woo and Yay, my memory still works. No dementia here. No siree.

I'm guessing this is the Dell Latitude (from EuroPC) you got towards the end of 2006. If so, it'll have a Quadro NVS 120M. I don't think you ever said if it was a D620 or D820, but either way, welcome to the world of duff nVidia chipsets. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Have a read here, and then give Dell a call.

PS - Quadro NVS 120M = Geforce Go 7400 with some extra certification. Say hello to marketing Hyperbole.

[Daz]

It was an 820, and thanks for the links Never even occurred to me it could par of that problem, it's been good as gold for so long!

Ran the Dell diagnostics and it fails on the LCD Test:

LCD Connection Test : Fail
Error Code : 1000-0321
Unable to detect LCD

Dell support here I come I guess! Annoying that it's a Friday though, NBD warranty.

[Mark]

Aye. I know it's only a matter of time before my D830 does the same thing, even though I've got the firmware patch (which - I hope given the temperatures I've seen recently - just makes the CPU read 20C hotter than it actually is).

[Daz]

Should have been paying more attention to it really, not even sure if there's a BIOS/Fan update applicable to the 820 which I should have put on.

Still, I know I'm still under my original 3 year warranty - I know I'll have no trouble.

[LeperousDust]

Haha, DO NOT talk to me about 7400 series, pile of steaming ****ing ****e. Caused me NO end of hassle with my XPS M1210 right after the warranty ran out, NVIDIA need to burn in hell for this and most of the 8x mobile series. Useless c***s. Can you tell how much i hate them for this? They know there are problems, and the manufacturing was parp but they carried on spewing them out and selling them on!?!?

[Fayshun]

It's a virus.

</Lom tech knowledge>

[Stan_Lite]

Good old Dell+Nvidia combo. My M1710 is virtually useless now with its GO7900GTX - I can use it for basic tasks but God forbid I should try to do anything that even remotely taxes the GPU. Out of warranty so it's a new card if I want to use it for anything like gaming

I've seen ones on ebay so maybe I'll get one some day.

[Daz]

Most painless Dell support call I've ever made to the Indian call centre - This is happening, this is the error code from the diagnostics, thanks for the diagnosis, I'll replace the LCD and motherboard on Monday. It's just had a new hard drive as well (pinched a slightly bigger one), so it'll pretty much be a new laptop when they've finished

The guy did say they're struggling to supply the boards with the nvidia GPU's on (wonder why :P), and that there might be a delay, but the engineer would let me know on Monday morning.

[LeperousDust]

Originally Posted by Bigstan

Good old Dell+Nvidia combo. My M1710 is virtually useless now with its GO7900GTX - I can use it for basic tasks but God forbid I should try to do anything that even remotely taxes the GPU. Out of warranty so it's a new card if I want to use it for anything like gaming

I've seen ones on ebay so maybe I'll get one some day.

I wish i could, even though i have the "discrete 7400" mine is still very much integrated as in soldered to the motherboard. Otherwise i would have swapped it out ages ago! Thing is it went through a phase of being horrendously unreliable, its now moved through that and we seem ok now...