Dell M1330 has started freezing??

[PaulJRJ]

Hi all, I've had my 1330 since Sept 07, using it virtually every day with no problems until today! ....It froze at work this morning on the screensaver. I had to force it to shutdown and then whilst booting back up the screen completely scrambled on me.. I actually thought it was broken. A few manual shutdowns later and I managed to get back into Windows. I uninstalled the screensaver just in case that were causing the problem but it still freezes at seemingly random times.

Is this a common fault? Is the Hard drive failing?

I've not rang Dell as yet as I want to run a full virus check etc first.

Anyone help or advice wold be much appreciated. Thanks.

Paul J

[FrozenLord]

Hi,

could you please describe the freezing more precisely?
I experienced some kind of freezing too - I'm using an Inspiron 9400 - but that kind of freezing was a freeze of about half a second. Everything went fine afterwards until the next freeze occured.
I also noticed a huge performance drop.

What really helped solving that problem was cleaning the internal fans. I had to completely take apart my laptop to do it.
But when I put it back together - after removing the dust inside the laptop - the problem was gone. The temperatures went down and the freezings stopped.

Dust could be the source of your problem too.

[PaulJRJ]

I was wondering whether dust could be part o the problem, though my laptop froze and then crashed first thing after switching it on this morning.... so I know it's not directly related to overheating. I think.

How it freezes....

Either, the screen will scramble and I'll see various lines and colours going across it... then it'll reset itself and usually the windows logo etc comes up as it should.

Or...

It'll freeze on whatever I'm on, Word for example, and whilst the display looks correct, I'm unable to do anything. I then have to hold my finger on the power to shut the laptop down.

I did notice that the fans were running very high when it froze like that, which they normally only do if I'm running a game.

I take it that if I open it I'll void my warranty? I'm still covered until September so I think getting Dell to come out and check it out might be the best solution?

[mia4l]

It could be that it is overheating

[PaulJRJ]

It could be, but not after being on for 1min this morning and then crashing.

[chelet]

How it freezes....

Either, the screen will scramble and I'll see various lines and colours going across it... then it'll reset itself and usually the windows logo etc comes up as it should.

If it's the same as the problem described in this thread
M1330 Display Issue (Vertical Lines on Reboot & Crash & Vertical Lines)
it's bad news.

[PaulJRJ]

Yup, it was the motherboard. Had it replaced today and everything seems to be working correctly now... touch wood!