Some annoying issues

My system:

Dell Inspiron 1520
Intel Core2 Duo 2GHz
2 Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256Mb
160Gb HDD
Windows Vista 32bit

My Problems:

The first problem is that sometimes when I open the lid of my laptop the resolution sometimes automatically reverts to 1024 x 768 even though I repeatedly set it to the maximum resolution (1440 x 900). This also happens all to often when i minimise Guild Wars to get to the desktop. As you can imagine this is getting really annoying and after searching the net I have yet to find an explaination. This did not start happening until after my hard drive was replaced after it died on me .

The second problem I have found to be a common one amongst Vista users with Nvidia graphics cards. Before having my hard drive replaced, while playing some games I would frequently have the screen freeze, go black, then after a few seconds come back. When this happened I would get the following message on the Taskbar: "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding, but has succesfully recovered"

After having the hard drive replaced, the screen no longer goes black but the interface of the game flickers and the colouring and textures of the game environment appear and dissapear rapidly and I have to press the windows key to minimise the game then maximise it again to stop it from happening.

I took a screenshot of the type of thing that sometimes happens although its hard to capture the fact that the windows (e.g. chat, guild window, party window etc) flicker and characters dissapear and reappear.



I hope this wall of text makes sense lol

Any suggestions of how to fix either problem will be appreciated...Thanks in advance

(No "you shouldn't have bought a Dell" replies please unless you follow with something useful lol)

EDIT: I'm unsure whether this is a hardware or software related problem so i just posted it here to get started, sorry if its in the wrong place

NVLDKLM errors,

Welcome to hell. I spent months of my life chasing this error. There are literally 1000's of fixes. Because the graphics card is what "writes" to your screen when something fails, the computer blames the last thing being the graphics.

If you have anything overclocked stop that. This is probably caused by heat or a bad driver. the "latest" drivers are not always the best. I find the drivers that don't have issues to be the best.

If it was me starting this all over again, I would: boot that comp into safemode, rip out all the drivers(nvidia), reboot and let windows install the latest whql certified drivers. There is a free program called driver sweeper that will kill all the nvidia drivers for you. For me the fix was using a different bios driver.


good luck

i think your graphics chip is dying or severely overheating.

unfortunately, i don't think you can replace it on a laptop.

Overheating's easy on a lappy - just blast some compressed air through that sucker to get all the dust out.

Don't overclock a Dell - it's like strapping jet engines to a dog turd.

thanks for the replies...i havnt tried overclocking anything, last time i overclocked something i fried my motherboard hehe

I'll give the suggestions a try.

Luckily its still under warrenty so if there is something wrong with the graphics chip and/or cooling I can bitch to the useless Dell tech support til its sorted.

Dell, ya >.< shame on you.
Don't forget to check and see if your system has enough air circulation too.
Might not be a bad idea to add a few fans if you can.

That's overheating right there.
Try and put your laptop on something so the heat can escape underneath it.

This problem is not heat related (it can also happen when you are just idling on the desktop), it has something to do with vista. Won't happen in XP, I get the same thing with my ati gfx card.
Been browsing around a lot for this problem, and there are hundreds of people with the same problem, yet a real solution has not been found.

It could simply be a hardware failure. If the machine is still under warranty, try to get it fixed.

You didn't say why you replaced the hard drive, but over the years (of fixing many computers) I've often found that these problems can be related to bad power supplies. In the case of a laptop, you have both the external brick and some internal components. If one of the parts of the power supply system is running at too high a voltage, or spiking randomly, or allowing power spikes to get through, it can cause all kinds of random havoc.

Then again, you may just need to update the drivers.

I have no idea what caused the hard drive to die.

I guess a voltage problem would explain why it died and why I'm having some problems that i didnt have before it died.

I've emailed Dell cause I know they'll want me to try 1000's of unrelated things before they'll even consider looking at it themselves.

When they get back to me I'll see what there response is to some of the suggestions left here.

Thanks again

Zamiels response is the best to start with. Remove all the drivers in Safe Mode first and reinstall them after a restart.
Next, attempt to put a "spacer" of some type under your laptop to make sure you have room for airflow underneath it to allow the fan to circulate cool air. This should reduce the likelihood of an overheating issue.
Re-iterate that you have done these things when you contact Dell again. Be persistent but not an ass. You have a warranty, demand that they honor it if you cannot find a resolution on your own. That warranty is (imo) the only reason at all to ever own a Dell. Personally, I am my own warranty though =].

Download a program that is able to read the temperatures of your components. If they're running abnormally hot then its likely your problem. Otherwise replace the drivers (I'd recommend reformatting before you do so) and if the problem persist with known good drivers you are likely looking at hardware failure.

http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/15053

so yeah, probably is a hardware issue.

Which NVidia drivers are you using? If its 175.xx drivers try going back to 169. I have the 8600 card too, and get the exact same problem you have with 175, but 169 is fine. Also set threaded optimization to disabled, NVidia's drivers are very unstable on dual core machines.

i got "advised" by a dell tech to install driver version 175.97

Funny thing is that under the info for those drivers reads:

Issue fixes:
-Inspiron1720 Display goes black and comes back with error "nvlddmkm.dll stopped"

After installing them, nvlddmkm.dll doesn't just crash, they dont get restored and I get the dreaded blue screen lol

After telling the advisor this she replied saying I'm being refered to a "Resolution Expert". I expect this means someone who isn't just going down a checklist.

While im waiting to hear from them I'll try out all the suggestions I've been given.

Thanks for the input guys, and thanks for the link Moriz, I wonder if the Dell techs are aware of Nvidia's problems with laptops lol

Might want to read through http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=33 about the 175 drivers, tons of threads being starting stating the same problems as you.

Final update on this:

Looks like the Tech support had no clue so in the end they said they are sending someone to my house to replace the motherboard, hdd (again?) heatsink and fan

Hopefully what ever was the problem will be sorted, if not i will cry at them.

Thanks for all you're suggestions, they certainly helped to test the Dell Technicians