Dead Dell XPS Studio 16

phly

phly

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So my beloved Dell XPS Studio 16 kicked the bucket. Way sooner than I even expected and at a time when its January and cash has been spent on Santa stuff last December and the rand is weakening by the knees with each passing day. It was fine the one morning and then i closed the lid dashing out hoping it will hibernate or go to sleep. When i later pulled it out about an hour or so later it was extremely hot at the bottom. It seemed off and though let me leave it and only work on it when I get home later in the evening. Only to switch it on and alas, keyboard lights up but screen is blank.

Fan does not spin and there are no beeps. I took it around to some "experts" and one claims the graphics card is gone. It can be redone {a new one soldiered on} but apparently due to how I extensively use the laptop {design and multimedia work}, it wont last and its not even advisable.

Now I'm no guru or anything but somehow it just sounded like I'm being sold a funky modernized nkandla story and thought let me inquire from the experts here as to how they would advice me. Could it be the screen/ribbon perhaps and how do i go about diagnosing it myself.

Seems like a new laptop is the way to go. Just that my finances weren't in order being January and all. Another suggestion would be to replace the entire board. But where does one dig up an old (5+) yr old board from. Secondly what system would you advice best suited for design and video on a budget?
 
Try eBay, just use your model number
 
phly said:
So my beloved Dell XPS Studio 16 kicked the bucket. Way sooner than I even expected and at a time when its January and cash has been spent on Santa stuff last December and the rand is weakening by the knees with each passing day. It was fine the one morning and then i closed the lid dashing out hoping it will hibernate or go to sleep. When i later pulled it out about an hour or so later it was extremely hot at the bottom. It seemed off and though let me leave it and only work on it when I get home later in the evening. Only to switch it on and alas, keyboard lights up but screen is blank.

Fan does not spin and there are no beeps. I took it around to some "experts" and one claims the graphics card is gone. It can be redone {a new one soldiered on} but apparently due to how I extensively use the laptop {design and multimedia work}, it wont last and its not even advisable.

Now I'm no guru or anything but somehow it just sounded like I'm being sold a funky modernized nkandla story and thought let me inquire from the experts here as to how they would advice me. Could it be the screen/ribbon perhaps and how do i go about diagnosing it myself.

Seems like a new laptop is the way to go. Just that my finances weren't in order being January and all. Another suggestion would be to replace the entire board. But where does one dig up an old (5+) yr old board from. Secondly what system would you advice best suited for design and video on a budget?
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Try Universedirect.co.za. They do refurb dell parts.

Did you try reseating the battery?
 
Was Windows 10 installed on this machine?

As for the GPU reflow/reseating story, that's correct. After having the ball joints heated up, some laptops/GPUs will continue to work for years, while others may fail after less than three months. That type of fix is usually a once-off thing in most cases.

I seem to remember SPL also having spares for old Dell notebooks, you might get lucky there. Given the notebook's age, I think it's lasted you quite a while. Perhaps an upgrade is a good way to go? What programs do you use and what kind of torture do you subject your hardware to?
 
I'm guessing you have never taken it in to get the thermal paste changed and it overheated, now you know.
 
Checking out the links but somehow sites keep timing out so I will check them out proper tomorrow at work.
@ODTech Which battery is this? (the CMOS battery) No i haven't tried that yet. And yes windows 10 was installed on this laptop and I have been enjoying it since it came out. Just think it is sleek OS. I don't torture it and the programs are the basic stuff. I'm a designer so I use the adobe suite most of the time. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator & CorelDraw in the mix being the most common ones. I haven't done video in ages and I haven't rendered anything out of after effects either for quite some time. My cousin was enjoying fifa 14 on the machine over the holidays. So its your usual browsing, downloading, light gaming, mostly designing and occasional editing/rendering/converting of multimedia files. Standard stuff.

@Rickster I did the thermal paste change when I posted about my last issue. My mistake was not wiping the former paste but after very good advice from the forums here I went and did the entire procedure properly. Cleaned off the former dried up paste and reapplied new thermal paste and all was well for about a month. Then the blue screens started reoccurring again.
 
phly said:
Checking out the links but somehow sites keep timing out so I will check them out proper tomorrow at work.
@ODTech Which battery is this? (the CMOS battery) No i haven't tried that yet. And yes windows 10 was installed on this laptop and I have been enjoying it since it came out. Just think it is sleek OS. I don't torture it and the programs are the basic stuff. I'm a designer so I use the adobe suite most of the time. Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator & CorelDraw in the mix being the most common ones. I haven't done video in ages and I haven't rendered anything out of after effects either for quite some time. My cousin was enjoying fifa 14 on the machine over the holidays. So its your usual browsing, downloading, light gaming, mostly designing and occasional editing/rendering/converting of multimedia files. Standard stuff.

@Rickster I did the thermal paste change when I posted about my last issue. My mistake was not wiping the former paste but after very good advice from the forums here I went and did the entire procedure properly. Cleaned off the former dried up paste and reapplied new thermal paste and all was well for about a month. Then the blue screens started reoccurring again.
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The laptop's primary battery. Sometimes if a laptop won't boot you take the battery and dc power off and wait a few minutes then put power back. If your lucky it will boot up.
 
I think you should try to apply thermal paste again. Or give this job to others. There are methods recommended by reputable members which I don't approve. As it didn't work, try another method.
 
Can I clarify that the thermal paste was done on the CPU and not the graphics card. @sajunky are you suggesting I reapply thermal paste again on the CPU? @odtech thanks for the numbers will give them a call.
 
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