Solved! Dell Inspiron E1705 No Display

afx2

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I have a Dell Inspiron E1705 that doesn't show video.
It turns on, then makes normal boot sounds, but the lcd just comes on and stays lit, showing absolutely nothing. I removed bios battery and still get nothing. Any ideas?
 
Solution
ok, to make thing worst I'll tell you what's wrong, you are one of the victims of the nvidia chip problem, your video chip overheated and moved a little causing your issues. it needs a new chip but there arent many out there who this job "apart from me" but there are many who do the reflow fix which lasts a couple of month before it returns.

afx2

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I did try hooking it up to an external monitor, but both the VGA and DVI-out ports produced nothing on any monitor I tried it with. Could it be a graphics card issue? or just a simple configuration?
 

pcfixed

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ok, to make thing worst I'll tell you what's wrong, you are one of the victims of the nvidia chip problem, your video chip overheated and moved a little causing your issues. it needs a new chip but there arent many out there who this job "apart from me" but there are many who do the reflow fix which lasts a couple of month before it returns.
 
Solution

apache_lives

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pcfixed its more a poor package/implementation issue with the bga, rather then heating etc, although heat just makes the issue worse (hot cold, flex from the fact that its flexing in the laptop too etc), and i have managed to obtain a Dell 9400 with a 7900GS video card (for nothing) and reflow'd it (along with fixing the common sound cut out issue) and it has been lasting me a good year now atleast (good for a free unit). In theory because of a decent reflow job the chip would actually sink lower and be stronger and longer lasting then the original etc, if anything?

If your a pro you could reflow it, if not you could either look on ebay for a replacement card since its a seperate physical card luckily, or just replace the unit whichever is easier for you - the unit is getting a little old spec wise (unless you got a decent one like Core2 ~2ghz, 2+gb of ram and what not).

And btw before jumping the gun and actually blaming the video chip - make sure its not your memory or a standby isssue causing all this - if you have two sticks of ram try one at a time to narrow that down, and remove the battery and AC source power for about two minutes to narrow down the posible standby issue.
 

pcfixed

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reflow is just a temporary job it wont last more than 3 months its just delaying it by using whats left of carbon diaox in the solder intil it runs out then you cant reflow anymore, reflow works longer on xbox but not on laptops, but I do reballing and change the solder under the chip with lead instead of lead free and it lasts long if not for ever but yes you could be right it can be the memory but when the title is "dell or hp" u know what i mean
 

afx2

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Well I actually cooked the graphics card in my oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and it worked! However I do understand that this is only a temporary fix that only fix it for a couple months. At that time I'll probably buy a new card. Thanks for the Help, It's much appreciated !
 

pcfixed

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u might find a reballer who can replace the solder and it'll work for ever