I recently purchased a Dell XPS15z. It has some other issues with audio corruption whilst using Wifi but whilst I can live with that I've come across a video issue. The problem is that all the tests I can find including the Dell diagnostics say everything is OK.

Machine is a i7-2640M with Intel HD3000(?) graphics as well as an nVidia GT525M hybrid. I'm experiencing issues just with the Intel graphics at the moment in Windows etc. The nVidia is not normally used unless I play a game (not installed at the moment because of a reinstall)

I'm finding that after a while (and not running much in the way of applications I'm getting corrupted windows etc. Sometimes it will just magically fix itself and start working normally. Sometimes I need a reboot. Reboot fixes it temporarily and then it comes back. It's hard to reproduce. Damn - I meant to take a screenshot just now but now the problem goes away. I'm pretty sure a print screen will catch it so it's not something in the LCD panel or something like that. I will try the next time it happens and post back

The machine is not running hot and does not seem at all heat related.

I have restored to the factory image. After a while the problem comes back. Only reinstalled a few days ago. I'm not installing wads of crap software so I don't think there is an issue there. This is my second machine. They replaced the first because of the Wifi issue (didn't fix it though). The first machine never had this issue in the few months I had it. This new one has started doing it within days of a reinstall.

As a side note, I have a work machine (Dell Precision with a Quadro FX1600M) and it has previously suffered a similar issue. It doesn't have any of the hybrid stuff so is always nVidia whereas this problem seems to be Intel related). So that brings me to believe it may be some kind of Windows thing? I was going to have the work one simply replaced with a whole new machine. Warranty was nearly up and IT told me "I was running too much stuff" because I had a lot of Windows in the taskbar. It has now been re-imaged and I've not experienced the problem since although I was reasonably convinced it was a graphics card hardware issue (tried all sorts of driver versions).

Anyone got any ideas on how I can test things or seen similar problems (a bit hard without a photo I know)? I come to the empegbbs since you guys are the most knowledgable ones I know and I would like to have some evidence it's broken before fighting through Dell's standard "upgrade drivers (again), reinstall etc" process

Thanks
Christian

Forgot to add
New machine is Win 7 64 bit.
Old machine is Win XP 32 bit.

Both machines seems to have issues when scrolling windows such as a webpage. The next "page" would be mostly blank/corrupted.

The old machine had particular issues with Acrobat and would only display correctly if the window was smaller than a certain size (that size would change). If full screen it would corrupt and not draw properly. The new machine doesn't seem that specific but just something I remember. I don't really care too much about the old machine since it's up for renewal but was putting it out there as another data point.

It's a hardware or driver problem.

I'd have to agree.

Considering you contacted Dell about this issue before your warranty ran out, you should still be covered for that issue if it's still cropping up.

Just throwing it out there as a random possibility: when you sent the machine back and got a replacement, did you get a new power adapter?

Hardware or driver? As in "not Windows or applications" you mean there I assume? I would have assumed so too and more likely hardware given the first machine with identical hardware did not exhibit the issue. Just as I was typing it I remembered my issue with the other machine.

Machine is well within warranty. Only about 3 months old.

I did get a new power adapter with the new machine and I'm 99% sure I kept it (I had both of them side by side for a couple of weeks).

I've just installed latest Intel video drivers (not from Dell).

It can take hours or days for the problem to (re)occur

Yes. Windows (in the absence of flaky drivers or hardware) doesn't do this. Applications should not (cannot, except in rare cases) cause this problem.

What can cause it is: bad drivers, bad RAM, bad graphics hardware, or bad power.

As an example of this last: My current PC would run fine until I fired up Portal 2, at which point it would sometimes crash. Further diagnosis revealed that I had too much hardware in the box (4xHDDs, 1xDVD, 1xBD), and the PSU couldn't maintain stable power when the graphics card really got going. Removing 2 of the HDDs and the CD-RW drive fixed it.

As an example of the bad RAM: my eee PC would exhibit graphics corruption and occasional crashes (when resuming from standby). I'd upgraded the RAM. When I put back the stock RAM, the problems went away.

The fact that you had a similar problem with a different machine is probably a coincidence.

Hi,

I agree with the others.

I had an odd suggestion though...

Install Linux (I currently like Linux Mint), on the disk drive and see if it misbehaves. That way you can get rid of the Windows OS and the drivers.

Be sure to max out the screen resolution and refresh rate for the test. The reason for the maximum refresh rate (even with and LCD/LED display), is that the pixel clock is faster (makes it work harder, more heat), and you will best expose timing issues.

Put in a diagnostic mode that works on the maximum transfers into and out of the video controller chip/pixel buffer RAM.

By the way, you don't have gold-plated and tin-lead plated memory sockets/memory cards do you?

Ross

Attached is a fairly extreme version of the corruption. I have latest Intel video drivers installed

I do note that it seems to happen worst when IE9 has stacks of memory allocated. It seems to have fairly significant memory leaks. With those tabs open, Task Manager is showing approximately 2GB of memory across 4 iexplore.exe processes

The board seems to limit image sizes regardless of what I do but a direct link is here:
http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/6431/filename/Corrupted%20Video.jpg

Right-click the picture, then select "View image"...

tanstaafl.

Doesn't exist in IE9. The closest I can get is "right click->properties" which gives you a direct link to the full image OR "right click->copy" and paste into an image viewer/editor.

Well, there's your problem.

Indeed. Have you tried any other (better) browsers? Any other would qualify. If you're committed to IE9, try running it with add add-ons disabled.

Sigh. I realise there is a lot of hate for IE. However I do get a bit tired of hearing this also. Every time I have tried Firefox I end up having to use IE to get particular sites to work. Whilst this is no doubt the site in question's fault in most questions, what am I supposed to do about that? Yes I know I can there is an IE mode in FireFox at least.

Either way, it should not be corrupting the video display nor should it be a requirement to use a different browser because the forum scales images down and gives no option to view them full size...

Have you tried a switch recently? I can't think of any site on the web that would require me to use IE. Perhaps if I'm on an XP machine and need to run Windows Update, but other than that I've found no compatibility issues on any other browsers. I haven't used IE in years.

Anyway, have you tried add-ons disabled mode like I suggested? I doubt that's the issue, but we might as well rule everything out.