Dell Video Problem

Friends and family- please let me explain that this post is nothing more than a way to house some pictures for a question I'm asking on a Dell help site. It's pretty boring. But, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

Dell Inspiron 5150
BIOS A38
Intel Pentium 4, 3.06GHz
512 MB of RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, Driver ver 6.14.10.6371
DirectX ver 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

So, I bought this laptop about 2 years ago, and it always worked fine. One fateful day, Kate purchased the Sims 2 and we installed it. Everything was fine for upwards of a year. However, one day, it stopped working. When you try to run the Sims, this is what you see:


Once you exit the Sims, you see this:

I tried to fix it for a long time- I'm pretty computer literate, so I've done all the obvious things: I installed all the latest drivers & patches, and did all the windows updates. Nothing. Kate was so desperate to play it that I actually formatted the hard drive so I could start over with a clean slate- Nothing. The problem kept coming back. After all my effort I finally gave up and figured it was a problem with the game.

So, flash forward to now. I tried to play Star Wars: Empire at War, and it has the exact same problem. This changes everything, because now I know it's a problem with the computer, not just one program. I discovered if you run the DirectX self-test, you see the same type of effect. So, I've spent the better part of this weekend trying to make it all work. I did all the standard fixes again, but still no effect. After web-chatting with Dell (you can't really get a human on the phone anymore; for that matter the chat may have been a clever computer program) for 2+ hours, we came back to the old "Re-install windows." But this time there's a twist: I should flash the BIOS first! Since I had version A03, and the newest version is A38, I'll assume that they've made some updates. So I bid goodbye to Worthy Moodey (the chat tech) and began the BIOS upgrade. Of course that in itself didn't fix the problem, so today I reformatted the computer (again).

So, 7+ hours of work, and what do you know? The problem shows up immediately! Now I'm going to ask the Dell forums for help, and hope one of the geniuses there can diagnose the problem.

Here's the chat session, if that helps anyone. It's fun to see how I answer questions before they're asked, then they ask them anyway. I have to believe s/he was working multiple cases at once, especially at the end when we were trying to figure out why it wouldn't let me update the BIOS. He goes away for 7 minutes, then returns with "It should be okay." I'm like "I know it should, but you left to figure out why it doesn't work." It's more fun to read the transcript if you can imagine me becoming more and more impatient and irritated. Notice that there's usually several minutes between lines.


04/21/2006 04:51:35PM
Session Started with Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey)
04/21/2006 04:51:35PM
Marc Burgess: "Video problem - Most likely DirectX but I have the latest version and video drivers"
04/21/2006 04:52:06PM
Marc Burgess: "Is someone there?"
04/21/2006 04:52:23PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Thank you for contacting Dell Hardware Warranty Chat Support! Please give me a moment to review your question and retrieve your service tag information."
04/21/2006 04:52:42PM
Marc Burgess: "Allright."
04/21/2006 04:54:55PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Would you please verify the person or company name that owns this system and the current address of the system?"
04/21/2006 04:55:32PM
Marc Burgess: "My name is Marc Burgess, but the computer was purchased for me as a gift by Kate XXXXXXX."
04/21/2006 04:55:52PM
Marc Burgess: "We now live at XXXXXXXXXXXXX."
04/21/2006 04:56:10PM
Marc Burgess: "Is that what you needed?"
04/21/2006 04:56:29PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "yes."
04/21/2006 04:56:36PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Thank You. May I have your phone number and e-mail address?"
04/21/2006 04:56:55PM
Marc Burgess: "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, XXXX@XXXX.com
04/21/2006 04:58:28PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Is this a new or existing case?"
04/21/2006 04:58:56PM
Marc Burgess: "It's been happening for a while, but I haven't previously contacted Dell about it."
04/21/2006 05:00:38PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Thanks for verifying the info."
04/21/2006 05:00:56PM
Marc Burgess: "No problem."
04/21/2006 05:01:18PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "What seems to be the problem with the video?"
04/21/2006 05:02:19PM
Marc Burgess: "When I try to run games with 3D graphics (namely the Sims 2 and Star Wars: Empire at war) the 3D elements are completely distorted."
04/21/2006 05:02:39PM
Marc Burgess: "It just kind of makes a starburst pattern, with the 2D icons on top."
04/21/2006 05:02:59PM
Marc Burgess: "It also makes the whole screen sort of checker board-ish."
04/21/2006 05:03:18PM
Marc Burgess: "I made some screen shots of it, if that would help."
04/21/2006 05:04:03PM
Marc Burgess: "It happened forever with the Sims, so I thought it was just the game, but yesterday when i tried star Wars I got the same effect."
04/21/2006 05:04:19PM
Marc Burgess: "If I run the DirectX self test thing, it does the same problem."
04/21/2006 05:04:51PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Is it only with that game?"
04/21/2006 05:05:31PM
Marc Burgess: "It seems to happen with anything that uses DirectX 3D. Then after you exit the game, all the icons on the computer are messed up."
04/21/2006 05:07:10PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Have any of the games worked normally before?"
04/21/2006 05:08:05PM
Marc Burgess: "The Sims worked fine for at least a year, then one day it stopped. I think it was after Windows did an automatic update."
04/21/2006 05:08:18PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Do you recall when that was?"
04/21/2006 05:08:57PM
Marc Burgess: "Wow, no sorry. That was several months ago."
04/21/2006 05:10:47PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "So you've just been dealing with the video problem since that?"
04/21/2006 05:11:28PM
Marc Burgess: "Well, Kate was the only one who played the Sims, so she just stopped playing it and it never came up with anything else I was doing."
04/21/2006 05:11:46PM
Marc Burgess: "So yes, I've been living with the issue snce then."
04/21/2006 05:12:12PM
Marc Burgess: "I even reformatted the computer once, but that didn't fix it (which made no sense to me)."
04/21/2006 05:12:25PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "OK, is the update crucial to anything that is running on your computer?"
04/21/2006 05:13:33PM
Marc Burgess: "I couldn't tell you, windows just pushes the updates 20 at a time. And they're all labeld "Critical Update.""
04/21/2006 05:13:54PM
Marc Burgess: "I've installed the latest video drivers and DirectX, to no avail."
04/21/2006 05:14:28PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Are you chatting with me on this computer?"
04/21/2006 05:14:52PM
Marc Burgess: "Yes."
04/21/2006 05:16:13PM
Marc Burgess: "I do have another computer that i could use if need be, but I'd hate to wait in the cue again."
04/21/2006 05:16:18PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Have you tried updating the video driver as well?"
04/21/2006 05:17:16PM
Marc Burgess: "Yup. it is an ATI Radeon Mobility 9000- ATI doesn't give drivers, and the latest one from Dell is from September 2003."
04/21/2006 05:18:50PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "OK, let me check on something else please, couple minutes."
04/21/2006 05:18:58PM
Marc Burgess: "Sure."
04/21/2006 05:21:52PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Thanks for waiting"
04/21/2006 05:22:08PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Is the computer connected to a docking station?"
04/21/2006 05:22:33PM
Marc Burgess: "No. I do have an external Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse, though."
04/21/2006 05:25:05PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "OK Does it happen with the LCD and the external monitor?"
04/21/2006 05:25:26PM
Marc Burgess: "Yes. They always look the exact same."
04/21/2006 05:27:04PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Just a minute please."
04/21/2006 05:27:57PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "What about uninstalling/reinstalling the software, tried that?"
04/21/2006 05:28:27PM
Marc Burgess: "Yup, several times."
04/21/2006 05:28:44PM
Marc Burgess: "It always comes back."
04/21/2006 05:29:28PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "And you reformatted the drive and reinstalled windows?"
04/21/2006 05:30:06PM
Marc Burgess: "Yes. It came right back. That was the part that really confused me."
04/21/2006 05:30:30PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yeah, I'll bet. Me too!! Are you using DVI or VGA?"
04/21/2006 05:30:54PM
Marc Burgess: "VGA."
04/21/2006 05:31:10PM
Marc Burgess: "I think- that's just normal right?"
04/21/2006 05:31:18PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes."
04/21/2006 05:31:24PM
Marc Burgess: "It's whatever every computer I've ever had uses."
04/21/2006 05:32:42PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Flashed the bios?"
04/21/2006 05:33:28PM
Marc Burgess: "I've thought about it, but Dell has very ominous warnings about dong that. I think I have the most current version as of the last time I checked."
04/21/2006 05:33:36PM
Marc Burgess: "Is there a way to check without restarting?"
04/21/2006 05:34:35PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "This is a suggestion from Dell so I think it will be OK."
04/21/2006 05:35:03PM
Marc Burgess: "Where should I go for that? It's been a while."
04/21/2006 05:36:12PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "I can send you the link to the web site."
04/21/2006 05:36:27PM
Marc Burgess: "That'd be good."
04/21/2006 05:36:41PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Before I send you the link, please go to START - CONTROL PANEL - INTERNET OPTIONS - ADVANCED TAB and disable REUSE WINDOWS by unchecking it.Also please disable any pop-up blockers temporarily. This is so that when I send this link it will not close the ch"
04/21/2006 05:37:11PM
Marc Burgess: "Can we store this as a "case file" or something in case it doesn't work?"
04/21/2006 05:37:49PM
Marc Burgess: "Done."
04/21/2006 05:38:16PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes I will give you a case# before you start that process."
04/21/2006 05:38:44PM
Marc Burgess: "Cool."
04/21/2006 05:40:22PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "I'll send the link first."
04/21/2006 05:43:43PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Standby for the link."
04/21/2006 05:44:36PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey) sends page: "http://support.dell.com/"
04/21/2006 05:44:57PM
Marc Burgess: "Okay, it opened up."
04/21/2006 05:45:22PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Put in your service tag and go to drivers and downloads."
04/21/2006 05:45:37PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Make sure windows xp shows as well."
04/21/2006 05:45:56PM
Marc Burgess: "This is where I started my afternoon. :-)"
04/21/2006 05:46:16PM
Marc Burgess: "Okay, I see the flash bios updates."
04/21/2006 05:46:27PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes go to that.."
04/21/2006 05:47:25PM
Marc Burgess: "So it appears the latest is I5150A38. Should I save that?"
04/21/2006 05:47:56PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes. If you already have it the system will let you know."
04/21/2006 05:48:53PM
Marc Burgess: "I saved it to the desktop. Should I try to run it now?"
04/21/2006 05:50:30PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Just a moment because at the end you will need to restart the computer and that will disconnect us."
04/21/2006 05:50:54PM
Marc Burgess: "Okay."
04/21/2006 05:51:08PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Let me get the case# then we can continue."
04/21/2006 05:55:00PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Still getting number."
04/21/2006 05:55:11PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "I can suggest a couple other things too."
04/21/2006 05:55:41PM
Marc Burgess: "That'd be great."
04/21/2006 05:57:38PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "You can try reseating your video card and also running diags on the card to see if you get any errors or fail codes."
04/21/2006 05:58:07PM
Marc Burgess: "Is there a help page for that?"
04/21/2006 05:58:22PM
Marc Burgess: "I'd be hesitant to crack open the case, though."
04/21/2006 05:59:22PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "You can get to it from the same website. Just put 32 bit diagnostics in the search bar and it will give you a list of articles that include how to run the diags."
04/21/2006 06:01:28PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "For future reference you will receive a copy of this chat journal via email."
04/21/2006 06:01:33PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "I am constantly striving to improve my service. If there is anything I can do to help improve your experience, please don't hesitate to let me know by contacting my manager via email at us_acs_team_1@dell.com."
04/21/2006 06:01:49PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "If you need further assistance with this case, you may contact us via [Chat]: www.dell.com/chat support or [Email]: us_acs_team_1@dell.com (include your Case#, Express Service Code and other relevant information) [Subject]: Team 311 Email Dell Inc. Case"
04/21/2006 06:01:58PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Case# 130930490"
04/21/2006 06:02:21PM
Marc Burgess: "Cool. So should I just run the BIOS Update?"
04/21/2006 06:03:54PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes and if you have no luck with that chat back with us and we'll try something else. Is there anything else that I can help you with today?"
04/21/2006 06:04:33PM
Marc Burgess: "I don't think so. If I already have the new BIOS, it will tell me without restarting, right?"
04/21/2006 06:05:01PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes. That's right."
04/21/2006 06:05:52PM
Marc Burgess: "Okay, I'll give it a go. If I already have it I'll let you know if a minute."
04/21/2006 06:06:04PM
Marc Burgess: "If not, thanks for the help!"
04/21/2006 06:06:18PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "OK Just in case. Thank You for choosing Dell Hardware Warranty Chat Support. Have a Great Day!"
04/21/2006 06:07:26PM
Marc Burgess: "You too! I'll either be right back or we'll be disconnected. Thanks again!"
04/21/2006 06:08:19PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "OK. No problem."
04/21/2006 06:09:42PM
Marc Burgess: "It says "Notice! Running on an Unsupported System!" and the continue button is grayed out."
04/21/2006 06:10:16PM
Marc Burgess: "It say my current bios is A03, and the upgrade is to A38, so that seems like a pretty big jump."
04/21/2006 06:11:06PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes it is."
04/21/2006 06:11:26PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Let me see if there is another one we can choose from."
04/21/2006 06:11:33PM
Marc Burgess: "So, what can I do? My only option is cancel."
04/21/2006 06:11:42PM
Marc Burgess: "Sorry -got ya."
04/21/2006 06:11:44PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes cancel that."
04/21/2006 06:12:04PM
Marc Burgess: "Is this one of those times I have to go to 4 first, then to 5, etc?"
04/21/2006 06:12:37PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yeah, looks that way."
04/21/2006 06:14:45PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "The earliest version is A23 and that is still a big jump."
04/21/2006 06:15:41PM
Marc Burgess: "I could try it,, but all I can find is 38. Can you send the link again?"
04/21/2006 06:16:02PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes, no problem."
04/21/2006 06:16:45PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey) sends page: "http://support.dell.com/"
04/21/2006 06:17:54PM
Marc Burgess: "I've got that, but the only option is still A38."
04/21/2006 06:19:20PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "This is puzzling. Let me inquire please."
04/21/2006 06:23:54PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Still checking."
04/21/2006 06:26:24PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Thanks for waiting. Was told that if that is the latest bios version then it is OK."
04/21/2006 06:27:03PM
Marc Burgess: "Yes, but the BIOS update exe won't let me press continue."
04/21/2006 06:27:34PM
Marc Burgess: "The only button I can press is "cancel.""
04/21/2006 06:28:20PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Ahhh. I see."
04/21/2006 06:28:55PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "I tell you what, let's just try the other things I mentioned and see what happens. I thought about one more thing too."
04/21/2006 06:30:02PM
Marc Burgess: "I'd still like to update the bios, now that I know it's so out of date."
04/21/2006 06:30:37PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yeah, I know. You can boot into safe mode and see if the same type of distortion is there."
04/21/2006 06:31:05PM
Marc Burgess: "Hmm...Interesting."
04/21/2006 06:31:43PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "If so, then we may have to try a windows repair or reloading again. Not sure why that didn't work in the beginning."
04/21/2006 06:31:56PM
Marc Burgess: "I don't know if DirectX stuff will even run in safe mode."
04/21/2006 06:33:07PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "You're right, it may not."
04/21/2006 06:33:29PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Try it anyway and see if it will."
04/21/2006 06:34:43PM
Marc Burgess: "So, how can I get the BIOS updated?"
04/21/2006 06:35:34PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Let me see if there's any other way we can try."
04/21/2006 06:40:43PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Got an answer."
04/21/2006 06:41:14PM
Marc Burgess: "Hit me!"
04/21/2006 06:42:24PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "OK you will need to update to version A24 first so let's try that."
04/21/2006 06:43:02PM
Marc Burgess: "Okay- Where can I find that (since it doesn't show up on the website)?"
04/21/2006 06:44:28PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "It's there under other versions on the download page."
04/21/2006 06:45:27PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "See it?"
04/21/2006 06:45:33PM
Marc Burgess: "Ah hah! Should I go for A23, since that's the earliest?"
04/21/2006 06:46:01PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "You can if you like."
04/21/2006 06:46:30PM
Marc Burgess: "These seem to require making disks."
04/21/2006 06:47:13PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes they do."
04/21/2006 06:48:14PM
Marc Burgess: "Well, I don't have a floppy drive, so I guess I'll go with the iso file."
04/21/2006 06:48:24PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Do you have a CD burner?"
04/21/2006 06:49:16PM
Marc Burgess: "Yeah. So do I need to boot off the burned cd, as though I was formatting?"
04/21/2006 06:49:30PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Yes, that is correct."
04/21/2006 06:50:37PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Is there anything else that I can help you with today?"
04/21/2006 06:51:27PM
Marc Burgess: "I guess that's it. What if this doesn't work?"
04/21/2006 06:51:51PM
Marc Burgess: "Do you have an 800 number or something I can call next time to pick up where we left off?"
04/21/2006 06:52:34PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Then try the other things I suggested and if no luck there, we may have to look at a repair or reinstall of windows."
04/21/2006 06:52:53PM
Marc Burgess: "I can always try that again, I guess."
04/21/2006 06:53:18PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "I don't have one directly to me but if you want to chat back from another computer and ask for me you can."
04/21/2006 06:53:54PM
Marc Burgess: "Okay."
04/21/2006 06:54:06PM
Marc Burgess: "Thanks again for the help!"
04/21/2006 06:54:16PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "Good luck. Thank You for choosing Dell Hardware Warranty Chat Support. Have a Great Day!"
04/21/2006 06:54:22PM
Agent (RTS Worthy Moodey): "No problem."