I have recently been having problems with my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop computer where half of the pixels on the screen seem to "superimpose" on the rest of the screen. By this I mean that every other vertical pixel line on the screen seems to move over about an inch on the screen itself and display what should have been in its original location.

This problem happens on both the LCD screen AND when I plug an LCD into the back of the laptop through the video out.

Another odd thing thing is that this seems to happen when the laptop warms up (I don't have overheating issues with it by the way). Approximately 5 minutes after startup is when this problem occurs. Also, I have control over how bad this can be. For example, I can press on certain points of the laptop itself which will make the pixels distort more, less, or not at all. This leads me to believe that something is loose.

So, back to the main topic, I purchased the exact same model video card as was in the laptop when I purchased it - the ATI Radeon 7500 32Mb model. With the original video card in the laptop, the video appears albeit distorted as mentioned above, BUT when I install the new video card there is absolutely NO video whatsoever.

I have two questions that I would really appreciate being answered:

1) Am I correct in assuming the problem is related to the video card? Everyone I have talked to has never seen something like what is wrong with my laptop.

2) Why is it that the new video card, which is the same model as the old, will not display video?

I apologize for the wall of text, but I have been trying to fix this laptop for quite awhile now.

System specs:
Dell Inspiron 5100
40Gig HDD
756Mb of RAM
ATI Radeon 7500 32Mb
Intel Pentium 4, 2.66Ghz

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...pport_central?

Are you sure that the cards are the same? And seated properly?

It could very well be a heat issue or unstable power voltage.

Does it work any different on the AC adapter rather than the battery?

I too have the same problem of supermoise on the screen.
if you have solved the problem please mail me the solution on sunwpk@yahoo.com
i will be great full to you for that.

Originally Posted by themicrohawk

I have recently been having problems with my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop computer where half of the pixels on thes screen eem to "superimpose" on the rest of the screen. By this I mean that every other vertical pixel line on the screen seems to move over about an inch on the screen itself and display what should have been in its original location.

This problem happens on both the LCD screen AND when I plug an LCD into the back of the laptop through the video out.

Another odd thing thing is that this seems to happen when the laptop warms up (I don't have overheating issues with it by the way). Approximately 5 minutes after startup is when this problem occurs. Also, I have control over how bad this can be. For example, I can press on certain points of the laptop itself which will make the pixels distort more, less, or not at all. This leads me to believe that something is loose.

So, back to the main topic, I purchased the exact same model video card as was in the laptop when I purchased it - the ATI Radeon 7500 32Mb model. With the original video card in the laptop, the video appears albeit distorted as mentioned above, BUT when I install the new video card there is absolutely NO video whatsoever.

I have two questions that I would really appreciate being answered:

1) Am I correct in assuming the problem is related to the video card? Everyone I have talked to has never seen something like what is wrong with my laptop.

2) Why is it that the new video card, which is the same model as the old, will not display video?

I apologize for the wall of text, but I have been trying to fix this laptop for quite awhile now.

System specs:
Dell Inspiron 5100
40Gig HDD
756Mb of RAM
ATI Radeon 7500 32Mb
Intel Pentium 4, 2.66Ghz