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Dell laptop display issue

I was watching a streaming video on my laptop and it stopped responding, I did a hard reboot since Ctrl-Alt-del also didn't help.

On reboot, there's no display, I can see hard drive activity and hear the Windows startup sound, but there a lot of lines on the screen (which change in color, during the boot and window startup process) and nothing else.

The laptop is a Dell Vostro 14" with Intel Dual Core processor,2 GB RAM and a nvidia Graphics Card. It's running Windows Vista. The laptop is 2 years old. I haven't had any problems with the display before.

I didn't come across a similar issue on a Google search and hence looking for an answer here.

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Does it display the BIOS startup screen correctly, or is it garbage from the start? – Col Sep 29 '09 at 7:42
Garbage from start – user12657 Sep 29 '09 at 17:40
I tried connecting a Dell LCD Monitor to the laptop. I am able to switch to the external display, but it says: Analog Input, Cannot display this video mode. – user12657 Sep 29 '09 at 22:58
Interesting I reconnected the external display and was able to get something. quite similar to media.photobucket.com/image/… – user12657 Sep 29 '09 at 23:50
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Contact DELL support.

Article: "Dell issues update for...graphics chip glitch" According to the article, Vostro 1400 is on the list. This became public over a year ago. Hopefully your system is still covered.

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Thanks, I figured this a little while back. Some more details: en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2008/09/12/… Unfortunately, I am 15 days out of the warranty, I purchased the system on Sept 3 2007 and hit the problem on Sept 28, and they online chat person said it will cost me $750+ to get the laptop repaired now – user12657 Sep 30 '09 at 2:30
That stinks. For $750 you could get a brand new laptop. – hanleyp Sep 30 '09 at 2:39
well, a new Dell Vostro costs about $550. They quoted $250 for LCD + $515 for Mobo as they have to change both to get the issue resolved. – user12657 Sep 30 '09 at 18:36
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