Dell complaints

[rensink@cs.utwente.nl]

Since a few weeks my laptop (latitude D620) doesn't manage to get a signal to an external beamer/monitor any more. That is, when I attach a cable this is "seen" (as witnessed by the Fn-F8 control key), but if I switch the signal to this output the setting is not accepted (it is outlined red in the popup screen). Also, the NVidia control panel does not acknowledge the monitor.

Stranger yet, with a very short cable the image *did* appear on a monitor, despite the same red-outlined popup screen setting; but under no ciscumstances can I manage to convince any beamer to project anything.

I *think* the problem started after I installed the newest BIOS and NVidia drivers, but that might have been coincidental - in any case, rolling back the NVidia driver did not solve the problem. Dell very helpfully installed a new motherboard (I have a service contract), but that did nothing to solve the problem either. Of course I can call them again (and will, if nothing else works) but no great expertise was apparent there (imagine blithely installing a new motherboard and not even checking if the problem is gone) so I do not have high hopes from that quarter.

Any suggestions are very welcome!

[diashto]

Check it with a different monitor?

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

If the problem started when you updated BIOS and driver, that is almost certainly the cause. Both Dell's Chinese BIOS and Nvidia drivers have been very troublesome in the past 3 years, all the more so with the introduction of Vista. Dell tests minimally, if at all, for compatibility. They laid off all the testers and sloughed off compatibility onto vendors, who in a recent series of Dell desktops haven't even been able to make the fan run correctly. In short, the vendors don't know what the flarg they're doing, and Dell doesn't care what happens as long as they get your money.

Dells tend to resist being down-flashed to a previous BIOS release, but it may still be possible. Sorry, I can't quote the procedure. When I worked in the lab, Dells would flash to any version you wanted without arguing, but that's changed.

For future reference, only update things to specifically SOLVE a problem. Otherwise as you've just seen, an update is just as likely to CAUSE a problem in a system that is otherwise working. Under no circumstance will an update make a working system work better, thus you have nothing to gain.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'