Dell XPS M1530 GPU problem?

[lazygood4notin]

So I have a Dell XPS M1530 that isn't showing any display. All the power LED's and everything on the laptop turn on like normal but no screen. No backlight turns on and I'm not getting any display on an external monitor. Would this mean that it is probably a faulty GPU?

[ApolloX75]

47 minutes ago, lazygood4notin said:

So I have a Dell XPS M1530 that isn't showing any display. All the power LED's and everything on the laptop turn on like normal but no screen. No backlight turns on and I'm not getting any display on an external monitor. Would this mean that it is probably a faulty GPU?

Yes and no. On a laptop that old I'd immediately jump to the conclusion that it was a dead GPU too, but I've actually experienced this with a similar aged laptop a few years ago and it turned out to be bad RAM causing the exact same symptoms.

 

Probably worth troubleshooting a bit before assuming the likely non-replaceable GPU (which I'm going to assume is... an 8400M?) is dead. That being said DDR2 laptop RAM might be a bit harder to get a hold of these days.

 

Edit: Nope. DDR2 SODIMMs are very cheap on ebay.