Dell M1330 problem

[kutmasta]

My M1330 died on me today. I think the graphics card has packed in, because the screen stays black (with occasional coloured vertical lines) and the VGA output doesn't work at all. Some quick googling shows me that there are loads of faulty GPUs shipped with this particular model (Nvidia messed up the dies apparantly)

Is there any way I can confirm it is indeed the graphics card that is the problem?

If thats the case I reckon I'm completely out of luck, considering the warranty ran out exactly 1 month ago, replacement motherboards cost about £200 + labour to fit it.

 

[kutmasta]

Is your laptop under warranty? If not, I think Dell extended the warranty to cover this particular problem for an additional year.

I'm fairly sure it isn't. Like I said, according to the Dell website my warranty ran out about a month ago. I'm gonna try and contact them tomorrow though.