I’m currently writing this post on a Dell Inspiron 1300 that I bought a couple of months ago from the Dell Outlet Site. It’s not a top of the range laptop, but for doing websites, browsing the web, and general use, it suits me down to the ground.
Up until last night, I haven’t had a problem with it. That was until a suffered a Blue Screen of Death, (BSOD). But this was not a normal BSOD, the screen actually went completely blue, no text or error message. I know the rest of the system was working away, because I was downloading a file at the time, and the download completed while I was trying to resolve the problem.
I tried connecting an external CRT monitor and using Fn + F8 to swap over, but no joy. My only option was to turn off the system by holding the power button. When I restarted, it came back up as normal. Then earlier today, I suffered from the rarer, but much more lethal Red Screen of Death (RSOD). Once again I tried with an external CRT, with the same result. Unfortunately this time I was in the middle of typing up some website updates. Not being able to see my text editor meant that I wasn’t sure if I had said the changes or not, so I had to bite the bullet, and restart the system.
Once again, it restarted as normal, and I was lucky enough not to lose to much work. My problem is that as the problem has only occurred twice, I haven’t been able to do enough to check if it is graphics card or LCD related. I know if I call Dell Technical Support, they won’t be able to tell either, and I’ll probably be asked to do a full re-install – which is something I really do not want to do.
I thinks it’s time to do an image of the hard-drive, just in case.