Dell Inspiron 8200 bad motherboard or video card???

HTATech

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I have a Dell 8200 Inspiron that when I power it on the LED ligts light up and and after it is on for about 5 - 10 minutes the fan will power on - but nothing comes up on the display. I've replaced the memory, and I've hooked it up to an external monitor via the VGA port and still nothing comes up.

Is this a bad video card or is it the motherboard? Any other test I can run to find out?
 

shadowduck

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Check the back for the POST LED codes and maybe removing the video card and see what it looks like and maybe without the memory (one at a time, then both).
Sometimes simply reseating both can help.

He has a laptop, so reseating the video card might be hard. IT might even be intergrated onto the motherboard.

To Op: I think its probably the display itself.
 

HTATech

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I thought it migt be the display as well, but wouldn't plugging it into the external vga port to an external monitor display on the monitor if it were the laptop display that was the problem??

I'll try resetting the video card, it isn't integrated, I just don't want to purchase a new motherboard if all I need is the video card.
 

shadowduck

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I thought it migt be the display as well, but wouldn't plugging it into the external vga port to an external monitor display on the monitor if it were the laptop display that was the problem??

I'll try resetting the video card, it isn't integrated, I just don't want to purchase a new motherboard if all I need is the video card.

Well.. sometimes you have to actually activate the 2nd display in Windows before it will work. Did you try pressing Fn-8 (i think thats the LCD one) to make sure it was activated?

If you did.. it very well could be the video card. If the motherboard is blown, you are better off replacing the laptop.
 

HTATech

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Yeah, I did hit the fn>f8 key and still now response.

I can pick up a video card pretty cheap - I think I will give that a try. I agree if it is the motherboard it's probably not worth it.