Dell laptop video card problem

[84GNTTYPE]

Today I was playing a game on my laptop and my computer suddenly shut down. I waited a little bit and started it back up, and it shut down again just as Windows was loading.

I had this happen to me about 6 months ago and the problem was a dirty/clogged cooling fan. Dell came and replaced the fan, but the tech told me that next time I could just remove the fan, blow it out, and replace it because the problem was just dirty, not a faulty fan. So I figured this was likely the problem again, so I took my laptop apart enough to get to the fan/heatsink unit, took it out, and blew it out. I put everything back together and now, nothing shows up on my screen when I start it up. The laptop powers on just fine, the lights come on and everything, but there is NOTHING on the screen. I tried reversing the process to make sure I didn't forget anything, but it still does the same thing.

I tried hooking it up to my roommates LCD monitor, but nothing shows up on there either. I have emailed Dell support, but haven't heard anything back yet. I was thinking that my video card is probably dead, but I'm not sure if that is an accurate assumption. The video in the game I was playing was rather slow, but I'm not sure if this is a symptom of a dying card or not.

I guess I'm just looking for some thoughts so I can try and make sure Dell doesn't try and fix it halfway.

Oh yeah, its a Inspiron 5100 with a 7500 Radeon vid card.

Thanks for any input.

[GNX423]

Shine a flashlight on it to make sure that it is definately not working. If the backlight goes out it will appear not to work, when actually, you cannot see it. This can happean if you forget to plug the backlight powersupply wire in or its shot.
If you plug an external monitor in, many times you will have to hit the function key and the minitor button (it is f5 on mine)
This will change the output from the internal monitor to external or both.
Try re-seating the memory, double check all of the connectors.

Good luck with it,
Mike

[84GNTTYPE]

Mike-

Thanks for the ideas. I tried them, but nothing seemed to make a difference.

I heard back from Dell. I did the steps they recommended (some of which I had already done). They included adjusting the brightness, toggling screen modes, running diagnostics (which I can't do because the screen isn't showing anything), and trying to turn CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK on and off. Neither CAPS LOCK or NUM LOCK would turn on or off (per the LED indicators on the computer).

I emailed Dell back. Waiting for a response now.

Thanks again!
John