Help needed - laptop is getting a blue screen of death

Hello everyone.

My Dell XPS M1710 laptop is having a major issue. Whenever the computer is booting up, there are vertical lines in rows on the screen and the computer goes to a blue screen after the Windows is starting screen. It will then restart and the same thing happens again. There is no getting past that blue screen.

Here's what I've tried so far.

1 - Removed a memory stick to see if it was a faulty RAM stick causing it. The computer worked for about 5 minutes after that and then the screen went nuts and restarted again. Same issue after that.

2 - Purchased a brand new 2GB RAM stick and installed it, didn't work at all, same issue.

3. Tried startup repair. It couldn't fix the problem.

4 - Reinstalled Windows 7. It seemed like it was going to work but as soon as I had to restart the computer for updates, the blue screen came back.

5 - System restore was turned off for some reason, so there is no restore point to go back to.

6 - Tried selecting "use last known good configuration" option from start-up menu. Didn't work.

That's about everything I've done. I'm not sure where else to go from here.

The computer starts up fine in Safe Mode, and I'm able to do anything I'd like in Safe Mode, but once I try to boot normally, it doesn't work.

Anyone have any idea what I could possibly try at this point? I don't have much money left to put into it so I'm hoping I can somehow fix it myself, but it's looking grim .

Found this.

Blue screen = often a bad, old or wrong installed driver

Is there some way to erase all drivers and start fresh? I reinstalled Windows and still get this blue screen...

Did you reinstall fresh or over the old Windows version?

I went to Advanced System Restore options and chose "reinstall Windows", then followed the prompts from there. So I assume I reinstalled over the old Windows. Is there another (better) way to do it?

When you reinstall window is there an advance option like there is when you install from disk?

If so use it to format the c drive to ensure old windows is wiped and you get a fesh install.

I reinstalled it from a burned disc and there was no option that I saw to format first.

Edit - I think my video card is faulty. I'm getting vertical lines on the BIOS boot up screens. Hmm. Time to upgrade my video card I suppose.

Yeah I was thinking video but you said you were able to use safe mode.

If it's doing it in the bios though I'd definitely think graphics card.

If you get a new one make sure it's 4GB.:lol:

Sorry, couldn't resist.

if it's for a laptop that has a removable/replaceable video card, it's possible you can just remove the video card. The motherboard itself may have an 'on-board' video that works just fine, except that it's slow for 3d games. You can try doing that to verify the problem is the video card.

Reset the bios ? Unplug from power and remove battery for a while.

Had something similar and I replaced the GPU, a bit fiddling but it worked. You often can get a cheap one from eBay/China if there is no igpu