I finally got the nagging problem I had with my Dell notebook sorted out. I happened to notice that the Dell XPS M1730 is now available in India. Seeing this I thought it might be possible that they now also support my Dell XPS M1710 - the predecessor the one they sell here. And turns out they do.

I rang up Dell support last Thursday and on Friday 2 support guys show up my office. I told them that none of my video-out ports (VGA, DVI, S-Video) are functioning. At first they said that it might be a software setting problem or a driver issue and started doing their standard series of test. After I told them exactly what steps they would try next and that I had already tried them and failed, they didn't say anything further - just gave me a big grin and said "No problems sir, we'll replace your motherboard". 20 minutes later with a brand new motherboard, the notebook is happily chugging away and being able to project! Yay to Dell support again!!