Alienware M17X R4 Graphic card problem

[mydog2409]

Hello everyone,

Today, when I using my laptop as usual, it suddenly freezed and I had to make a hard switch off. After that, when I tried to turn on, the sreen just show a black screen and it will not make it to boot screen.

After searching for a while on the internet, I think there is a problem with thermal paste and thermal pad (too old) and thus cause problem with venting the heat of the card (and of course does not make it to boot screen). So I have to take the card out and viola!, my laptop works normally.

However, until I get new thermal paste and pad to replace the old one, I also need to assume the worst case scenario that my GPU is broken and need a replacement.

Is there anywhere I could buy for a new one? And can I get a different card than my old AMD 7970M?

 

[PapaWood]

How old is your laptop? What kind of warranty does/did it have? Is it possible to have it replaced under warranty? I would think more likely than not it wouldn't be smart to make too many changes like that unless totally necessary.

Saying that,

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNGnOU_Ky-8 shows a video card upgrade on an alienware laptop

 

[mydog2409]

How old is your laptop? What kind of warranty does/did it have? Is it possible to have it replaced under warranty? I would think more likely than not it wouldn't be smart to make too many changes like that unless totally necessary.

Saying that,

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNGnOU_Ky-8 shows a video card upgrade on an alienware laptop

It has been around with me for 2.5 years and my warranty just expired last year. Does this mean I am out of luck?

 

[PapaWood]

I think it depends if that card is soldered in or not, if you attempt to replace it I would do it with the same card that you have now, might be able to find one on ebay or something. I don't know if a local PC shop is worth the time/money to you but there are options.

 

[PapaWood]

You can still try the new thermal paste and such. Do you have the card out already? Just realized the first post says so, or that's how i read it.

 

[mydog2409]

You can still try the new thermal paste and such. Do you have the card out already? Just realized the first post says so, or that's how i read it.

Yes I did. And whenever I put back it in and boot my laptop on, the screen is just flickering with black color and nothing seem to come up. Take it out and things went fluently...

 

[PapaWood]

hmm that's odd, any BIOS settings that were changed before hand? it might be a good idea to see if you can find a new card somewhere, maybe if that doesn't work you could return it?

 

[mydog2409]

hmm that's odd, any BIOS settings that were changed before hand? it might be a good idea to see if you can find a new card somewhere, maybe if that doesn't work you could return it?

I upgraded the bios to A12 version a few months ago, everything went well then. And I did find someone sell it on eBay but I do not know will it fit to specification on my laptop... Is there any way to know if my card has become a "brick"?

 

[PapaWood]

I couldn't tell you really about it being bricked.. I would assume of its the same model as your card it would work. if it has a picture you can compare as well.

 

[mydog2409]

I couldn't tell you really about it being bricked.. I would assume of its the same model as your card it would work. if it has a picture you can compare as well.

Question about the BIOS. I might mistaken the BIOS of video card with BIOS of the motherboard. Could you explain to me how this work? And for the BIOS of video card, I never did any update with that.

 

[PapaWood]

If it was working OK after a bios update and didn't stop working immediately i wouldn't think that's the problem. I would verify in the BIOS though that all the settings are in place, for example make sure the card is told to work not just the on board graphics you are currently using.

 

[PapaWood]

Though to me, it does sound like that card is just bad now, maybe overheated, couldn't be sure unfortunately.

 

[mydog2409]

Bump. Does anyone have similar problem like me? I just want to hear some more opinions before making a purchase for the replacement...

New development. I found out that Dell has Enhanced Pre-boot System Assessment (ePSA) so I try to run it. Luckily, I made to ePSA and it ran check on all my hardware. And surprisingly, it found no problem with the GPU when I put it back to the mobo. So I proceed to restart and made it to the log on screen, but then BSoD with BAD_POOL_CALLER. Here is the dump file:

http/www.mediafire.com/download/2p91sgzif9s3r6p/042215-30310-01.dmp

I am now begining to uninstall old driver and install new one to see if there is any problem with the driver

 

[PapaWood]

Awesome I hope that helps let us know how the driver situation turns on please. Good catch.

 

[mydog2409]

Awesome I hope that helps let us know how the driver situation turns on please. Good catch.

I have to install a fresh Windows just to be sure the old one makes any conflict. Even after installed fresh driver for the GPU, I checked "Device Manager" and it resulted in code 43 for the card. Does this mean it is time for me to buy a replacement?

 

[PapaWood]

https/technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725873%28v=ws.10%29.aspx you can give this a read, but seems like that card might be on its way out the door.

 

[mydog2409]

Thanks for your help in the following days, much appreciated.

 

[PapaWood]

No problem! Let us know how things work out

 

[Paracethamol]

Hi, english is not my native language so, sorry if i made mistakes.

Got the same problem on my Alienware MX17 R4, updated BIOS, new graphic drivers (nvidia GTX 675) and then, the nightmare begins. BSOD, black screen, lost audio, integrated graphic card not recognized inside the BIOS.

I've tested quite everything, reformat, reinstall, clean drivers but nothing. Yesterday i try an another thing, my BIOS was the A12 and i rollback it to the A09 version and... miracle no more BSOD. All work fine atm, it turn with a game on the back to see if it can handle the charge but for now, all work fine. GPU temperature at 57°C and stable.

I dont know why this happened, bad BIOS with bad nvidia drivers maybe ?

Hope it can help you a bit and keep us posted.

 

[mydog2409]

Hi, english is not my native language so, sorry if i made mistakes.

Got the same problem on my Alienware MX17 R4, updated BIOS, new graphic drivers (nvidia GTX 675) and then, the nightmare begins. BSOD, black screen, lost audio, integrated graphic card not recognized inside the BIOS.

I've tested quite everything, reformat, reinstall, clean drivers but nothing. Yesterday i try an another thing, my BIOS was the A12 and i rollback it to the A09 version and... miracle no more BSOD. All work fine atm, it turn with a game on the back to see if it can handle the charge but for now, all work fine. GPU temperature at 57°C and stable.

I dont know why this happened, bad BIOS with bad nvidia drivers maybe ?

Hope it can help you a bit and keep us posted.

Hey,

It is lucky that's your problem started after a BIOS/driver update, mine happened when I was using the laptop normally. Nevertheless, my old card is fried up so I have ordered a new replacement.