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Sentia Crippled!

post #1 of 12
4/14/04 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 
My sentia had an arm and a leg chopped off this week!

First, I was having a problem with an internet connection at my schools library. Hoping a quick reset might do the trick, my Sentia went totally haywire. When loading windows and switching to the high res portion of the bootup, the screen would go black and the cpu fan would go crazy fast.

multiple resets later and unable to figure out the problem, I went into the bios.......after about 5-10 seconds in the bios the screen would shut off!!!! Holy ****!!! I tried booting into safe mode, and was only able to do so 1 in 3 tries. Finally got in safe mode, shut down all power maagement and set viid res to lowest possible in both my and admin accounts. rebooted, nd seem to solve the problem. WTF happened??? black screen in bios????wtf????

Now........

Now my wireless card cant pick up a signal 2 inches from an AP!! wtf????
I checked the antenna is still attached. wtf is up w/ my sentia?
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post #2 of 12
4/14/04 at 8:51pm
Thread Starter 
on a better note it forced me to re-research and reinstall special software for the wifi card. and If a mod *cough booga/craig* can guaruntee me a sticky - Ill be more than happy to post the entire library of knowledge i collected in order to get the wifi card in the sentia up to date!
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post #3 of 12
4/14/04 at 10:02pm
Please! Please!
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post #4 of 12
4/14/04 at 10:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by archalien
on a better note it forced me to re-research and reinstall special software for the wifi card. and If a mod *cough booga/craig* can guaruntee me a sticky - Ill be more than happy to post the entire library of knowledge i collected in order to get the wifi card in the sentia up to date!
Sounds like a subject deserving of a sticky. Be sure to create a new thread.

I am also curious what you did different from what Intel Drivers readily available for the Sentia.

The start of this thread you listed a number of issues incuding a lockup in the bios. Is that resolved?
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post #5 of 12
4/15/04 at 1:34am
Thread Starter 
all issues currently resolved and in my educated oppinion had nothing to do with the wireless drivers not being alienware approved. Im not sure what caused my display to go haywire or the wireless drivers to die, but I had NO problems and flawless operation b4 the library incident and flawless after also.
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post #6 of 12
4/20/04 at 3:43pm
Thread Starter 
after what seemed to be fixed gfx, they went out again, then windows got corrupted with a missing .dll having to do with a corrupted boot.ini

I was only able to get into safe mode 1 in 10 times, deleted gfx drivers, rebooted, reinstalled. back to normal.

Still dont know why gfx and wireless drv's coruppeted at same time.

Still dont know how corrupted gfx driver caused screen to go black in bios???wtf
When it happened if i tapped the start button bios would come back on.
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post #7 of 12
4/20/04 at 4:13pm
I have the drivers direct from Intel if you want it. However, it may be the same drivers you are currently using.

Tapping the start button and the screen comes back? You tried other keys? Or maybe just the tapping "anywhere" is what is doing it.
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post #8 of 12
4/21/04 at 3:25pm
Thread Starter 
I meant the power button
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post #9 of 12
6/27/04 at 12:13am

Black Screen of Death

Ok, arch. I've been having a lot of the same problems you have. I get the black screen. Yeah, the one where you go into BIOS (i'm version 1.16mb1), and have to press power to get the screen back on. The one that happens after you boot up, and there is nothing to press to bring it back (except going into standby and the resuming). Removing gfx drivers in safe mode, and then reinstalling seems to help, but they keep getting screwed up. I have the latest intel versions of video and chipset drivers.

If my computer does boot properly, I can force the BSD (black screen of death) to come on by hibernating, and then restoring. The computer boots back up, shows my screen for several seconds, and then switches off the screen.

Hours on the phone with Alienware, and now they want me to send my Sentia back for them to "repair". That means formatting my HD, and leaving me w/ no laptop for about a month.

Let's keep this forum going. I know this is a set of problems that several of us have had, and there doesn't seem to be a good fix yet. Suck.
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post #10 of 12
6/27/04 at 3:33pm
Thread Starter 
When AW says send it in for repair its cuz they cant figure out the problem.

I HAVE SOLVED MY PROBLEM!

I did clean install w/ non AW xp disc and then installed the drivers needed. I think the problem resides in the sleep/hybernate modes, something AW couldnt fix no matter how hard they try. I just turned mine off completely and I have not had the problem in months!!!! I know this is a garbage workaround, but it stops the black screen of death.
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post #11 of 12
6/30/04 at 10:47pm
i had similar problems with my ibm x22 before the motherboard died on me.
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post #12 of 12
7/1/04 at 2:26am
Thread Starter 
my wireless corruption is getting worse, it hard rebooted when I disabled the wireless lan. doh
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