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Need advice

post #1 of 12
6/28/10 at 3:56pm
Thread Starter 
Hello, I have an M17x R1 (Specs in sig) which is 100% out of warranty. Yesterday I went to clean out the fans because it was running hot. Then I powered up the laptop and it would go to the welcome screen and flash black rapidly. So the I reformated, and now it seems everything is all and well. Games run completely fine, systems running fast, etc. However a few times my screen has went and stayed black. All I need to do to fix it is reboot the system. Is my GPU failing?

Also, I was thinking maybe trying to get it under warranty again. The laptop passed the complete diagnostics from Alienware (besides some SD card failure, but I had a SD to USB converter thing plugged in). Will that be the test they do to warrant the laptop again? If not, what will they do?

If I cannot get the lappy under warranty again, I am just going to sell it and let it be somebody else's problem, do you think I could get 1K out of it?

Thanks in advance,
-Nonya
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post #2 of 12
6/28/10 at 4:30pm
It'll be hard to get $1K if you disclose those issues up front and the system is out of warranty. Have you changed drivers recently? One test is to run furmark 1.8.2 dual GPU version and keep a close eye on temps.
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post #3 of 12
6/28/10 at 5:10pm
just log on to dell account and extend you warranty.
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post #4 of 12
6/28/10 at 5:24pm
Thread Starter 
Also, don't know if this changes anything. My BIOS version on both cards are the same (62.92.96.00.09) they used to be different.

-Nonya
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post #5 of 12
6/28/10 at 8:06pm
If your warranty just expired (few days maybe a week or two) they probably will extend it, just tell them you expected Dell to contact you before it expired
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post #6 of 12
6/28/10 at 8:07pm
Any ideal what your temps were when the black screen happened - try monitoring them.

It maybe a NVIDIA driver issue as well.,

Another thing to try os disable SLI and see what happens
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post #7 of 12
6/28/10 at 9:18pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave-p View Post
Any ideal what your temps were when the black screen happened - try monitoring them.

It maybe a NVIDIA driver issue as well.,

Another thing to try os disable SLI and see what happens
Well, it has not done it today, knock on wood.

It usually does it when I am just in non demanding programs, and it just goes black.
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post #8 of 12
6/28/10 at 9:45pm
Thread Starter 
Just happend, this time I was on Youtube and I pressed the right button on the mouse, the screen instantly went black, I could still hear the audio.
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post #9 of 12
6/28/10 at 9:57pm
oh well.... My M1710 video card dies out on me 6 months after the warranty expired. I still log on to my Dell account and got another 2 years extended warranty. Call Dell and got the video card replace. Done.

Wondering if AW has the same warranty as Dell XPS service.

Don't you have a Dell account??
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post #10 of 12
6/28/10 at 11:04pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Silversaver View Post
oh well.... My M1710 video card dies out on me 6 months after the warranty expired. I still log on to my Dell account and got another 2 years extended warranty. Call Dell and got the video card replace. Done.

Wondering if AW has the same warranty as Dell XPS service.

Don't you have a Dell account??
From what the Dell site said you have to get the laptop "Recertified", but I'll try to see if that works.

Thanks for the help!
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post #11 of 12
6/29/10 at 9:00am
Have you tried installing the lastest GPU drivers from NVIDIA's web site?

also if you have or are going to do a fresh OS install do install the Chipset drivers (both) but when it comes to the NVIDIA chipset drivers do not install the RAID drivers they are suspect still
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post #12 of 12
6/30/10 at 9:22pm
Thread Starter 
Okay it is one of the GPU's that is the problem, because if I use the 9400M it will run fine. So one of the 280M's is the problem. I figured out what triggers it, videos... doesn't matter if it is Youtube or just a normal .WMV. I've ran Furmark and the temps stay fine and the screen never blacks out of freezes.

I've never seen a GPU that will play a game fine, but fail on a video
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