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Alienware Area 51 - M5550 - What to do?

post #1 of 7
9/14/10 at 7:54pm
Thread Starter 
I've had my Area 51 - M5550 for over 3 years. I had some issues with the GPU awhile ago and it basically died (booting up showed black/white checkboard/etc). I had warrenty still at this point and sent it in. Alienware replaced my GPU card for free as it was toast.

I recently have similar issues. The warrenty is done though.

I run respawn disk and it seems to work, I go through the windows XP startup stuff and it looks fine (Sounds work, colors are all presented correctly). Once this is done, I was in the computer for about 1 minute before it went black (Black screen), but up to that point it seemed fine.

I reboot the computer and I can see the windows logo (Mind you it's not coloured correctly.), then the computer just goes black after that.

I load safemode and that works (Theres some green lines through the screen though). I install the new 7600 drivers then reboot and have the same issue (goes black after windows logo).

I read somewhere that using Direct x9 games would screw the Nvidia Geforce Go7600 256mb card (for some reason frying them??) (I was playing Everquest when this problem happened BOTH times...)

I'm assuming the only problem with the laptop is the GPU. Otherwise I think it's pretty mint...

Is it toost forsure? Anyone able to help or have had similar issues with their m5550 and the Nvidia Go7600??

I see I can buy replacement, but figure I would ask here first... Also I didn't want to buy a replacement nvidia go7600 if it's just going to die again in like 1 month.

Thanks
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post #2 of 7
9/15/10 at 5:42am
You probably look at another GPU replacement. May be go for another card since the 7600s out there are pretty much refurbished items that can go wrong again - shortly.

cheers ...
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post #3 of 7
9/15/10 at 11:44pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for the reply,

So I can use a different GPU then the two supported when I bought it as long as I install the right drivers? What other GPU would fit in a Alienware M5550? The two supported when I bought this was:

NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 and Something 1400X or something?

If other GPU fit even if they are pretty weak I wouldn't mind. This laptop wouldn't be my main gaming computer, so if it can only handle Web Browsing and Office stuff I'd be satisifed compared to the dead door stopper atm...

Thanks!
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post #4 of 7
9/16/10 at 4:55am
We have a thread here (somewhere in one of the stickies) about compatible graphic cards. I think that the ATI you mentioned should work fine.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 7
3/6/11 at 3:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trabneb29 View Post
This sounds somewhat similar. I have an AL-m5500i-R3 with the Go7600 using XPSP2. It was plugged via DVI out, adapter to RGB cord, to my 42"LCD TV. Working fine! My wife pulled the table closer to her which moved the laptop and the screen went fuzzy on the TV and on the Laptop. (Was running extended screen-horizontal). So I unhooked the cord verified my TV was fine on another input. Rebooted my AL and all of a sudden....the post screen, AL boot, up to the Windows boot screen has vertical color streaks! Windows wouldn't load except in Safe-Mode. I have uninstalled video drivers (now running default windows drivers yuck!) I've tried reloading multiple versions of video drivers with same results, reboots to windows boot screen goes black. Safe-mode works and remove. Even tried re-spawn disk. No luck. - I am really afraid that my video card may have gotten zapped when it was moved. But it does 'work' for basics...not what an Alienware is really built for right! Thoughts!? No idea how to remove/reinstall new video card on a laptop. Love this AL. been rock solid till now. Please help.
Take a look at our stickies here in the Section - plenty of guides as how to take the machine apart. You can try the baking (we have guides and tips here as well ) once the card is being removed.

cheers ...
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post #6 of 7
3/6/11 at 3:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by trabneb29 View Post
This sounds somewhat similar. I have an AL-m5500i-R3 with the Go7600 using XPSP2. It was plugged via DVI out, adapter to RGB cord, to my 42"LCD TV. Working fine! My wife pulled the table closer to her which moved the laptop and the screen went fuzzy on the TV and on the Laptop. (Was running extended screen-horizontal). So I unhooked the cord verified my TV was fine on another input. Rebooted my AL and all of a sudden....the post screen, AL boot, up to the Windows boot screen has vertical color streaks! Windows wouldn't load except in Safe-Mode. I have uninstalled video drivers (now running default windows drivers yuck!) I've tried reloading multiple versions of video drivers with same results, reboots to windows boot screen goes black. Safe-mode works and remove. Even tried re-spawn disk. No luck. - I am really afraid that my video card may have gotten zapped when it was moved. But it does 'work' for basics...not what an Alienware is really built for right! Thoughts!? No idea how to remove/reinstall new video card on a laptop. Love this AL. been rock solid till now. Please help.
These link might point you in the right direction- They helped me to replace my ailing Ge Force Go 6600m in my M5500 r2. I tried baking my card which worked for about a year but in the end I was able to get a replacement card off of eBay and now the laptop is still rocking.

Anyway, this is a good place to start:

Linky Here
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post #7 of 7
3/6/11 at 4:30pm
Glad to be of Help.
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