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M17x Blue Screen

post #1 of 12
10/29/10 at 4:31pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, so my M17x R1 runs ok most of the time but every so often the screen may flicker a few times and return to the application I was on.

But other times the screen will flicker and will either stay black and freeze so I have to force shutdown.

Then sometimes it will go to blue screen, then restart itself.

When I turn it back on it will ask me if I want to put it into safe mode.

When I get to the home screen the error message will appear and say 'the display driver failed, but was recovered' or something to that effect!

Additionally, when it boots up and goes to the log on screen it always flicker for a few seconds but no more becomes of this and it starts fine.

So any ideas as to what might be the problem?

I was hoping it wouldn't be hardware because it works fine most of the time!

Is it a driver issue? Or Bios?

Additional Info:
CPU_Name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9100 @ 2.26GHz
BIOS_Version1: A02
BIOS_Version2: ALWARE - 6040000
GPU processor: GeForce GTX 280M
Driver version: 258.96

Thx guys!
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post #2 of 12
10/29/10 at 4:57pm
BIOS and GPU driver are likely the culprit.

Have you checked out the stickies on m17x yet to verify the BIOS version and which driver version is suitable?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 12
10/29/10 at 10:51pm
Thread Starter 
I didn't see any stickies directly associated with the bios and drivers etc. Apart from the new B13 bios, but I'm really not sure which one to go for!

Some people use older tried and tested bios, also, which is the latest one, do I just get the latest nvidia video driver? Also, my M17x is Sli enabled with two gtx280's so does it require different drivers?

Thx guys!
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post #4 of 12
10/30/10 at 8:15am
Give the latest nVidia driver a shot - no, it does not make any differences with SLI or not. Take a look at NBF Mobile Driver section also, one of the version seems to do well.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 12
10/30/10 at 6:12pm
Thread Starter 
Thx m8! Will do! What about most stable bios version? The latest one?
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post #6 of 12
10/30/10 at 6:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdodds830 View Post
Thx m8! Will do! What about most stable bios version? The latest one?
With AW? yes, latest BIOS is your best bet. But it doesn't always mean the end of it Dogy to say the least with AW m17x BIOS lately

cheers ...
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post #7 of 12
10/30/10 at 6:52pm
Thread Starter 
Ok got the latest drivers! No problems with them!

Tried getting the latest bios, but don't know what to do with the file! Its an iso text file but where do I put it etc?

Thx for you help!
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post #8 of 12
10/30/10 at 6:56pm
If it is an ISO file then you have to burn it to a CD then boot the AW with it,

cheers ...
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post #9 of 12
10/30/10 at 7:20pm
Be careful with BIOS updating-Before I left Biloxi I uploaded the latest BIOS to my M15X and halfway through the process it crashed, and now I have to send the laptop back to the depot to get repaired...
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post #10 of 12
10/30/10 at 7:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mb67 View Post
Be careful with BIOS updating-Before I left Biloxi I uploaded the latest BIOS to my M15X and halfway through the process it crashed, and now I have to send the laptop back to the depot to get repaired...
You move around too much, that's the problem
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post #11 of 12
10/30/10 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Surely there must be an easier way of bios updating?

There's bound to be a lot of other AW owners that are not familiar with the bios updating concept! How do they get around it?
Thx
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post #12 of 12
10/31/10 at 6:10am
Normally one just download the file, making sure that power adapter is being used (very important here), click on the file and voilà.

Dell/AW is having issues working within Windows or any OS so they choose to go the CD boot route - safer for them.

cheers ...
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