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AW m15x Screen / Hardware problem

post #1 of 24
11/8/10 at 5:58pm
Thread Starter 
Hey all,

I've had my AW m15x for about 2.5 years now, and I've been using it till now. But now, I've got some really bad problems. I've sent an email to AW, but I need my laptop back as soon as possible, so I'm also trying my luck here. Here is the mail I've sent to AW. I hope some of you guys can help me!

E-mail:

Dear Alienware,
my name is Philip Joris, I bought an m15x laptop about 2 years ago, and have been using it till now. Unfortunatly, I'm having some serious problems with it now.

For 2 days, I've been having problems with my screen. Sometimes, the screen works fine, and everything is displayed fine. But at some times, the image gets
distorted, and stripes are showing across the screen. Also, the screen just dies sometimes, eventhough the laptop keeps running. The only option then is shutting down the laptop.

I've done some analysing myself and came to the following:

I don't think it's the screen, because at some times it works perfect, and the problems also show on external screens (connected through the HDMI port).

I don't think it's my video card either. I've shut it down in the device manager, and worked on my internal graphics card. Symptons still occured.

Another thing: when I take a screenshot, the stripes or distortion is not shown on it, so I don't think the problem has something to do with software, though I'm not sure.

Things I've tried so far:
I've gone drastical and did a full reinstall of my Windows 7 operating system. This did not help the problem though (also pointing in the direction of a hardware failure).

I'm hoping you can make something of this mess!

Kind regards,
Philip Joris
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post #2 of 24
11/8/10 at 8:21pm
well if your still under warranty you will have to talk with a tech rep.

They may well ask you for do a format and reinstall updated drivers.

Have you reied running any diagnostic tests if still on your laptop or restore Cds ?
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post #3 of 24
11/8/10 at 8:36pm
2.5-3 years is when all gaming notebooks start to slow down performance wise. It's due to hardware overheating (video card) and could possibly be related to air flow. I would definitely suggest venting your fans with compressed air. I've seen screen issues and reboot issues like this so many times with computers approaching the three year age. That's why I always suggest buying a 3 year warranty when getting a new computer. When this happens, you send it back, they fix it for free and it's good for another 3 years.
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post #4 of 24
11/9/10 at 6:06am
Thread Starter 
Hey,

Well, it's not under a warranty anymore so, damn!

I did a format and clean install of all drivers, but this did not help...

What diagnostics test do you when? I'm not sure what you mean..

@Steve:

I don't think it's an overheating problem.. I've opened up my AW some time ago, and cleaned it thouroughly because, at that time, it was getting hot. But since I cleaned it, it has been running really smooth without any overheating...

Could the overheating from a few weeks ago havedone some damage then, and hasnt shown untill now?

Thanks for your time.

Philip
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post #5 of 24
11/9/10 at 9:37am
Usually AW / Dell ships the laptop with a diagnotstic partition, or it maybe on a CD.

But considering your symptoms It does point to the GPU

what does control panel report for GPUs in your system - specificially the on board one you say you tried after disabling the 8800 ?
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post #6 of 24
11/9/10 at 11:20am
It can definitely have some prolonged damage. This kind of mobile technology just breaks down after years of intensive use. It's sad but true.
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post #7 of 24
11/10/10 at 6:29pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I've boon on onboard graphics for a few days now, and none of the above mentioned symptoms are showing now... So I starting to think it's my GPU after all...

Would be kinda messed up, since my GPU costs more than my motherboard

And yea, it's quite sad that hardware can just fail like that...

And for the control panel:
When I got to device management, and look at my GPU, it says code 43, this device has been stopped because problems have been reported. And I'm not able to get it running anymore, so I'm guessing it has totally died now...

Or does this code 43 mean something else?
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post #8 of 24
11/10/10 at 6:38pm
Code 43 ... One of the drivers controlling the device notified the operating system that the device failed in some manner. Nice way to say that the hardware is failing.

Bake the GPU ... You have nothing to lose.

cheers ...
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post #9 of 24
11/13/10 at 12:39pm
Thread Starter 
Well, I guess I'll be buying a new GPU then...

I'm probably just going to buy the same GPU (nVidia Geforce 8800 GTX M), since I'm sure it will fit then.

Does anyone know a good place to find this card? I've been searching, but I haven't been able to find the mobile version (the M) anywhere.

And when I looked at the nVidia store, it looked like they were only selling like 10 card ?

Or did I miss something?
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post #10 of 24
11/13/10 at 6:44pm
The 8800GTX M has not been made for some time, so all your going to be able to get is a refurbed, or used card.

Many of these old cards out there are often baked and sold as working.

Good Luck
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post #11 of 24
11/13/10 at 7:34pm
Thread Starter 
Hm okay, crap!

So uhm, I'm pretty much ****ed?
Or do you think there are other cards out there that will fit my laptop? (that áre being sold at the moment)

Thanks for your help by the way!
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post #12 of 24
11/15/10 at 11:16am
Thread Starter 
Update: today, my screen started acting up again when using my internal GPU... I took some pictures to show u guys:

http://img508.imageshack.us/i/img0209xg.jpg/
http://img293.imageshack.us/i/img0208m.jpg/

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post #13 of 24
11/15/10 at 1:22pm
yeah that looks like your GPU is crapping out on you.

Have you tried baking the video card.
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post #14 of 24
11/15/10 at 4:03pm
Thread Starter 
I'm sorry, I do not know what you mean by baking?
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post #15 of 24
11/15/10 at 5:00pm
baking is the last resort for a bad GPU.

Remove the GPU from the laptop,

Remove the heat sinks, and thermal pads,

Clean off any residue from the pads and heat sink

Place the gpu in a pre heated oven around 380 F for about 10-15 min.

Open the oven door and let cool about 20 min,

Re-assemble and cross your fingers.

The sucess rate has been over 50% with this method. but it can also totally kill the card.

There are several threads here about it, search this forum and the Dell forums.

If you can get your hands on some new thermal pads, do so, and apply new thermal paste after baking the card.


So what exactly are you doing here....well the problem with many of these GPU's is heat, heat causes the solder to melt, and create a bad solder joint.
By heating the card up, the hope is to reflow the solder, and correct any bad solder joints.

Of course if the problem is a failed componant, then this will not work.

If you bake it too much, the card will probably crap out totally.

Just remember to let the card cool enough before moving it - thus the heated solder joints have set.
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post #16 of 24
11/15/10 at 5:16pm
Well said Dave
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post #17 of 24
11/15/10 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave
Just remember to let the card cool enough before moving it - thus the heated solder joints have set.
I would let the poor ding in there for at least 45min-1hour after finishing the baking Always a challenge since the oven must be used for other stuffs

cheers ...
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post #18 of 24
11/17/10 at 5:02am
Thread Starter 
Dave,
thank you for your explanation! I've never heard of it, but I'll give it a try for sure, but only when I'm 100% positive it's my GPU. I'm starting to doubt that because of the following:

When I boot up my laptop, and the BIOS is loading (the AW loading screen), the screen shows up already distorted. And I thought that when windows has not been loaded yet, the GPU is not being used. So it's not the GPU that's causing the stripes on my screen... Also, when working on my internal graphics card (on my motherboard) the stripes are still shown.

Could it be that my motherboard is busted, or that it's just something as simple as a broken RAM module?

Kind regards,
Philip.
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post #19 of 24
11/17/10 at 6:04pm
If your getting the same display issues on a external monitor it pretty much means the GPU is the problem.

IF the GPu was not seated properly, or there was an issue with the power to the GPU then maybe a motherboard could be part of the problem. but typically the kind of faults your describing are pointing to the GPU.

Now before trying a baking solution, you can open up the laptop, remove and clean the fans, and apply new thermal paste to the GPUs and CPU. and test again.

It would be good practice to do this anyways so your familiar with opening up the laptop, and getting access to the GPUs. and you might get lucky. It will at the least help eliminate any doubts

And you can get destortions on the display during boot up before the drivers are loading from a Bad GPU - Usually indicates the GPU memory is faulty.

Ty running
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post #20 of 24
11/20/10 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
Okey,

thank you. I should be able to fix my problem with all the info you guys provided.

Thank you to all the people that put time in typing those helpfull posts.

Best regards,
Philip
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