Black screen on boot - Takes two tries to power on successfully - ATI R9700 - Page 2

i was to tired to read through the whole thread, so i dont know if the problem has been removed for any of you, but blah blah blah... pfff... ooh, aah... i had a problem with bsod and then after the bsod i had to wait a while to be able to power up again. blah blah blah. if anyone are having this problem, please use microsoft memory diagnostics to check for errors... my problem was a bad mobo. easy as dell...

I believe the source of my BSOD errors is the new NVIDIA drivers for my Area-51m2...I'm still investigating

Big Scare!

Ok so here is the update on my situation which started out with the BSOD's and failure to boot thereafter which this thread is about. However please note my video card is the GeForce Go5600. So last night not but 20 minutes after a cold boot and doing nothing graphic intensive (The only open programs were AIM, MSN Messenger, and TeamSpeak) the display just starts tweaking out!!! At first there was random vertical lines (about 1/8 inch in size) and then the screen looked like it had about 1000 dead pixels on it and then it went to just looking crazy dithered and such and then it would turn off and on randomly! I was like omfg what is going on! Noooooooooo lol. So in a breath of hope I start to uninstall the latest NVIDIA drivers from Alienware and when the BIOS screen loaded the display was completely !@#$%^ with graphic artifacts and then booyah...it couldn't find the boot device. I was so pissed cause I'm like great the motherboard just died. So I manage to finally get the notebook back up and running and I installed the second oldest version of the Alienware NVIDIA drivers. I have not had the problem and I played about 4 hours of Soldier of Fortune 2 following the incident. I will keep everybody updated if it happens again which will most likely send this baby on an RMA. My question is: Is it possible that the latest drivers were causing this problem? It seems like it could but that thing in the BIOS was DEFINATELY not promising :-(

If it happened during POST and in the BIOS, then it's not the drivers.

They'll probably tell you to take your card out, blow the connections with compressed air, and then re-seat your card.

Sent my area 51-m back to alienware and they are building a new one from scratch. Seems the boot up problem was caused by a bad motherboard. The system had been sent in twice and the first time was the day it was delivered. Hopefully this one is going to be an orange...

Same problem here... started after I purchased a motherboard upgrade and 5700 was replaced with 9700.
It will boot after I unplug the lappy, remove the battery, put battery back in, plug it back in and then power up.
Everything was running OK for a couple weeks, had a BSOD and then it's been an ongoing problem since.

The only solution is to send it in, According to the AW rep. If you are under warranty you are in luck.

Wow so this isn't just me. This has been happening ALOT to me lately. Today, I unplugged the power cord from the laptop and it shut off. It took me 4 times to power it back on. Just half an hour ago while playing WoW I got a blank BSOD and my laptop wouldn't turn back on for another 4-5 times over a period of 5-10 minutes. Laptops been acting up again lately. I guess I have to call up alienware to have them fix it.

ive just had it happen to me as well, ill be playing a game for about 10-15 min then it shuts off, then i have the boot up trouble that all of you are having, im on hold as im writing this to see if i can get it fixed, anybody else fixed it yet?

hello, hello. first time poster. first time alienware owner.

my alienware 51m was not supposed to arrive until january 17th, but i got an early "christmas suprise" when fed ex came with my new laptop. thing is, the second time i turned it on to try it out -- i got a black screen. this has been happening every time i turn it on. i hear windows boot up noises and tunes, but no picture. after turning it on and off about...4 or 5 times, it works.

i've been talking to tech support ever since it arrived, and there is still no solution. first i was told my battery was not "primed" and to try using the adapter only. still black screen. then i was told to reseat my video card. now i am being sent a new video card (ati r9700), as well as a tech guy being sent to my home to install it and check out what's wrong.

haven't been able to mess around with my new aw. this boot screen is frustrating me to no end. i hope it's just the video card.

Did you try hooking it up to an external monitor? If you did then it has to be the videocard, otherwise it's probably the screen itself

yep, sure did. first time i actually got picture on both, but an hour or so later, black screen (on both lappy and external). i noticed that if it is left off for a long period of time, i get those black screens until i reboot a few times to fix it.

after a two hour call to tech support, my cards seems to be overheating between running the game then switching to nvidias temp gage in visual properties.came to the conclusion that i needed a new card (go5700). is it just me or is there GPU replacement guildlines really bad, 5 day turn around for send back your malfunctioning card or you don't get your $250 security deposit back, come on...

*Update*

I as many of you were experienceing the graphic artificats, black screen/reboot problems. Alienware CS was helpful and courteous and they sent me out a replacement 5600 card within 3 business days. Popped that sucker in and I seem to be in the clear except for two minor problems I've encountered but I'm keeping a close eye on them.

As for Alienware's policy, I think it's fine. The policy is if you don't SHIP the item back to them within 5 days not if it doesn't ARRIVE within 5 days. That's an entire business week to ship it out. I sent mine back to them the next day.

P.S. I discovered the Temperature tab (which for some reason I've never seen before lol) in the NVIDIA Advanced Properties box. I noticed when I started up the machine it was around 50 degrees Celcius but after a good 3 hours of online gaming it was at 90 degrees! And that's WITH my Antec cooler under my Area-51m. That doesn't seem right at all! Is this tool wrong? Are other 5600/5700 owners showing these same readings?

Also, I read that Sager owners had to reverse the fans in the Antec cooler because it was conflicting with the airflow direction of the internal fans. Is this true with our Area-51m2s or is everything good to go?

Here's some pics of the problems I was having before the card swap out for anybody interested:

http://help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/al...ted=1103695870

http://help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/al...ted=1103695871