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Major Hardware Issues!

post #1 of 11
6/7/05 at 5:09pm
Thread Starter 
I called Alienware for help, but to no avail. I am getting these horrible colors all over my screen for about 95% of the time it is on. Right now, in this text box for writing my post, it is all blue instead of white. about 100 tiny, slim, vertical lines of blue. The border, the dark blue border of this forum is actually mostly red. Horrible, flickering red. Thousands of red dots flickering all the time. This gets extremely, extremely annoying when trying to do anything. In my other tab, I have a page open with the lyrics for "Paradise City" by Guns 'N Roses. It is a black page with blue font, but there are long red lines shadowing to the right of the words. Area 51m 7700 laptop, if you didn't notice.


PLEASE HELP!!!
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post #2 of 11
6/7/05 at 5:33pm
Does it get worse when it's hot? Just off the cuff it sounds like a bad GPU.
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post #3 of 11
6/7/05 at 5:56pm
Thread Starter 
I don't know. The AW rep said that it could be the GPU, but I cleaned the fan, the fan is working, and right now, it is nice and cool because it has been on standby for about 20 minutes now, but I still get the problems. I usually get them about 5-10 minutes or less when turning it on for the first time of the day.
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post #4 of 11
6/7/05 at 6:03pm
it could be that the covering on the gpu is still there...or a bad gpu..I would possibly ship the computer back to depot and let them fix it....
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post #5 of 11
6/7/05 at 6:06pm
Thread Starter 
Bah. That's what I didn't want to do. This is my new main computer, as my old one broke, so I would be computer-less for who-knows-how-long. Is it possible to take the cover off myself, or a way to find out if it is even there?
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post #6 of 11
6/7/05 at 6:51pm
It sounds like your GPU overheated and is failing due to heat related issues. You will either have to send it back to AW or have a replacement card sent to you.

You have the option of having AW send you a replacement video card but you must put a credit card number on file with them to send you a replacement. If they dont have the original back in 5 days they charge your CC for the replacement.
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post #7 of 11
6/7/05 at 7:21pm
yeah there is a way to take off the cover its not that hard..

you open the area where the gpu is....remove the heat sink...if there is a plastic like sheet between the heatsink and gpu....remove it, replace heatsink after re-installing thermal compound....and it should fix your problem.

I on other hand, replanced the thermal pad with AS5. YOu might want to think about doing that. But its up to you, you know. But check for the cover if its not there, then its definetly the gpu gone mad.
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post #8 of 11
6/7/05 at 8:56pm
Thread Starter 
I can't even seem to get the 1-4 screws loosened. I got one, but they are in there insanely tight.
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post #9 of 11
6/8/05 at 5:48am
Are you using a screwdriver that's too small? It should be obvious, but if your tool lacks enough torque then any screw can seem impossible to remove.
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post #10 of 11
6/8/05 at 3:22pm
Thread Starter 
Is it possible to see if the cover is still on the GPU without actually removing the screws "1-4"? I ended up getting 3 of them, but the last one is starting to get grinded up from all of my attempts. with the 3 off, I can peak under the metal, and all I see is a copper grill. Any other way to do this?
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post #11 of 11
6/8/05 at 3:40pm
If you've never diagnosed probs like this, I'd send it back; while it very well could be the GPU, it could also be something a miniscule as a loose connection to your panel...unless you feel safe taking the whole thing down, I think I'd suck it up and send it off...
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