7970M Died or Heat Issue?

I've recently got the issue with my 7970M on my 2-year-old Alienware M17X R4. First, it suddenly shut down after the random color flickering monitor. I thought it was the heat issue. Then, I touched the back of the AW. It was really hot at the area of the GPU. I decided to repaste the GPU thermal compound (MX-4) and pad (Fujipoly). However, it doesn't solve my problem. I figured out that the fan stopped working (which could be the cause of over-heating issue) after 5s the laptop boots (AW head appears) and freeze at the booting logo of Windows 7. AW itself cannot boot after that, so I had to power drain the CMOS battery (plugged out cable power, take out battery, removed CMOS battery, pressed power button for 30s, and re-plug everything.) Fortunately, it boots again. I did a factory recovery to try to solve the problem. After that, I re-flash bios A12, also tried to flash A13. None of them could fix my problem. I removed old driver manually in safe mode and tried to update the lastest driver, but it keeps saying "Installation Failed: Install Package Failure!" Today I can use FN+F7 to switch to 7970M (whenever I use Fn+F7 on the other day, AW got freeze and turned to black screen. I had to drain out CMOS battery again n again.) I use HWINFO64 to monitor the temperature and fan speed. Then, I manually set the max of the fan speed and use 3Dmark11 to take a benchmark test. However, it's freeze and turns to black screen again. Are there any way to check whether my 7970M died or not? Fan recently stopped working, too. I had to manually control the fan speed via Hwinfo64. Hope to find a solution from you guys.

Thank you!

 

Hi, there has been a spate of 7970m failures lately .

The fans will stop after boot as they are tested then go to thermal control. As long as HWInfo shows fan speeds. You should see a minimum speed if you cannot game on it. If it gets to around 65c you should hear the fan. Maybe that is the root cause of the card failing? If the fan IS faulty then replace that first. If it still does it then it could even be the MB . Much more likely the card has failed though IMO, and is messing up the fan control.

A faulty GPU can cause all sorts of problems. I'd say just remove it (but refit the fan) and test the machine without it. All good then you have to think it's the GPU, although all the bios resets are not something I have seen before.

Good luck.

 

Thank for your response, Micky! I'm agreed that the card has been faulted and working improperly. I took it out today, and only used Intel card. It's working great until now. Should I send it back to Dell with the expired warranty service (costs around $250-300)? Moreover, there are something wrong with the GPU and CPU fans. With Dell thermal control, they let the system get really hot. When I touched the back of the laptop, it's hot at the center-top itself. I'm fine with Hwinfo64 to monitor the fan speed, but I also want to know any other solutions to help them working as when I get my AW.

 

You're very welcome.

For the fans the only way to see if they are a problem is to look at the temps in HW info. I don't know the running temp of the 7970m but would expect somewhere between 65c and 75c as acceptable. The CPU runs a little hotter and 80c is not unusual when boost kicks in.

If that dell price is a fixed cost fix then go for it. Cheaper than a replacement card. If it's plus parts you could end up with paying for a motherboard as well as a GPU if the fan control is really not working correctly.

Good luck.

 

That's not a good price.. You could buy a new card for 300-350 so it will be a better option...

 

Err, 250-300 is less than 300 to 350! And you get someone else to do it along with any other problems that could be there (and a guarantee!). If a MB problem is identified that gets fixed without having to worry about it.

Different strokes, for me 'why would I want all that stress, spend a bunch of money, and not even be sure I'm gonna fix it'? If dell want to give a fixed price fix that is lower or the same than a new card then I'd go for it every time .

If it's plus parts then all bets are off .

 

I doubt Dell will replace the card... They might just give another refurbished one which might die a few months down the road.. at least with spending a bit more, he will have a better chance for longer survival.. As for the OP's ability to fix it, he seems to be able to remove the CMOS battery so putting in a new GPU won't be that hard

 

Yeah it's a risk but I've had three new GPU's, one new panel, one new MB AND a complete new model/system. The refurb parts are clearly marked (I've seen a bunch in the US) and it appears that in the UK new parts are the norm .

 

Not for me.. All the parts I had replaced during warranty were refurbished...