AW17 odd issue

I picked up a AW17 2013 for a steal, had a 780M that was dead in it, but not bad overall.
Though it has this one incredibly strange problem, it won't show the monitor. I swapped monitors from 120hz to 1080p 60hz and it still won't take it.

I have managed to get into the bios, if I hold down the arrow keys to change screens in the bios, it will very quickly flash the screen it moved to. I've exploited this to find out it's on A06, and I've done a CMOS reset with the RAM trick. I put a 765M in it since that's the only spare GPU I had lying about, but it doesn't seem to care. I removed the 765M and it swapped to the integrated graphics but still does the same thing, and it doesn't want to push out to HDMI, probably the drivers aren't loaded this early on?

With the 765M in, it does recognize it in the bios.

Any ideas? This problem was with a 120hz screen, and a 60hz screen. Removed hard drive so windows won't attempt to load(Not even sure if there is an install of windows on that HDD)

 

So you are saying that it doesnt display to the internal monitor?

 

Hi Rymesis,

Don't know if you can do it with the screens playing up but if you can set the bios to uefi with legacy disabled (ie pure uefi) then you will be able to boot to hdmi with no gfx card installed. Also bear in mind this only works if a 60hz lvds panel is connected (or no panel at all). If a 120hz edp panel is connected then it can only boot to the gfx card, onboard intel will be disabled and no option to boot to hdmi.

Kind Regards,

Javers

 

And just to confirm the HDMI driver is part of the windows driver load, there is no output until then.
If you connected the 60hz panel to the correct port then all that should be needed is a bios default to allow it all to be setup correctly so I'm kinda stumped as to the cause??

 

Output is only backlight that is visible normally, this was a known working 60hz 1920x1080 matte screen from a 2014 AW17 ranjger, it was in it and working minutes before being transplanted.

The 60hz screen is indeed connected to LVDS, I'm aware of the difference between the two, and to make sure the 120hz screen was not faulty, I installed it back in the second AW17 and it used it just fine.

It -does- kind of display, when I get into the bios, and press the left and right arrow key to change tabs (Advanced, boot etc.) then it will for a fraction of a second, just barely long enough to be visible and read a single line then it goes to backlight only again.

And I think I can turn on pure UEFI, I noticed it is set to legacy when I was playing with it, so I'll give that a go

Video of it

Edit: Holding D when starting up makes it load the screen checking, and it does change colors and looks perfectly fine.

 

You should get hdmi output right from boot, not just in windows (at least with the latest bios) in pure uefi mode. I have no panel attached to my AW17 at all at the moment and i'm in the bios making changes on an external monitor.

Rymesis - that's quite a weird problem, not one I've seen before. If you can I would suggest turn legacy off, see if you can get it booting with hdmi, attach the hdd and see if you can update to the latest bios.

Javers

 

No HDMI out with it on pure UEFI, but it is on A06, people never seem to update their bios oddly enough....Also, got into Boot Manager, and it's doing odd things still but it is displaying on it's own without me doing anything.


Video of it in the boot manager, the screen looks uncorrupted though. aside from the obvious issue

 

I guess you could try blind flashing the bios up to the latest using the recovery procedure detailed here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17-r5-r1-ranger-emergency-recovery-bios.811870/

Javers

 

I'm confused..the Ranger doesn't have an esata port, but the guide states to plug the USB into an esata not USB

 

Yeh that's a good point. I'm sure @Striker1234 will know for sure as he wrote the guide, but its probably just one of the four usb ports you need to use.

Javers

 

Well, I've tried it on all four USB ports, the USB flashes a constant steady light but nothing happens 20+ minutes in, it just sits there with the lights on and fan running full speed

EDIT:

2013 AW17 120hz 3D motherboard /-DOES NOT-\ like 60hz screens. At least my particular 60hz screen on A06 bios.

With a 120hz screen reinstalled, I will update to latest bios and see if it will then accept a 60hz like a normal 60hz 2014 AW17

I will come back and edit this when I have done so.

Edit 2: it just does not like this 60hz screen whatsoever. I don’t understand why, the 2014 AW17 thinks it’s fine. It shows heavy refresh lines on loading into Windows 10 and nothing at all else now that it is installed, it is still happy with the 120hz screen

 

I'm sorry, I'm talking about the USB next to the Display Port...

Hope it helps!

 

So from reading this. You bought a cheap Alienware 17r1 2013 with a 780m and a 120hz screen. The 780m was dead and you swapped to a 765m and a 60hz screen. You then got those weird lines and a drop out of signal but still backlight. You troubleshot by swapping the panel to a 2014 17r1 and you know both panels to be good. As unlikely as it may seem perhaps you have a faulty motherboard or signal cable. It is unlikely to be a bios issue as these laptops were tested with the 700 and 800 series cards extensively. I never liked the 60hz panel. The 120hz is tops for me but to each their own. it could be as simple as the motherboard is damaged partially but considering that the issue is in legacy or uefi mode and only in the 60hz configuration I think it most likely that it is your cpu. The boot and bios are handled by the onboard graphics and that is the only time you get your error correct? I've never seen a cpu break in that way but hey maybe you got lucky or unlucky. If you have a spare cpu throw that ho in there.

 

Do you happen to know if this is the same for the AW18 by chance?

my uneducated guess is that it was trying to force a refresh rate that the 60hz couldn’t handle, and all the NVRAM resets I did finally woke it up and it decided it liked the 120hz again.
I did more troubleshooting with the 60hz than the 120, and tried swapping it back again after the 120hz worked and Windows was working, only for it to do the same thing again.

The system since has been reassembled with the 120hz screen and 765m And is now functioning normally.

I was picking it up for the 120hz screen, CPU(4800mq) and palmrest, the fact it’s working again is a bonus, I’ve since decided that trying to fiddle with it now that it’s functioning and stable is likely to upset it again, so I ended up giving it to a family member that needed a new computer.

 

As long as it has Insyde Bios is possible!
Just you have to figure it out how to name the .FD File inside your USB... and then follow the procedure under my Thread...

To figure it out the name, use Andy Tool ( https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...se-andys-tool-to-obtain-possible-names.13095/)

Have a good one!