Alienware 17 R5 Screen Issue, need your thoughts

So I recently bought a refurb Alienware 17 r5 from eBay, seller currently has a very good rating too. Unfortunately the Alienware shipped with a display fault. Basically any color which is not black, white, green, red or blue show some kind of distortion to them, with some weird effects (sort of like white noise, static especially in grey colors).

Now the first instinct is that it might be a bad drivers, but the problem can be seen even in the Bios, so that rules it out. Up until a few days ago, I was convinced that the problem was coming from the LCD panel itself, given that I've been gaming on it for weeks, and every stress test I put it up too it performed with flying colors with no crashes at all. The system works fine except for this weird noticeable display issue.

However to my surprise, when I disabled the Integrated Graphics Card (I/D GFX function button on the Alienware) and re-booted with a fully disabled Intel HD, the LCD issue disappeared. There is no evident fault anymore.

My question is: so, where's the problem coming from? Is it a faulty CPU or faulty CPU output? How come the problem cleared when the integrated card was switched off? Is there another physical video output connection going on to the panel? I'm curious really, I haven't found any documentation or a proper tear-down video to identify how the internals are placed exactly. All I know is that the 120hz model does not have an integrated video card by design since the output is limited to 60hz.

Any thoughts?

[UPDATE] Alienware 17 r5, i7-4700mq, R9 M290X, FHD 60HZ

(First post btw, YAY! been reading these forums for way too long)

 

So you have the 120hz model and you had the intel hd enabled? If so that was the problem and you fixed it.

 

Alienware 17 is not sold with 120hz monitor and integrated graphics. It is not possible to purchase this combination.120hz monitor does not work with the integrated graphics card on the cpu!! :hi2:

 

Clarification: I have the normal 60hz panel. I just pointed out that the 120hz model skips the integrated card due to having an output limited to 60hz; which leads me to believe that the physical output is coming from the HD4600.

Yup, which is the only information I could find to figure out how the laptop is connected internally.

 

Hi man, throwing my best guess out there i'd say the CPU has gone bad, well the iGPU bit of it? What I find curious is that you say it stress tested fine except the artifacts? So, even after the machine had switched to the dGPU when you fired up a game (optimus) you still saw them?

FYI, on the 120hz models there is a different display port on the MB that bypasses the iGPU and it's not even seen in the bios.

 

Yeah if Optimus kicks in, and it was, display issue was still there.

When I disabled it using the I/D button, from the Bios I cannot see the intel one either.



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Does it still have warranty? This is fully transferable so it can be transferred. Sounds like something dell would try swapping parts out on with no certainty as to the cause .

Sorry I'm not more help

 

Hello Pawlu,
First off, make sure you can do a warranty transfer.
Second, it seems that the issue is indeed with the integrated graphics card. Sooner or later it seems we will have to replace the motherboard.
Have you ran a PSA by any chance?

 

Warranty was transferred.

PSA resulted in everything being a-ok. Nothing wrong spotted there either.


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Well, I'd like to see what options we have available to solve that. If you could send me your Service Tag via PM I could take a look and give you the best solution. :thumbsup: