Alienware M17x R4 (8 Beeps)

Hi, i recently got given a M17x R4 with a GTX 675M gpu & 120hz LCD.
When i turn it on i get 8 Beeps (GPU or LCD related)
I have tried clearing CMOS several times & i get 5 Beeps then 8 Beeps again after restart.
I also tried "fn" button while turning on with no success.
When i remove the gpu & plug in a VGA monitor, the M17x (BUILT IN) LCD lights up with black screen, but still no image on external VGA monitor & still 8 Beeps...

Any advice greatly appreciated...

 

Hi, it's sounding like your GPU has died .

The 675m is a rebadged 580m, I've had a bunch of them die on me and seen a lot more on the forum!

With the 120hz display the on-board GPU is disabled, it cannot sync with a 120hz (native) display during POST so the panel is connected to the MB differently.

Unless you want to get into messing with drivers and bios your only plug and play options are another 675m or a 680m. The 680m is a generational step up from the 675m and it shows in performance. My R4/680m still plays AAA games well on mostly high settings - after some tuning .

Make sure the GPU connector is clean and correctly seated - otherwise your only option is to try another GPU.

 

Thanks for the reply. I don't mind playing with drivers & bios if i can get it going until i can afford a new GPU.
Do you mind elaborating ?

cheers

 

Sure. Unfortunately you cannot get the iGPU to operate with the 120hz display, even unplugging the panel and connecting a multi-sync monitor will not get past POST (bios testing at start-up). It's been tried .

This does give you one advantage over other models in that you never need to disable the on-board, which is needed for non-standard GPU's to work. Downside is, as you have discovered, if the dGPU starts to fail you cannot just remove it and use the on-board.

BIOS changes on your model was a bum steer - sorry, I was thinking about how to get other cards to work and as I said, not needed on the 120hz model.

With a 680m, being a standard card for the R4, it's plug and play (although care needs to be taken with thermal pads as they are different on each card). You can use a 7xx or 8xx card but then you have to mod a driver .inf file to recognize the non-stock card.

Looking closer at the options, the 7xx cards have been successful in the R4 but I found that the 680m runs so cool that I can easily OC it to match 780m stock performance. It is also showing lower failure rates for the 680m (the 780m runs hotter at stock). The 3D also still works with the 680m, although not many people care about that. The 8xx cards were around for a short time and got such a bad rep that I advise avoiding at all costs!

HTH, any questions, don't hesitate .