Alienware M17xR2 and 860m 4GB GK104 issues

I have asked around in other threads, and I have still yet to fix the colored screen of death with the 860M 4GB edition. Here is a summary of all relevant posts and what I have tried so far:

A10 stock BIOS (no tweaks)
i7 720QM
8GB RAM (stock clock)
2x500GB HDDs (no RAID)
1200p RGB LED monitor
5 minutes of battery life

Long story short, I had faulty 4870x2s that kept needing reflows because they used that cruddy eco-friendly solder that doesn't go well with AMD components. After 8 reflows, even using flux, I decided I needed to get a new GPU. After seeing a few posts on various sites saying the 860M works in the M17xR2, I decided to give it a whirl. It boots to BIOS just fine, and it attempts to load Windows. I get random colors like attached after the windows logo draws, which is odd since the logo is drawn at the 1200p resolution before the screen goes like this. I have to unplug the battery and power cable to reboot it. I am 100% positive this card is a Dell manufactured Kepler 860M (it's the 4GB model). My install steps and logs, for reference:

1. Fix broken 4870x2s (reflowed by removing heatsinks and powering on, surprisingly worked in 10 seconds)
2. Reapply heatsinks using Arctic Silver 5.
3. Boot into Windows safe mode, no display abnormalities during BIOS boot.
4. Run DDU version 15, autoselected AMD drivers.
5. Chose option "Clean and shutdown"
6. Removed 4870x2s, installed 860M in left slot (primary), reapply heatsink using Arctic Silver 5.
7. Boot into Windows safe mode, no display abnormalities during BIOS boot.
   
8. Extracted [345.20 WHQL Desktop GeForce Driver] to C:\ drive
9. Added [Mr. Fox's zip file contents] to the Display.Driver folder in there, overwriting 3 files.
10. Ran setup.exe from folder
11. Chose 'Express Install' option in NVIDIA installer
12. Selected 'Install Unsigned Drivers anyways' on Windows popup.
13. Install completed without errors, restarted computer.
14. Tried booting into Windows with following options from F8 boot screen:

• Normal (white screen), no display abnormalities during BIOS boot.
• Safe mode (display runs from Intel HD, Device manager does recognize Nvidia GTX 860m Display adapter, but device is disabled as per safe mode) , no display abnormalities during BIOS boot or during Windows Safe mode usage.
• Disable driver signature reinforcement (cyan screen) , no display abnormalities during BIOS boot.
• No F8 pressed, (green screen), no display abnormalities during BIOS boot.
• Recorded test boot video through cruddy phone camera, viewable at

I have tried Mr. Fox's 345.20 drivers, no difference.
I have tried a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04 and a pendrive version of it, same symptoms after the logo draws.
I tried flashing the BIOS using this BIOS mod: https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Alienware-M17x-R2-A10-BIOS-Unlocked-OC-Options, but it won't let me do it in safe mode, and I can not find a way to do it via DOS.
I tried outputting to external 1080p monitor via HDMI, monitor swap hotkey did nothing (still went to colored screen of death on the primary monitor).
Tried downloading svl7's 860m vBIOS from Techinferno, but it wouldn't let me register because I never got activation email (not sure how much this would fix, but I'm kinda desperate)

I dumped the vBIOS ROM using the DOS version of nvflash, attached it here in case one of you geniuses knows how to read/tweak these things.

GPU Specs:
GTX 860m Kepler (GK104)
4GB VRAM
Dell model, revision A1
Stock vBIOS


I attached the relevant card identifier keys I got from safe mode here, to prove I got the specs right on the card:


Any ideas on what I could do to get this working, hopefully with minimum risk of a brick? I really don't want to get rid of the laptop, since I have loved the 1200p glossy screen. I am willing to offer a $20 donation to whoever gets me to the point where I can use my "failienware" normally again. If I can't get this resolved soon, I'll probably sell the card and try a 7970m or something else, but I really don't have the time to go through another reinstall/failure/repeat cycle thanks to medical school applications and 21 credit hours worth of uni.

 

Here's a tread with someone who kinda has the same problem, only it occurs when the display is turned off:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/installed-860m-gk104-in-m17x-r2.772616/

And a tread here with kinda of a solution (disable idt soundchip):
http://forum.techinferno.com/alienw...tx780m-safemode-boot-ok-normall-boot-not.html

The 7970m would have been a better choice (quite a lot more powerful too, the only downside is they tend to die sometimes although all of my 7970m worked flawlessly )

 

Disabling IDT and High definition audio now just gives me a quick flash then black screen on normal windows boot. That being said, if I close the lid of the laptop, then open it again, it seems to work like normal. Unfortunately without the audio stuff, I can not use the speakers or headphones, which kinda makes the thing useless. Knowing that IDT/High definition audio was causing the problem, is there any way to fix it so I can get this laptop working like it should be?

Also both CPU-Z and GPU-Z are reporting this as the 2GB variant, and I know I bought a 4GB model. Is this expected, or did I get screwed by the seller?

I'm considering the 7970m, but I've had absolutely terrible luck with AMD components going out on me, mainly due to the poor engineering/heat output of the cards de-balling the GPU chip. I am not particularly fond of being able to cook eggs over the primary GPU slot while trying to play a game.

 

I've downloaded the VBios mod for you, here it is

 

Thanks. I wound up just giving up on the internal and getting an ASUS Xonar U3 for audio, and I've learned to live with the black screen on driver load (simply closing and opening the lid with auto-sleep disabled in Windows is a workaround). Unfortunately my semester has already started at uni with 21 credit hours, so I'll have no more time to tinker with it until final exams are done.