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    Alienware m17xr4 screen flickering and AlienFx problem

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by relevorance, Jul 23, 2015.

  1. relevorance

    relevorance Newbie

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    I have a three year old m17xr4, sometimes randomly and sometimes under heavy load (gaming, rendering) screen keeps flickering and turning black/white and AlienFx keeps turning off and on.Couple of times even my usb ports turned off till I did a reboot.
    Also the screen flickering does not happen on an external display but the alienfx problem still exist.
    I replaced my lcd cable but the problem still exist. The problem occurs when using both the integrated gpu and 7970m and both plugged in and on battery.
    I suspect that this is a power issue and not a lcd issue.
    Could it be a problem with my motherboard?
     
    relevorance, Jul 23, 2015
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  2. Jimmyflow

    Jimmyflow Newbie

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    Hello, I am also having flickering and screen turning black/white issues, but not the other problems you describe. I thought it might be at least one or more of the games I play, but as I delved into discovering solutions - I realized the problem may lie with the M17x R4 itself. Specifically the laptops inability to properly switch between the integrated (Intel HD 4000) and discrete (AMD Radeon 7970m) graphics cards.

    I'm doing the majority of my troubleshooting now through Dell's support site. I did try to see about updating the Intel card through its site, but the site does not recognize the Intel graphics card on my laptop. Dell's support site seems to have everything needed (thus far). I've updated the BIOS according to Dell, as well as attempted to update the recommended chipsets and drivers. Unfortunately, I am running into a couple of issues now.

    1) The MEI chipset (recommended by Dell) is not fully installing - it errors out towards the end of the process. 2) Updating the AMD driver is causing issues I never had before, such as the CCC closing out due to errors and/or the computer attempting to repair the system and restore it on its own accord. I've also updated the BIOS to the latest version for this laptop, and it seems to stay with the computer.

    I really don't want to restore to factory, although its a logical 'cheat' to the issues you and I are experiencing. If I do, I may finally put the OS on the second HD the laptop has. My next step is to fully uninstall each driver individually, starting with the AMD, to see if those steps optimize my laptop's graphics capabilities. I believe this may work, but will have to test it out.

    My advice is to research your issues throughout these forums and others (Google is your friend). They will eventually link you to Dell's support site, where you can see if you need to update any software, drivers, or the BIOS - all of which were recommended throughout multiple forums and sites. If updating doesn't work, try reinstalling your drivers one by one. If that doesn't work, restore to factory settings maybe? Like I said, I hope not to have to go that route, but at this point, updates are proving more troublesome than one would think. If I solve my issue, I will report back here.

    -J
     
    Jimmyflow, Jul 26, 2015
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