Color flashes covering my entire screen

Hi all (1st post and thread)

I have received a brand new Alienware M17X R3 the 15th november but started using it for gaming purposes the 30th november.

I installed a few games (Skyrim, Just Cause 2, Lord of the Rings Online and Guild Wars) and everything went well for a few days.

At complete random times, whether I am watching a film or playing a game, my screen would flash lines of colors (pink, green, yellow...). The only way to stop it is to suspend the computer and relaunch it (no need to do a reboot. Sometimes that would temporarily solve it but sure enough most of the times, 10 minutes later, the color flashes reappear while I'm still in game.

Dell sent someone to change my graphics card, since they thought that was the problem. The card and ventilator were replaced but the issue wasn't fixed and I still get these color flashes. I have installed the drivers from the dell site, and NOT from NVIDIA.

I have completely run out of ideas and I desperately need help.

my system specs are the following :

Manufacturer : Alienware
Model : Alienware M17XR3
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @2.20 GHZ
Installed Memory (RAM) : 8.00 GB
System Type : Windows 7 64bit
Display adapter : Intel(R) HD Graphics Family and NVIDIA Geforce GTX 580M

If you need any other information please let me know

Thank you in advance

 

I would suspect faulty connectors/ribbons. Perhaps changing the mobo and monitors may help?

 

Umm can you please explain what ribbons are and what a mobo is please? And as for monitors... well I tried connecting to an external monitor but it does the same.

 

Are you overclocking the 580M; if so, to what levels?

Which system BIOS are you using?

Which 580M drivers are you using?

Which vbios is the 580M using?

What are your GPU (580M) temperatures during gaming or when the flashes occur?

 

1) I am not overclocking the system
2) Using the latest from Dell A08 BIOS
3) Using the Dell drivers for the 580M, the 8.17.12.6903
4) vbios version : 70.242B.00.26
5) My GPU temp is around 50°C when it's not running anything and around 60°C when I'm running a game (For example Skyrim). The temperature stays the same when it flashes (unless the log stops updating then but I doubt it since the game continues to run even when the screen flashes)

 

No easy answers there. I suggest trying the Verde 290.53 Beta driver (optimized for Skyrim) from Nvidia. Graphics Driver - Verde 290.53 Driver - GeForce. Although I am currently using an earlier beta driver, the 290.53 drivers were very stable on my R3. If the problem remains, then it is most likely a hardware issue that will require further attention from Alienware.

 

Thank you for the information people. I have called Dell and someone is coming over to investigate/take the PC away for stress tests etc...

I thought it might've been a question of the internal graphics card and Nvidia card not working well so I updated the drivers for the internal card and it SEEMS that it doesn't flash as often, but it can be a coincidence. I'll see how it goes in a week or two

Also it flahes on all games, not just Skyrim