Constant Gray Screen of Death

Hello, all. I have a distressing issue that's been quite consistent for the past 2 months. I'm not knowledgeable with computers, but here's what I have, and the symptoms:

Running Win 7 Home Premium Ver. 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Alienware M17xR3
Processor - Intel i7-2720Qm cpu @2.2GHz
Bios - Alienware A12
8GB physical memory
AMD Radeon HD 6970M video card w/2GB memory
Running Catalyst Version 14.4

I've had major problems since my computer BSODed during a Windows update about 2-3 months ago. After powering off and resetting, the computer started doing random BSODs and a majority of my programs involving the video card did not work (Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer and Firefox, Picture Viewer, Steam, Skype, etc.). Stability got so bad, it would GSOD (gray screen of death) more often until one day it wouldn't even let me log in to my user account after bootup.

I was able to restore my computer to factory settings using Alien Respawn. After doing that, the programs that didn't work started to work fine again. However, the GSODs still persist. The GSODs happen when I use my browser to look at sites with streaming video or Flash. I would say it crashes about 2-5 times a day.

My computer is under warranty for another 45 days or so... its 3rd year anniversary is coming up. I bought the computer from the US, but I live in Japan... which may complicate things. I don't know if I have to transfer the warranty to be valid for servicing in Japan. I will take the time to contact a technical service rep within the next 2 days.

Anyways, I was wondering what I can do to get this situation resolved. Please let me know what I can do on my side to diagnose and hopefully fix this situation. Thank you so much for any help... this is quite a frustrating ordeal.

 

Hello ETPhoneHome99,
In this case, you would first have to perform a Warranty Transfer to Japan.
Second, my best suggestion for now would be running the Blue Screen Viewer.
Maybe it can pick up any clues of what is causing these crashes.
Please keep me posted.

 

I'll try using this program, but my computer basically freezes/hangs with a gray screen and the sound drones (basically the sound hangs too)... it's not like a BSOD where it shows information as to what froze the computer, nor does it have the ability to even prep the computer to shut down. I'm forced to power down with the power button, holding it for 5 seconds.

 

This is exactly the same problems NV cards have been having for months - basically around win 8 release time. MS updated the HAL with win 8 which altered the timings in the master interrupt table. Win 7 was patched for compatibility. As a temp fix try turning off HW Acceleration in the browser.

LatencyMon will show if the latency is excessive, and Whocrashed can examine any logs (although often a lock up will not show) and suggest the things to research - I'm betting on the video driver - have you tried AMD's latest? - I have no idea about their drivers

 

I don't know how to load the newest AMD drivers... I tried doing that after installing the latest on Dell/Alienware's site, but I couldn't get that to work... so I went back to the Dell drivers. Is it easy to get the newest AMD drivers working somehow? Anyone know?

 

Have you tried booting the computer using Safe Mode?
Hopefully that way you can check with the Blue Screen Viewer and see if it is indeed being recognized.
As MickyD1234 suggested - it well could be an issue with the video card.

 

To be honest, I'm 99.99 percent sure it's a video card issue. I suspected that from the very beginning with the nature of the crashes and how badly my computer degraded in video ability before I did Alien Respawn. I just set my Chrome browser to not use hardware acceleration, thank you MickyD.

I will try to update my drivers somehow to the very latest ATI drivers, but if this doesn't work, what are my options with Dell/Alienware. As I said before, I have about 40 days left for warranty.

 

... aaaaaaand it crashed again, even after setting Chrome to what MickyD suggested. I'm now in safe mode. BlueScreenView shows nothing because, as I said before, I get a gray screen with hanging sound, not a BSOD. The computer freezes completely and I was forced to power down by holding the power button for 5 seconds.

 

Worth a try, when that fix stopped working for me I got my card replaced.

I'd still hunt down how to install the latest driver but it's probably time to get it logged and go through whatever troubleshooting they want to do

 

I just went to the AMD site and ran the autodetect tool. Recognised my card and installed the latest driver without a problem. Couldn't test it further since my gpu is dead


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPad met behulp van Tapatalk

 

V3, I tried this before I left for work today. I did the auto-detect straight from the website, it updated, but I was stuck with very low video settings and resolution because Catalyst said drivers are either not installed or incorrectly installed. I tried doing this myself last week (finding the latest video drivers) but I didn't do auto-detect that time... and it gave me the same results. So basically, even auto-detect has failed me, and I will have to install the Dell-supplied video drivers that are dated.

Is there a way to get my computer to take the latest video card update?

 

You could try using DDU to strip out everything (in safe mode). On NV the recommended order is to install the dell release first then upgrade but just going straight for the latest one might work?

Display Driver Uninstaller 12.8.0.1

Good luck

 

Okay, so go to safe mode, run this exe file, and reinstall using the newest drivers (disregard Dell drivers), correct?

 

That's what I am thinking, but I am out of my comfort zone with AMD drivers for the last 10 years . So unless someone with decent experience with the Catalyst driver jumps in that would be my next step

 

Okay, story so far. Uninstalled AMD driver software via control panel. Rebooted into safe mode and used the uninstall tool you recommended. Rebooted in safe mode again and used CCleaner. Rebooted normally. Noticed that computer is installing updates on its own. I reset the computer and notice that it's at a higher resolution than before (usually its the setting under 1080p). Checking to see if anything AMD-related was added, I checked Control Panel under Programs... no listing. I redo CCleaner and the uninstall tool again, but this time I used Safe Mode after CCleaner (no networking).

On first attempt, I tried installing just the newest drivers. No go... just like before with the "not correctly installed" message. Started over (CCleaner, uninstall program, Safe Mode). I install the Dell drivers first. Reboot. Install the newest AMD drivers. No good. Get the error again and forced to delete AMD drivers.

After uninstall, CCleaner, and uninstall program... I reboot but forget to reboot in safe mode. Computer does the auto-detect for drivers like the first time. Here I am now.

I'm tempted to just let it roll and see if this will be okay... but I don't know exactly what the auto-detect drivers did. I also don't know what will happen when I try to hook up this laptop to another monitor like I plan to (I will get a new TV very soon). If I don't have Catalyst software, I can't do that sort of stuff... am I right?

Anyway, I'll post later... this issue has taken up way too much of my free time unfortunately.

 

Yep, still crashes. Black Screen of Death instead of Gray with hanging noise. F M L

(the L stands for Laptop, not Life)

I heard this problem may stem from the switchable graphics mode from my Intel Sandy Bridge processor. I never use my laptop without AC power... was wondering how to disable it and try reinstalling just the newest AMD drivers. Think it would work?

Anyways, anyone knows what my options are if I still have a month of warranty, even though I bought this laptop in the US, but currently living in Japan? I'm not really the most fluent when it comes to Japanese... that's why I'm worried.

 

Haha, while you have the chance I'd spend the time getting dell to take the case on. When I was in Brazil I had a local speaker ask for English speaking support and off to P R I went


See here: Dell - International Laptop Warranty Contact Information | Dell But if you've been out of the country of purchase for longer than 3 months they may ask you to re-register it - all web based.

You could track down an unlocked BIOS and turn off the iGPU but if the dGPU has failed you could brick it and need to reset the BIOS. Worst case scenario you have to 'Blind Flash' it - really not fun .

 

Just saw this that might help: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...17-owner-s-lounge-thread-377.html#post9659977

 

Could you please send me your Service Tag on a PM?
That way I can take a look at your profile and see what options are available.

 

Sorry I've been away for a bit... life + job + grad school = no time

MickyD Thank you so much for the heads-up. I'll dl it ASAP. Still crashing at least 2-3 times a day.

Wasserman: Are you a legit rep for Alienware?

EDIT: MickyD, no dice. Went to the Alienware site and couldn't find it. Went to Dell's website, added my service tag, and it still listed the old driver from July of last year that doesn't fix things.

 

Yeah, dell avoid updating old models so try changing the unit to an AW 17 and then look at the supported products. I do know that the latest driver Dell publish for the NV cards is only found when searching the AW 17 but looking into the DL details it says earlier models are supported.

Like I said though I have no experience of Catalyst drivers in recent years so hopefully we get an AMD guru in on the problem

 

Okay, installed it. It said it installed Catalyst, an HDMI driver and one other thing (which is very odd, because previous versions would install at least 8-10 items). When it said it was installing Catalyst, the progress bar filled halfway for a few seconds, immediately filled up and said everything was installed. There is no trace of Catalyst on the Startup Menu or when I right-click on my desktop. Basically, I don't think anything of value installed, and I can't check to see what version number my video driver is updated to.

On top of that, it crashed when I gave it the streaming video test. Almost within 20 seconds.

EDIT: Sorry for ranting previously. I erased the comments. You can understand I'm pretty upset about the ordeal, but I have to thank everyone for helping me with this problem. I transferred my warranty to Japan, extended it for a year, and will call a number in Japan to see if I can get this serviced. Thank you to Wasserman for assisting me in this ordeal. I hope things will finally be resolved soon.