GTX 680M Bricked? 1 Long Beep 2 Short Beeps... (M17x R2)

I tried to flash a different vBIOS to my GTX 680M ES and now have no display. When I try to boot up I get one long beep and two short beeps. I've tried to blind flash but keep getting to those beeps. I tried putting the USB in the eSATA and holding FN+B, but after I see some flashing form the USB stick, I wait 10 minutes, restart, and get the same beeps.

I know it's not the mobo as I can put in my 5870M and the display works fine.

PLEASE HELP!

 

Sounds fatal I'm afraid . The 680 has bricked and it's bringing down the POST. Blind flashing is only resetting the BIOS, if there was a method for blind flashing the NV card then you would have a chance.

I do remember some time ago seeing a company that claimed to be able to re-flash cards by sending them to them, might be worth searching out suppliers to see if they can help?

 

Have you tried installing your mobility 5870 in the primary slot and the 680M in the secondary? Don't know if it'll boot this way but i think it's worth a try.
Assuming you have the secondary heatsink and fan, i would try that and see if there's a way to flash it.

Let us know what you get, if the above fails, you may need to reprogram the card's eeprom or replace it with a properly programmed one.

PS: The Fn+B key combo is used to blind flash the system BIOS in case of failure, it won't help in your situation.

 

If what katalin suggests does not work, someone you find trustworthy with an M18x R1 can set their BIOS to "SG" mode to boot from IGFX and flash the discrete GPU. I have done this several times with a failed AMD 6990M and 7970M vBIOS flash and it should work the same with an NVIDIA GPU. (This will not work with the M18x R2 motherboard. It would not boot in SG mode the last couple of times I tried.)

 

Yup placing the bad GPU into the slave slot in the Alienware M18x R1 and then nvflashing it works like a charm. I've had to do it a few times on my GTX 780M during some adventurous testing lol

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the replies.

I had tried placing my old 5870M in the primary slot and the 680M in the secondary before, but got only a blank screen, although there was no beeping. I'm thinking this may be because one's ATI and the other's NVIDIA...

I'll give it another shot and make sure everything is properly seated. I'm thinking that it might still work if I do a blind flash specifying the second slot (index=1) in the autoexec.bat file. A quick follow up question, when blind flashing, should the commands start with "C:\nvflash" or just "nvflash"?

 

Just nvflash should suffice. Just make sure all your files are at root level and not in sub-folders.

Good luck. :thumbsup:

Cheers.

 

Will give it another go then. One last question, would you happen to know the proper command for force flashing the card? It will ask about confirming so I need to avoid that...

This is what I had last time I believe:

nvflash --index=1 -4 -5 -6 -A -y BIOS.rom

I think I also tried:

nvflash --index=1 -f -5 -6 file.rom

Which one is correct, if any?

 

I'm not too sure about the force flashing command but I normally just use.

nvflash -6 file.rom
and then it is usually 2 "Yes" commands
so hitting 'y' twice and then you should hear the beep noise to confirm successful flash.

[GUIDE] NVIDIA VBIOS flashing


Cheers.

 

My only problem is that it will ask for two "y", but it will also ask for a "YES" in all capitals at some point... Will give it a shot though.

 

Yup,

You can do some practice flashing if you like with the 5870M in the notebook 1st. You obviously don't go ahead with any flashing but just to get a feel of the commands and to make sure that the usb boots straight into DOS mode when you boot the notebook up.
I have set that up in my system bios to boot straight from the USB. So whenever I have a USB plugged in it always trys to boot from the usb 1st as a priority boot order selection.

After some practice you will then get to know roughly the timing to press each button to help with the blind flash.
You can also rename the rom file that you want to flash too to make it easier.
For example heat.rom or something.

Good Luck :thumbsup: I hope you can resurrect your 680M soon enough.

Cheers.

 

So, I decided to go through the process again.

I put my 5870M in the first slot, and the 680M in the second. I connected a HDMI cable to my TV to see what would show. It does boot and goes to the Alienware Logo screen but then stops. After a minute it turns itself off. I tried the 680M on its own again but only received the 3 beeps. I even tried turning on hotswap for the second slot (as I have unlocked A10 BIOS), but the laptop immediately turns off when you try to insert the card. I have a feeling this is dead and gone.

 

Bummers man,

You do have hope but you would need a system with integrated graphics such as the Alienware M18x R1. You would be able to flash it in the slave GPU slot. Unfortunately the M17x R2 doesn't have any integrated graphics to boot up into. It should work also in say a M17x R3 or R4 I believe if you boot up in integrated GPU mode. Not 100% sure about the latter though.

Have you got anyone you know with another notebook with intel integrated GPU or are you able to send the GPU to someone?

Cheers.

 

Unfortunately, where I am currently working, there is no one here I've seen or know of that has an Alienware at all. I don't know anyone to send to either. What a shame!

Would there happen to be any people on here that would be willing to take a crack at it you think? Even if not, I've had a similar problem before where I got one card working again through the second slot, but another gave off the 3 beeps; so I'm not sure that the problem lies there...

 

Yup there would be quite a few people willing to help out on here.
Svl7 can definitely assist with bricked GPU vbios's + others as well.
It does sound like it just needs its old vbios or a working one to be flashed back on and you should be golden. So I wouldn't give up hope on the GPU just yet.

Cheers.

 

I would be quite pleased if that's all it took. Should I start a new thread to see about help, or try svl7 first? I would actually be quite happy if he could help since most of the stuff I've learned about in terms of these laptop's cards and capabilities are from his threads or advice.

 

Hello I'm having same problem with my 680M installed on M17x-R2. I'm only getting black screen, but the windows seems to boot since I hear the start-up sound. So I put the 680M in my M18x-R1 in the slave slot (No card inserted in the primary) and try to nvflash, but I'm getting an error message "No NVIDIA display adapters found." I used the latest nvflash from techpowerup in DOS mode, but still get the same message. Please help

 

If you hear the Windows startup sound, that's good news, well sort of. Try plugging an external screen (thru VGA preferably) and see what you get.

 

Just to add this is also a symptom that happens with the latest driver 320.18. For some reason it seems to only detect an external display?? Requires a safe boot followed by uninstalling the driver and components.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ay-driver-feedback-thread-released-5-23-13-/1

There a few AW 680 owners in there...

 

Good suggestion Micky but if the screen is black from POST i guess is safe to say that it's not a driver issue. Otherwise he can try booting in Safe Mode (tapping the F8 key after POST) to remove the problematic driver and install a more reliable version.

 

Concur . If it goes black during the windows load then this could be be problem.

 

Hi guys thanks for the replies. Just to give you an update, the situation got worse and now the scroll & cap are flashing with numlock staying on. Also, the screen remains black and I don't hear the windows anymore. I found on another website that this is an indication of faulty GPU card. Is there anyway to save the 680M?

 

TropicTundra Hijacked?
As stated before, Send your card to Switzerland (Svl7)

 

@Heatshiver , A bird told me that you got your gtx 680m working again... what vbios did you use? may I know?

 

Actually, sent it off to the best (svl7). I have an early ES from Dell made even more obvious by the fact that it has 4GB! I honestly don't know what vBIOS he put on it. The original was at extremely low clocks, he brought it up to standard. I can always try a dump when I get a chance, won't be for a few days though as I'm about to head overseas...

 

I'm currently dealing with the same problem on my Alienware M17X R2, I bought mine from Eurocom, mine is GTX 680M 4GB. It actually runs well in windows at first, but after I start playing games, it would lag horribly. I then bought an adapter for my notebook and the lag in the game seems to disappear, however, just a moment into the game, there was a sudden blank screen, and the notebook starts making weird noises. I hard restart the notebook and now it could not even load the Bios, the 1 long beep and 2 short beeps nightmare are haunting me now. It is weird though, if its a faulty card, it would have not worked at all would it? same goes if its a different vbios... right? I tried booting up using just the battery but the beeps keep on going at me...

I know I should send this card back for warranty, but I am now in Asia (Malaysia) and Eurocom is so far away... and I want to play my Diablo III now... please help....

thanks/regards
neobita

 

I have not yet played games since getting it back, I usually use my desktop. However, I will try a Premiere Pro project and possibly an AE project in the next week. I'll see if I experience any lag.

I don't know what you mean by buying an adapter... What kind of adapter and for what? I received the long and beep and short beeps because my card was messed up (due to a desktop vBIOS flash). A faulty card could be in its death throes, so it is possible to still have it work for a while. I had a GTX 480 that did something similar before it decided it was time to go.

I wish I could say this was a bad vBIOS, but you haven't done anything that would suggest that. It seems more likely that it is a dead or dying card. I am in Indonesia, so I do understand your pain in terms of sending the card all the way back... The upside is that unlike Indonesia, you have a lot of English speakers, and you may be able to get someone to take a look there. So, I think you have 4 options:

1) Send the card (not the laptop) back to Eurocom. Call them to be sure you can just send the card first, and you'll also have to have a friend's address to send it back to as I doubt they'll ship overseas.
2) Take it to a Malaysian shop and ask them to fix it. If they can't I don't think they'll charge you much if at all. You could then buy a replacement from them.
3) Send it to svl7 in the hopes that the vBIOS chip is somehow messed up. He charges a cheap amount and it should be cheap to ship to Switzerland. However, if he can't fix it, your out a bit of money.
4) I have a few 5870's (2 for Crossfire, the others for singles), if you want I could ship one to you at a fair price and you could try it out. This would give you a temporary solution until you can head back to NA. If you're looking for power the 5870 Crossfire would still be suitable (not the best, but decent). Shipping would be cheap as I would just use Indonesian Post, which I used when sending to svl7 in Switzerland.

So, this is really all I can think of that would help you out. You could try disconnecting the CMOS chip and holding the power button, but I'm guessing that's not going to work. If you do end up wanting a cheap 5870 from me I won't be back for about 2 weeks...

Hope it all works out nonetheless.

 

Just an update to my case should anybody be interested...

I sent my card back to eurocom for warranty and after some time, a replacement card reach my door. I plug the card in, and voila! its 100% working. Thanks Eurocom!
There are some issues that I would like to emphasize on people looking for this upgrade, from my own experience with this problem

- After installing the card, and playing some games, I noticed that the fan is throttling at only about 2500rpm (during heavy graphic processing), I am afraid that it was this that started the problem. The card is too hot. I suggest that you get HWiNFO, Run the sensor status, click on the fan icon next to the "Reset Values" button, and custom auto for the GPU. Now it spins faster (3000-3500) for when my gpu is at 60c and throttle back to 2500 when below 40c.
- There is one minor problem though.... although the frame rate per second is nice, there tends to be some flicker issues, or more like tearing (minimal) whenever there are heavy lighting or movement on my screen... This is obvious when I am viewing a CGI cutscene in Diablo 3. It might be just this game. I'll try to play other games and come back to you guys on that...

Other than that, just enjoy the card. Been getting 60 - 100 fps on highest settings for Diablo 3. And what's best, the card arrived just in time for the release of Diablo III new expansion, Reaper of Souls. Thank you Eurocom, would definitely buy from them again...

regards
neobita

 

For the minor problem I am facing above, there is a solution. In Diablo 3 video preferences, there is an option called "vertical sync"
(Synchronizes your framerate to some fraction of your monitor's refresh rate. Enable this is you see excessive screen tearing in game) after I tick and select this option, the problem disappears completely... It seems that the problem is related to the monitor's refresh rate.