Help: 6990m Fried?!?!?!?

Ok well I was packing to go home for labor day, and I I put my computer to sleep and put it in my backpack. When I got home, it was extremely hot to the touch and the battery life had been drained. I plug it in, only to find that my 6990m is no longer detected, even by the BIOS?!?!?! I can't even get it to switch to intel integrated because the graphics card is no longer present? HELP! How can I get fast warranty service, I need this back operational by tuesday! I bought the accidental warranty service too!

 

Call Dell. You accidental should cover it, though it's unlikely they will be able to send a tech out before tuesday considering the holiday weekend. You also may have fried more than just the GPU, so it might be a more complex fix.

It sounds like your computer didn't actually go to sleep and kept running on the primary GPU (6990) while it was in your bag with no ventilation. I am somewhat surprised that it didn't shutdown the GPU to avoid overheating, but from the results I'd guess that your GPU got over 100 C for a significant period of time.

 

What the hell! The GPU needs to shut down by itself if over-heating is detected!

I know Nvidia GPUs do...

 

nothing else is fried, just the dgpu 6990m unless the slot is fried

 

THAT HAPPENED EXACTLY THE SAME FOR MY M15x..

It didnt fry the gpu, but it was the result of bad motherboard actually. Like it didnt go to sleep when I closed the lid. Also probably something wrong with the bios.

But I had my mobo replaced and it was fine. Mine had the problem right out of the box. I can assure you that something was screwed up in the combination of bios and mobo thats why it didnt go to sleep and it didnt shut down even with overheating.

replacing mobo will ensure no such happening in the future.

Good luck!

 

Next time shutdown your computer before travelling....case closed.

 

try doing a power drain with the cmos battery taken out. then reboot see if you can get the bios to see the card.

 

Definitely agreed. Your basically closing an oven door with it still on and no way to cool itself down.

CPUs and GPUs when run hot for a long time, then all of a sudden you cut off the cooling "fans" and then isolate it (in your bag) will make the card keep climbing in temp. Shutting the computer off will make sure its not gonna climb to much higher, and letting your card cool down normally (keep it running for a few min until fans cycle down) will definitely help as well.

 

+1

Whenever a laptop is being put into a backpack or other case, it should ALWAYS be shut down. Better safe than sorry.

 

Yup. Especially any sort of gaming laptop with a discrete space heater inside it.

 

I store my laptop in a bag on daily basis and always put it sleep. Never had a problem like this, but I do wait to make sure it goes to sleep before sticking it in the bag.

 

I had my 6970m GPU die on my last M17 for unknown reasons. Dell fixe it in 5 guineas days due to the weekend. Because of the holiday you are probably looking at Wednesday at best. If you can get a repair order today, do it, but my guess is it may not go in until Tuesday because of the 3 day weekend. Then 24 hours to ship the part (if it isnt back ordered, mine was and that added 48 hours), then a day to get the tech to you, so Wednesday or Thursday under real world best outcome circumstances.

Try removing the GPU, drain the CMoS. Then you should be able to boot and run the IGP, at least you will be able to use the laptop then. When my GPU died, the bios would not detect it, but the IGP still worked (nice to have a backup). You will be on the phone with Alienware for at least an hour or two trying to fix the current GPU before they authorize a replacement. Even if you know it is broken, they will try all possible software solutions first.

You have my sympathy and empathy for your loss ;(.

Goodluck.

 

thanks man. put in the service request today, spent 3 hours on the phone

Do they think we are stupid or something? If it doesn't show up in the BIOS there is no way reinstalling the OS is going to fix it........

Dell needs to fix its alienware support, seriously. I am now running on IGP, so the computer is usable. They said if I get this issue again then I can get a brand new computer sent to me. Hopefully this fix will not be such a pain, and things will get back to working.

 

Glad you got the IGP working. It is a pain to spend 3 hours on the phone, but Dells support is actually pretty good. I hated have to reinstall my OS and drivers when i knew the GPU was dead, but I also understood that corperate checklists are part of the process. You should have a new GPU by the end of the week. Asus would require you send in your laptop for 3+ weeks, so it could be worse. I think Dells NBD service is pretty impressive (as long as the part is in stock)

I just noticed my iPhone autocorrect butchered my last post, "business day" got turned into "guineas day". Funny.

 

reinstalling os is not part of checklist...are u kidding?

Os has nothing to do with it being undetectable in Bios = Most basic. Drivers have have nothing to do with this.

Was this card overclocked?

 

I agree with you, but it is what it is what it is. Tech support goes with the assumption that your GPU has a driver issue before assuming it is dead. Unfortunately the only guaranteed way to get rid of any old drivers to prevent convicts is to reinstall the OS entirely. (when it happened to me they tried driver sweeper first but when that didn't work they wanted to reinstall the OS). I am not saying it is efficient or not a PITA, but it does make some sense from Dells perspective. It is much cheaper to pay a guy in Costa Rica an hourly wage then it is to replace a $300 GPU.

 

My card was never overclocked but I did notice something odd. My 6990m still generates heat....... and it's eating my battery. Typically when on IGP i get 5 hours of battery life, I struggle now to even get 3 even when im using the IGP. what the frick is going on?

 

Did you try reseating the card?

 

Yes I did, still no effect.

 

Did you see any strange burned spots on the card or the mxm slot? Any funny smell maybe?

Update the bios and see if it pops up, doubt it will but you can at least try.

 

Nothing smelled burned and i couldn't see anything wrong with the card...... I'm fearing maybe its something on the motherboard.

UPDATE:
Reflashed bios, still not recognized.

 

My dead 6970m was the exact same. The heatsink was very hot and the fan would not turn on. No detection by BIOS. Fortuantely my MB was still good and so was GPU port. Basically the GPU is completely dead. It isn't telling the MB it is hot, so the fan doesn't turn on, so it keeps getting hotter.

 

what was ur problem with ur first 6970m???my 2nd 6970m is dead....i need to RMA it back..when i boot laptop screen is black and laptop doesn't respond.i change back to my 460m and it works good...

 

Even after putting system to sleep there is still small amount of power on the motherboard. Actually in a lot of cases enough to cause static electricity to build up between system & case/backpack in order to fry your motherboard. Yes I had to learn this the hard way. Always shutdown any system before putting in case. Just my opinion.

 

The 6870M in my new R3 also took a dump when it suddenly wasn't recognized by the BIOS during OS reinstall. Got really hot and died...Put my 5850M from the M15x in to see if the port/mobo is good and it said Discrete Graphics: ATI Graphics, something along those lines. Couldn't use it though, so I'm on the IGP...lol...

 

u RMA the card back???

 

Sent off an email to the executive team first since I'm tired of the 3 hour phone chats. Dealt with the exec team before so the the guy knows me LOL. probably gotta wait till Tuesday for a response.

 

Suddenly there seems to be a flurry of issues with AMD Cards.. I hope this is not due to some weird manufacturing defect.

 

I don't know why it died. I was running an ES CPU at the time but that shouldn't be related in any way. Dell replaced with quickly and I can't really complain.

 

nice man!!i ll RMA mine.its my 2nd defective 6970m.....

 

This is not an issue with the card. He put the laptop in a bag while it was still running. If there was any defect (which I doubt), it involves the sleep-mode and has nothing to do with the GPU.

My AMD GPU works wonderfully, but I would expect it to die as well if I took away all its ventilation.