If LCD is dead will external monitor connection work? M17X R3 owner. 8 Beeps.

Hi everybody,

My LCD is dead with 8 beeps on startup but before I had a chance of actually hearing Windows booting. If I were to buy an external monitor and plug it in, would I still be able to use my laptop if Windows actually still booted in the darkness? Also would anybody have an idea how much Dell charges to fix/replace the dead LCD? Thanks.

 

If *only* the lcd is damaged, then yes, you can still connect it to an external monitor and work...
Dell might charge an extra overhead amount if you get the screen fixed via them; a much cheaper option would be to search for a compatible lcd on ebay and install it yourself. I believe there are a couple of threads and youtube videos showing you how. Are you out of warranty here?
And, I think this thread should be moved to the alienware m17x section.

Edit : Follow this thread here. It is in the M17x section; there is some useful info there -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/722619-m17x-r3-replacement-screen.html

 

Rather than buying a monitor, its a laptop, surely there must be one you could borrow by taking your laptop round for a few seconds to test.

 

Just be aware 8 beeps is video sub-system POST failure. It could just as easilly be the GPU that has gone faulty. As long as you do not have the 120hz model you can take out the dGPU card and see if it then boots.

People have tried to get the AW to boot with an external monitor when it fails POST, but the internal hardware still fails the test. IF you were to unplug the panel (and the issue IS the panel) as well as connect an external monitor it *may* work but nobody tried it...

 

Thanks, I ended up buying one, it was the easier option for me.

I just replaced the graphics card and viola the machine is back to life again. My conclusion was that I cooked my GPU from prolonged heavy use.

Thank you all for your help.


Please everybody make sure you have sufficient cooling and it may also be a good idea to freshen up your themal compound.

 

Seems the issue was solved but just a note on this response.

Alienware will not boot up at all if you unplug the LCD. Even if the LCD is broken you need to leave it plugged in for the laptop to boot. I can say this for certain with the M17X-R3 but would assume it's the same with all of them.

 

Thanks for the info - even if a display is connected to the VGA port? Never knew if it was possible on the AW range and I'm not surprised if it's not

 

Hey sutats..

My advice is get it fixed by Dell and not on your own.. I had the same problem but they replace the LCD screen (120Hz), Gfx (580M) and Mobo to get it working again.. my guess its about the same as mine and last resort is the mobo replace.. I wonder how long it will last but it might work out through the rest of my 2 years warranty.

Peace:hi2:

 

Can't remember if I tried VGA or not... I think I did though. I know it won't work via HDMI/Display and pretty sure not VGA either.

It's just some sort of check sensor I think you could probably plug a wire with no display attached to it into the LCD plug and it would likely work fine. It simply won't boot with nothing plugged into the mobo screen plug.

 

Oh well, worth a try, and good info for anyone else trying this