Is my 7970m in M17x R4 dead?

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum but I've been a owner of Alienware since 2008.
2 days ago I was surfing the web when suddenly my M17x R4 froze and all I could see was a white screen (I used external monitor). I switched off by holding down the power button. The next day I turned it on and everything was back to normal. I kept on using for another 45 mins, only surfing the web and had no heavy task on the background. It crashed again and this time was a grey horizontal lines screen. Turned off and turned on after 4 hours, I was greeted with a vertical black and blue stripes screen right from the Alienware boot screen, and I could not boot into Window (after the boot screen everything was black and the fan is very loud). I was able to boot into Safe mode but the black and blue stripes are still visible and I cannot reinstall the ATI driver because the software cannot detect my hardware.
I'm using Window 10 and I've heard that Window 10 tend to kill Alienware display, but I've used it since it's officially released and no major problem whatsoever.
Is it the time for an upgrade? If the problem cannot be solved, I might consider buying a GTX 970

 

It is probably dead, unfortunately. GTX 970M require UEFI and Win8 or Win10, but I would be wary of Win10 since it is killing displays right and left. GTX 780M does not need any special modification other than INF mod to install drivers. R9 M290X/8970M also works plug in play no problems.

 

I' ve seen some guys in this forum tried gtx 970 with Window 10. Is UEFI intergrated in my current BIOS A12?

 

Yes, but you will have to be in a pure UEFI environment, meaning disable legacy boot and legacy option rom in the BIOS boot section.

 

I wouldn't get a 970M of any NVIDIA card if you value your Alienware.. Those cards and new drivers are killing Alienwares left right and centre... I so regret getting the 970M, killed my R4..

Get another 7970M if your impatient and can't wait till they find the root cause of the problem or just sell it off and get a Clevo...

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk

 

When my 7970M died a few months back I had a somewhat similar experience. First however games would lock, artifact, and crash. I honestly think the problem was the thermal sensor got stuck and it would never ramp up the fan, I tried cleaning out the heatsink and such but eventually it totally failed. Windows would boot in some sort of 16 color CGA mode, graphics drivers could not be installed. Switching entirely to the intel HD display adapter got the laptop working but gaming was impossible.

So I decided, why not go bigger and better? I looked into 980m kits, and while expensive as hell, I figured it would be the best option to revitalize my now three year old laptop. Hardware installation was easy, extreme cleaning of the heatsink was required. Driver installation is a pain, modified INFs, driver signature enforcement disabling. But it does work... mostly, and works under Windows 7. (As of yet, I have not got it to work at all on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 has extreme VSYNC issues the last time I tried it). Windows 7 support is limited to windowed full screen games under optimus mode only. Full screen applications can not detect the card and don't work (same in win10). Most games support windowed full screen so I've been getting by.

But honestly, if I could take it back, I probably would. I'd either get another 7970M, or go with a minor upgrade to an 8970M (which I think is whitelisted by Dell so no issues). Or as suggested above just put the money towards a Clevo based laptop...

 

because you got the 970m from hidevolution who aren't really that great to begin with.

 

To OP,

Try baking the GPU first before any new purchases.
Good luck.

 

Hey Tom can you give me more info on this because I'm currently running the W10+970M and it's not that bad. Go to that thread to not spoil here please. First of all did the stuff bricked the LCD after sometimes or quite immediately after installation of a new version of driver ?

Separus, I would have say that using a 970M and W10 is a good pick (I am currently having nice perfs but also some stress and few weird things) but you need some solid knowledge to avoid a lot of possible mess during installation and so on. see also here.

 

Do not switch to Dedicated... You will brick... Stay in Optimus mode... The minute I switched to dedicated, after next few boots, LCD corrupted...

 

Wait - no chance for me to find an Optimus mode I'm with a 120Hz 3D. But I think it prevents also me regarding your LCD fate ... Hope so...