Just bought a cheap (but broken) AW 17 online

So I've taken a gamble and won an eBay auction on an AW 17. It cost me about $280 Australian plus shipping and was listed as "for parts, not working". All they said is that it wouldn't turn on. They told me that all they tried was a different power supply but since they had other PC's for sale I have to assume that they have some experience and they tried a few other fixes which didn't work.
It has a 4910MQ, GTX 880M and 3D 120Hz screen. No RAM or storage included but I have some spare parts to help with these.
I should get it by the end of the week.
I'm expecting it's the mobo but fingers and toes crossed it's something a little easier and I can get her running.

 

I'd say GPU likely, if not the board

 

Try a stick of RAM in different slots to see if comes alive. Then maybe look into reflashing the BIOS, not sure if AW 17 has a recovery method.

 

I was also thinking the same thing but there's no beep code so I'm not sure. I have a spare 880M here but I think it was DOA a few months ago because I can't get my M17x or M18x to recognize it no matter what I do (followed all the tutorials). I was looking for a cheap 17 or 18 just to check to see if this 880M was actually dead. I was hoping to just pull the card from the machine and see if anything happens but then I looked closely at the pics on eBay I saw it had the 120Hz screen. I'm assuming it needs the dedicated GPU to boot.

I'll definitely give that a go. I had some old DDR3 Sodimm here but soon realized that the 17 uses DDR3L. I can strip one of my AW13's memory to test on the 17. I'll look into the BIOS reflashing option. Thanks for the idea.

 

I'd reset the CMOS to default values. You can never be too sure there.

You could also do a visual inspection. It's not always helpful, but sometimes you'll find burned SMD caps/resistors or traces of liquid that will tell you if something is truly destroyed beyond repair. If you don't find that, there's always hope.

 

Cool, I'll jump the CMOS pins and see what happens. If I can get this rocking I will be pretty happy.

 

Look into a NVRAM Reset.

 

Would this just be the same as clearing the CMOS by jumping the pins on the mobo?

 

No, it doesn't even have CMOS pins that are reachable, just pad's under the RAM/Battery area that need the entire board to be removed.

 

Ahh ok. Never had any experience with NVRAM. What is involved with the reset? I have no problems removing the board. If I get the thing working I will probably rip the board out to respray the chassis white anyway.

 

Yeah, a amazing design

 

It's a little weird, but I haven't felt so excited about getting a machine since I put in my first ever AW order with my M17x R3 all those years ago. There's something about getting a broken machine with unknown issues that's a little exciting. I keep checking the postal tracking.......

 

Not the best, but still easy enough to manage once you've spent enough time on it

 

Yeah what kingofswag187 said. It's a laptop so there's no pins, you just have to pull the battery. However accessing the battery basically requires disassembling the entire laptop.

It's a PITA if you've never done it but it's easy after you do it one or two times. I use a metal spudger tool called iSesamo to slip in the seam between the palm rest and bottom cover to unsnap the plastic clips. You could also use a plastic credit card for this, but it will tear up the card.

 

Cool thanks for the info. I've pulled a lot of AW laptops apart but never the 17 and I've got a drawer full of pry tools from phone screen repairs including a few iSesamo's. My M18x has pins and a connector for the CMOS battery so I'm used to clearing this when I screw things up. I'll try as many other fixes as I can think of first before I pull the mobo.
Fingers crossed it comes tomorrow.

 

The 17 R1 implemented a new way of resetting the CMOS through NVRAM, either way requires taking apart the laptop, and only the NVRAM reset works.

 

You can't reset NVRAM with only take out the cmos battery on 17R1.

 

I got two AW 17 , one doesn't turn on , and one dont go pass the alienware logo( it freezes) lol

 

Sounds like I'll be sending you this one so you can make it 3. Hopefully not.

 

Today could be a great day or a real crappy day

 

Ok so it seems i may have a bad day. As soon as I plug the machine in the power supply light goes off. There must be a short somewhere. I wonder if it's had water damage that they haven't told me about. Not looking good.

Started pulling it apart and noticed the keyboard ribbon cable wasn't attached. Just thought, well they were just too lazy to put it back in when they reassembled it. Then I noticed another smaller ribbon cable detached. Thought that mustn't be too important either, maybe the backlight cable. Turns out it was the ribbon cable from the power button to a small control board. Even without the heatsinks, GPU, RAM of hard drive installed I plugged her in and now there's power!!! I pulled the plug straight away but I'll put some parts back in and see what happens. I wish I brought some thermal past to work as these things are bone dry.

Well of course nothing is ever easy. Put it all back together and it's shorting out the power brick again. I'll try everything one by one and see what it is. Fingers crossed it's the GPU

So the machine gets power without the 880M installed. It shorts out the PSU if it's in the socket. Obviously no display without the GPu as it's the 3D screen. (no beep code though which seems strange and concerning). I've just noticed some decent discoloration of the GPU as well along the top on both sides. It may not show up well on this pic but the card goes from it's nice blue to a dirty greeny blue. I'm leaning towards water damage and I hope it doesn't fry another card if I put one in.

 

I think Khenglish's comment from my post with the broken 980M might be relevant here. Give that a try if you have a multimeter.

 

I have no idea how to use a multimeter. I've always wanted to learn though.

Basically now I have my spare 880M but I'm not getting any display. I already had a hunch that this 880M is also dead but at least this one is allowing power to get to the machine. It was warm to the touch after a few minutes of no display so power is getting into the card. I put the RAM in the 3 and 4 slots but I'm assuming that 1 and 2 (or at least slot 1) needs to have a stick. My fingers are crossed that this could be the case.
Just putting some sticks into slots 1 and 2 now.

No luck. I'll have a look around the workshop here at work for a meter and then I'll teach myself how to use it. I'm not keen on trying my 780M's from my M18x so I may open the wife's M17x and see if I can get an old 580M to work.

Just had a look at the battery. Jeez this thing had a hard life apparently. How does someone even do this??




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I pulled the machine apart and removed the motherboard battery out for a decent amount of time. I put everything back together and got the 5 beep CMOS code. I'm just happy I actually got a beep code for a change. Restarted again and the code went away (as expected) but still no display. The machine gets lights and fans. I guess I'll have to try one of my 780M's. I'm also wondering if I should try to fit my M18x LCD. I think the connector should fit in the LVDS connector on this board.
Unfortunately my gut is saying the board is dead

 

Can I get a Hallelujah!!! Is there anything a 780M cannot do?!?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'm not sure what to do next. I want to put the 780M back into my M18x so I'll have to find a replacement card for this one. Do I just buy a 770M for about $250AU and try to flip it or do I sell the M18x and put the money into a 1070 upgrade for the 17?? The people I bought this from didn't include the hard drive caddies and they say their client took them when they removed the drives so I'm going to lose more money trying to replace them as well as needing to buy some DDR3L memory and a new SSD/HDD.
If anyone knows where I can get the two caddies cheap it would help a lot. Problem is shipping to Australia. Same with any surplus DDR3L memory.

 

It depends on what you need. Upgrading and fixing everything that is left on the 17 may not be worth it for you, considering that you need to replace basically every component but the CPU, you could try to resell it as "working" and profit from it if you don't really need it, or you could sell the parts; or you could sell one or more of your alienware laptops (if you don't need them) and use that money to upgrade this 17. You could even sell them all and buy something completely new, it's really up to you.

These are the options I would consider maybe someone else here can give you better advice though.

 

I just don’t know. The missing caddies have pissed me off as well as the damaged battery but that’s the risk buying online.
I’m happy I got it working though. That was basically the challenge and it took less than 12 hours.
I’m tempted to slowly part it out too. I can get about $250-300AU just for the CPU.
I have to install an OS tomorrow and then I’ll really get to see how it’s running.
I’ve got one of my AW13’s up on eBay right now. I’ll get at least $600AU from that which is about $200 short of a 1070.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

So what was the primary issue besides the battery being toast. Bad GPU?

 

Yep it was the GPU. The spare 880M I had was also toast. I bought that off eBay earlier this year but looks like I got ripped off for $250 on that one.
It looks like someone tried to pry the battery out. I think it’s just the housing that’s damaged.
I would have expected a beep code for the failed GPU.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Maybe just get the cheapest supported GPU and resell. 260M?

 

I think I’ll keep the 780M in there and sell it. And then sell my M18x with a single 780M. Then I just need storage and memory for the 17. The battery is damaged but should be fine and I could just use Velcro for the hard drive bays instead of the caddies. Not ideal but it will be a working PC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

So you will keep the AW 17?

 

I really want to but it would help the finances if I could do a quick flip and make a few hundred bucks.
My head is telling me to put everything back in the M18x and sell that and try the 1070 upgrade on the 17.
I still don’t know if there are more problems with it once I install an OS.
I also want to do a paint job on this 17.
Too many options


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

A similar machine sold on eBay Australia tonight for $1050AU. I could put an SSD in her with the 780M and come out a few hundred ahead.

I think I've made my mind up though. This 17 will be my new project and I'm going to give her a gloss white paint job and a 1070. I think I may have to sell my old M18x but I'll decide on that later.

 

So, I've changed my mind and decided to make this 17 my new project. I will need to sell a few other machines to finance the project so my wife doesn't lose her mind too much.
The plan is;
- Gloss white paint job
- GTX 1070 upgrade with 5-pipe heatsink
- 16gb - 2133 DDR3L Memory (32gb is overkill for me but I'll keep 2 slots open just in case)

I'll start stripping the machine this weekend to prep for the paint job.

 

Wow you have a lot of these Alienwares. Nice job on the painting btw.

 

Thanks. I've actually just posted a thread in the main forum section about my paint jobs.

I'm going to start selling a few of these machines unfortunately.

 

I’ve stripped the 17 down to barebones and tediously taped up the black sections of the LCD, chassis and base panel that won’t be painted. Hopefully tomorrow I can put a layer of primer down before I start the gloss white.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Painting underway.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

LCD lid first coat



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Been busy this week but I should get some clear coats on the parts tonight. Once that's done I'm going to try my hand at buffing the clear coat to see what kind of shine I can get. I've never bothered with this before so it could go horribly wrong.

 

Chassis and base plate done except for tidying up a few edges. First coat of clear down on the lid tonight.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

LCD lid is done. Looks really good. I’m waiting on some new memory to arrive before I can reassemble it properly.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Couldn’t wait for the memory so I took some from another machine to get some pics.

They should have released these with a white option. It looks great!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Great job

Hope the White color will stay intact and not being transformed into Yellow after short while as the new Aw models

 

The keyboard is still black so I should be good. Fingers crossed.
Here she is next to her twin X51




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Looks great!!
Indeed, I would also be concerned in weather it will turn yellow, but boy, I had a look at that thread and its got over 1500 pages?!?!
Jesus!
It cant be good even if its 1500 pages of praising the thing.

 

Beautiful <3

 

Thanks. It came out better than expected. Worth all the time put in. I want to get my hands on another machine now and something new. An 18 maybe....

 

Wow where are you located? I would like a quote on a paint job.