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    M17X r1 screen going black or pink

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by gdmaddog, Jul 18, 2010.

  1. gdmaddog

    gdmaddog Notebook Guru

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    My rather new r1 is randomly locking up with the screen going to a split screen mode of pink over black or all pink or all black almost daily. I have dual gtx 260's in SLI and this occurs without rhyme or reason. I have had it while surfing the net or gaming. Contacting dell was an exercise in futility. The tech suggested that perhaps I simply have incompatible firmware on my hard drive and that I should reboot when this happens. Duh. The system completely locks up and I have to do a hard reset. Have anyone else seen something similar? This is a real pain since I am traveling and trying to game while on the road...
     
    gdmaddog, Jul 18, 2010
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  2. myx

    myx Notebook Deity

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    What gfx drivers are you running?
     
    myx, Jul 18, 2010
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  3. gdmaddog

    gdmaddog Notebook Guru

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    I am running the 257.21 drivers. I have hybrid graphics disabled in bios. All power management is turned off and the laptop is on wall power at all times.
     
    gdmaddog, Jul 18, 2010
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  4. Luccabertone

    Luccabertone Notebook Consultant

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    I'm having similar problems minus the pink screen and abit worse after problems, if you ask me theres somthing seriously wrong with the hardware in "some" r1's
     
    Luccabertone, Jul 18, 2010
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  5. dave-p

    dave-p Notebook Deity

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    what are your GPU temps like ?

    Have you tried running Dell Diagnostics yet ?

    I would also condifer backing up for files, and format and do a fresh OS install .

    There are several reasons why this could be happening. Hardware is most likley, but corrupted drivers could also be the the issue.
     
    dave-p, Jul 18, 2010
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  6. gdmaddog

    gdmaddog Notebook Guru

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    Thanks for the suggestions. I have run the dell diagnostics. They pass just fine. GPU temps are in the mid 70's running FurMark. GPU 1 runs about 4 degrees warmer that GPU 2. I have physix assigned to GPU 1 so that might keep it running a little hotter. I will try a clean install of windows once I pick up a second hard drive. I suspect is a bad video card right now.
     
    gdmaddog, Jul 18, 2010
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  7. mck321

    mck321 Notebook Enthusiast

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    My laptop crashes regularly with any NVidia drivers except for 197.84 (which is only available for download from Dell's site). Please see this post to see my comparison of 197.84 versus the latest drivers with respect to DPC latency:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...97-84-beta-dell-discuss-here.html#post6486292

    Also, if you were unaware of the DPC latency issues plaguing R1's with NVidia cards, see this (extremely lengthy) thread:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/434691-m17x-dpc-latency.html
     
    mck321, Jul 19, 2010
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