M17x R2 boots to a black screen

Hey there guys!

I have a problem with my m17x R2 laptop, i was updating to the latest drivers including bios after i finished i switched off the laptop (because when i restart i get a black screen), so the laptop gets stuck in shutting down for more than 2 mints and the power is not responding so i replaced the battery and switched on the laptop again, now i only get a black screen from the beginning and the laptop is not responding, any ideas!?

 

bricked the bios

2 solution
1 hope dell don,t notice and replace it for you

2 find how to do a crisis recovery on the laptop

 

If you do not see a BIOS screen or any indication the BIOS is loading, you need to contact support and they will troubleshoot. They may be able to assist with getting you back up and running. Let them know you were updating the BIOS and what is happening. The recovery might be possible over the phone. Call them and discuss.

 

Try a few things. First a power drain. Unplug the computer, remove the battery and then hold the power button for 20 sec or so. Then plug it back in and see if that will allow it to boot. If it doesn't I would try pulling the CMOS battery. To do this you will need to unplug the laptop, remove the batter and then unscrew the back plate. the two screws are in the battery area. Under that you will se the CPU heatsink fan. next to it should be the bios battery in a small black case. It's like a watch battery. \Unplug it for about 30sec to a min. Plug it back in and try to power it up. If that still doesn't work do as BatBoy suggested and call Dell.

EDIT: Almost forgot, here is another trick I learned due to the power on issues with the R2 following an unsafe shutdown. Power it on, and as soon as the touchstrip lights turn on, hit the power button again so it shuts off. Wait a few sec, and power it on again. For me it seems that it will start up every other time. If you can't get it to shut off, just unplug it. Works for me when I'm benchmarking.

 

By any chance do you have a dual 5870 configuration where the secondary card was replaced at some point recently?

 

Yea replaced my 4870 with 5870 crossfire!

Thx guys will give it a go!

 

If none of the other methods work, try removing your secondary graphics card. Brian/erawneila has found that some of the secondary cards that people ordered to replace their 4870s were bad, and this causes boot issues on newer BIOSes.

If removing the second card fails, you should PM Brian and let him know. He'll help you sort out a replacement.

 

Thank you will do that!

BTW if i plug the laptop to an external moniter i can see the boot screen however, when the laptop isnt responding to F2 or F12. I think is becuase of the failed bios update, any idea on how to recover or i need a new motherboard.

P.S: thanks guys for your feedback!

 

what catalyst where you runing befor that just to know because now that you tell i'm having the same issue when ever i mess with my catalyst setings i get a black screen

if you are runing dell's driver then it's very likely the slave

 

Running 10.7

 

so your laptop get to window on the external monitor?
it hapens exactly the same on my 4850 but i can normaly see the bootscree until the exact second the video driver get loaded

as for your bios if it continu past the bios you could try to make a bios flash device (usb cd or W/E you feel like) and hope you can recover your bios from (the laptop will boot from the only device availible so if the recovery media is the only one it will boot from it) it if not then you would have to find the bios recovery methode for the m17x-r2

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-your-phoenix-bios-bios-recovery-methods.html
here is a tuto by Zfactor some one pointed to me

 

My laptop gets to the boot screen and freezes on external monitor! will try removing the 2nd card if that fails will try to flash the bios... thx for the help m8

 

This almost sounds like you've managed to switch the machine into external monitor mode. Instead of displaying video on the laptop screen, it's pushed out to the external monitor.

Try hitting Fn+F6 a few times, waiting a second or 2 between each attempt. Eventually you should find that your laptop screen comes back to life.

 

not necearly with 10.7 my 4850 when they switch to external they remain there and don't move back to the laptop panel until i make a recovery