M17x R3 6870 Dead?

Last night, as I was just playing SWTOR, my screen goes blank for no reason. Rebooted. Same problem. Did all the troubleshooting steps (safe mode, uninstall drivers/reinstall drivers, even reformatted hard drive). Same problem. The integrated Intel graphics is fine in Safe Mode. When the system starts in Normal mode with a blank screen. Probably a bad GPU, right?

Anyway, I brought the M17x in to Fry's Electronics where I bought it for warranty repair. Good news is I have a loaner Asus G74SX in the meantime! Let's see how this compares to my M17x R3.

 

yupp, send the GPU back, sorry to hear that bro

 

The 560m should be a wee bit faster than your 6870, so the G74 should be fun.

Sorry your card died.

 

Yeah, I'm liking this G74 spec-wise. If Fry's estimates are correct, worst-case scenario is I have to wait 6-8 weeks before I get my M17x R3 back. I guess I'm going to have to get used to this laptop for a while!

I'm re-downloading SWTOR, Steam, etc. right now. Let's see what kind of FPS I get compared to my 6870M 1GB vs. the GTX 560M 3GB later tonight when I get home.

I was getting on average around 50-60FPS on SWTOR on the 6870M (at 1600x900). I wonder what I'll get with the GTX 560M (at 1920x1080).

 

Good luck! I had almost the same thing happen about a month ago. Computer is still under warranty so Dell has been attempting to fix it. They replaced the GPU, same. Tried both the GPU and motherboard, same. They asked me to send it in and they said "oh its a bad hard drive." They did not have one at the depot so they send the computer back to me and send me the hard drive. Well wouldn't you know it, its not the hard drive. Now they are basically giving up and giving me a 6970. I have a scheduled appointment to have it replaced tomorrow.

I did get an extra hard drive and upgraded GPU out of this, but damn its annoying. Hope yours is just the GPU (and mine is working with the 6970).

 

Sounds like a burned out card. Not fun to have. Were your scroll lock, caps lock, blinking while the num lock light was on and solid?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/alienware-m17x/45511d1266668098-m17x-caps-lock-flashing-scroll-num-lock-stay-bios-post-code-m15x_m17x_posterrorcodes.jpg

 

Thanks for the link. I don't recall if my scroll lock, caps lock blinking while num lock light was on solid to be honest.

The machine does POST successfully though. Not sure if these light codes apply in my case.

I even see the "Starting Windows" splash screen. It's after that where I get just the blank screen when starting in Normal Mode. Safe Mode gets me to the desktop using the Intel integrated graphics.

 

UPDATE: Just got a call from Fry's Electronics that my M17x R3 has been received back from Dell Depot. I turned in my Asus G74SX loaner and got my M17x R3 back! The motherboard was replaced. Checking the BIOS now shows no service tag though. Should I be concerned?

Reloading everything now and patching it up...