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    M17x R3 serious GPU issues...any suggestions?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by evil_mike, Nov 23, 2012.

  1. evil_mike

    evil_mike Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey gang,

    I have an M17x R3 that's out of warranty and whenever I start any games, the screen goes black and the system basically crashes on me. It currently has an AMD 6970 in it, but it previously had an Nvidia 460M (that had a whole DIFFERENT set of issues)...when I swapped cards, I used the 460M heatsink and cross bracket...could that be causing the issues? Does the 6970 use a different HS?

    If that isn't the issue, do you have any other suggestions?

    Thanks in advance.
     
    evil_mike, Nov 23, 2012
    #1
  2. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    could be a driver issue? My 6990m runs fine (although pretty toasty) on my old 460m heatsink. Does your heatsink happen to have black tape on the GPU die? That could also be part of the problem. ;)
     
    bigtonyman, Nov 23, 2012
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  3. evil_mike

    evil_mike Notebook Evangelist

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    I will check. Thanks Tony!
     
    evil_mike, Nov 23, 2012
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  4. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    X-bracket for the 460m is most probably way different from the one meant for the 6970m. Look them up and see if the x-bracket is the same (but I'd bet dollars to donuts thems aren't). If the x-bracket is pressing down on PCB components and causing them to short when your system switches over to the discrete card, that could definitely be causing the whole notebook to go dark.
     
    radji, Nov 24, 2012
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