M17x R4 Problem

I have an M17x R4 with a 7970m and recently I have encountered a problem I can't fix.

My computer crashed when I loaded a game. Upon restarting it would hang at the windows screen. I had to go into safe mode in order to launch windows. While there I uninstalled my video card drivers and restarted the computer. I was then able to reinstall the intel on board graphics card drivers and my computer was again functional but without the dedicated gfx card.

I then tried reinstalling the official AMD drivers, the beta drivers and the drivers from Dell. All of them ended with the same outcome. My computer screen would flicker during installation and on the third flicker a flashing line cursor would appear in the top left corner. The computer would remain in this state until I would force a hard reset.

I thought the issue might be something with windows so I backed up all of my information, formatted my OS drive and did a clean install. I reinstalled the drivers and the exact same problem occurred. At this point I opened up the laptop and reseated the card. Again the same issue occurred during driver installation.

My warranty expired in September. I am not sure what my next step should be. Does anyone have any ideas? Am I outta luck here? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

You installed them in the wrong order. The drivers from AMD are not official for the R4, the Dell drivers are the official drivers which are modified AMD/ATi, install Dell OEM video drivers first. and then your preferred AMD driver after that. (Dell HD Graphics, then Dell AMD Graphics, finally your Beta AMD 13.xx).

To be honest i ditched the HD graphics over a year ago and run off discrete only, best decision i ever made... when it comes to my R4 that is.

 

Tried what you suggested but unfortunately I got the same result. Is it possible my video card is bad? I went into the Dell diagnostic and it says everything is fine with my system. Could it be the motherboard that has a problem?

Any help is appreciated.

 

Was this the procedure you followed?

 

Your video card is fine, the Intel and AMD graphics are known for this issue. Porras posted a guide on how to completely wipe all traces of AMD/ATi, give that a whirl. the order that i listed for install is correct, the issues is related to compatibility between the drivers. I have done everything possible to get the drivers to play nice, but once you stray off Dells AMD modded drivers all bets are off and s***t rolls down hill from there. Save yourself the headache and just disable the HD graphics or stick with Dell drivers exclusively. (i also posted my version of a manual wipe). GL!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...all-amd-ati-not-have-rely-driver-sweeper.html

 

Thanks again for the replies!

Well unfortunately I have exhausted all the options you have listed here and the results are still the same. When I disabled to on board graphics and reinstalled the drivers for the 7970m I was greeted with a BSOD. I then followed your guide for removing all drivers from the system and tried to reinstall the drivers again. Once more I got a BSOD during installation.

At this point I decided to do another fresh install of windows 7 and try again. I disabled the onboard graphics, installed the ATI drivers and got another blue screen. Pretty much at a loss for what else I can try or what the problem might be. The Dell diagnostic insists everything is working fine with the computer...

 

Call AW support if Your warranty is still valid, they will remote connect with your pc and they will try to install drivers for you, For me it looks like faulty card assuming You did all steps correctly.

 

Unfortunately the warranty has expired. What is the most cost effective way of obtaining a new card and fixing this? Do I just pay Alienware to fix it or is there somewhere else I can buy a 7970m myself?

 

Mike,
You will need to stick with Dell official drivers if you want to use your HD graphics. If you are like most, then you will need to disable the HD graphics before installing any drivers that are not from Dell. Meaning your PC will only boot up with the AMD card, the minute you switch integrated back on you will be greeted with the BSOD. So avoid the FN+F7 once you are strickly running on dedicated graphics.

There is nothing wrong with the system, as stated it is a compatibility issue and nothing more. with everything you try, BSOD will always happen once you stray from Dells drivers, no ways around it.

 

I have only used drivers downloaded from the Dell website. I have no issue using dell drivers if it would simply make my computer work but it doesn't seem to be the solution.

 

Well I am not sure how dell talks to customers about their grievances once the machine is out of warranty. But having said that there is no harm in trying, however their are detailed gpu replacing videos and manuals here on NBR and the Internet, and you could buy the part off eBay.
*I take it the drivers you are installing are not corrupted
I would still say run sfc scannow
*if you want try installing the motherboard drivers before attempting the drivers installation
Then boot into enduro mode (igp+7970m) and install dell's drivers
Then boot into 7970 and install betas for the ATI

Otherwise
Repair or reinstall windows
Do the driver installation as per the methods listed here