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    M17x black screen problem

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012.

  1. AFliXTioN

    AFliXTioN Newbie

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    Hello

    The last couple of days my laptop has been crashing straight to a black screen and then its unresponsive and i cant bring up the task manager using ctrl + alt + del and nothing will work. the crashes randomly occur weather the laptop is idol or im playing a game

    i have searched the net and i found people with similar problems

    their suggestions were to do a disk cleanup and a defrag which i tried both and nothing changed. i also tried to reinstall the graphics driver and still nothing different the black screen crashes are still occurring. im in dire need of help and if anyone could help me with my problem it would be greatly appreciated

    Thanks
     
    AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012
    #1
  2. leeshjnn

    leeshjnn Notebook Evangelist

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    Hmm only your screen went black or the whole laptop crashed and reboot? I got a similar problem a few weeks ago. But only the screen went black because my laptop is still running and lighting up.
     
    leeshjnn, Sep 7, 2012
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  3. AFliXTioN

    AFliXTioN Newbie

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    only screen goes black and all lights are still on. i need to do a hard reset ever time it happens. the sound crashes also
     
    AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012
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  4. leeshjnn

    leeshjnn Notebook Evangelist

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    Well, I solved my problem by doing a clean installation of Windows 7. And mine has been running well ever since. If you don't want to do this, I think others may have better suggestions. But it's something you can always try.

    Side note, did you happen to install anything for the last couple of days before getting this black screen?
     
    leeshjnn, Sep 7, 2012
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  5. AFliXTioN

    AFliXTioN Newbie

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    i dno about doing a fresh install of windows 7 im not rele confident to do that.

    and i thought about that and nahh i haven't installed anything lately but thanks

    ill think about doing the fresh install if nothing comes up. how long does it take to do the install and will i lose all my data?
     
    AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012
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  6. Alienware-Luis_Pardo

    Alienware-Luis_Pardo Guest

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    A clean install is a good choice, all your data will be erased so backup your important files before you start.

    How to Install Windows 7

    Follow the guide above, when you get to the partitions window delete all existing partitions, then create a new one and install Windows 7 there.

    You have a M17x R3 correct? If that's the case, these are the drivers you need to install after Windows 7 setup is complete.

    Alienware M17x R3: Initial Drivers Installation

    An alternate (a lot easier) way to do it is to use AlienRespawn recovery software. AlienRespawn will roll back your computer to factory settings; this way you won't have to install all the drivers, but you will still lose all your data.

    How to use AlienRespawn
     
    Alienware-Luis_Pardo, Sep 7, 2012
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  7. Theredninja

    Theredninja Notebook Consultant

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    before you reinstall windows, have you tried a static discharge? i got an odd 1 or 2 black screen back on my 5870m and that seemed to fix it. also is the laptop hot when this happens or are the fans kicked into high setting?
     
    Theredninja, Sep 7, 2012
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  8. AFliXTioN

    AFliXTioN Newbie

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    i dont know what a static discharge is sorry

    but the laptop is always quite warm but never hot i have a cooling pad and the fans are always on the high settings(as im usually playing games)
     
    AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012
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  9. MolocM18x

    MolocM18x Notebook Geek

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    Have you tried fresh install of video card drivers and do a registry cleaner had same issue with my old M15x and that solved the issue for me..
     
    MolocM18x, Sep 7, 2012
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  10. AFliXTioN

    AFliXTioN Newbie

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    ye i fresh installed the video card drivers. how do i do a registry cleaner?
     
    AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012
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  11. haxsux

    haxsux Notebook Enthusiast

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    what is your spec btw? i had similar black screen crash with sound loop problem with diablo 3 and then i fixed it by switching back to intel+amd display mode.. i did Fn+F7 to use only amd graphics card as soon as i got my laptop.
     
    haxsux, Sep 7, 2012
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  12. Theredninja

    Theredninja Notebook Consultant

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    a static discharge is when you unplug all power (battery+charger) then hold the power button for ~1 minute and for the registry download this program CCleaner and run it to free up some space and use the registry section to clean that.
     
    Theredninja, Sep 7, 2012
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  13. AFliXTioN

    AFliXTioN Newbie

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    oki doki ill try the static discharge and ill download ccleaner and do the registry to see if that works.

    also i have the nvidia 580m video card and i7-2720M processor and 16 gb RAM

    is there anything else you need to knw?

    i tried the registry clean up and the computer is still crashing the only thing left to try is the static discharge and the alienrespawn
     
    AFliXTioN, Sep 7, 2012
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  14. Legendary_awesome

    Legendary_awesome Newbie

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    My issue is I've had the laptop for about 3 1/2 years now and I've had some sound cracking before, but ever since the day before yesterday I pushed FN + GFX on one of the F keys above, the computer screen went black and hasn't come up. It does however, come up all the way to the point it says resuming windows.... then goes out so I can't log on. Does anybody have a solution as to how I can get back to the way it was before without losing all my data?
     
    Legendary_awesome, Feb 27, 2013
    #14
  15. Alienware-Luis_Pardo

    Alienware-Luis_Pardo Guest

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    We need more specific details to address your issue, please post your laptop model and specs.

    What BIOS version are you running?

    What have you tried so far?
     
    Alienware-Luis_Pardo, Feb 27, 2013
    #15