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    M17x r3 8 beeps - I messed up in BIOS

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Arseassin, Mar 24, 2017.

  1. Arseassin

    Arseassin Notebook Guru

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    TL;DR
    I set my display to PCI and now I am stuck with the 8 beeps of doom
    TL;DR

    Ok so I've had my m17x r3 (6970m version NON 120HZ) for several years now, and had several problems from it but always been able to fix/workaround until now.

    My gpu (6970m) burned out forever ago, however I had set the bios to run IGPU only and have used it for probably 2 years that way as a media pc. I got deployed overseas a few months ago and have been using the laptop a lot and decided I would try toying around with the gpu again.

    I changed the primary display device in the bios a few times, booting into Windows each time to ensure everything was running smoothly, in an attempt to reenable gpu switching.

    The last change I made was switching from PEG to PCI as primary display, and now the beast seems to have taken its final nap.

    I am getting 8 beeps constantly, and I have tried the following:

    -Clear cmos step one, got the 5 beeps, reboot, screen lights up, 8 beeps.

    -Blind flash to A08 unlocked bios, got all 33 beeps, a few restarts, then back to 8 beeps.

    -Re seated lcd wires, as well as all hdd/sd/ram on the way

    I have done all of these with all combinations of DGPU in/out, ac only, battery only, both

    I am at a loss as to what I should do now. I absolutely refuse to believe something else is broken as it happened the second I mashed f10 and hit enter when changing one option in the BIOS.

    Any and all advice is welcome, I am very computer savvy in the desktop realm, but completely at a loss as to how to fix this.


    TL;DR
    I set primary display to PCI and now I am stuck with the 8 beeps of doom
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2017
    Arseassin, Mar 24, 2017
    #1
  2. maxslo

    maxslo undefined

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    Not surprised since there i no PCI graphics in the AW, i'm really surprised it even showed you that option lol... worst case scenario, motherboard swap.
    I'm pretty sure there should be a way to reset that to default tho... not haveing owned an r3 i cant help you tho :/

    Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk
     
    maxslo, Mar 24, 2017
    #2
  3. MickyD1234

    MickyD1234 Notebook Prophet

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    Maybe remove the d-gpu and blind flash to a stock bios.

    I did the same in reverse on my R3 120hz model. Like you I was very familiar with desktop builds but this upgradeable laptop idea was new. I used an unlocked bios and selected PEG :eek:.

    Only got it back after a blind flash (also discharged the cmos). That is one very scary process!

    Good luck.
     
    MickyD1234, Mar 24, 2017
    #3
  4. frostpfote

    frostpfote Notebook Enthusiast

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    I managed the same quite a bit ago, changed the motherboard - and the problem persisted. The broken part was actually the display - after I changed that, everything got back to work.
     
    frostpfote, Mar 28, 2017
    #4