M17x r3 black screen at startup.

Hi guys
I have a major problem with my laptop. About a week ago I noticed that when I startup the laptop the dell splash screen does not show only a black screen, after a bit the "welcome to windows" splash screen comes up and the laptop works fine after that. I play games work on documents etc fine no problems.

So I shut down and try to access the bios and all I get is the black screen, holding/tapping F2 & F8 for bios screen and safe mode screen all yield the same black screen result. Infact I dont even know what the system is doing, as in it might actually have gone to those screens but I would not know, so several restart attemps later am back in windows.

I've tried several things, reseating the graphics card, removing it entirely, cant get to the bios or safe mode screens to disable anything, so I did a search and came up with this guy who has a similar problem
en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19448410.aspx
There "Chris" says to remove the drivers and reinstall stock oem drivers with driver sweeper. So I go ahead and use driver sweeper, making sure only to check nvidia display options only. After the sweep the program says restart....

Here is where I think I made a mistake, I restarted hoping to reinstall the drivers with the resource dvd after the laptop boots up. Unfortunately now the black screen is there up to when windows loads. I know windows has loaded because I hear the startup music and when I push capslock the light comes on and gies off when I push it again.

Please help, how do I reinstall the drivers when I cant see anything. How do I solve ths problem. Any help will be appreciated.

Oh, I had turned the screen brightness to the highest before uninstalling the drivers.

Thanks.

 

do you have an USB devices plugged in? I had a problem with my machine refusing to post If my Samsung Galaxy S2 was plugged into it. Not sure if this could be your problem or not.

 

there should have been an option to keep windows default resolution graphics (which would be an ugly low resolution screen but one which you can see nonetheless), try connecting your computer to an external monitor through HDMI, my friend had a similar issue and that worked for him. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for your responce BigTonyman. The simple answer would be "No I dont have any usb devices plugged". But at first I used to have my Logitech g930 headset, my g700 gaming mouse and my galaxy s all connected when the problem started, but I quickly learned to disconnect all before trying to startup the system. Unplugging had no effect.

 

Thanks ADegtyarev, is it still possible to do that now that I have uninstalled all the display drivers for the gtx 480m and is that a default setting with this graphics card? What I mean is, is it plug and play?

 

that could be part of the problem right there. I don't think the 480m was officially ever supported. Are you sure your not talking about the 460m or 580m?

 

Yes I am talking about the 480m, at least thats the spec on my windows system properties page. On an unrelated issue, big t, how do you put your system specs as a sticky at the bottom of all your posts. Am new at this posting thing. (embarrassed s) Thanks.

 

alright just double checking you didn't make a typo or something. Did this machine come like this from dell or did you buy it from someone else that put the 480m in the machine?


as to the signature, first go to the User CP (Highlighted Below) located in the top left hand corner.



after you get there, go to the signature link (highlighted below) and then add your specs and you should be good to go.

 

Thanks again bigtonyman. The laptop came from dell with the 480m. I ordered it last year April from dell. I did try out the hdmi thing, but to my tv. Infact the tv plainly stated "No Input". I guess it either isnt supported or the drivers are missing.

Went to the user control panel under settings and options but did not see the signature option. All the other options are there. Maybe I'm missing something. Any way thanks, I now know how to do it.

 

This is sounding to me like your on-board GFX has packed up. That is what the bios uses. Since you lost the bios screen we can eliminate windows setup issues. Windows was probably using the 480 so worked maybe? By removing the 480 windows does not have an output device now.

Will it start in safe mode? If so at least you can reinstall the NV driver. Also try a bios reset - remove the little battery under the base cover and press the power button, then replace it and power up. If you went into the bios but could not see anything who knows what options you might have accidentally selected

 

might be that you need a minimum number of posts before you can have a signature, I'm not sure sorry.

 

I believe you are correct, I had to wait a while before I could use the signature option. Mod, how many?

 

Thanks for your input. Will try the bios reset option, though I had tried it before but did not press the power button.
As for the gfx packing up, it was working when I could see windows, its only because I uninstalled the display drivers I cant see windows.

Something just occurred to me, could a lower rated power adapter cause this, cause the power adapter am using is not 240 watts? Cos I read somewhere that the nvidia gfx is a power hungry unit.

 

I meant the on-board gfx (intel) not working. The bios screens will use that, the machine will not switch over to the discrete card (NV) until windows starts. By removing the drivers I think you ended up with both GPU's not working.

If you are not using the dell approved adaptor then definitely it could cause slow downs. If the card is not getting full power it drops to a lower setting. But I don't believe this is your problem? Still it could potentially be the cause ..

 

Gee thanks Micky, I never thot of the onboard graphics. Those things r delicate, a surge burnt out my dell 240 watts power adapter so am using another dell charger but of a lower wattage. Maybe the surge affected the onboard intel gfx. If thats the case how do I find out if the gfx (intel) is gone and if it is what do I do? Order another board from dell?

Also I dont know if the system loads to safe mode, I press f8 but dont see the wibdows recovery menu. Using another laptop running window 7 I know if it is in that menu I need to press the down button once and then enter to get to safe mode. I've done all that yet I cant see anything, I know windows loads bcos the scroll lock light comes on and caplocks works fine, but I dont know if am in safe mode or windows proper.

From what you said I assume safe mode will use the intel gfx to display, hmmmm.....

 

It is dell time I'm afraid.

Yes it should but as you get no bios screen it was more of a hope that it might work.

That power surge that trashed the adaptor is almost certainly the root cause. The first thing Dell want is the 'built-in diags to be run to exclude windows. This is achieved by pressing F12 at the bios screen and selecting it from the boot menu. Since you have no display at all they will fail at the first hurdle. If you have accidental damage protection then you are golden but damage caused by a power surge will be chargable.

Edit: I'm sure it's hardware if a bios reset does not work. If you have no warranty then you will have to send it in. You don't want to order a mobo to find the panel has crapped out!

 

Thanks again Micky, I'll try out the bios reset and get back to you. Here's fingers crossed. Cheers.

 

Doh! I just spotted you have the 120hz display. Should have looked earlier. On this model, the same as mine, the internal GFX is not wired in so you only use the NV card. The fact that you get no bios is still a valid pointer to hardware though and not windows or configuration. I'd try removing and reseating the Nv card it if the BIOS reset does not work.

 

So if the internal gfx is not wired in, does the bios screen also use the NV card. I thot that was not possible. If not where is the internal gfx located, on the cpu?

Just tried the Fn-F7 trick but no show. I have this disk I made when downloading updates for the nv card. Its an upgrade driver disk, it says to install from boot, let me try that. Though I dont even know if I have the boot order set to dvd drive first.

 

It does use the NV card if it can't find any other display adaptor, but with no driver loaded. It uses a hardware mode (VGA compatible) to start the machine. The NV driver loads with windows which is where you used to get a display.

Your cd for boot is probably a Vbios update not the driver as this is often the way this sort of update is made to work. It's unlikely a windows driver install which is what you need to try to get back to at least windows working

Fn-F7 was a duff idea as it does nothing on a 120hz display - sorry for that diversion

Edit: What I'm thinking is that windows is now in vga compatibility mode which is broken since there is no bios screen. If you could figure out a way to delete the display adaptor in device manager windows might re-detect it correctly on a restart - almost impossible when you cant see anything

 

Well I can now heave a sigh of relief, finally installed the Nvidia Drivers "blind" in collaboration with MickyD1234.

A big thank you to all the contributors most especially "MickyD1234". Thanks man your advice was invaluable.

As for the black screen at startup, I guess Dell will have to take a look at the system. Thank you all again.

Cheers.

 

So pleased for you. A real pleasure to be able to help. I think your video card is going to need replacing but you're back running so all is good with the world

 

Glad you finally semi resolved the issue. good work dude helping figure it out as I was out of ideas.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using tapatalk 2

 

Thanks man. Not the usual run-of-the-mill video problems but power surges can do the strangest things.

The lack of bios screen, and a 120hz display so no on-board GFX, made it a little easier to figure out.