M17x r4 booting erratically

I have a M17x r4 and when I turn it on the keyboard light turns on and the fans spinning then it turns off by itself and then turns back on and loops over and over sometimes I get it to post most of the time it doesn’t. What is going on

 

Here’s my video on what’s going on

 

If there is no backlight then it could be a bad graphics card. If you have a spare pop it in.

 

It doesn’t even have a mxm gpu in it I haven’t ordered any yet but sometimes I could get it to post and it will run normally until I unplug the ac adapter since my battery hasn’t come in the mail yet

 

So it is running on integrated graphics? Might be your screen or cpu.

 

I confirmed the screen and cpu working because earlier it booted to the bios and windows but I don’t know because My charger and battery haven’t came in yet so I’m using my 90w dell charger

 

And it’s running on integrated graphics so do I need to buy a mxm gpu for it to post?

 

any error or issue caused before this thing started to happen?i guess its issue with the bios ... check your CMOS battery by opening its back and reseat the cpu and rams too just as a try ...hope it will work...im thinking that it is the CMOS BATTERY issue..according to my 5th sense

u dont need to buy an mxm gpu to make it post..it can work on integrated intel gpu as well without any issue only if it is not disabled in your bios...

 

if that was the screen ... atleast the alienhead would blink continuously for loading the windows or even detecting the hard drives

 

I don’t have a battery yet but there wasn’t any error nor beeping it worked fine until this afternoon

 

The alien head only blink once and that’s it

 

i am talking about this battery..its like a coin and is fixed inside motherboard

 

I changed the CMOS battery today and I have to leave the ac adapter plugged in to my laplug to since my battery hasn’t arrived

After I changed the CMOS battery it beeped 5 times then I turned it off and powered it on then the beeping stops but the fans only spin for 1 second then stop then the pcmshuts off the turns itself back one again and loops over and over

 

well it should boot up then with the 90 watt charger too as there is no mxm gpu installed in it ...there is a way to reset the bios ...if u are having a tweezer

ahaaa...that means there are some changes inside the bios done now after changing the cmos battery....try these steps...you will hopefully get the display otherwise i will give u an other way to reset the bios but better try this one first .

• Remove the system battery.
  
  
• Remove the Ac/adapter.
  
  
• Hold the power button for 30 seconds without any power source.
  
  
• Plug back the Ac/adapter only.
  
  
• Hold the “FN” key and without releasing the key, Power "ON" the computer.
  
  
• After step 5, you will notice the system will try to turn "ON" and after 5 seconds will restart, at this point you can release the “FN” key.
  
  
• The computer will POST and starts loading Windows

SOURCE: https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...r-tweaking-some-options-on-unlocked-a11-bios/

 

It didn’t work

I have the a09 bios

 

ahhh thats sad....well if u are having a tweezer i can guide u how to short the pins of the cmos battery to completely restore the original settings of the bios which were in it by default...here are the steps...
1.Remove the A/C adaptor and open up your laptop from back only.
2.Remove the CMOS coin battery from the motherboard.
3.take a tweezer and short these two points in the pictures for like 2-4 seconds.
4.Put the CMOS coin battery back to the motherboard and power up your laptop with holding the FN KEY and let me know if that worked for you.
sorry for the picture quality..couldnt get any better from the internet.

 

if that does not work ...try one more time the same steps till you short the pins with the tweezer and this time try booting without CMOS COIN BATTERY by holding FN KEY....if that also does not work then the last try would be this : https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/1525-m17x-r4-bricked-bios-fix/

GOOD LUCK !!

 

How do I short the do I just touch them or bend them?

 

you just touch those two points with the left tip of your tweezer on left side and right tip of your tweezer on right side of the motherboard CMOS BATTERY SOCKET.

 

So I can touch it anywhere on the metal ?

 

only those two parts which i have marked in the above picture

 

after searching alot i have found a better and clear picture for you ...

 

Which category do I download the software from?

 

download this one and follow those steps in the link which i posted above for bricked bios fix : http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=YNR83

 

I don’t see anything to extract all I see is a a exe file

Do I rename the exe?

 

no ... just right click on that exe file and extract it with WINRAR..it there you will find that specific file

 

The esata port works but my usb isn’t lighting up

 

try a different usb...check if the usb lights up in the 3.0 usb ports...or just give it a go without the lights working

 

Well it only works with the lights on and I will try a different usb flash drive

 

sure...best of luck !

 

is the usb suposed to be bootable when it’s plugged into the esata slot?

 

Just follow the steps which were involved in the techinferno post ... If the person over there has told to make a bootable device then make it otherwise dont..BTW i just read that post and he didnt mentioned to make a bootable file..just format ur usb with fat32 and put that specific file in ur usb and plug it in ur m17x r4's eSATA port and hold the END KEY and just plug ur AC ADAPTOR and make sure not to press the power button ...

 

The flash drive works but the screen is still black

 

Did the laptop turned on itself ? and restarted by itself again n again ?

 

It worked!!!

 

The laptop is back to its working state ? Posting and booting ???

 

Yes and running like new thank you!!!

 

Wow thats great !! Im glad to hear that news ...btw what was the mistake you were doing before? It might help others in future ... Andd yaaaayy for bringing your m17x r4 back to life xD. (highfive)

 

I brought it from someone on eBay and I paid $75 for it and all I did is put my cpu,ram,and sad into it and presto!!! It’s a great steal, so what gpu should I get?

 

Haha 75$...well thats a great deal ... As for m17x r4 u can go with GTX 980m which is the best and stable upgrade so far or if u want to save some cash you can buy 780m which i am currently using in my m17x r4..works like a charm and stable..you can also go for 1060 or 1070 but one of them might require heatsink mod and would require a 120hz screen

 

What about a 7970m ?

 

My ssd died and I put in my spare hdd and now I’m getting the pxe intel network rom error no bootable device and I know installed windows 10 on it why is it trying to boot from the network card?

 

im not an ati fan boy to be honest but 7970m is a good card too ...i stick to nvidia because of the drivers support

as far as i know its booting from network card or checking some LAN connection .. i dont know enough about that but better go to bios and check if ur new HDD which u have installed now is even detected or not and also check if it is showing as RAID or AHCI

 

I fixed it I had to reinstall windows and what nvidia gpu is equivalent to the 7970m I’ve always been a nvidia person but I don’t wanna settle for amd unless I have to

 

i dont have much information regarding that... @MickyD1234 and @Papusan might help you with this

 

PM ongoing....