M17xR2 Blank Screen

I have worked with my Alienware M17X R2 a few hours this morning then shut it down to do something else.

One hour later I start it but the screen is blank. I do not even see the boot sequence.

I tried Yogi's recommendation ( take out battery for 30s, reinstall battery, connect power cable, press and hold power button for 10s) to no effect.
I tried fn+F6 many times to no effect.

I know the laptop is working because I see the drive working (blinking logo), the camera is starting for face recognition and I see it on the network and can indeed access shared files.
Unfortunately Windows 7 remote connection seems deactivated, I can't seem to make it work.

Any suggestions to make the screen work again?

Thanks in advance.

 

Not quite sure what you did there. If you meant to do a CMOS reset (reset the BIOS), then the sequence is:

1. Unplug the power adapter from the notebook.
2. Remove the battery from the notebook.
3. Open the bottom cover and unplug the button battery. It's wrapped in black plastic sitting right between HDD 1 and the RAM. It has a small two wire cable sticking out of it that plugs into the motherboard. Unplug that cable.
4. With the button battery unplugged, press and hold the power button on your notebook for 30 seconds to drain the power and reset the BIOS.
5. Plug in both batteries and the power adapter again and start up.

If this doesn't work, it could be the inverter in your LCD screen has gone bad or the LCD cable has come loose from the motherboard for some reason (pray for the second option). You can check the LCD cable by removing the power/media center cover, and then they keyboard. The LCD cable is the widest of the two going to the LCD screen. You should unplug and replug it in just to make sure. Unfortunately, if the LCD screen inverter has gone kaputnik then the only option is to disassemble the whole LCD screen and replace the inverter, which isn't easy or cheap.

 

I followed your instructions but alas it did not make the screen work.
I guess the screen inverter is dead? Or could it be something else?

In addition an external monitor does work so it's probably not the graphic card.

 

Correct. You would only have an inverter if you have the non-RBG LED screen. You can determine that if you check the LCD properties in HWinfo. The LCD will have a part number you can look up on google to see if it's a CCFL or RGB LCD. Other than that, I can only think of your screen going completely bad, but if the screen were bad, the notebook would throw out a beep or LED code to tell you such.

 

HWinfo didn't bring any info but I found this on the order:

230-11313 Display : 17in WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 - Beyond HD (1200p) - RGB LED

Does this mean there are no inverter and the screen is dead?

 

I have attached a photo of where to look in HWinfo for the Dell part no. It will look something like my part no, five characters, usually two letters and three numbers. Per Katalin in this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-screen-replacement-advice.html#post8881073

These are the part numbers for the LCD screens for the R2. The first two (which included my part no.) are Dual CCFL panels. The second two are the RGB panels. If you do have an RGB panel, then it will not have an inverter and the black screen problem is being caused by something else. Lets figure out which LCD panel y'all got and then we can go from there...

- Dual CCFL panel 1440*900 (900p) - U519K - 170BT - SEC5442
- Dual CCFL panel 1920*1200 (1200p) - R610K - 170CT - DELL G517T
- RGB panel 1920*1200 (1200p) - K1NFP - 170CT - first RGB version - SEC5443 - DELL 0CWMH
- RGB panel 1920*1200 (1200p) - J2CY8 - 170CT - second RGB version, TrueLife display - SEC5443 - DELL 0CWMH

 

Radji, Are there any differences between the first RBG version and TrueLife version?

 

Hi Cedricm, the system has been diagnosed very well with Radji's help. You can send us an email to [email protected] with your Service tag and a brief description of the issue if you need assistance with an LCD replacement. We'll look up the necessary parts for you.

 

Not sure. I believe the true life displays have some sort of polarizing filter that reduces glare.

 

Hi Radji,

It is the J2CY8.
Week 0; Year 2010
Monitor\SEC5443

 

Alrighty. So you have a true life LCD. Have you tried the Fn+F6 button when in Windows (assuming you still have the external monitor plugged in). Since the backlight for the RGB LED screens are controlled via the LCD's internal circuitry, the LCD might have just gone dead. If there was any sort of malfunction, you would have gotten an LED or beep code by now. Replacing the screen might be your only option now.

 

This is what I feared. Yes I checheck fn+F6.

Dell is asking for EUR 975 to change the screen, which I am not prepared to pay and unfortunately they don't offer to take it back for a big discount on a new one.

This is the end of my Alienware days for now, I will probably purchase an ultrabook for work and when feasible travel with the M17x R2 + external monitor when I want to play.
Too bad it was a pretty amazing business workstation in addition to be a gamer's delight.

 

Have you tried to disassemble the system and reseat the LCD cables?

 

Ouch! I hope it isn't a dead screen.

Do first what DR650SE suggests before waiving a White flag. Hopefully, it's just a loose connection and best of luck! It would be very sad to loose such a nice screen like that. I'll be crossing my fingers for you.

 

Yes I did I followed Radji's instructions for the LCD cable. Don't think there is another one?

 

No, there should only be one LCD cable. One thing I recalled: the webcam cable and LCD cable are right next to each other, the LCD connector is on the left, the webcam on the right, not the other way around. Obviously you can't incorrectly plug one into the other, but I'm just making sure you tried reseating the LCD connector and not the webcam one?

There are only two things left you can try before waiving the white flag. One is if you have an unlocked BIOS, the IGD-LCD settings may have gone weird somehow. Provided you don't need any specialized BIOS settings (like if you possibly have a 6990m or 7970m card installed) you can go to the EXIT tab and hit F9 I believe to reset the BIOS to their default settings. I know you already pulled the batteries to reset the CMOS, but I have heard this can reset some of the unlocked settings back to what their defaults are. Second, from your desktop (assuming your secondary display is still plugged in) click on screen resolution and the window that comes up, does it only display the one external monitor on it? If it has two boxes, that would mean your LCD is disabled by some other means.

 

I am sorry to bump in this thread and hijack it, but i own m17r2 too and my warranty is long dead now, I have RGB LED Trulife screen, over past two years i have only used m17x r2 but just a month ago my company issued me dell latitude E4300 and first thing i noticed while i was working on it side by side with m17r2 was that the screen was comparatively dimmer even on max brightness on R2 than the latitude, now i am scared that something is wrong with my R2 screen. Can someone please tell me its normal and nothing wrong with my screen or if there is something wrong how can i repair it , do i have to buy whole assembly that is J2CY8 or just the LCD screen (Samsung 170 CT will be enough).
I have posted video link below:

screen comparison - YouTube

 

Try increasing the brightness and contrast in Catalyst Control Center. There should be both those options under "My Built in Displays".

 

well it makes it bright but it reduces sharpness, i cant read text

 

Not sure what to tell you then. When the screen brightness blurs the images, you can usually compensate with adjusting the contrast. But if that doesn't help, then I'm out of ideas. I have a CCFL screen so I'm not sure how bright the RGB LED screens should be. But a new Latitude screen may be brighter and sharper by design than the R2's True Life display.

 

Sadly I can be added to the list of the Black screen. I am typing this while staring at my TV screen.
HWInfo64 :
RGB panel 1920*1200 (1200p) - J2CY8 - 170CT - second RGB version, TrueLife display - SEC5443

The last thing I can try is the cable. Luckily it's still under warranty but at the same time the only thing tech support will do for me at this juncture is send me a box.
Symptoms:
-started with screen going black with backlight still on (my two dead pixels are visible) then coming back on. All programs were still running and hooking it to an external showed this to be the case.
-black screened more frequent and at times the screen would get blurry/fuzzy and text was illegible.
-hooking to an external was still a viable option. Reinstalled video drivers and problem was solved for an hour.
-problem came back with varying degrees of severity. One occasion the external monitor showed the same blurry text.
- At this time there is now a fluctuation between a back light and sometimes no backlight at all. Ran 3DMark06 just to stress the 5870's and see if it triggered any issues. The screen came on for most of the tests then flickered off again. The test results were 18941 with various background programs still running.
There are no heat issues during the tests or at any other times.
-last strange symptom is that fast scrolling using a mouse or the touch pad will sometimes cause it to flicker and go black (back light still on).

The only other symptom that occured only once, was a very bizare bloom effect on the screen. The whole screen went from black to light grey then a small area of black literally bloomed from the center and spread to the edges of the screen. The backlight remained on but... well... it was weird. That hasn't happened again.
I tried reseting the BIOS to default. No help at all. I rarely move this behemoth off its perch on my desk. Also doesn't the cable have a kind of 'latch' to keep it from disconnecting?
Anyway I thought I would ask if there has ever been any other reports of the Trulife RGB LED screens having issues.
Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Forgot to add that the only way to get the screen to come back is to put the computer to sleep and wake it back up. Works 99% of the time, else I must use the external monitor to restart it.

 

My screen stil isn't working and I think I have done everything I could to try to get it to work.

I am still completely dumbfounded as to why it suddenly started to go blank and I suspect the other end of the cable (e.g. attached to the screen, not the motherboard) is detached but what do I know. Resetting the display cable on the motherboard is as far as I go I don't dare to completely unmount everything. I don't think it can be the graphic card as the laptop works perfectly well with an external monitor plugged to the displayport. When I look in Windows 8, my setting is duplicate monitors, there are monitors 1 & 2 although only one is visible whereas it should be 2.

The only good news is that after I completely bricked the M17xR2 I successfully reinstalled the bios and the laptop came back to life (quite a complex endeavor for which you need a Windows 7 computer with VirtualPC and Windows XP mode installed, or a Windows XP machine). I reflashed the vbios but it didn't make any progress display-Wise. Also I have upgraded to Windows 8 Pro and I could make everything work except the IR sensor, which I never used anyway.

I'm hesitating to puchase the 27" 2560x1440 Dell monitor which I can have for -35% till the end of the month, e.g. for 500 Euros which is 2x less expensive than replacing my M17xR2 display.
Or purchase an Ultrabook, either the Dell XPS 12 or wait for the Samsung Series 7 Ultra.

 

US only New Dell Alienware M17x 17" WUXGA LED LCD Panel R610K | eBay
Worldwide 17.0" LCD Screen for Alienware Area-51 M17x R2 LED WUXGA FHD RGB Laptop Display | eBay

 

I checked this also (as per a suggestion here), and when the screen goes blank only one monitor shows but while it's working I can see both monitors in Windows 7 Ult.
This whole problem 'feels' like a loose connection. It can occur continuously or intermittently depending on it's own whims. I have yet to find anything that will trigger it 100% of the time. I don't move the laptop or even close the lid that often. The most I've closed the lid is lately because it is the best way to get the screen to come back. <-- which is why I suspect something is loose or shorting, else just putting the computer to sleep and waking it would work more reliably at fixing the issue once it starts.
Tech Support was not willing to let me dig inside while it's still under warranty even though I know I'm capable. So I'm going to have to put it in the box. But I am willing to bet the first thing they do is switch out the motherboard.
I can confirm that the cards are running just fine on my end as well. The external monitor works as a temporary solution 100% of the time. For me I did have the blurry screen show up on the external once but it corrected itself once I logged in.

As always, this is the best place to come to when things go wrong. Thanks again for responding and I hope you find a solution for yours as well.

 

Hi new to the forums not sure if should be hijacking this thread or start a new one but i have a similar problem. My m17x R2 has the RGB panel 1920*1200 (1200p) - K1NFP - 170CT - first RGB version - SEC5443 - DELL 0CWMH version. My screen does this, goes black randomly, once faded white then faded differant colors like purple kind of in a wierd way where it started at the center and went to the edges of the screen. It has also been blurry/ ineligible text sometimes and once was displaying but had a flicker to it. External display works fine. It will work then randomly go black, but if i hook up the external or reconnect it and alt tab it comes back sometimes. I have reseated the lcd cord on the motherboard. My next step is to try and reconnect it on the display itself. I don't know if this is a loose wire or the screen going dead. Are there any other things i could try? Also if i have to replace the screen does it have to be the exact same one or can it be differant model?

 

I'm just going to throw out there that if Dell is asking $650 for a new screen that you could ship the entire thing to me have me replace it and ship it back and still be saving a few hundred dollars... A complete upper for an M17X R2 costs under $150... so Dells markup there is apparently around $500 just in parts...

Also you can replace the screen with different models but honestly it's way way less hassle to just but a complete upper section than to replace only the screen panel.

 

Yeah i have been looking on ebay at them. I can replace the screen myself ty for the offer though. I took it apart and reconnected the cables on both the motherboard and took apart the display itself and reconnected them as well. I just don't understand though because my monitor seems to work whenever i alt-tab when connected to an external display or if i reconnect the external display or if i just restart the computer. However sometimes it will just stay dead/blackscreened. It is currently working but will give out usually within ten minutes or so then randomly turn back on later, but will sometimes be fuzzy or be black with a couple white lines. Does this sound like a dying display or something else. The fact that it works on and off has me confused.