Major Computer Issues

I don't know what is going wrong. Here is the story.

I've been having an issue at startup for a while. Basically, everything will go as planned, but once it gets to the login screen all that comes up is a mouse on a black screen, no interface. It got a bit worse when the mouse wouldn't even come up after a while. Typically, I would just shut the machine down (power button, no other option), and then restart it, and everything would go fine.

About a week ago, it stopped going fine on the reboot. Every boot was the same. Black screen, no mouse, no nothing. I called Alienware support, they were useless. Hard to understand, and after taking control of my notebook, they told me they could back up my files and do a system restore, but it was going to cost me. I said no thanks, because it was pretty evident they didn't know what was going on. They said it was virus related, but if that's the case, I could handle it myself with a reinstall of Windows 7.

The system is only 3 months old. I reinstalled Windows, and everything was going fine for about a day. Granted, I lost all my cool Alienware stuff, like the Alienware theme and the backgrounds, but I was going to get around to getting those back on here. I was just trying to get caught up on my work for the time being. Then, unexpectedly, I try to boot up, and I get a BSOD. I'm not sure what the first one said. I believe it was something including the word "Hardware." I restarted, hoping it was just a fluke, and I got another BSOD. This one is now the go to Blue Screen prompt. It says, "A Clock Interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval." It comes up either before I log in (on the log-in screen) or just after the desktop appears. It never fails, happens every time.

I can get into everything in Safe Mode. I took the notebook to a Tech Support place here on campus (Clemson) and they really didn't know what was going wrong. They tried installing the drivers on Dells website, but nothing changed. They spent an hour working on it before handing it back doing the same thing I took it in for. They advised me to reinstall Windows 7 again. Is this good advice? They said reinstall, and then install drivers one by one and restart each time to try and find out what component is causing the issue. Should I do this?

I'm just hesitant because the reinstall will take another day of my time (including the reinstall of programs and whatnot). Any advice? I'm desperate to figure out what this is.

Thanks,

Hunter

 

Could you please give a bit more info about your system?
- Is it a Core 2 system (R1) or a Core i5/i7 system (R2)?
- What graphics card(s) do you have?
- If you have an R2 with 5870s, did you upgrade your VBIOS?
- Which graphics driver did you install?

I'd guess that you have the 5870s (either single or in CrossfireX), and you've installed the latest ATI 5870 driver from Dell's site. I'd also guess that you've unplugged your laptop while it was running in the time since installing everything again.

If this is a case, you need to boot into Safe Mode and go into the Device Manager. From there, delete the entries for your video card(s). If you have a single card, check the box for "delete driver" immediately. If you have a CrossfireX system, don't do this until you delete the second card. When you're done, you should be able to reboot into Windows normally. You can then reinstall the graphics driver.

The reason this happens is because there's a compatibility problem between the latest drivers and the original VBIOS. If you unhook the power adapter while the laptop is running, you'll get BSODs next time you restart Windows. You should update your VBIOS using the tool on Dell's driver downloads page, and this will fix the driver issues.

 

Woah, ok. I'm running an i7 with 5870s in XFire. I am clueless about the new BIOS. I'll run it back and try to follow your instructions here. It was pretty tough for me to follow, but maybe if I go through it step by step I can get it.

I don't know what all he installed. He just went through the Dell site and did nearly everything...

 

Can you clarify what you mean by "Delete" the entry? I see an option to disable, as well as one to uninstall. Also, I don't see a check box for delete driver...

 

Okay, I figured out and am working through the steps. I uninstalled the cards, and succesfully booted up into full Windows.

I reinstalled the Video Card Drivers from Dell.com and as I was installing them, I got a new Blue Screen (not sure what it said, was gone in a flash). I let the system boot up normally, and it worked into regular windows. I installed the AMD BIOS that was under the Video tab on the Dell site. It worked, and it asked me to make a boot drive. I did that.

Is this what you meant by the VBIOS? Should I install the new BIOS that is listed under the BIOS tab on the site?

 

Hey theres chiefs.

Yeh you will need to install the new dell AMD GPU driver for your 5870s. Then update the vbios. You can also update the system bios to A09 if you want.

What most of us usually do is update the system Bios to A09 1st then install the new dell driver and then the vbios.

Do you know how to update the vbios chiefs? Need any assistance?
Its pretty straight forward.

Basically once you have created the usb or cd rom disk for updating your vbios. You then need to restart the notebook and hit F12 to get you into the boot menu. Then you simply select either the usb bootable flash drive or the Cd rom disk depending on which one you created. Then you follow the on screen instructions to flash your GPUs. Hit B i think it was and then wait. It will do the flash and then you done TADA. Then restart when it tells you to and your good to go. Oles!

Cheers.

 

The whole BIOS/VBIOS thing can be very confusing to begin with. A computer's BIOS is pretty much its firmware, which then allows it to operate as normal. The motherboard has a BIOS (normally called the system BIOS), and video cards also have their own separate BIOS (often called a Video BIOS or VBIOS).

It looks like you've downloaded the correct package, the AMD BIOS. When you run this, it does ask you to create a bootable drive (CD/DVD or a USB flash drive). When you boot off this drive, it will automatically update your VBIOS. (Note: There used to be a Windows-based tool for updating the VBIOS, but it often ran into problems which could end up bricking your system. The current method is less convenient, but doesn't have these issues.)

If you need more help, there's a big thread about the VBIOS and drivers. There's a link in the first post that takes you to a good guide on how to do the update.

 

I did the VBIOS thing. Seems to be succesful. I am noticing now a significant mouse and page lag on scroll. Maybe this has to do with the drivers. I think I need to go into the Catalyst and try to get them fixed up. I think I'll also install A09. Is there anything special about A09, or a reason to update?

 

The special thing with A09 was a better polling rate with the touch pad. So better responsiveness. Seems to be working overall better for most people.

Cheers.

 

When I went into Catalyst, it said no AMD drivers were installed. I redid that whole process and made it through succesfully. Let me see if that makes a difference in the speed and lag I'm getting here and I will get back to you. I think I'll hold off on the BIOS update until tomorrow, it's getting late. I really appreciate all the help here guys, I would have never figured this out.

 

Sure thing chiefs.

No worries, get some rest.

Cheers.

 

Uh oh. I'm not really sure where I went wrong, but this seems like a pretty major problem. I flashed the BIOS to A09, everything went smoothly, no errors, said it completed succesfully, and then shut down. Then, on restart, it says "No Operating System Found."

What did I do wrong? This seems pretty major. I tried to boot from the Windows CD, and there was no repair or restore option...I don't know what is going on.

I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I just flashed the BIOS on the settings it gave me and let it run like it said...

 

I think I might have just stumbled upon a solution. It appears the new BIOS doesn't recognize that I'm running RAID 0 so I need to go in and switch it up so that it recognizes and boots accordingly. Hopefully I'll be back on here from the right computer...we'll see.

 

And I'm back online. It gave me options for RAID 0 and RAID 1. What do I want to run with 2 x 500 GB HDs?

Also, I'm still getting a weird mouse and page lag when I'm in Internet Explorer...any ideas what is up with this?

I don't know where I'd be without this forum...probably sitting on the phone with a useless Alienware Tech Rep. You guys/girls are awesome.

 

Hey there chiefs.

Try using firefox or something else if you can. Some users have experienced some issues with IE; similar to yours atm.

As for your hard drives. You should already be set in RAID 0 mode. So after any system bios update if it ever comes up with the message "NO Operating System detected" you will just have to go into the system bios and enable the RAID 0 option.

Cheers.

 

Thanks. My AutoCAD doesn't want to boot up either. It flashes open and then closes immediately. Not sure what is going on their...

 

Ah bugger i see. Not sure whats going on there chiefs. If there are enough problems I usually just do a reformat and reinstall the OS again. Its nice to start fresh from time to time. So if you feel like it and can back up all your stuff beforehand then yeh that should be a good idea.

Cheers.

 

An uninstall and reinstall of AutoCAD did the job. Things are looking up now, fingers crossed.