New M17x is very sick - help appreciated

Hi guys,

Just picke up my new M17x that has been sitting at my parents for 2 months as I was on business. So far - regretting the day I bought it as it's screwed in many ways.

Hopefully someone can help - but I suspect its a "shout at Dell" one.

Issue 1.

Tried to create a backup using Respawn. Tried 4 diffeent types of DVD / DL DVD and each time it fails. crap. Eventually got a working backup using a USB stick (slightly pissed at having to buy 4 sets of DVDs and a new USB.. but hey).

Anyways ... All going OK ... doing some bits and pieces.. reboot and it gives "starting Windows" and hangs. Black screen - nothing.

After much messing around - do a complete restore from the system partition on the HDD. Restarts - and hangs.

So - last ditch - attempt restart using the USB backup I made.

This also hangs and basically crashes.

So - Try to reboot ... can't see the hard drive. try to do a new windows install ... also cannot see the HDD - but it does show in the BIOS.


Issue 2.

Try reseating the HDD, try in the other bay - no joy.

So - think its a good time to put in my new SSD (I was going to build things up on the standard 750gb/mSATA setup then ghost to the new SSD.

Anyways - SSD is detected and windows installs (I can't do the Respawn as I guess it needs to go to the same drive). Basically it whines about the drive missikng when I try.

So - All works apart from like zero drivers.

First I install the Killer WiFi driver to get some connectivity. This is OK.

Next I download the latest NVIDIA drivers for my GTX 680.

Install..reboot.... hangs at "starting windows".

Luckily I have a system restore - restore back and it boots OK.

At this stage ... I have a standard VGA adapter only listed in Device manager (no 680).

So - I try the original 750 drive in the second bay. The BIOS seems it OK but windows flatly refuses to have anything to do with it (not listed under disk admin at all).


So - very very pissed off right now. However.. I'm sure that Dell will help (oh yes,, they will given the ££££ cost of the laptop!!!!).

Thought maybe you guys might know about this as well.

So - 2 things in summary.

1. Why is the HDD not recognised? Corrupt boot sector or something? Very rusty on these things.
2. Why does installing the 680 drivers break things?

As for spec (if it helps).

M17x R4
3720 CPU
GTX 680
3D Screen
16GB RAM
750gb 7200rpm HDD
32gb mSATA cache drive

Hoping for guru like words of wisdom.

Icey.

 

First things first, is your BIOS up to date?

 

I didnt explicitly update it...but it's a brand new (oct 2012) build..so I would assume so ...

 

pfff there are a couple of factors, but hardware not being recognized is usually not a good sign.
SATA (connection) failure
HDD/SSD Failure

Did you install your OS to the 750GB drive without the mSATA drive? (without = pulled from the laptop)
if not i would suggest trying that one first...could be that firmware on the mSATA drive has been damaged/corrupted.
Thats the first thing i would try.

If you already tried this, have you tried to install your OS using just your just your mSATA drive?

A hanging splashscreen in Windows can point out that a drive is being seen/unseen by the bios and therefore crash during boot up/

 

Thanks for the response...appreciate it.

Problem is that it's a brand new laptop and I don't feel I should be busting my nuts trying to hardware fault find...that's why dell get paid so much for AW kit.

I contacted support and they reckon it potentially could be a screwed GFX card and hard disk.. Great quality...

On the mSATA ... AFAIK you can't install the OS on that drive.. It's sole purposes as a cache drive for the main 750gb disk.

More updates as I have them.

Icey.

 

Never assume. Check, double check, recheck and then verify again after that :wink:

As unphoto said, the hard drive not being detected by windows or the installer can be a SATA issue. It is more likely to be a SATA firmware/driver issue than it is an actual motherboard/SATA hardware failure as the BIOS does see the drive. On the other hand, it can be just a simple hard drive failure. Them's HDDs aren't exactly "durable" and you could have gotten a dud drive, or the drive could have died in transit because the notebook was manhandled.

You CAN install Windows on an mSATA SSD, but the mSATA in question needs to be large enough to hold the OS, and if it is configured as a cache drive, you need to change it's setup back to basic disc in disk management services in Windows. That makes the mSATA act like a normal storage drive.

AlienRespawn won't work if you clean installed (or tried to clean install) Windows on the original drive. There's a recovery partition that holds all the Respawn stuff and if it gets affected, Respawn is a no go. I am not sure if there's a way to get Respawn set back up again after changing around your drives, look around the forums and you may find that answer. Personally, I don't use the backup programs that come with these systems. I just back up my files to separate external drives and keep them stored in a safe place. A word of advice...NEVER USE WINDOWS RESTORE> It's like Windows Cancer, it just leaves all the current system problems while recreating the old ones as well. If you want to protect your registry, then make a backup of it once a week, and before you install any new software or drivers. These are the methods I use and they haven't failed me so far.

For you Nvidia issue, try this. Uninstall all Nvidia software from your Programs and Features control panel. The restart. Then go into device manager, select the Nvidia GPU from display adapter, right click and select uninstall. Make sure to check the box that reads delete driver files after uninstalling. After device manager finishes, restart again. Repeat this process until the Nvidia GPU shows up in device manager as "Generic VGA adapter". Now all the Nvidia software is really gone from your system. Download the STOCK Dell Nvidia drivers for your 680m. Install the stock Dell driver package and see what happens. If everything goes smoothly, then restart and make sure Windows doesn't hang at startup. If it boots into Windows fine, now you can try downloading and installing the latest Nvidia package for the 680m. If after installing the latest drivers Windows hangs at startup again, then the problem is more likely with the drivers than a faulty GPU. Reverting back to the stock Dell drivers would be the recourse...along with sending an email to Nvidia describing the issue (the engineers at Nvidia know a thing or two about drivers).

That's all I can give you. The GPU update steps have worked wonders for me and several others whom laptops I work on. Check your hard drive with the PSA Diagnostics like unphoto said. That will give you a definitive answer if there are any issues with your motherboard or SATA controller.

The guru has spoken...Now, you may kiss the Pinky!

 

I reckon it's a dead drive...or a fried boot sector. Everything worked ok for a few reboots, so it's not a DOA case...

On the respawn crap... It was as delivered to me..factory install..not a clean build. Simply another dud backup app i reckon.

As for NVIDIA ... It was from a clean install and the 680 GPU doesn't show up in device manager.

So I kind of agree with the dell dude that the GFX card and the HDD need replaced.

Super quality ...

For the BIOS...despite 20+ years in IT... I hang my head on that assumption lol. In my defence ... I was slightly pissed off and not thinking



Icey.
Ps. I hope kiss the pinky isn't a euphemism hahahahaha

 

The drive not being recognized by the machine during Windows installation is covered in this article:
Link
The video card not installing might be one of 2 things, you need to install the intel video card 1st or you might wanna download the driver from DELL.com instead of nVidia.

 

Update on the "saga".

Dell have replace the GFX card and the motherboard twice and still the system is goosed. When you try to install any drivers from either of the usual sites (NVIDIA, Dell, GeForce), the system hangs on reeboot and only works with either safe mode, or a standard VGA driver.

The HDD was a "non issue" and basically a lack of experience on my front with RAID - had to install the RAID driver as noted - thanks for that

I'm really worried about the lack of ability to fault find / resolve this issue and confidence in a valid fix is plummeting. The system is now in Dell's (outsources I assume) service centre for 5 days as a last ditch attempt to fix the issue.


Icey.