Passed the year mark in October and...seriously?

My M17x R1 just went belly up.

Not fully, but just enough to me right the hell off.

The Army, in its infinite wisdom sent me to Nellis AFB near Las Vegas (well to the National Guard Center right next to Nellis) for 10 days worth of training.

I packed up my laptop and set out for new and fun adventures, only to begin to have issues right from the start with my laptop. First it returned to its bad habit of booting to a blinking cursor in the upper left part of the screen following the BIOS boot screen. Ok, I can live with that because oddly enough booting a second time cured the issue 100% of the time.

Then the keyboard started acting strange. Missing key presses, the touch pad not responding, keys randomly being stuck down. I gritted my teeth and soldiered on. It was annoying yes, but since I wasn't gaming it wasn't fatal and figured it was something I could look into when I returned home.

Then it started telling me the power adapter wasn't supported....but despite its protests did seem to be charging the battery.

It stopped playing DVD's. It would read them fine, just at random times would decide that it wasn't going to play them.

Upon returning home and booting, I found that I couldn't disable the integrated graphics card. My 260M's no longer appear in system manager though HW monitor does see them (running at 49C and 48C respectively). The right half of the keyboard doesn't work at all. The touchpad doesn't work, and it still gives me that bloody AC adapter not supported warning.

I'm thinking at this point that the motherboad is running headfirst to the grave and worry that its going to take my data with it. Anyone else have any other thoughts?

I'm running the A05 BIOS, the latest provided video drivers from Dell (or at least they were the latest when I left on my trip on the 7th), and the sound does seem to be working just fine.

 

I don't think there is any way it will take your data with it. Sounds motherboard-ish to me.

 

Na..Bios to me..Update the BIOS...if you still have issues then hell y mobo..If not Sorted

 

A05 was latest for R1 I think :[

 

Yeah the A05 is the latest for the R1. We don't get any of the R2 love

I took it apart, blew out all the dust, redid all the connections and after concluding that the M17x is the most expensive assembled by the lowest bidder you will ever own, got the keyboard and touchpad working again. Still no 260M love though and now the battery isn't charging off the outlet so I suspect that at best I've just pushed off the failure for a little bit.

 

Call dell and let them fix it?

 

Call up dell and see what they can do for you, I dont understand why you didn't just get it replaced earlier...

 

The warrenty ended in October and now Dell wants $600 just to look at it.

 

I learned my lesson with XPS Gen 1 back in 04. Cost me close to 4k, and I went for specs instead of warranty. I sure did banged my head when things went wrong after the warranty expired.

If you get a Dell product next time, get 3 year warranty minimum.

Good luck.

 

Kane,

Sorry to hear about the warranty expiring. As Achilles mentioned, its best to keep it extended and active. I have seen this come up before and its never pleasant for the owner who is faced with a possible hardware issue. First though, lets try to resolve this...


1. Power up the system and enter the BIOS.
2. Advanced tab of BIOS ----> Graphic Settings, confirm that Hybrid Graphics AND Integrated Graphics are both 'Enabled'.
3. ESC key two times, 'Exit Saving Changes'

If the system still does not 'see' your 260's,

1. Power off the system and remove the AC Adapter and battery.
2. Depress and hold the power button for a 20 count.
3. Reconnect all, power up.

If the 260's are still not visible,

1. Download and flash BIOS A03.
2. Re-check the system and see if the discrete GPUs are recognized.

If the 260s are still not visible to the OS, post back with your current NV driver version and we'll start again.

NOTE: The keyboard issue and touchpad issue very well may be a bad ribbon connection. I say this since you have recently opened the system. Double check these. You have to be very careful with those ribbon connections - very easy 'not' to connect them properly - also very easy to damage them. These two items failing due to a motherboard issue out of the blue - hmmm... first I will have seen of it.

 

I agree with BatBoy, sounds like a ribbon issue, either not all the way inserted, depressed, or it was kinked/pulled and damaged.

As far as the blinking cursor problem, that could happen if the video cards aren't being detected properly on boot. When dealing with a loose connection anywhere in the hardware configuration, the device being seen/not seen/seen/not seen/etc can confuse the entire system bus and it's "possible" that it's not enough to make the system freeze and fail, but it's enough to cause other connected hardware to stop working. This could also explain the DVD drive suddenly quitting, too. If it's not a ribbon cable and it is truly motherboard related where the connection is intermittent, it would also exhibit similar problems. Could be something like a bad solder point at one of those connectors.

If a full disassembly and meticulous reassembly doesn't fix it along with all of BatBoy's suggestions, I think you may be forced to get Dell involved at your expense. In the end it will likely be cheaper than tossing random hardware at it until it works.

When it comes to Dellienware, never, ever skimp on the warranty. Always get a warranty that will cover you the entire length of your ownership, or as long as they will let you extend it. I've had at least 1 warranty claim on every Dell laptop I've owned, and I've owned virtually every iteration since the original XPS/9100.