R2 Screen / Video Issues - Please Help!

My 6990 XFIRE R2 had been working decently well for the last few months until just yesterday. Over the last few days I started using an external monitor / keyboard with the alienware monitor closed (I set it up to "just display on monitor 2"). It had been working fine for the most part, until yesterday when I had a few screen flashes and needed to reboot. Last night that happened, and when I went to reboot the only thing I got was the windows logo on my external monitor, then the screen went black. The only thing I could do is to boot into safe mode, and even in safe mode I can only get a display from the external monitor. If I'm not plugged into the monitor I literally see nothing, even in safe mode. In safe mode I uninstalled the video drivers and was able to boot into normal windows, again only seeing picture on the external monitor. When I go into screen resolution I only see the one screen. Its like the alienware screen isn't even being recognized. I tried reinstalling the video drivers but the same thing happens. Basically, I can only get picture on my external monitor - in safe mode or normal windows with the video drivers uninstalled. I tried opening up the computer and taking out each video card and just plugging it back into the slot, but that didn't work. Does anyone have any ideas? I don't even care about not being able to use the alienware screen, but I can't use my external monitor with video drivers installed, only in safe mode or with uninstalled drivers.

Any advice?

Edit : I've tried hitting the FN+F6, as well as clicking on the detect and identify buttons in the screen resolution area. No dice.

 

Ive actually had this happen to me, but can not for the life of me remember what caused it or what specifically fixed it.

have you tried a restore to say a day before using the external monitor ?

maybe try and reinstall the current BIOS your using... might be a key stuck/ setting saved, that just switched to external LCD only.

might be a driver overridden too...

also some info please...

are you using HDMI or a minidisplay port/ or any type of converter..

like vga to HMDI or minidisplay to ddvi-i etc..

what exactly is a 6990 Xfire r2 anyways ? m18x-r2 laptop ? and the video card is AMD ? (like 6990?)

did you ever have the intel graphics enabled...like are you using one of those 15/17 with the intel graphics...

maybe someone can help you out with error reports or crash dumps , too...

is there more then one output port for video on your pc ? what are they what are you using... did you try power settings on the monitor ?

some monitors have trouble handshaking when using crappy hdmi cables.. sometimes some monitors with weaker signals need to be powered off abit, for the capacitors to start fresh ( do you hear any buzzing fomr the monitor, or like a small static noise that slightly goes away as if it is heating up/getting warmed up?)

try turning on and off the monitor and giving it a few seconds each time.. try switching ports for input output on pc and monitor, and even the display tech your using, i.e dvi/vga/hdmi/display port etc..

if your using some sort of converter, is it a powered converter ? Like does it have a ac to plug into it or USB for power ?

wish I could help you more, but I need you to try what you can and give more information. Im sure we'll get to the route of this eventually..

 

I just tried flashing the BIOS with no luck. My M17xr2 initially came with Dual AMD 5870's. I replaced them with Dual 6990's, which have worked fine for well over a year. Also the R2 doesn't have Intel onboard graphics. My monitor doesn't have HDMI, and my laptop doesn't have DVI, so I'm using DVI with a little, nonpowered DVI to HDMI attachment. That's how I was using the external over the last week. Today I've tried everything I can think of to fix this, including just trying to go from VGA from the monitor to the computer. Oddly enough this laptop has VGA but not DVI. When I go to system restore it says there are no restore points, so I'm not sure what to do about that.

I really appreciate your reply. I hope I've answered your questions. Is there anything else you can recommend trying? Its so odd that I can use the external in safe mode / if the video drivers are uninstalled, but if I install the video drivers I have two black screens instead of just one. There is no post, no windows logo - nothing on the alienware lcd - which again wouldn't bother me if I could use the external normally (with the video drivers installed). As soon as I can get some money together I'm going to build a desktop but in the mean time this is my only machine and I really need this to work! Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks.

 

Have you tried removing the primary GPU and moving the secondary GPU to the primary slot and running with just one GPU? Maybe the primary card is in the process of dying.

From what you have described, it seems like the easy possibilities have been ruled out.

 

Would the GPU make the screen go black? I assumed I should be able to see something on the screen (like a post) even with no gpu's installed.

 

You could also try reseating the LCD cable, that could have gotten disconnected somehow.

 

The one next to the cam cable? I did that.

 

Anyone got any other ideas?

 

Okay! I have some progress! I switched the video cards around and I got picture. Apparently one of my cards isn't working. When I put it in the other slot and turn the computer on with it, it doesn't come up in device manager. Oddly enough, it comes up in atiflash when i type in atiflash -i, and before I switched them, it came up in device manager when I had the secondary monitor plugged in. Any ideas? Isn't there some way to fix the card by sticking it in the oven?