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    R2 video card

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by irongoats, Jan 28, 2012.

  1. irongoats

    irongoats Newbie

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    Hello all, I'm new to the forum and it's very nice to able to check out these Alienware laptops here instead of going over to Dell.

    I have a problem I haven't seen by searching here so I'm looking for some help. Reformatted laptop through the Alienware windows 7 disk and everything works fine until I load up the video drivers. Any and all driver uploads (from disk or Dell website) gives me a black screen upon shutdown but the laptop doesn't shut down. It shut downs and restarts in standard vga mode though so that tells me there's a driver conflict or the card itself is going bad. Again it goes through the motion of shutdown but stays running with black screen. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
     
    irongoats, Jan 28, 2012
    #1
  2. niffcreature

    niffcreature ex computer dyke

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    Contact dell and explain the problem, they will replace the card if the laptop is under warranty.
     
    niffcreature, Jan 28, 2012
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  3. weinstein888

    weinstein888 Notebook Evangelist

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    I would try to reinstall Windows with repair disks or try to system restore after clearing the drivers and reinstall the VGA drivers. In other words, I'd try anything and everything before calling Dell, personally. Their customer support is....well let's just say I'd rather look through the computer for the problem myself about 10 times over before going to them :p Last resort imo. Don't get me wrong though. If you need the GPU replaced, obviously it's the only real resource.
     
    weinstein888, Jan 28, 2012
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  4. irongoats

    irongoats Newbie

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    It's not under warranty as it expired in Nov. Can I just replace the video card myself?
     
    irongoats, Jan 28, 2012
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  5. Greywolf22

    Greywolf22 Notebook Deity

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    Yes the video cards are fairly straight forward to replace.

    What version of m17x do you have...are you running an R1, R2, R3? What type of video card are you running? Are you running Crossfire/Sli or is this a single card setup?

    Maybe post your specs here to provide us a bit more information on the problem you are encountering.

    Welcome to the forums :)

    *Edit* Sorry saw your post title listed an R2...
     
    Greywolf22, Jan 28, 2012
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  6. Mechanized Menace

    Mechanized Menace Lost in the MYST

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    Dude buy some 6970's, 6990's, or 580's if you can afford giving away a kidney for the 580's.
     
    Mechanized Menace, Jan 29, 2012
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  7. irongoats

    irongoats Newbie

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    Thanks for the replies, I can afford it but it's almost just as easy and laying down some green for a new laptop. haha. It's a single 4870 and I have the service manual so it looks easy.
     
    irongoats, Jan 29, 2012
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  8. CptXabaras

    CptXabaras Overclocked, Overvolted, Liquid Cooled

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    Have a look a this thread. Imho, better than the service manual ;)

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-6990-your-m17x-r2-single-gpu-crossfirex.html

    You may want to consider the upgrade. And an advice, try to keep your R2 as long as you can, you wont regret it, if you do some upgrade it will be comparable, game wise, to an m18x (+rgb led :D )
     
    CptXabaras, Jan 30, 2012
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  9. irongoats

    irongoats Newbie

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    I did check that out and it's an impressive write up so that has me thinking.
     
    irongoats, Jan 30, 2012
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