Think my new 680m just died

Installed the 680m about 2 or 3 months ago. Was very careful and used fujipoly pads, IC Diamond etc. I did re-use my 580m X-bracket and heatsink though. Anyway, got temperatures from 45C idle to 63C under heavy gaming. No probs, sometimes gaming for 5 hours straight! Rock solid for months.

I was just playing ARMA III, and got this sudden crazy crash, no BSOD but messed up audio and colours. BTW BIOS is Dell A12

Reboot, got 12 beeps. Ok, I remove card and boot on Intel. No probs, it works. Put it back on PEG and 12 beeps again. So it's not LCD. I seem to recall the GPU fan was not very loud during those final moments of the game working. Keep in mind not using any third party fan controllers (HWinfo, Aid64, etc)

So either my GPU fan failed (unlikely right)

Or my GPU failed and burned to death due to who knows why, maybe the heatsink warped and it overheated?



Edit: BTW if the card fails, does the GPU fan still spin? At the moment it barely moves when I hit the power button, and doesn't try to move again after that even though the CPU fan starts spinning away...

 

Twelve consecutive beeps? Or six, then six more, and so on... Six beeps means the GPU has failed.

A tech support rep. should see this post tomorrow. Consider this a free bump, if anything at all.

 

Thanks J Dre. Oops! Just realised my mistake: it is 8 beeps! And the lcd didn't fail since it still works from IGP. Sorry bout that, it was late!

 

Then it is GPU failure. Call up dell, explain to them the situation. By mentioning 8 beeps they might say it is an LCD failure but then hit them with the fact that the LCD works fine on iGP.

 

Thanks widezu, but what good is calling up Dell when my warranty is long over? I have an R3... AND I live in the middle east so shipping a laptop back to the states would be very pricey

Next step is do a repaste and see what the core, paste etc looks like?

 

You said the system boots fine with the 680M disabled, so, the screen itself isn't bad. It could still be related to your GPU.

Open up the system and make sure everything is connected and seated well.

 

Ah sorry I didn't know that your warranty was over. As J.Dre suggested, open it up and inspect to make sure all is still well connected.

 

Will do. Visually the card and heatsink seem fine, but I suspect that the heatsink might have warped since I can see the tiniest space in between core and heatsink on one side. But I wont be sure till I take it apart.

If its a pure GPU failure then why isn't it 6 beeps? Possible the mobo is the culprit? Everything looks alright right now. Connections look good, no burned components that I can spot.

If the GPU fan was to fail... would that also be 8 beeps? In GPU failures is it common for fan to not spin at all?

 

8 beeps is LCD related, so it could be anything from the cables to your GPU. Since you don't have any warranty, you can't get help from Alienware. I suggest you see if it's possible to extend your warranty, or buy a new cable.

 

It could be the GPU slot or the GPU itself, the best route since your PC is OOW, you would need to put the card on another PC, if it does not work either then... It's time for a change.

 

Thanks guys, next step is to go to the shops and find a service centre that will let me swap components quickly to test out. Will report back...

 

Yeah so I have no way of testing my graphics card unless i drive very far, and then pay them to test my . Very annoying. Don't have any friends compatible hardware so I'm a bit stuck.

Should I order an old 260m from ebay and use it to find out what is the culprit?

The way I see it it is, in order of likelyhood:

1 - Graphics card

2 - GPU slot/ motherboard

3 - GPU fan

You guys agree with this?

 

UPDATE!

So I decided to take to the authorised Dell service provider here in Dubai. Since I didn't have another system to swap components out I thought maybe I'll leave it to the pros... or so i thought.

I tell them I have a problem with my system booting on the nvidia card. However, I don't have the parts or tools to check what exactly is the problem: graphics card, motherboard, cable, etc...




This is the summary:

- They don't have any M17x's to swap parts.

- They don't have any replacement graphics card in stock, except one that they tried to test but realised it won't fit the heatsink apparently. I asked which card it is, he didn't know.

- I told him there are loads of cards that should fit the heatsink with or without some pad arrangment. 4xx series, 5xx series, 6xx series, etc. No clue what I was talking about.

- Later they come back to me saying: We think it might be the card, but we're not sure. We have no spare parts, we can't order any parts, best to contact Dell because we can't do anything. (Seriously?!)

- I ask the supervisor if my graphics card was re-pasted when it was put back on the heatsink. He said yes. He sounds unsure so I ask the technician directly and he says "no, there was still leftover paste on the heatsink and core".

- I ask the technician how could he slap the heatsink back on without cleaning and using new paste. He just shrugs and says it's fine. I tell him, no, it's not. I realise that if the card had any chance of being OK before, it was probably burned to hell by now!

The general condition of the heatsink etc was dirty and messy. Imagine them being perfectly clean and cut before. This is after:








So there you have it. I gave them my laptop in great condition to diagnose a problem... and it comes back in a sorry condition with my heatsink squashed onto my card in a terrible fashion... I could barely remove the screws!

I told the technician he can't do that etc, in front of the supervisor. They both gave me a stupid stare, avoiding responsibility. When I asked for the manager it seemed he wasn't around either. So basically nobody gives a sh*t and they just want to get rid of me asap.

There you have it guys, what next? Email Dell? Will anything good come out of it?

 

I would just order a compatible gpu that is affordable and called it a day.

 

Jesus christ, that paste looks like concrete.

 

I used IC Diamond paste. I'm going to clean it off now, and I'm a little scared what the core will look like now. Knowing how IC Diamond can be a bit abrasive, and knowing what a soft lover's touch that tech had- with his +3 mighty screwdriver of massive tightening.

 

So here's a fun update:

Decided, screw it- let's splurge on a 780m. Got the new card from Eurocom and got a brand new 680m heatsink, the whole shebang.

Did everything slowly and carefully, hit the start button and go into the bios directly to change to PEG, and Discrete Graphics is not detected. Set to PEG and reboot, and get the same 8 beeps. So I guess it wasn't the card after all... feeling pretty crappy at spending all that money and don't know what to do next

 

wow man sorry.... that sucks

 

At least you know the 680m isn't broken and you have two working beasts. Sell one if possible.

 

I hope so! But after the crappy techs abused it (see pictures above) maybe it means they killed it off. But if I can verify it is working 100% I will definitely sell it!

 

Wow, that paste looks absolutely baked...
I would clean up both cards and check all connections, just clean everything out. Obviously put fresh compound on the 680m and try to get it running first to verify if it is dead or not. With any luck your board and card are fine. Once you resolve that issue try and fire up the 780m and report back.

 

UPDATE!

So I finally had time to install my new R3 Motherboard (from eBay for $260!). First time I do such a job, went pretty well




I boot with no 780m installed, boots up like normal, same as old motherboard. Then I insert the 780m and... 8 beeps AGAIN! Wow, I was feeling a bit crap as I seemed to have gained nothing with all this patience and work. But then I just fiddled with the BIOS graphics card boot settings ( fresh bios etc) and BOOM, it boots! White screen, so I disable onboard sound card and it finally boots properly.

So feeling good, I take my system home and do a full GPU repaste and adding 2mm pads to the little transistors that j95 circled in the previous photos:



Hope you are proud of my job j95 I lowered the heatsink onto the card and the alignment was perfect, screws went right into the x bracket with no adjustments required. All pads seemed to have great contact with the heatsink.

Ambient temps seem a little high, 48-54C. Maybe because it is running without the intel? Need to do some benchmarks and monitor temps but HWinfo crashes sometimes, I don't know why I can't get that program to run stable. I like the custom fan profiles but many times the program crashes after some time gaming and fans are stuck on a certain speed. So far with stock GPU and stock 2960XM I got something like P7700 on 3Dmark11. Once everything is stable I will consider doing an overclock.

Next step: test the 680m and see if it survived the abuse of the crappy tech centre!

 

Great job man ! IDT try this 780m GTX - M17xR3 integrated soundcard working again! NO MORE USB SOUNDCARD!
Uninstall graphics drivers Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) V9.7 / first uninstall option -> Install IDT drivers.


GeForce 331.82 - WHQL - Game Ready Driver

Modded nvdmn.inf v331.82 Alienware M17XR2/R3/R4 3D + M18XR1/R2 SLI GTX 680M / 780M

 

My gosh that is terrible and very upsetting.
Makes you wonder if they should be called repair centre... Moreso the damage centre..
Good to see you managed to fix it even after buying new gpu and motherboard. Was it a simple setting in motherboard bios to get it working or did you flash new bios?

 

Yeah I agree! Thanks, I'm also happy things worked out in the end. I think my 680m is a casualty however as I tried putting it in today and got 6 beeps...

I was able to get it to boot even on the stock BIOS. However it did seem to be dodgy as I couldn't force the Intel GPU to stay disabled, so I went to A12 unlocked BIOS to get the extra options

 

I'm following these instructions, but when I try to install the IDT drivers all I get is this:



I tried safe mode. Same thing. Tried pulling out the 780m totally, but no go.

 

Aha, it worked when I used the official Dell drivers and then j95's link afterwards.

Alrighty let's put the 780m back in and try this sucker

EDIT: Nope, installing the audio drivers from your link j95 changes things, sound works but when I click on IDT in control panel it says "cannot find startup file" strange

 

Keep v.6330 R303928.exe , try v6421 only after installing graphics drivers.
- Uninstall IDT Programs and Features >reboot>Run>AppData\Roaming>delete IDT folder>regedit(Registry Editor)>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software>Delete IDT / MaxxAudio.
- Install R303928.exe Driver Details | Dell US

 

So the initial problem was just something with the motherboard?

 

Yep, something happened to the GPU slot. I'll probably never know what caused it.