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    What could cause a secondary card to fail?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by ricard2798, Apr 30, 2014.

  1. ricard2798

    ricard2798 Notebook Consultant

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    Hello:

    I just tried installing a second card on my system, amd card was apparently defective. Luckily it seems ill be able to return for a refund or replacement.. Yet, I have a burning concern on my mind.

    Prior to this latest attempt at xfires 7970m, i tried to do the same thing about 2 years ago with 6990m. At that point, I also had alot of issues, and had to settle for a single 6990m (I even shipped the system to Eurocom for a full install, which failed one week later. So I am starting to wonder that maybe there is something with my machine that is messing the secondary cards, So my question is, what components could potentially be the culprit.

    1-is the xfire cable enough to mess the cards? mine was custom made by Eurocom.

    2-could the secondary video card bay on my m17xr2 be the problem? Could inserting a card in there just break it?

    3-any other ideas? (and do not say its poor handling or installation in my part, cause then after all the card witching and bios flashing, I would have also broken my primary card.

    At this stage I would like to think option one is the problem, but then why would only the second card break, and not the first one? So that leaves me to believe that my motherboard could be the problem with that secondary bay. Is that an accurate assessment? I still have 1 months left of warranty, and i wonder if it makes sense to ask dell for a MOBO replacement. moreover, how can I ask for this, when the original xfire cards never gave me a problem, it was after the upgrades :(

    Thanks in advance
     
    ricard2798, Apr 30, 2014
    #1
  2. J.Dre

    J.Dre Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Could be the cable or motherboard as well. There are a lot of things that may mimic a dead GPU.

    With one month left of warranty, you should extend it before it expires and you aren't able to.
     
    J.Dre, May 1, 2014
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  3. ricard2798

    ricard2798 Notebook Consultant

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    my laptop is 5 years old, and there is no option to extend it anymore. I have tried 3 times already. My real question now is how can i call and let alienware know I am having issues with installing unsuported video cards, ir order to get a mobo replacement. Any suggestions? Again, this is more preventive, because its likely I just got a bad card, because then the originally shipped sli config would not have worked... But I want to be safe :(
     
    ricard2798, May 1, 2014
    #3