Yay for On site techs!

So I called in about an issue I was having with my secondary video card (5870x2) and they sent someone over to replace it. After the installation was complete I turned my computer back on only to find that no longer is a secondary video card even being displayed under the device manager. Though the card wasn't working correctly before I still prefer being able to see both of them listed under the device manager. But now I only see one listed even though he installed another secondary card. What a sad sad day for me this is. Anyone have any feedback regarding this issue I'm having? Is it possible that the card he installed was faulty as well? I also had him apply some AS5 paste to both cards during the installation but I don't think that has anything to do with the issue. Someone help I'm so sad over this.

 

You watched him do the install? You can't put the two screws in that secure the card to the chassis without it being properly installed into the connector. Crossfire cable maybe? There are tiny arrows on the cable and the receptacle on the card that must line up. I don't know if these cards must be master/slave or if they're both the same VBIOS. He could have put another master/slave in so that you are running master/master or slave/slave. Not sure though. That's lame man. He didn't run any diagnostic while he was there? He just did the job and took off? That's horrible. If Dellienware calls you about a customer satisfaction survey, make sure you tell them.

 

Yeah I watched the whole thing. He didn't run any diagnostic tests either. Just installed and went on his merry way. Now that you mention it I'm afraid that maybe he did install master/master because my primary video card has always worked just fine and even though my original slave card was faulty at least it still worked sometimes and showed up within the CCC, GPU-Z, and device manager. But now CCC has no "Crossfire" tab, GPU-Z says crossfire is disabled, and device manager is only displaying one card. And now that I think about it if he indeed to install another master card then the replacement card he ordered is probably going to be ANOTHER master card. Oh geez.

 

Call his number and have him come back to find out.

 

If you remove the hinge cover and keyboard, you can see both cards and the ends of the Crossfire cable. The tiny arrows need to align. Just remember to remove the screws underneath that secure the hinge cover before you start prying on it. If that doesn't yield anything, call him back. That's just ridiculous. I still can't believe that.

 

Cable is indeed connected and it's not a master/master or slave/slave I can rule that out for sure. I called him back and he basically said that all we can do is wait for Dell to send out another card + cable kit. I'm furious with this whole process right now. I don't feel like I should have to be going through this kind of problem considering the amount of money I payed for this.

 

Sorry to hear about this - pretty lame that he didn't test it out before he left. Call support back and get them to send both cards + the cable out. If you had dual masters the system wouldn't POST, so that isn't it. Could be a defective card or cable from stock, maybe he damaged it during install or perhaps he didn't install it correctly.

Sorry I haven't been back out to check on things lately but my new job is absolutely killing me. I have more "critical" items in my inbox that I've ever had before.

Thx and sorry again about the troubles...

 

A hardware failure is bound to happen at one point. I think you should blame your tech, not the manufacturer. You can't expect next day in-home service if it's not AW.

 

I can't believe the tech didn't at least power up the system and make sure it was working. Both times I've had the tech out so far (same guy) he has tested what he installed (first DVD drive, then keyboard). He also provided his contact number, the service request number, and the direct line to Alienware tech support in case the issue should repeat despite repair.

Then again, could be worse, could be the Comcast or Cox repair person... they'll take nap in your house, steal stuff, or even cause a fire. Google for proof .

 

dumb question but are you booting to your on board videocard? boot to bios, and make sure you are booting to your "real" video card/s, or open device manager to see what card is running with windows.

and yes, I have run in to the AW techs a few times... they suck suck suck... one guy did not hook up my SLI cable, lost a heat sink pad, and lost a screw. watch everything they do, and make sure before they leave to boot, and make sure everything is running ok.

if you have to get a tech again... hope for a new one lol

 

The R2 doesn't have that on-board 9400. I made my Tech stand there while I let Furmark cook everything for a few minutes. He didn't know the program existed. My Tech admitted that he wasn't very knowledgeable with the new gaming rigs. He kept saying "Wow, that thing's a real Cadillac!". I did all of the work while he watched though. Call 'em back man. You deserve better.

 

The Xfire cable doesn't have anything to do with the card not showing in device manager, as they will both show but xfire wont work. You cant install two primary cards as they are physically different. If you had gotten a secondary with the primary bios even, it just wouldn't boot. It sounds like he just installed a bad card. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS verify the techs work before they leave, you probably signed something that said you were satisfied with his work. Now he wont be held accountable for a bad install. I have been through several of these part swaps and learned the hard way. Do not blindly trust the techs as they are not always even trained on these systems. Just appreciate them when they do a good job and all works again.

 

Just got off the phone with a tech guy and he made me play my games without Xfire and the result was a full system crash but once I got into the game (Crysis Warhead) I got no artifacts when compared to playing with Xfire enabled. He then proceeded to tell me that a full system crash is not related to video cards (Bull) and that the slave GPU was faulty. And also what made me think ''Why the F*ck are they shipping faulty hardware?'' is when he said that: ''Crossfire has some issues with it and so it doesn't work 100% correctly in mobility GPUs''.

If he didn't tell me that I had a second GPU coming my way I would have demanded nVidia GPUs as a replacement.

 

To be honest I never signed a thing he just installed and then left.

One a side note which I'm assuming this is due to a faulty hardware install whenever I power my laptop on I usually hear the cdrom power up once and then it begins booting to Windows but now since this installtion it powers on spins up the cdrom the screen stays black for a longer period and then the cdrom spins up once again and then while trying to load Windows the system crashes into a blue screen error saying something like "A clock interrupt was not received on the second processor....something something."

Is it safe to assume that these newfound problems are linked to the faulty video card installed?

 

The tech shouldn't have gone anywhere near the optical drive while installing new video cards. They are up top and pretty easy to get to - the optical is not and requires some significant teardown. I don't really understand your description of what is happening now though - can you clarify?

 

Can you just flash the secondary card with a slave bios? That might be an option to consider. When my master GPU died, I put the slave in it's place and removed the master, then flashed the slave with a master GPU vbios until I get home and can have Dell replace my Master GPU.

 

The error "A clock interrupt was not received on the second processor" happens when either you try to run a new video driver with the older vbios or the current vbios with an older driver. Boot up into safe mode and uninstall your video drivers from device manager. Then run driver sweeper and cc cleaner. Then see if it boots into windows normal. It should. Then once its booted up, see if you can see both VGA Display entries in device manager. If you can then just download the latest vbios and 8.763 video driver from dells site and then firstly update your vbios, then install your video drivers. Just leave the VGA drivers as is until your vbios is updated.

 

Alright guys I have an update regarding the past issue I was having.

Had another tech come down today who was much more knowledgable and willing to work with me to solve my problem. And he came prepared too, he had 3 video cards and a motherboard. Though when he mentioned that the motherboard was refurbished I immediately said "no way." But all in all it seems as if my problem has been fixed. He installed two new video cards and at the initial bootup everything seemed fine but then the computer went into THE SAME blue screen error again. So I rebooted and went into BIOS and reset everything to system default and since then everything has been running fine to me. My question to you guys now is do you recommend me doing anything to test that they are both working correctly? I ran a 3D Vantage test as well as running SCII on ULTRA settings and SCII ran great while 3D Vantage seemed to be getting 5-10 frames higher than previously at times. Would it be best to reinstall the video drivers as well? I'm still currently using the latest Dell drivers + Vbios.

Thanks for the feedback guys it's always appreciated.

 

Just so you know. EVERY part they send out is marked as refurbished, new or not. This is to prove they "test" everything before shipping out and thus can't be tagged as new. Everything I got from them was marked as refurbished, but completely new inside.

 

That would make more sense then when you put it that way. Well I guess if I end up having the problem again I'm just going to argue with the rep over the phone until they can just send me out a new system.

 

I have a tech coming next week sometime to replace my speakers (even though i bet the mobo is the problem), im pretty terrified.

what happens if they it up? Can i get a replacement if i throw a big enough fit?

 

Why not let him watch you do it? DL the service manual. It's fairly easy.

 

I know my way around it pretty well already. But I don't want to risk ing it up myself. Who would i blame then? Besides, the speakers look like they'd be one of the hardest things to replace if my memory serves me correctly.

 

I'm not entirely sure about this (testing everything).

I had some issues with my system randomly freezing every couple of days (was pretty random and rare, but enough to be an annoyance). Had the tech come over today and he replaced motherboard and both vga cards and now it doesn't work at all. Turns on but never gets to the bios screen and holding down power button doesn't even turn it off (have to pull out battery). Faulty "new" motherboard I suspect. I've already disassembled/reassembled everything myself to make sure the tech didn't screw up somewhere (eventhough I was watching the whole time) and it still won't post.

Another tech will be coming over with some more replacements tomorrow.

 

I feel like my OP is straying a little off topic a bit and though I have no problem with people trying to get some help with their computer and tech experiences I would still appreciate if anyone could help answer some of my questions in the above quote.

Thanks

 

Are you using 5870's? If so this sounds like the bad slave bios issue. Plug an external monitor in, see if it is stuck at a splash screen on the second display. If so try taking out the secondary card and see if it boots (unplug the xfire cable). If it boots its a bad card bios, ask for new cards to be sent.

 

Play your favorite game, check the fps with fraps or whatever you like.
Run 3dmark06 and report your score.
Uninstall and reinstall the drivers to verify consistency.

 

You're right. Both cards replaced again and it worked. Read in another thread somebody had the same problem due to slave bios but didn't have the chance to try single card before the tech was due to come again.

 

Thats great news! Glad it worked. Someone just had some of the old bad slave cards stock...