m17x R2 Booting issue prePOST/BIOS

hi guys,

damn last post didnt appear...

Got an issues booting and getting anything on the screen after it has been powered on, the LED lights on the keyboard turn on and the alien head power buttons flashes and the fans sometime speeds up. I can hold the power button for 4secs and it will turn off, but will do the same thing if I turn it on again. I've flashed the bios to the latest version. Only way I can get it working is by removing and adding the battery, and this doesnt always work. helps with booting if mains power is plugged in.

It seems to be getting worse though over the last few days and sometimes it takes 5 or so times to get it to boot to post screen and login to windows.

Is there anything I can test/look at?

cheers,

nic

 

I think we need a little background information. Have you done any thing to the laptop in the last little while? Like update the BIOS or any heavy drops of the unit in question?

 

hey mate, info below;

laptop was just recently purchsed, only change was the HDD formarted and win7x64 layed back on. Computer was transported in the car about 150KM's in all its orginal foam packing. Issue didnt occur when purchase of machine was made.

I've updated the bios to the latest version supplied from the Dell website. laptop doesnt look like it has been dropped or was not told it was dropped in its life time. Apprently it never moved from the guys desk we purchased it from, laptop does look brand new going by wear and scruff mark wise.

Are there any diag tools I can run on the device? I havnt done any extensive load testing on the device, could it be a failing video card or motherboard and a test like this help?

cheers,

Nic

 

Also Specs? Battery Charge level? BIOS version? and GPU VBIOS version? (If you have a single or dual 5870's.)

Here is what the VBIOS should be. You can use GPU-Z to check.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

Did you try leaving the battery out and turning it on with just the PSU plugged in? And if that seems to work do it like a bunch of times too see if the battery is the problem?

 

hey guys,

spec's are i7 quad-Core, 4GB with ati 5780, 120GB SSD with 500GB secondary SATA.

Unable to get the laptop to boot at all now, with or without the battery plug in on mains power.

It powers on, key board LED turn on, and solid power light around the alien head. One fan spins up the one on the left hand side if you are facing the keyboard and the fan in the middle starts to spin and then stops. The left fan spins fast and then medium/slow and then continuosly but not at an even rpm.

It also sounds like a fan is attempting to spin up and cant? can a failed fan cause the PC to not boot to protect its self?

cheers,

Nic

 

Do you have one 5870 or two? have you tried a power drain unplug and take the batter out and the CMOS/coin cell battery out, hold the power button for 60 seconds.

 

havnt tried a power drain, will try it tonight. Its a single 5870, cheers

 

removed battery and the CMOS battery also and held down power button for 60sec's, but all batteries back in and all seemed to boot up fine now. Tried a few boots with AC plugged in and it seems to boot up ok now? Will see if it happens over the next few days! Any idea what this would have changed or why it happened and if it will happen again in the future?

cheers

 

The power Drain removes all residual charge from the main components, Also when you remove the COIN Cell it also resets the System BIOS back to stock default settings. Now that you have it on I really suggest you find out what GPU VBIOS version you have and update it, also update you System BIOS to A10 which is the latest. Power Drains fix a lot of issues, I usually do one every couple of months just to keep the system "fresh". I also would uninstall the OSD application causes way more issues than it is helpful. There won't be any of those OSD pop ups, and The touch sensitive buttons will work except for the SPace ship and speedometer, but you can download Stealth mode indicator, and you can still access the ALIEN FX through the desktop shortcut.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/463382-stealth-mode-indicator-9.html#post6589020