m17x R3 seemingly dead.. advice?

OK, need help on this one..

The wife was gaming (WoW), when without warning, the system powered down. We powered it back up, checked the event log, and didn't see anything saying why it did it. So, seeing no obvious problems (we left the laptop powered off for a few min, just in case it overheated), i let her try again. As soon as she started WoW again, the machine kicked off. Giving it more time off, the machine won't even make it to windows. Now, the machine will not power on, either battery or power cable.

The light on the power cable is on, the brick doesn't feel like it overheated.
The light on the battery indicates full power, and there is no obvious sign of swelling or other failure.

LIke i said, it will not even begin to power on. Pressing the power button gives me no signs of life at all.. no beeps, no fans, no lights at all.. nothing.

Where do i go from here guys? I mean, it can't be the power connection (else the battery should work), and there was no messed up or garbled colors/textures in WoW (nor any framerate loss leading up to it). Frankly, while i am normally good at diagnosing issues, i don't know where to start on this one. My guts tell me GPU or mainboard (given the failure upon starting WoW). I am running a 680M in my Sager 9170 - would it be worth ripping it out and trying it in her machine?

Any advice would be great...

EDIT: The NIC light blinks on for a split second, as does the outer alien head....but that is it. No LCD flicker, anything...

 

It does sound like a motherboard issue from your description. It may be a long shot but have you tried connecting to an external monitor?

 

Why not just remove the GPU ? should start with intels HD3000

 

This would be the first laptop we have had that is capable of that (turning on without the external GPU). That said, it is on my list of guts to rip out and test, so I will let you all know.

 

Can you give us more information on the specs of the machine?
Also in my experience this doesn't sound like a GPU issue, so I'm guessing its a motherboard problem. I would suggest removing the CMOS battery and then holding the power button for 30 seconds to flush CMOS cache. But at this point you should probably talk to dell and see if they have any recommendations.

 

Well, i yanked the 580M, and sure enough, it boots right up... guess it is the GPU.

I should have really suspected it first - both times the computer shut off, both times was playing a game. At this point, i am going to look into an upgrade for her.. if i am paying $, may as well get her something out of this.
Now to price out a 7970m and 680M...

 

Why not just get dell to replace it? Even after warranty has ended they still sometimes replace bad parts for free. I recently got my 6990m replaced for free, and I'm out of warranty.

 

From my reading, the 6990m has been somewhat of a problem card anyway, so it isn't too surprising that they replaced it.

As it is, i found what i hope to be a good 680M on the bay for $470; the seller isn't fly by night at least, and offers a DOA warranty. For the time being, i will reuse my 580M's heatsink, so i can easily test it.

 

Just FYI, it won't necessarilly be plug and play, you will most likely have to mod your drivers to install as well.

 

I am using a 580m heat sink that I ordered from dell without any issues with my 680m you will just need to remove the black tape from the copper plate. I also ordered a new x-bracket that didn't have the heat shield for the ram modules (it shield seemed to put a lot of pressure on the chips) GPU Spreader / X-Bracket for MXM 3.0b NVIDIA GTX and Quadro VGA Modules | eBay

 

I saw that in the big 680m thread, and while it doesn't bother me, I do wonder why it is needed.

Also, I understand I will need to flash the A12 unlocked BIOS (still need to find that exact procedure) .


Between those two things, assuming the card is good, that should be all I need to do, correct?

 

Should be fine, just check which vBIOS is on the card as well, a 4gb card is usually a clevo card and 2gb card is a dell card usually.

From what I understand it should work with a standard BIOS but overclocking wont work as well. But the modded drivers are required, doesnt look too difficult anyways, but they are required for the card to work from what I understand, I have a r4 w/680m and its a great card.

 

Its pretty painless to install the drivers. If you are running Windows 8 it's a little more involved, but still only takes a couple extra minutes. I got the 2gb dell card and did flash the vbios with a modded one from svl7 for overclocking (which was also easy to do) the card is a beast and have had no issues whatsoever (knock on wood)

 

here is the link for the unlocked A12 bios with the SATA III fix as well. Downloads

 

Oh, i kept hearing about the modded bios, and figured i needed it. Will be nice to avoid one more step that could cause a problem. In case i do need to flash it, any advice on where to find a guide on how to do it?

Yeah, i probably won't worry about the overclocking, since it is the wife's card (though i am comfortable doing it, as i have done so on my Sager 9170). The drivers certainly dont look bad. Since you have done it shnogger - did you have to use the modded BIOS?

 

you need to be able to disable the intel graphics in order for the card to work. I think the stock A12 bios from dell allows you to disable it, but i have always used the modded bios which still allows SATA III speeds on the hard drive bays which the stock bios downgrades to SATA II

 

What did you say to them to get them to help you after warranty? I'm past warranty but don't want to accept my Alienware as a brick, but the last time I called they just said that the unit was a replacement so it wasn't warrantied and they couldn't help me

 

I actually just called them and told them my graphics card had failed, the phone support person told me that I was out of warranty (Warranty had run out in the same week) but he told me if I took it to the service centre in my area they would repair it for free, and then he gave me a case number.

That said, I'm in Australia, and under our consumer law the warranty contract cannot put a time limit on it. So warranties are subject to being valid for 'a Reasonable period'. In terms of a $3000 machine a reasonable time is far longer than one year. So I'm not sure if the tech was aware of these laws or not, and if not he was probably just being nice about it.