questions on M17x upgrades and white screen 8 beeps

I'm sorry people but I have been reading through thread after thread for probably about 9 hrs straight. I hate to ask questions that you guys have answered countless amount of times, but I just cant find the right answers. My eyes feel like they are bleeding right now because I have been reading sooo much!

Problem 1 is that my Alienware is giving me 8 beeps and white screen soon as i power it on. I cannot speak to dell about this because they can nnnnnnnever find my account. Then when they find it they say it was canceld which it never was! I have proof as my bank account is $1400 less (military discount).

Anyways I think I figured out that the 8 beeps is LCD failure so I was looking to replace my 17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED. Then I was like why not just buy a fullHD screen since I have to buy a whole thing anyway right?

Can I replace the 900 one with the 1080p? and no not the 3d verison im personally not much of a fan of 3D

MY specs:
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 2670QM 2.2GHz (3.1GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
A/C Adapter: Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
Display Panel: 17.3-inch WideHD+ 1600 x 900 60Hz WLED
Video Card: 1GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6870M
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
AlienFX: Astral Aqua
Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW: Adobe Acrobat Reader
Optical Drives: 8X Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Sound: Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
Wireless: Intel® Advanced N + WiMAX 6250 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology

And that was copy and pasted right off of my receipt 0_o. My 1st concern is fixing the laptop then I will look into doing other upgrades (graphics cards, cpu etc) I just want to know if my assumption about the 8 beeps is correct and what upgrades I can do thank you

 

yes you can definitely go right ahead and add a 1080p screen without no issues
GPU can upgrade to a GTX 580 GTX 680 amd 6990m or a amd 7970 without any issues expect with some gpu updates you cant use swichable graphics as such this only applies to the gtx 680 but you can manual swich in the bios from what i have been told.
its not worth your time upgrade your cpu and you cant add 3rd generation chips as there not supported eg ivy bridge

i would raise hell with dell over them not wanting to replcae the screen you bought the system it should be support for 1 year after you bought it tell them the service tag etc show them the proof from your account.


about the beep codes u are correct about LCD failure how did the screen break ??? and heres a beep code list for u http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?c=us&cs=19&docid=496582

ask one of the reps on this site for help they are very good at fixing issues AND PLEASE DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK ANY QUESTIONS NO MATTER HOW SILLY YOU THINK THEY ARE PM ME ANYTIME

 

well my service code is like invaild and they couldn't find anything! Now i cant even see my service tage because i used my laptop daily and its blackend out to the point i cant read the number. I showed a rep

 

so you showed a rep and they didnt help you ???? can you try to connect a second screen to get into your bios to pull the service tag off there or get into windows by using a second monitor or tv

again have you tried to fix the screen ???

 

I'm waiting for a rep to reply after i showed my screeny of the recipt. But, im working on fixing the screen now..I disassembled the computer and was working on unscrewwing the panel bu tthe dang screws are to tight so idk what to even do now.

I tried to hook it up to my TV but that didn't work either.

 

it could be a gpu issue as you should be able to connect a second screen if its just a LCD issue. i hope the rep helps u. I unfortunately dont have much experience with fixing these LCD screens will try and find a guide. Have you tried to pull the cmos battery???

what actually happened to it did it suddenly fail or after a update or driver install ????

 

Was all the sudden. I talkign to a rep again and see if we can clear this up once and for all. Alienware Laptops are really differnt from what im use to

 

That's very odd, the service tag can be found in CMD as well.
Access CMD >> Type "Wmic BIOS get serialnumber" and press [Enter] >> The serial number that shows up is your Service Tag. This issue should be covered if you're under warranty.
However I see you would like to make some upgrades of your own. You should be able to upgrade your LCD to 1080p without a problem.
The best VC upgrade validated for your platform is either the 6990M or the 580M, however I've seen people in forums who have been able to make a better upgrade and had none to little issues. Send us an email to [email protected] if you need further assistance with those items.

 

Well the computer is tooken apart at the moment, but im telling you there is sooooooo much crap going on.

 

now they saying my order number was attached to a dell latitude 0_o

 

Did you find your Service Tag using CMD? If you did send me a PM with it. I'll check out the order myself.

 

I cant I get 8 beeps and a white screen. PLus when I hook it up to a monitor I still get nothing. None of the numbers underneath the battery mean anything?

 

Nope, unfortunately we do need the service tag or express service code. Send me a PM with the order number, customer number (it should be in your invoice as well) & contact info. I'll investigate it for you.

 

sorry i took me so long to reply ok so it was all of sudden i would put the machine back together ok .

OK so they are acknowledging the order that's good first step check the receipt your service tag should be on the receipt if i remember correctly and if not if you have an online acount it should also be listed in there again sorry for delay was creating back up discs for windows 8 this week

 

oh how is 8?

 

its good have used it before am just backing up all my files and games before installing it on the 26th those steam games take for ever to install without back ups LOL

 

so is the machine back together ?

 

no i sent my recipt info to pablo

 

ok he should be able to get it sorted there not much more i can do for you please let me know how it goes just PM me

 

ok its all fixed =D but now i have 1 small problem...i think i accidently broke one of the ram slots. My computer no longer detects the ram. Is there a way i can fix that? If not i can just buy 1 8gb stick and call it a day

 

nice to hear you got it fixed that's great news. The only way to fix a ram slot is to replace the motherboard and thats an expensive fix around 300-400 pound. but what you could simply do is just put the ram in the 2 other ram slots that are located under the keyboard there anyoing to get at but it would take around 15-25 mins to do that's the only solution i could think of. you could also test to see if its the ram itself that's at fault test each stick in each slot and see if it works

 

ok im going to order a 1 stick 8GB stick of ram just in case.

 

good luck as always

 

Here's a tear down guide in case you need some help.

Secondary modules are located beneath the keyboard

 

grr i put the ram in but its not detecting -_- do i need to reset CMOS?

 

you shouldn't have to try a different slot but you could try to pull the cmos battery