ALIENWARE 18 - GTX 980M Not Detected After Driver Crash

So I bought a 980M from Eurocom last week and after installation I had multiple issues.
1) Firstly, After installing the driver provided by Eurocom website my screen would go black and I had to re-install windows to get it fixed. After several attempt I gave up on using the Eurocom provided driver and switched to Mr.Fox 344 driver and everything worked flawlessly after that.
2) Secondly, After installing the 980M my computer stopped charging while I was using it on dedicated GPUs and it would show plugged-in not charging. It would only charge on integrated graphics or while the laptop was off.
3) Finally, Next week comes and one day as I was browsing the internet my computer crashed (the display went black) and after restart I realized that the laptop is switched to integrated graphics. I tried rebooting it and switch to dedicated GPUs but no matter what I did I couldn't switch to dedicated graphics or to get my 980m to recognize in bios.

Laptop Information:
CPU: i7 4700
GPU: 980M + 765M (dedicated physx card)
HDD: 1TB SSD
RAM: 32GB
BIOS: A10 UEFI ONLY
OS: Windows 8.1 64x

 

@PrimeNe as you can see from this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...t-detected-in-bios-after-driver-crash.772295/

The OP spent 8-10hrs trying to fix his cards, and he seems to still have problems. I've had the same problem and my solution was to wipe my hdd drive, and start from the beginning of changing bios to UEFI and re-installing win8.1. I placed one GPU card in the primary slot (Its the one on the left side). I was looking to see if my cards worked, it turns out one was bad. Right now I have Nvidia drivers 347.52 installed and it working (fingers crossed). I also have a second hdd that I mirrored, so that when/if the problem re-occurs I can just swap it in without going through that hassle again. IMHO, 980Ms in the AW18 are a failure waiting to happen, this method worked and is working for me.


Good Luck

 

Thank you for the reply Scanner

Re installing windows didn't help me but I got a RMA from Eurocom and sent the 980m back for replacement. Perhaps I will have less problems if I take the 765m out and just leave the 980m in the, What I'm concerned about is if I take the secondary GPU out there is nothing to hold the right heatsink and the laptop looks empty from the back and also dust will get into the system. Do you know if there is a dummy card or heatsink available to fix this issue? Also where did you get your 347.52 driver/ Modded inf ?

Cheers

 

Sorry to hear the reinstall of win8 didn't do it for you. 980m failure is nothing new. I don't know of any GPU type space holders, but when I was waiting for my replacement gpu I just put my 880ms back in. If nothing else place a cover over your pc while its not in use to protect from dust. I don't think you should have two different cards in your pc at one time, especially with the overly sensitive win8. I got the Nvidia driver from here:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers

this site always seems to have a moded version of the official release pretty quickly.

 

@Scanner Sorry I couldn't find a way to contact you as a message so I decided to just go ahead and post it here. Do you still have your 880ms? if yes have you considered selling them.

 

Sorry 880s not for sale. The 980s are to problematic to not have them around.

 

You'll need 5 posts to PM someone Prime..

 

Having the 980M and 765M being dedicated as a PhysX card installed in the same machine may be part of the reason you are having issues. You might be able to get away with this using two GPUs that function correctly. Considering the complications that accompany using 980M in an Alienware machine, I think that is just an invitation for extra problems.