M18x R1 4 beeps! Please help!

Hi guys,

I am new here and my m18x r1 black screened a few days ago and when I turn it on it would give out 4 repeating beeps. After searching the forum, I figured it was a memory failure problem so I did what others did by swap the ram sticks around and or putting one ram to one slot at one time. Its not the ram sticks fault as I bought new ram to test and it would still have the problem. The two slots underneath the keyboard are faulty with old and new ram. Only the bottom inner slot is working today, the bottom outter slot works only for about 30 mins before the blue screen memory dump sequence appears and then restarts with 4 beeps again.

Now the system only works with the 1 ram slot. May I please get some help and advice please.


Thanks guys

 

Hi, can you guys please give me some advice? I tried everything regarding to solving this problem with prior examples from other members but the problem is still there. Should I get a new R1 motherboard or should I upgrade to a R2 motherboard or buy a used 18/R3 instead?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

You'll need to buy a whole R2 motherboard + daughterboard... Otherwise, a used R3 would be an alright option as long as you don't plan on Ocing too much (330W limit)... @Mr. Fox can probably give you a better answer about this...

 

Either buy a replacement R1 board or an R2 board and the additional parts to upgrade the internals. The R2 upgrade would be ideal if you plan to keep the machine as long as possible. The least expensive route would obviously be to just replace the R1 board with another R1 part and be done with it. The additional parts are not that expensive if they are still available from Dell Spare Parts. If you end up buying the parts used on eBay, the pricing will be ludicrous unless you can find a seller that is not raping the public... There are some good deals on eBay now and then, but it is almost always much cheaper to buy them directly from Dell.

M18xR1 Upgrade > M18xR2 Motherboard

 

Hi Mr. Fox,

Thank you for you advice and I read that thread already. Im currently in China and cant seem to have access to dell spare parts shop, it did go through once but the prices seemed a bit weird as it was more than double of what the prices were on the thread that you have provided. Maybe Dell jacked up the prices lol.

I think I will go for the R2 board and get the other parts as well as upgrading the GPU as well. What's the best bang for the buck these days. My machine only has 1 GTX 560m. Should I get a newer single card or older cards but in SLI.

Thanks a bunch.

 

Thanks TomJGX.

I dont plan on doing any extra hardcore OCing like you guys but will experiment and OC within a safe perimeter.

Havent really thought about getting an used 18 until recently. Is the 18 worth it or does the R2 still top the 18 for performance. I only know that the 18 is newer and is next gen so logically it should have higher upgrade potential. But I may be wrong.

 

Do you guys think my 4 beep problem could be caused by dust or from moving the lappy around too often? I will reseat the cpu and wipe off dust and see how it goes. I will keep youguys posted. Thanks

 

Since you already have an M18xR1 and the option of upgrading it to an R2, I would not recommend wasting any money on a newer 18. There is no point in doing so. You will lose numerous features and gain nothing in terms of performance. The 18 is not as good as a maxed out M18xR2 and my M18xR1 with 2920XM and 780M has no trouble whatsoever keeping up with and often slightly edging out the 18's performance with 4930MX and 780M.

Since you are in China, try sourcing your parts from PCHub.com as an alternative to Dell Spare Parts or eBay. I have purchased a few items from them.

 

Hi Mr. Fox,

Thanks for your comments. A lot of guys do seem to dislike the 18 as a successor of the M18x. Wouldnt a maxed out 18 beat a maxed out M18xR2 in the same way as how a maxed R2 would beat a maxed out R1?

Im heavily leaning towards upgrading to an R2 and also upgrading the gfx card but I heard that the R2 chasis is different from the R1 and the parts wont fit?
Ive read that a lot of people including Mr. Fox yourself to have upgraded from R1 to R2, may I ask if you have encountered a chasis fit problem while upgrading.
I may just buy a second M18xR2 from here or ebay if the total price of the upgrading parts are similiar to a used M18xR2
Another question is what GFX is the best bang for the buck right now?

Cheers

 

No, sadly that is not the case. If things were as they should be, that would be accurate. Several things keep the 18 from being better than the M18xR2. Haswell runs hotter and efficiency gains end up being lost, not to mention many poorly binned Haswell CPUs that don't overclock well at all. We have Intel to thank for those "features" rather than Alienware. Additionally, the 18 can't be flashed with an unlocked BIOS. The 18 is crippled by a power-handling limitation. It is a really nice machine, but its potential has been crippled compared to the M18xR2. For folks that don't enjoy overclocking and chasing benchmark numbers, it is awesome. For those that do, it is a disappointment.

The R1 and R2 chassis are basically the same. Everything fits exactly the same and there are only a few parts that are not interchangeable. The only major difference between them is there is no place in the chassis to neatly accommodate the mSATA. If the throttling issues are truly fixed by @j95 latest INF mod, then 980M SLI would be the best GPU upgrade. Otherwise, 780M SLI is the next best option.

 

Hello Mr. Fox,

Thanks again. I wont waste my money on the 18 then. As for the cards, I was initially thinking about a single 680/780/7970/6990.

Is it more value for the money when going for SLI/CF upgrade?
Do you know anywhere where I can order a new body for the M18x? mine has lots of scratches and dents, the grills have cracked too somehow.

 

With the R1/R2 motherboards, can I interchange Nvidia and Ati cards as well as SLI/CF freely? sorry for the noob questions.

 

I checked pchub.com and they dont have the R2 motherboard .
Should probably just buy a used R2 on ebay lol