The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    M18x R2 - "New" GX970m - 6 Beeps or iGPU

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 18, 2015.

  1. Tim Ligtvoet

    Tim Ligtvoet Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Hello everybody,

    I've been a "read-only" member for a while, but now i really need your help.
    Just today i've picked up a 970M 6GB, which was supposed to be new and unused due to lack of proper power supply on the sellers part.

    So, i've put it in, tryed both slots and the results are;

    1st Slot; 6 Beeps, screen does turn on
    2nd Slot; Boots, but doesn't use GTX970m

    As for the 2nd slot i've already noticed that the slot is only for SLI, not for main GPU.

    I am presuming the GPU is dead, but i want to kinda verify that before i'm going back to the seller.
    Or perhaps i'm forgetting something, like the proper vBios (i'm told its flashed for an MSI GT70 or something like that)?
    Tryed flashing it, but obviously it needs to be detected by the laptop (which it won't if i use the 2nd slot, and 1st gives me the beeps).

    Been "assembling" and desambling this M18r2 for 5 hours now, and I have given up.
    Any ideas?

    - M18 r2
    -- Unlocked A10
    -- Stock A11
    -- GTX670m (working)
    -- GTX970m (6 beeps, or iGPU)
    -- 16GB
    -- 3920xm

    Thanks in advance!!
     
    Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 18, 2015
    #1
  2. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

    Reputations:
    1,708
    Messages:
    5,820
    Likes Received:
    4,311
    Trophy Points:
    431
    You MUST be in pure UEFI mode in the BIOS, meaning you must get into the BOOT section of the BIOS and change to UEFI and disable Legacy Option ROM.
     
    Raidriar, Oct 18, 2015
    #2
  3. Tim Ligtvoet

    Tim Ligtvoet Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Tnx, will try, be right back!
     
    Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 18, 2015
    #3
  4. kenny27

    kenny27 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    294
    Messages:
    919
    Likes Received:
    167
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Changing those setting in the bios will also mean your legacy windows installation will be no good... you will need to (re)install windows 8/ 8.1 on a GPT partitioned harddrive
     
    kenny27, Oct 18, 2015
    #4
  5. Tim Ligtvoet

    Tim Ligtvoet Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Yep, that was it.. Damn I feel stupid haha, thanks!
    Reinstalled W10 on GPT now, GTX970m working like a charm.

    Couldn't get W8.1 installation started, due to raid error in UEFI.
    To bad, but rather use the 970M then 2x 256GB SSD's in Raid =)

    Thanks for both your answers, helped me out a lot.
    Did try many bios options, except for that one..
     
    Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 19, 2015
    #5
  6. kenny27

    kenny27 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    294
    Messages:
    919
    Likes Received:
    167
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Have you seen this thread? Not sure you want to be running windows 10.... unless you want to roll the dice on bricking your screen.
     
    kenny27, Oct 19, 2015
    #6
  7. Tim Ligtvoet

    Tim Ligtvoet Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Damned, it was still working this morning.
    Going to do another reinstall then, thanks for the thread.

    Don't want that to happen, obviously!
     
    Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 19, 2015
    #7
  8. GodlikeRU

    GodlikeRU Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    165
    Messages:
    1,254
    Likes Received:
    562
    Trophy Points:
    131
    If you had it installed with nvidia drivers it's probably already too late. It will destroy your screen even if you install win8 now.
     
    GodlikeRU, Oct 19, 2015
    #8
  9. Tim Ligtvoet

    Tim Ligtvoet Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Goddamned, pisses me off (like everybody in that topic).
    Hopefully it isn't broken yet as i come one, but lets presume it is.

    Should have done some more googling (obviously) before purchasing that GTX970m
     
    Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 19, 2015
    #9
  10. Raidriar

    Raidriar ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

    Reputations:
    1,708
    Messages:
    5,820
    Likes Received:
    4,311
    Trophy Points:
    431
    Just be careful to not install any nVidia overclocking utilities and for even safer practice, use older nVidia drivers before any of these problems were reported.
     
    Raidriar, Oct 19, 2015
    #10
  11. GodlikeRU

    GodlikeRU Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    165
    Messages:
    1,254
    Likes Received:
    562
    Trophy Points:
    131
    Also don't even think of using EVGA Precision. It's known that it triggers EDID corruption
     
    GodlikeRU, Oct 20, 2015
    #11
  12. Tim Ligtvoet

    Tim Ligtvoet Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    6
    Thanks all for the reactions.
    Still hoping that the screen didn't get "wasted" already.

    Time will tell! :)

    Thanks all, this topic can be locked due to proper solution =)
     
    Tim Ligtvoet, Oct 20, 2015
    #12
  13. bvermeul

    bvermeul Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    8
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    56
    Trophy Points:
    41
    The screen EDID corruption has nothing to do with the 970m, but everything with W10 and/or EVGA Precision X. I've been running Windows 10 since launch on my Alienware 17 without any problems. I'm also on the latest (Geforce Experience) drivers. I've just never used Precision X (and probably lucky too).
     
    bvermeul, Oct 24, 2015
    #13