M18x-R1 6970m CF jittery/strange display behavior

My brother got the above setup and says that the display behaves strangely. It's like (the colors are) flickering or something. The problem appears while on desktop, not during gaming. It's not constant, sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. I tried through TeamViewer to reinstall the drivers. Tried the DELL ones, linked in one of the threads, tried the newest ones from AMD, the problem is still there. Also the system overheats badly and gets P2518 under 3DM11 (2920xm CPU). He can't repaste, and I'm on the other side of the world Is it possible that the GPUs are failing? Or the display?

 

Hi there possibly switch to intergrated intel graphics and if problem still there it most probably is the monitor.
Worth a try.:thumbsup:

 

You could try switching to integrated graphics like ripper suggested or using an external monitor could also verify if the screen is on the way out.
If I'm honest though, the overheating is probably just as big a problem as the screen playing up, even if you get your brother to remove the bottom cover and take the fans out to blow the heatsinks clean, that will probably be enough to keep things under control until you get back.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I had the system in my hands, cleaned it (newer seen a dirtier machine and I've seen quite a few), repasted, installed A05 (was A02). Was showing artifacts on the display after the cleaning, prior the BIOS flash, not on every boot though. Flashed the A05 and everything seemed fine for the 3 days I had it in my hands. Today my brother told me that the artifacts showed again after resuming from sleep. Told him to switch the graphics to the Intel one, to exclude the display, but my guess is that the GPUs are on their way. They were overheating in no time and I don't know how much it was used in this state. So yeah, that's what you usually get from eBay

Another guess is that it's his hands, and not the lappy

 

It does it with the Intel GPU as well, only when resuming from sleep and not always. Putting it to sleep and waking it up fixes it for the Intel. With the AMDs it needs reboot. If it stays on, no matter how long - no problem. Display cable?

I guess this is the one?

 

Secondary video is gone*, upgraded to single 7970m (and I downgraded to 6970m, oh well), waiting for the LVDS cable, since those small artifacts still appear from time to time, after which would be sold locally

*Just as I thought, but I was thinking that it would be the primary. Tested them one by one, first one is fine (so far), second one made a single 3DM11 run, there was a click (or something), the PSU switched-off, the laptop shut-off and wont start. Removed the power cord, so the PSU can come back to life, after which I tried to connect it - A LOT of sparks coming from inside the laptop, thought I fried something, opened it up, everything seemed fine, tried again - lots of sparks, removed the video, no sparks, posts, plugged the primary video, works fine. Quite attractive way to bite the dust It also means that the MXM is directly connected to the PSU, which is GOOD.

Just did it again, connected to external - external is fine, so everything points to the LVDS... or the display.

I also notice that the Aero is Off when it does this, I don't think it was off before. Might be MoBo...

 

It turns out it's the MoBo. Just so if someone is "lucky" enough to get a, what I think is, Friday-just-before-end-of-the-day (or Monday-nasty-hangover) built, like my brother did