The dreaded 8 beeps. Need some advice.

Hi all.


So, I've had my M18x R1 for about 4 years now. It's had a relatively easy life. It gets a lot of use but mainly non-intensive stuff. Haven't done much gaming on it over the last couple of years. I've never had to replace any parts on it thus far.


So about 6 months ago, I turned it on one day as normal and got the dreaded 8 beeps. Searched on here and the general consensus is that it could be LCD, Graphics or Motherboard. Tried the method to get to 5 beeps, but it just reverted back to 8 beeps after that.

I took the system apart. Removed the LCD, removed both graphics cards (GTX 560s) and fitted it all back together, and it worked first time! For the next 6 months, it has been fine. It gets used roughly 5 days a week too. About a week ago, the 8 beeps returned, so I did what I did last time. Disassembled and reassembled. It worked again, but this time it lasted about 4 days before the 8 beeps returned. Now it seems, I'm having more of an issue.

I dissembled and reassembled but this time it didn't work. I tried a whole bunch of things including no cards at all, each card in the primary slot (which I understand to be the left hand side under the ESC key), using a monitor over HDMI. I put new thermal paste on the GPUs while I was there too. I managed to get the laptop running with both cards plugged in but the resolution was lower than full HD with no option to go higher. Nvidia Control panel wouldn't open, and the screen looked like it was using a smaller color range. There was a lack of gradient to my wallpaper and out of place colors. While booting there was a bunch of red pixels next to any of the white text. Definitely not right. When switching to an external monitor however, the picture was clear and correct. I took the casing off the LCD to check that the cables were seated properly. They seemed to be. I disconnected and re-connected them with no change to the symptons.

So this morning I pulled it out, turned it on and to my surprise, the screen looked fine, albeit a lower resolution. NVidia Control Panel still didn't load, Device Manager showed both cards but had exclamation marks and said 'Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. Then the screen suddenly changed to the less colourful, redish tint that it had before.

This is what I have tried today.
Removing the secondary card. No change, 8 beeps, nothing on-screen.
Placing the secondary card in the primary slot. No change, 8 beeps, nothing on-screen.
No cards at all. No change, 8 beeps, nothing on-screen.

This leads me to believe that this is not a problem with my graphics cards, but maybe the motherboard? What other tests can I run to try to figure out what isn't working here? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

You don't happen to have non-turbo flex support enabled in the BIOS do you? That could do it too

 

I don't know to be honest. I wouldn't have adjusted that setting though, so it should be on whatever the default is.

 

You could try running system diagnostics. I believe holding FN + Power button should do the trick (works on the R2 anyway), someone correct me if I'm wrong please

 

I still get a black screen when I use fn+power. Still the same 8 beeps. Nothing on screen. I have been able to plug an external monitor in over HDMI out and by repeatedly pressing fn+F6, I can get the external monitor to display the info about the hard drives, but after that it goes black and I get the 8 beeps. I can enter the hard drive config menu where you can set up RAID etc, but I can't get to the BIOS.

 

I'd like to give you some good advice but I don't really know if there is anything else you can do... If it were me, I'd start with replacing the motherboard.

 

Sounds like screen destroyed by edid corruption for me.

Did you used EVGA precision?

 

I haven't used EVGA precision. I've never overclocked the laptop or used any kind if performance tweaking software. It's all run completely stock from the day I got it. The only thing I changed was adding a solid state on day 1, and upgrading to Windows 10 last year.

 

I've never seen a motherboard die and give 8 beeps, usually it is 7 beeps or 4 beeps, but never 8. I would try the LCD first.

But I would do this first:
Pull your graphics cards out, leave them out, power drain, and see if you can run only on intel.

 

Yeah, Raidriar is right. Try to run them without GPUs.

8 beeps are usually

• GPU damaged so much that it can't even start
• Screen damaged or it's connection
• Screen EDID destroyed by Windows 10

 

I presume when you say power drain, do you mean hold the power button with no AC or battery connected to discharge everything? I removed both graphics cards but the problem remains. The screen does light up black, but it doesn't display any text etc, then it gives me the 8 beeps.

I did a bit of searching on the EDID corruption issue and it seems I'm probably just another victim of that. From what I can tell, there is no fix for the R1 and R2 M18X models. So do I now just have a broken screen with no way to repair it? (M18X R1)

*edit*

According to the Dell support page on the issue here;

http://www.dell.com/support/article...9da29470abbbfa4bfc9a8&ven3=471902788744878933

my graphics cards are not listed as being affected (GTX560s) I can't seem to find any reported issues of this happening on my cards.

 

Look at this thread - http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...illing-alienware-and-clevo-lcd-panels.779449/

You will find information about how to fix screen. You have two options:

• Borrow screen and start laptop using borrowed screen then hot-swap to screen with damaged EDID and flash correct edid under linux. DO NOT RUN WINDOWS USING BORROWED PANEL.
• Use hardware programmer and reprogram EDID

There was also some way using external HDMI monitor but it doesn't work in all cases.

Dont believe Dell. They just don't give a damn.

Can you also do something for us? Did you used some specific software prior to edid damage? like EVGA precision, nvinspector, monitor overclock, driver update? Did you updated Windows 10 recently or you ran it without updates?

@Mr. Fox can also help here because he's experienced with this problem.

 

Thanks for the info. I actually have a work colleague with an M18x (same model as mine) which is still on Windows 7, and he is willing to let me use his panel too. I just need to go through the thread and find out how to go about re-programming it.

Are you sure the M18x R1 can be reprogrammed? In my searching last week, I recall reading something that said only the panel on the newer Alienware 18 can be reprogrammed?

As for software I used, I never used EVGA precision on my laptop, or any other kind of overclocking/tweaking software, certainly not since upgrading to Windows 10 since I didn't install much. Before I upgraded to 10, I used a fan monitoring program, Realtemp maybe? But that was way before Windows 10. I always installed Windows updates though, and upgraded my drivers every now and then (not automatically)

 

For details ask @Mr. Fox

Looks like Windows 10 is still not safe. If you haven't used any pixel OC software then Nvidia driver or system itself killed your display. It happened to @Mr. Fox one time too.

 

You can reprogram any of them. You can use a programming tool connected to a USB port on another computer with a LVDS connection or you can use Linux. Using Linux is the easiest as long as you have a good display to work with. You boot to the Linux desktop using the good display, hot swap the bad display while still on the Linux desktop and flash it. Most Alienware laptops with this problem cannot boot from HDMI with the EDID corrupted like you can with a Clevo. Alienware had the bright idea of programming the BIOS to check the EDID during POST which is why you have the 8-beep issue. Most Clevos with a bricked LCD will still POST and either not light up the LCD, or the screen stays black until Windows loads a good EDID from the registry. Being able to do that, they can be flashed with Linux by simply booting with an external monitor connected over HDMI or DP.

Below is the content I emailed to another person a few days ago. You may find it useful.

Here is my first post where I used Linux to flash the LCD. Ignore the part about clipping the wire. That does not fix anything as we thought it might. This post has information and photos you may find useful as you prepare to do this. (I recommend using instructions provided by @t456 in the link after the one below.)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...levo-lcd-panels.779449/page-158#post-10090770

Look here for the detailed instructions and links to downloadable USB Image tool and the special Linux version with the tools and EDID files for flashing already included in the package:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...bricking-systems.781467/page-23#post-10170202

The instructions look daunting, but if you break them down, read as you go and carefully follow along step-by-step it is not difficult even a tiny bit. It will take longer to create the bootable Linux USB stick using the image tool than it does to fix the bricked display.

Note: Your M18xR1/R2 screen is the SEC5448 model. The EDID file has that name. It will be in a folder in the Linux Home folder if you download the Linux from @t456 in the link above. After flashing, dump the new EDID that you flashed before rebooting out of Linux into Windows and use the web-based EDID reader to verify the checksum is good. You should be able to connect to the internet in Linux.

After flashing, either boot Windows into Safe Mode and rename the EVGA Precision X folder or clean install Windows so EVGA Precision X does not accidentally undo your fix.

Here is another thread with a similar account with useful information including an alternative set of instructions explained by @Prema:

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...ecision-x-help/&do=findComment&comment=129490

This version of EVGA Precision X is an old one, but I am using it and find it is safe to use with any version of Windows. It works with all recent NVIDIA cards, including 980M. This is in my Google Drive. It is not easy to find it anywhere on the internet.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwdqi25LDwZyYjJTRHZVbTBXazA

Here is an AWESOME Alienware skin you can use with it. Just place the USF file in the skins folder, then select it within EVGA Precision X.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwdqi25LDwZyM3BOWnAxRUZmNGc/view?usp=sharing

 

Thanks a lot Mr Fox! That's super helpful!

Would you say I'm better off just wiping my OS drive after fixing the screen and going back to Windows 7? I don't use any overclocking type software like precision etc, but I've actually come to like Windows 10 now. From what I understand, there's a risk of it happening again, even if I don't use precision etc? Would I be okay on Windows 10 if I stuck to an older Nvidia driver and didn't update it or are there just too many unknowns to risk it?

Thanks again!

 

It's still not safe to run Windows 10 on the M18x laptops huh? I was just wondering the same exact thing since every other computer in my house is running Windows 10.

 

So, today I plugged the screen from my friends M18X R1 into mine. I went to load Linux from the memory stick after selecting try without installing, screen goes black and I presumed it was loading. It stayed like it for 5 minutes so I turned the laptop off, tried again and got 8 beeps. I plugged my own screen back into my laptop, 8 beeps. Neither screen worked again on my system after about 5 attempts of each.

I then plugged my screen into my friends laptop and it worked perfectly. So it turns out, my screens EDID is not corrupted as it works fine on my friends system. I've tried mine with the graphics cards switched, each graphics card on it's own, and no graphics cards and I still get 8 beeps. This must mean that it can only be my motherboard?

 

Yeah or screen connection

 

I have the same issue happening on my laptop, I'm actually going to be doing the whole 9 yards for fixing it, I'm going to use my m18x R1 to flash my R2's display with the EDID file, I will then use my R1 to delete any reminisce of that heinous thing called EVGA from it and I will be immediately rolling back my OS to prior to EVGA to get rid of the files. I also have the mainboard bios on a flash drive, win 10 on a flash drive, which I have 2 of all the stuff. 2 flash drives with the linux fix for edid, 2 bios flash drives and 2 windows 10 flash drives so no matter what I will be able to do this and if worse comes to worse I will perform a transplant of the screen and a mainboard if needed.

 

Good news boys and girls, I got my edid file fixed and I'm back online running full speed with my 980m's

I'm gonna have to say most likely you still need to flash the screen, I just did this and it worked great but I was wise enough to use the rig that wasn't effected with this to flash the screen instead of using the effected unit.

 

His screen works in the other laptop so it's not damaged. It's motherboard probably. If you will replace motherboard please consider selling HDD ribbon cable as it's very hard to get.

 

Might be worth to blind flash the bios on the mainboard, might need that.

To do the recovery process you need to remove your m18x r2 battery.

Unplug the back power cord as well

Plug the usb stick with the file M18R2.hdr in the M18X's e-sata port

Now hold down the END key (located above the numbers key pad) at the same time while your holding the END key plug in the power cord only, you will hear the fans turn on full bolt.

Release the end key and wait

After a few seconds once the file is read from the USB stick you will hear 20 or 30 beeps (sounds like a garbage truck reversing)

After the beeps stop the m18x will shut down and reboot itself. ( 1 or 2 times depending)

Once reboot all will be back to normal A03 bios.

Connect the battery back if you wish after successful boot.. That's all folks, things should work now unless you bricked the EC controller, which is hard to do.

Credit goes to this link. Here

 

So, an update.

I bought a motherboard off ebay and it arrived today. I performed the swap and got 5 beeps. I did the process of removing the battery, holding the power button then starting it with fn and power, and that worked. The laptop then did this system checking thing that I've never seen before. After that was done, it booted fine but I have one pretty big issue. Everytime I turn it on, I get the following warning;

"The AC Power Adapter wattage and type cannot be determined" etc etc.

When I log into Windows it shows the battery as 7%, plugged in, not charging. I can't seem to make it charge. This is the same battery and charger as I was using before, the only thing different is the motherboard. The laptop runs with no battery plugged in, with just the charger connected.

I'm wondering if the US and UK have different motherboards for the same laptop, and due to power differences, this is why it won't accept the charger? Does anyone have any ideas?

 

I have UK motherboard and 330W charger, no problems.

 

Hm. I'm in the UK and my system, including charger, is a UK one, but the motherboard I bought was from a US seller.

 

Dell uses the center pin of the plug to id the adapter. The id returned by the adapter is verified against a white-list in the bios, so ... since the old mb was fine, updating the bios (and ec) to a newer version ought to do it.

They're bastards for doing so, of course, but there you are .

 

Chargers are same, there's only one ID for 330W AFAIK. European version has EU power cable, US has US power cable and so on.

I doubt if it will change anything but you can try updating to unlocked BIOS.

 

I can't update the bios right now because the battery needs to be connected, and it has less than 10% charge, so it won't begin the process. It was at 6% when I tried.

I decided to try to charge my battery using the old motherboard with nothing connected to it apart from the battery and the charger. The first LED on the battery flashes for about half a second, every 2 or 3 seconds. I left it like that for about half an hour to see if it was charging. Plugged the battery back into the system that has the new Motherboard installed and the battery now shows 0%!

I then noticed that my old motherboard has a broken capacitor, one of the two near where the mains lead connects. It was tipped over at a 45 degree angle with one of the contacts broken. I felt it to see how secure it was and it just broke off completely. I have no idea what this particular one does but I'm wondering if that may have been the culprit of my original issue.

 

It's certainly possible if that prevent the system from providing sufficient power to the gpu. Make a photo of the pcb, that should be sufficient to identify it. Also see if you can make out the markings on the chip itself. There's also the scribbles near the chip on the mb; C = capacitor, R = resistor, F = fuse and so on.

That the battery didn't charge on the new mb could also indicate that the battery itself has shorted, which in turn may have caused the chip on the old mobo to fail due to overload.

 

Here you go;

http://m.imgur.com/edqE2pj

PC257 is printed on the PCB. The capacitor has 100 EFK-Q71 written on it. Power socket can be seen middle left.

I can probably test my charger and battery on my colleagues M18x just like I checked my LCD. We work at different branches but hopefully I can do this tomorrow.

 

PC = Power Capacitor. Looks like this Panasonic series, so the 'E' and '100' would mean 25V and 100uF in this designation system. One of these would do, all ~$1. Measure the thing first; it's either 6 or 8mm in diameter and 6-8mm tall, which could matter as to whether or not it'll still fit inside after re-assembling the laptop. Preferably order the one with lower ESR; internal resistance increases with age and heavier use, so that's likely what happened here as well.

Interestingly ... it's part of the same power circuit that failed with this M18x R1 (and several others), even if that concerned a different type of chip. Perhaps you'd best order higher quality replacements, rather than sticking with the original. Do replace both capacitors; the other one will be worn as well. Look for the same form factor, except with lower ESR, a higher temperature ceiling and/or more life hours.

 

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply!

So, my old motherboard may be repairable with a couple of simple capacitors, but as for the new one I'm a little confused. The battery won't charge on either of them and the system will boot up on the new motherboard, but not the old. I've gotta sort out the capacitors on the old board first of all really because I can't do any kinda reliable testing with it in it's current state. I'm just a little concerned that I bought this new (used -supposedly fully working) motherboard off an ebay computer shop, and it doesn't seem to want to charge my battery.

 

That's weird. I don't know how to help you with the battery, sorry

 

So, I have an update.

I am with my work colleague at moment, and his power adapter charges my laptop, and his laptop.
My power adapter on the other hand only charges his, but not mine.

I have tried switching the kettle leads round but that makes no difference. I can't really understand what's going on here. Why would my system reject my power adapter, but my friends laptop accepts both?

 

That's really odd. I don't know how or why that could be the case.

 

I have some more info after some playing around.

I used my friends adapter to charge my battery (while he used my adapter with no issues), then as someone in here suggested I updated the bios. It was already on the latest, so it just erased and re-installed. Immediately after that, my adapter worked with my system. Left it charging for a good 15 minutes. It all seemed fixed. Even shutting down and restarting didn't cause any problems. However, as soon as I unplugged it and reconnected it, it refused to charge.

After many many times testing, neither my adapter or my friends adapter had any issues charging my friends system, and his adapter never failed to charge mine. I swapped the batteries around and it turns out that it makes no difference which battery is in which system. Whichever one is in my laptop, if used in conjunction with my adapter, it won't work. I've tried wiggling all the cables to check there's no loose connections or anything and they both seem fine.

I think I've just gotta buy a new adapter and hope it wants to play nicely with my system.

 

Thanks for updating your progress. It is GREATLY appreciated that you are sharing your findings!

 

My new charger came today, and it works perfectly.

Still waiting on the new capacitors for my old motherboard but when they turn up, I'll get those replaced and see if that fixes the old board.