m18x R1 8 beeps - help with Troubleshooting

It's been a good couple of years with the m18x R1 and I am more than happy that it survived hassle-free all this period.

I was running on a single 780m, however, after a casual system restart, it I suddenly encountered the 8 beeps and black screen (backlight on) with no post.

I have tried the following but with no gain (all result in 8 beeps and black screen, no post):

- Changed the 780m back to a working single 7970m
- Tried to boot with no GPU's to see if I can boot on IGFX
- Hard Reset & Clearing & Drained CMOS
- Re-seating RAM
- Re-seating display cables
- Holding FN doesn't work
- Booting from battery, then from ac again
- Cleaning LVDS cable plug and port, removed back of the LCD and re-seated the cables

Basically took it apart and reassembled a couple of times with the same result.

I think that 8 beeps might refer to a bad GPU, LCD failure, LCD cable, Motherboard. I know I am fortunate to have gotten a couple of years without trouble, it just seems strange that this would happen after a casual system restart.

I am on Windows 7, my R1's specs in signature. I was running Mr. Fox's GeForce 345.20 mod which is an awesome driver by the way (hats off to Mr. Fox).

The warranty is already expired, thus I hope & truly apprecaite if someone can help me with the process of elimination to rectify this problem

 

Are you running Windows 10?

If so, your display panel has been screwed up and will need to be replaced.

*** Windows 10 Upgrade Warning for Alienware Owners ***

 

I am on Windows 7...I can see that the back light is on even though the screen is black while beeping

 

All the things you're tried are the right things. In this case, I would try blind flash next since resetting the CMOS did not work. Since it will not boot with no GPU (using Intel HD Graphics) you have corrupt BIOS settings, which the blind flash would fix, bad LVDS cable or bad LCD. It could have a bad motherboard as well, but not as likely as one of the others.

 

Thank you brother Fox for the advise...
Gonna try blind flashing now and see what happens

 

Ok so I just finished a successful blind flash but I still get the 8 beep code with black screen (on), even with no GPU...

This is the first time I experience this, and honestly I am just not sure how to proceed from here...

 

It's either the LVDS cable or display. I think your motherboard is probably fine since it took the blind flash. I asked if you had Windows 10 installed because this is exactly the same symptoms I had with three display panels almost immediately after installing Windows 10. In my case, replacing the display and getting rid of Windows 10 fixed the issue. I was able to successfully blind flash as well. You can buy a used LCD on eBay for under $200.

 

I bought both lvds and new lcd, here is to hoping this will be the end of it.

Awesome help as always, thanks Mr. Fox!!

 

Please see this information: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...alienware-owners.779449/page-58#post-10065469

Even though you do not have Windows 10, please go ahead and send the email.

 

Done

 

Please keep this updated on what you find out to be your problem. I am too having the exact same issues shut down my laptop to do a windows 7 update and when it restarted it never booted up just black screen and 8 beeps.

I just recently had an 8 beep issue but was able to diagnose the problem to a bad 560m so I upgraded to 780m and the problem went away, but in troubleshooting I bought a new motherboard so I swapped the new one in today and still black screen and 8 beeps

Mine will not boot with gpu removed either.

So this leads me to believe even if you don't have windows 10 the new update can still mess with the lcd screen maybe? My cheap Toshiba laptop did the exact update with no problems at all for what it's worth

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

If you have one of the affected models, please click the link above and follow the instructions even if you do not have Windos 10.

 

Ok I will send in that information ASAP! but in the meantime Mr. Fox do happen to have any suggestions on what to do with my m18x r1 now? Or would the best thing to do would be just wait?


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Just for your info, but I did not even update windows 7 since last year as I am not a big fan of random microsoft updates...my belief is that if you don't have a problem, then dont ask for one

Anyways, please do report your case to Mr. Hernandez as indicated in Mr. Fox's instructions, and with enough people, dell will hopefully give this the attention it deserves

 

Well, nothing lasts forever and the first LCD that I had that went bad I dismissed as a random part failure. There is no way to know if your situation and @ahmadmud are caused by the same thing or not. It may be unrelated, but reporting it is still a good idea. As far as what to do, I would find a used display panel on eBay and fix it. Your machine is too nice to retire just because of the LCD. It will still very powerful by today's standards and has a lot of life left in it. And, it is made a whole lot better than all of the disposable BGA plastic trash notebooks that have flooded the market. You can't touch a laptop half as nice or half as powerful for 5 times the cost of a replacement LCD, so the decision to fix it should be a fairly one.

 

Ok thanks for the advice I did go ahead and purchased a new LCD earlier today so hopefully that will fix my problem. Thanks again for the information.

 

A quick update on this issue:


Just wanted to let you know the results of troubleshooting my 8 peep problem in this thread:

I found out that the problem was with the LCD, as the m18x r1 started working properly after only replacing the LCD and using the same old Motherboard and LVDS cable.

I would like to note that this LCD failure happened while using the GTX 780m, on Windows 7 and the modded 345.20 driver

I think that this is very weird as this driver is excellent and I did not see anyone else complain about it.

I have windows updates turned off, and I am on service pack 1

I am currently running on IGFX with no GPUs, and I am thinking of using GeForce 344.75 Desktop Driver Mod once I install the 780m again.

Not sure what to make of this other than a random LCD failure after so many years of service, but just wanted to hear an expert's opinion on the subject.

 

It may not even be related to the problem with Windows 10 or updates to get machines Windows 10-ready if you have none of the updates installed. Remember, when my first LCD failed I dismissed it as a "normal" failure. They do fail once in a while. It wasn't until my second and third LCD panels got killed that I actually identified that there was something other than wear and tear in play. Nobody running 345.20 had any issues at all that I am aware of. As this has happened once in a great while due to other circumstances not relating to the current issue, I am inclined to believe it was just a coincidence in terms of timing in your case, but that doesn't make it any less uneasy to think about. I'm glad nothing else is wrong with your system. I am running my 345.20 mod on my M18xR1 and R2 now with replacement displays and everything is fine.

 

I had the same thoughts, but as you mentioned, the timing of it all is just weird.

I am have been reading about your results with the CooLaboratory Liquid Ultra, and it is just too tempting not to try it, following the mentioned directions and precautions of course.

So, now that I have the new LCD working on IGFX, and have run DDU to remove traces of old drivers, are there any tips for installing 780m, or is it just plug it in, start system, then install drivers?

 

All I did was boot using IGFX and use DDU to uninstall all drivers turn off pc, install 780m, reboot using IGFX, install drivers for 780m, reboot using GPU, done!

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LCD failure is still pretty rare, by all lines of measure.

 

Yes, that simple. There is nothing special about the process if Windows 10 has not been installed and you have not installed all available Windows 7 or 8 updates. If you have been running with Automatic Updates, then I would do a format and clean install, then immediately disable Automatic Windows Updates in group policy.

 

Auto Update is never "On" for me, I think my last update was late 2014...

I am thinking of buying the new Metal Gear Game, but not sure if the latest Nvidia drivers are safe on non-updated Windows 7...

Something fishy is going on with Nvidia these days...

 

That's good. You're probably good to go then. I'm very leery of installing anything from Micro$oft or NVIDIA on my laptops now. I need some detailed answers first. I don't know who to blame for my bricked LCD panels, so for now they are both in my cross-hairs. I think Micro$oft is probably our chief nemesis, but I'm not happy with either company. Before the LCD damage there was my 780M SLI throttling issues that are CLEARLY caused by NVIDIA's crappy drivers.