m15x-R1 8800M GTX HDMI recognition issues! Help appreciated!!

Hello All, I am new here, but I have been lurking these forums for a while looking for solutions to my (MANY) m15x problems.

I am running an m15x-R1 I purchased in June 2008 with the following specs:

Core2Duo T9300 @2.5gHz
500GB HDD
4GB G.Skill Ram
nVidia 8800M GTX

I have had countless problems with this system and I know I am not alone. The original video card fried while I was still under warranty so Alienware "replaced" it for free. It happened again a second time (slowly), aka it would overheat every time I would play a game so I just used my computer for e-mail and word processing and all the other things I need for school. Finally the 2nd video card took a dump. Now, normally I would hit the computer with a hammer and cut my losses, but I graduate my 5-year undergrad program this coming June and I absolutely can't afford a new computer before then and I would like to able to run CAD and Modeling software on it so I decided to buy another 8800M GTX from ebay for around 150$ and squeeze another 8 months out of my computer.

I installed the card only to find out that it has different heat sink mounting hardware, so after some messing around I figured out a solution for that. Now the card is in and I am running Alienware 176.xx drivers because that's the only thing that works for me (186.03 blue screens me). I went to use my hdmi tv as a second monitor and the computer WOULD NOT recognize it no matter what I did.

I have since installed several different drivers on the computer thinking this would be a software issue, because the HDMI cable worked with both of my previous 8800M GTX's. So after eliminating the software and thinking that in all likelihood the card is not the problem, given that this is the same part number as the ones I had before, I'm thinking it might be a video card BIOS problem. Does anyone have any experience with this? If I can't get this to work the card is going right back up on ebay and I'll run onboard video until I can afford a new computer. I really would like to use my second monitor, so this is a major problem for me.

Thank You In Advance!


(Note: Moved from m15x forum)

 

I was about to reply and then I read the last paragraph and my first guess is the same as yours. The 8800m may not have come from an alienware and is possibly running a different VBIOS. You could try to flash it at your own risk but you may have to buy another card or live without HDMI. Instead of getting an Nvidia card though you should have gotten an ATI card like the 3870. Many on the forum here discuss how much more reliable these are and I can confirm that the 3870 works fine with HDMI in the m15x.

 

Thank you for your reply!

I wish I had known about the compatibility of the 3870, but if this card lasts me 9 months, I will be happy. I am not looking for a permanent fix, just enough to get me through to the end of school to the point where I start work full time and can deal with this the way I should have dealt with it 2 years ago; by buying a new computer.

As far as the card's physical compatibility with HDMI, I'm fairly certain that this card is the exact same part number as the cooked one I took out of my computer, so I would be VERY surprised if it is actually not capable of playing nice with HDMI.

I'm hoping for someone who has had this issue or a similar one to reply here so I can learn some specifics about the problem. I have done some searching and found this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/543866-vbios-update-8800m-gtx-9800m-gt.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/541456-hdmi-no-signal-hdtv.html

So I'm hoping I can painlessly flash the vBIOS... but we will see.

Again, thanks! your input is appreciated