Alienware M11X R3 Black Screen Freeze

So, got brand new Alienware M11X R3 less than a month ago. Since then my screen has randomly turned black with green or orange flickering edges. I cannot cntrl alt dlt out of this screen, I have to hold down the power button to restart.


After calling Alienware tech support, they guessed that the problem was that because I installed new drivers for the GT 540m from the Nvidia website that I some how managed to damage my mother board and screw up optimus. I cannot reinstall windows now because I don't have my disc (I am at college, disc is at home). Either way, Alienware is saying that because I downloaded a third party driver, if this is what is causing the problem I have voided my warranty.

This is beyond my abilities, any help would be amazing.

I have been coming to this site for a while now (admittedly a lurker) but it has solved many problems for me before. This is a great community, I hope I can contribute to it.

 

Not got one of these yet, but it's always worth running through some of the standard tests (and I know I hate it when I ask a question and no one answers for a while!) -

- Is the screen always broken or does it work sometimes?
- Does it work with an external monitor? (if yes, and successfully when the internal one isn't working, that hints at a hardware problem).
- Can you see the BIOS screens fine or is the problem restricted to the OS itself?
- Does it work with a different OS? Grab a linux live disk and boot that up and see what happens... this also leads to:
- Back up what you can as soon as possible! Live CDs have saved my bacon on more than one occasion as you know you can make your data safe before you potentially completely break you machine trying to fix it.
- Have you tried rolling back to the older drivers?

Hope that helps out, let us know how you get on, and hopefully one of the gurus here will be able to help you better than me.

 

They're blowing smoke. Call back and have someone else handle your case. Nvidia drivers are NOT the cause of your problem and are in fact intended to be used for Optimus systems. Whoever you spoke with didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

 

I might not have been very clear about what the problem is. I might be randomly doing whatever, surfing the web, watching a movie on VLC etc. and the screen will just go black. I cannot navigate out of it no matter what. Tried plugging it into an external monitor but I'm still waiting for it to duplicate the problem. I wouldn't imagine that it would respond on another monitor. I have a hard time imagining it is a problem with the display because when I am watching a movie or listening to music and this happens the audio shuts off. I have tried rolling back to the original drivers, this did nothing.

I don't think I will be backing up, there is nothing on here that I am worried about losing yet. Only steam games and music that exists on other computers too.

Cheers mate.

 

That's what I was thinking, the guy I talked to was very frustrating and seemed like a bit of a joke.

 

Agree with you here - sounds like a more widespread fault than just limited to the visual display. Follow slickie88's advice and harass Dell! Good luck, sorry couldn't be of more help!

 

I too am having the same problems. I called Alienware Tech Support and they are sending a guy to replace my Nvidia GT 540M card... apparently the guy thinks that is the problem. Will let you know what is up when it is replaced.

 

Hello,

I'm having exactly the same "black screen freeze" problem on my new M17XR3, and a Alienware Tech Support guy will come monday to replace my Nvidia GTX 560M video card.

Did the replacement of your video card fix the problem ?

Thanks !