M15X Boot Problem

Hi All.

I am really hoping someone can help with this as I am tearing my hair out!

Behaviour of my laptop until today!
More often than not when I go to turn on the laptop, the two alien heads light up but absolutely nothing else happens. Sometimes if I leave it for long enough in this state it will suddenly boot after anything between 10 mins and 5 hours (random).

Also, if it does successfully boot into windows and I go to restart the laptop or shutdown and start-up, the same thing as above happens, as in both alien heads light up but nothing else happens. I sometimes have to leave the laptop off for hours before it will boot up again. I’m not sure it is a heat issue as it can happen if the laptop boots into windows and I shut it down straight after booting and then try to restart with the same behaviour as above. At this point the laptop hasnt had a chance to get hot.

Beahviour now!
When I press the power button the two alien heads light for about 10 seconds and then they both turn off again and I cant get them to relight when pressing the power button until I remove the battery and the power cord.


I have tried all the tircks after searching the web, e.g., power button drain, bios battery removal, starting on battery only, starting on power cord only etc.

I fear it may need a mobo replacement but I just wanted to know if anyone else was having this sort of trouble before I go spending loads on a new mobo.

I have a 2009 M15X with the first gen i7 processor, 4gb ram, 1 gb NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX260M.

Sorry for the long post but wanted to give as much info as possible.

 

Try removing the hard drive and try with one ram stick if possible.

Sounds like the motherboard needs replacing.

 

I suspect it might be your harddrive perhaps. It might be worthwhile to try ssj92's suggestions first before messing with a mobo replacement.

 

Have tried both memory modules indiviually with and without the hard drive and no change.
The fans dont even come on, the hard dirve does not powerup and the screen does nothing.
It's literally just the alienhead on the power button and the alienhead on the lid that light up for 10s and then turn off again.

Strangly if I press the power button while the power cord is disconnected but the battery is in the lights stay on.

Don't think I will be buying an Alienware again. And I had such high hopes for it.

 

If possible try a different 150w/240w adapter (nothing less though) and if not you need a new motherboard.

 

Aw, don't say that. When did you get it? If you got it at launch, it has served you well for 3 whole years. That's a VERY long time when you're talking such high performing components and heat involved. I'd consider that lucky!

As for your problem, it seems the laptop is having some power issues internally and if you've tried booting on battery already or just with the charger, then it's a safe bet the motherboard is defective.

 

Thanks for all your help guys. I have ordered a new mobo and will have to see how I get on once it arrives.

Maybe posting again if that doesn't solve the problem.

 

Hi All, again.

I have now replaced the motherboard and it works great. Boots everytime I press the power button so I am assuming there was a power issue/bios issue with my last mobo.

Now I have another problem.

When I power on, I see the alienhead onscreen at post and it boots into windows fine. The only problem is where black should be on the screen is replaced with what can only be described as white noise, only the white is green.

I have reseated the GPU a few times and reseated the cable on the mobo a few times, wiggled the wires a bit but nothing changes.
Also, if I have background of all white then there are horizontal flashing lines of red across the screen.

Strange thing is if I use a vga cable to an external monitor it is showing fine.

So just a few questions.

1) Do I need a new LCD, or maybe just a new inverter for the LCD?
2) Also, does anyone know if the GPU card has a split feed, one to the external monitor port and one to the LCD?
3) Do these later M15X models have the built in graphics on the mobo that you can swap between or is the GPU board the only display output in the laptop.? Ive read about starting the laptop with onboard graphics by pressing the right mouse button to boot up etc.
4) Finally, could it be a problem with the new mobo or do none of the graphics get routed through the mobo?

I appreciate all the help and feedback.

 

What CPU do you have? On the clarkesfield cpu;s only the i3 and i5 s have a on die GPU. If you are running an i7 (720qm-940xm) then there is no built in GPU on the CPU die only the dedicated GPU card.

Considering the external screen seems to output fine I cant say at all for certain that your GPU is faulty. I would hazard a good guess that the LCD cable is damaged.

You can find a replacement cable on ebay I believe and it shouldn:t be costly. Luckily with the M15x it is a true barebone laptop so the LCD cable is a completely separate component that can be unplugged both at mobo and at the screen end. Replacement is easy enough.

 

Thanks for your reply KOI.

That makes sense then as I do have the i7.

I will try a new cable next.

Does anyone know how to remove the hinge cover at the bottom of the LCD case?
I have removed the 5 screws and both sides of the cover lift and come away from the LCD case but the middle part does not seem to want to budge at all. Dont want to apply too much pulling power incase it breaks in the middle. I have read the service manual which is no help at all and I have looked at videos on the Dell website and on YouTube but they show it only needing a single finger to pull the cover from the case.

Thanks for now.

 

to get at the lcd cable I think just removing the top part of the hinge might be adequate.

sorry to hear you are having these problems.

 

Hi all,

I have changed the lcd cable but to no avail.

I'm now worried it might be to do with the new motherboard as the graphics goes through that.
As I said in a previous post when I plug in an external monitor all is fine.

Has anyone got any other ideas before I end up spending hundreds on a new lcd panel for no reason?

Unfortunately I don't know anyone else with an M15X so I can't interchange parts to single out what part is at fault.

Close to giving to a shop to sort and just foot the bill.
Or it might be traveling through a nearby window at high speed. Lol

Thanks all.

 

You can run the BIST by pressing and holding the “D” key while the system is booting into windows, but sounds to me the issue would be related to the LCD as the image looks fine on an external monitor.