The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    M15x help!!

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by Fancysauce, Aug 7, 2013.

  1. Fancysauce

    Fancysauce Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    144
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    So for about a little over a month, I took a trip to Korea, and I brought my computer with me. While I was over there, it started to act a little weird by the screen turning white at random times while I played games, but the sound was still fine. At the end of my trip, my computer seemed fine for browsing, playing music, etc. I just got back 2 days ago, and the first time I booted up my computer yesterday, the white screens were coming back only a minute after booting! also, I'm getting BSOD very often, usually after my computer goes all white. At the moment it seems that my computer is fine, but once I start putting pressure where my right hand is placed, the screen will go white. once i stop putting pressure, the screen comes back, and it seems like the computer is running fine. plz help!

    EDIT: is there something going on with the gpu? that would be my guess since everything seems fine except graphics-related stuff. oh and another thing is that sometimes when I boot up, after about 2 minutes my screen starts to show purple and green pixels everywhere. Games also have low performance as well.
     
  2. fatboyslimerr

    fatboyslimerr Alienware M15x Fanatic

    Reputations:
    241
    Messages:
    1,319
    Likes Received:
    123
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Definitely sounds graphics related. Has your 6970M previously worked ok? I might be worth taking it out, putting new thermal pads and new thermal paste on and reseating.
    That might solve the problem or your gfx card might be on the way out. Do you have BIOS A09? What driver are you using? Try 13.6 Beta or the new 13.8 Beta.

    Can't say I understand this one but it wouldn't hurt to do a power drain by taking out battery without AC jack plugged in and pressing power button down for about 30 seconds. That seems to solve at least a few weird problems on M15x.
    Don't suppose you still have the original gfx card that came with your M15x? Could try that.
     
  3. Fancysauce

    Fancysauce Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    31
    Messages:
    144
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    My 6970m has been working well, and this is the first time it's been acting up. I have BIOS A08 and I have the 13.3 beta driver. I'll try out the new drivers and see if that does anything. I'll also see if a power drain will do anything. I also do still have my original card (5850m). The thing is though is that at the moment I don't have any new thermal pads or thermal paste lying around at the moment, so I would have to order some new ones.
     
  4. fatboyslimerr

    fatboyslimerr Alienware M15x Fanatic

    Reputations:
    241
    Messages:
    1,319
    Likes Received:
    123
    Trophy Points:
    81
    Its good to be totally sure what the problem is. I would try re-seating your current card when you get some paste and pads but perhaps give the card a good clean and make sure no thermal compound as ended up anywhere it shouldn't be i.e. on voltage capacitors or VRAM chips etc. Re-seat it and if the problem persists try the old card.