HDMI issues and consistency checks problems

Alright, I spent way too much time last night trying to get the following two (unrelated) issues resolved and after a very frustrating conversation with tech support, I figured I'd best post here (after using the search function to see if anyone else was seeing this and what the solutions were of course).

Using the HDMI connection, with a known good cable (use it on my 360 and another laptop) causes both my laptop screen and the Sony widescreen to go blank. Disconnecting the HDMI cable and pressing fn+f6 does not restore the screen to the laptop. I am running the latest released drivers (replacing the NVIDA beta drivers was the first thing I did), I am not running on the 9400M (dual 260M's) and I've tried various resolutions all to no effect.

Now due to my being forced to powercycle the system to get the display back, the system began coming up with the "...must perform consistency check" warning on Windows start up. Only it wouldn't ever run, the countdown would get to 1 and hang, forcing me to hardboot again. And again. And again. Until I began hitting the spacebar to skip the check. Until the next reboot of course. I finally let it sit hung on 1 all night, before coming in this morning, hardbooting it and then having it kick off the consistency check, without giving me an option to skip it. Rather odd that.

The check ran, found no issues and successfully booted.

So now I'm back to trying to get the HDMI to work.

Anyone had any luck or advice on how to get this to work? The forums search turned up that it should be plug and play. Only mine seems to be plug and sacrifice a virgin or something.

 

If your using Win 7 You Could try the 187.66 Nvidia Drivers I uploaded in the M17x Win 7 thread. I was able to use hybrid sli and my external display (tv) with hdmi and they worked great.

 

Are you able to get sound on the TV through HDMI? I have never been able to get this to work.

Thanks

 

Hi SpecKane,
What model of Alienware laptop do you use? If it's an M17X, there is a new driver that helps some HDMI related issues. Visit support.dell.com and make sure your drivers are current.

Thanks,
Gabe

 

Can you be specific what driver you're talking about?

Thanks

 

Hi,
There are two drivers that I have tested and found to work with HDMI.

Windows 7:

Video driver

260 - Here

280 - Here

Keep in mind that these are the old video drivers, as I have yet to verify it with the new drivers

Sound driver
Here

This sound driver fixed an issue where the sound would act erratically with HDMI

 

GabeZ,

I'll give those drivers a try tonight. Last night I tried the drivers recommended by wordtothawise with the same results I had with the "latest and greatest".

fc2462, because I have a blank screen, I haven't checked or done anything to test the sound. After upgrading to the recommended drivers, I'll kick off a copy of "Tank Girl" and let you know if the sound plays and the video works.

Here are my system specs:
Dellware M17X
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9000 @ 2.00GHz (OC 2.25GHZ)
4GB DDR3 1333
dual 260M
2x WD 320GB HDD (7200 rpm) RAID 0

 

After screaming, crying and throwing various tantrums about this issue I was able to resolve it by replacing the HDMI cable with a new one.

Sometimes, a cable is just a cable, other times its the root and source of all frustration.