M17x GTX 280m Upgrade Failed?

So dell finally sent out a tech to upgrade my single 260m with dual 280s.

however, when the tech instaled them, the system would not go past the "press f10 for alien respawn..." he tried to blame it on windows update, of course, if the system hasnt booted up yet, I dont think its a factor but whatever...

Anyways, when asked to reinstall the old card back in, he said I should talk to dell tech support due to the fact that its "obviously" a software issue and that I should know better next time than to let windows update just do it's thing.

I told him that I cant do that, I need this system working for work. He wanted to leave because he already spent 1.5hrs on this.

Anyways, no bios settings solved the problem and he ended up reinstalling the old card, and OMFG, it works.

I did notice that dell failed to send a second fan for the additional video card, is there some sort of failsafe to prevent overheating? or was it just a broken card?

 

for what you say that dell tech don't know what he is doing because you can't install a graphic card with no fan and another thing when you upgrade hardware in most cases you have to uninstall drivers for the selected device before you swap it

 

Dell has been having a lot of issues with the onsite companies they've been working with.

They fired the company that they worked with for years here in the valley area of Los Angeles.

At work, they used a different company and they also got fired two weeks ago. My surprise when the tech guy that had been coming for years was not there... He was such a moron... Every time he repaired something he broke it even more.

When the tech guy came to change my M17x LCD that was defective, he broke the touch sensitive bar, he broke the plastic back cover and a glass on the kitchen counter that I had given him since he was thirsty. I was laughing my off when he called Dell and I listened to him ordering all the parts he broke. Dell was on speaker and was asking the tech guy how the parts were broken. He answered ashamed that it was his first M17x and he was not sure about the manual instructions...

When he came back 3 days later with the broken parts, he finished repairing the system but 3 screws were left out. All he said is "oh, don't worry, if I did not see where they went then they are not important screws".

I was so mad, I called Dell in front of him, gave them my case number and told them what the guys said. They sent another tech guy next day from a different company to find where the screws belonged.

Then just a few weeks ago, I had to call Dell again for a broken fan issue and I asked them not to send the company they've been sending before. They said they fired them.... YES..........


COMPLAINING DOES WORK....

 

Well, they need to dump this one too. I happen to live in Chatsworth. I think he said they come out of Santa Clarita.

It's QualXServ.

Anyways, Talked to Alienware Tech support, and they confirmed my assumptions that there is a fail-safe that prevents the Video Cards from powering up if they do not have both fans working.

They have re-ordered the cards and included the secondary card's fan this time.

We'll see...

 

is going to take time but it will be fine good luck

 

Priceless!

 

Wow Lord-Anubis you live pritty close I would say about 65miles from me. I can walk a Half Mile and be in LA county. Grapics card tend to Run up to a high temp like 100c to 110c and shut off like CPU to prevent them from damage.

 

This is exactly why I asked Dell to just send out my parts and I would install them myself. It's surprising how flexible they are in that regard but no one will take care of your stuff better than you, no loose screwdriver scraping and extra care on the more sensitive parts, the tech doesn't care.

 

I sent my frist gen m17x and who ever work on the system lost 2 screws and stripped one screw. My laptop still running 102c in crysis.

 

So the system isn't booting at all? If it just hangs at the "press f10..." screen, it probably doesn't even find the OS or your HDD.
Switching out one Nvidia card for the other shouldn't make your OS unusable. And Windows Update also has nothing to do with it.

Are the Hard disk(s) properly recognized by the BIOS?
If so, are you running a RAID array? In this case you'll have to switch the BIOS from AHCI to RAID and in NV RAID Configuration, enable it for both disks/SATA ports.
If not, your HDD might not be connected properly.
Also, check the boot device priority in the BIOS that the hard drive you've got Windows installed on is your primary boot device (all the way to the top) and that there are no CDs or USB sticks present.
Just stabbing in the dark, but I hope this helps.

I also had some bad experience with the technician Dell sent, by the way. He had never seen the system before and almost broke my display when he tried to rip it out when the hinges where still screwed in. He also dropped my CPU on the floor, bending a couple of pins in the process when exchanging the Mainboard. I decided that next time, I'll just let the technician watch and do the repairs myself.

 

Really? I had them come around to me to replace the LCD in my old M1730 and had no problems with them.