M7700 help: broke!

I have a an older Alienware 7700 and it is having some issues. It will go through the start up screen showing you the bios information and then change into a black screen with a flashing _ at the top of the monitor. I am wondering if the video card is going out, as opposed to the mother board which is what the guy and the geek squad thought, because yesterday it went into a crazy screen with black red and white boxes flashing across the screen in a very fast weird manner but I am unsure about what is was because I am simply not that smart with computers. I'll take any help I can get on this...I have found a replacment mother board and its $400 but if its just a video card thing I would rather not by the board just to find that out. Also, when I try to reinstall windows using the system recovery disk it says it cannot find a disk ( I have two hard drives loaded in it) so its leaving me confused.

 

Well I am pretty sure you have a re-branded Clevo D900T (aka. Alienware Area-51 M7700, Sager 98x0, etc..).

HDD Errors:
Your description of a blinking underscore after the POST seems to make it an HDD error.
- you need to get into Command Prompt to do a CHKDSK C: /F
- or use an XP CD (USB Floppy with SATA drivers or slipstreamed CD) to get into Recovery Console to do a CHKDSK C: /R

Memory Errors:
you should also do a memory test (using MetTest86+) to make sure your RAM is good and not causing errors.
Read here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=142746

Videocard:
Although it can be videocard if you see artifacts on the screen.... more than likely from heat... if you say you are not good with computers.

The D900T is the first high-end gaming notebook, therefore, most owners did not know that a gaming notebook needs more attention than a typical notebook.... usually the dust in the vents and fans will accumulate and needs to be flushed out with a lot of compressed air (cans is easiest).

"If you take care of your notebook, it will take care of you." -Gophn

Motherboard:
As for motherboard, it may seem ok since its still POSTing.

Loading Windows XP:
If you want to reload Windows XP on the system, you will need a USB Floppy with the SATA drivers (found in the driver CD and online Clevo vendor's sites). Press F6 when it tells you to install SCSI, 3rd-party, etc...
.... or you can just use nLite to slipstream the SATA drivers onto a new XP CD, then you would not need the USB Floppy.

_______________
If you want to setup RAID for Windows XP or even Vista without having to deal with floppies or an extra disc....

... just slipstream a Windows disc (using free programs like nLite or vLite) with the SATA/RAID drivers, as well as what ever drivers you want
- compile the disc
- burn the bootable ISO image

Then you will have you custom Windows disc with pre-loaded drivers for RAID and whatever else you slipstreamed... the installation process would become much quicker now.

 

KillerCucumber,

What kind of hard drive setup do you have? Also, have you tried reseating internal components?

 

Here is my famous Copy-Paste.... because I think you are one of many owners that are guilty about not taking care of their systems' health.
___________________

If you are overheating... usually any temp over 90C degrees is bad.

when was the last time that you cleaned out the fans and vents thoroughly...?

if never, then thats why.

1) remove battery
2) remove/unscrew the panels on the bottom of the notebook to get to fans and vents (if possible)
3) use flashlight to look through vents for the dust (if you cant see the light on the other end, then the vents are clogged up)
4) go outside, get some compressed air (cans or compressor @ 50 PSI) and give the vents a good airing out all directions ( concentrating on the vents)
.... you might want to brace the fan blade(s) when airing it out (with a toothpick or paperclip to prevent it from spinning out too much)
.... or use short bursts (1-2 secs) of air instead of bracing the fans.
5) go get some Q-tips and swab the fan blades and the area around it
6) then go do a second airing with compressed air (all directions again focusing on the fans and vents) to push out the dust that was dislodged from the Q-tips

7*) Now go use the flashlight again and look through the vents (shine the flashlight from the fan, you look through the other end) for anymore dust clogs.

8) Then start up the notebook... and let the fans cycle up (use the Fan Toggle at max speed if your system has it) to push out any other dust that might have been stuck.

If all goes well you should be able to close up the notebook and...

you're done.

*repeat this step until its cleaned out.

Thats pretty much it.

Just make sure to do this every two-three months... it should take about 15-20min per cleaning if you want to be thorough.

________________________

Gaming notebooks are a new thing, you must realize that you have to take some extra care of them over typical use notebooks:

1) Battery: to maintain the longevity of any rechargeable battery
- you must NEVER overcharge it [especially for long durations of time] by keeping it plugged into AC
- when it reaches 100% you should unplug it and let it discharge to 5-15%, then plug it back to power
- OR you can just charge it to 50%+ and remove the battery and store in cool place.. not the fridge [remember to use it occasionally 3-4 time a year to charge and discharge it].

2.) Heat: to prevent a healthy notebook from overheating
- ALWAYS use the notebook on a clean, hard & flat surface
- RECOMMENDED to be used on a notebook cooler... namely the Zalman ZM-NC1000 or ZM-NC2000
- check your fans underneath occasionally (at least once a month or two) for any dust clogs [clean them out with Q-tips and air cans/compressors]
- ALWAYS monitor the temps (CPU, GPU, HDD, etc..) to watch for fluctuations, which would indicate overheating by dust usually
(for Clevo notebooks) use the Fan Toggle to switch all fans to Max Speed when gaming and such.

By doing these simple things, your entire system will easily last for more than 3 years.

 

Guilty as charged...and I will admit it, both myself and my laptop are Iraq veterans, and Im sure the dust out there did not help it. However, it has been cleaned by a computer/laptop repair shop by my old house since then when they were trying to determine the problem with it. I will tear it open and clean it once I am at home though just to make sure.


As for the hard drive setup, its just two 60 GB hard drives, one slaved to the main drive. I have tried only using the one hard drive, using an empty hard drive and attemped reinstalling windows on it, reseating the battery, ram, hard drives etc. and have also had the ram tested and its all good. I have even put the parts into my other laptop, a low end Compaq I got last year(that severly out preforms my wifes mid grade Insprion) and have had no issues with them.

 

Firstly, most computers shops probably have never worked with such a custom notebook, and they would not know what to look for to clean it out.

the HDD might have errors, especially if your system ever crashed or BSOD'd

if you do a HDD check or use CHKDSK C: /F (in Command Prompt), it will determine if there are any errors or bad sectors.
- if there are bad sectors, then you need to replace the HDD

if you do not mind on formatting, then that would due fine to wipe over HDD errors (not bad sectors though).

you will need a USB Floppy Drive with SATA drivers or have a slipstreamed XP CD to have the XP installation detect your HDDs.

 

Cannot do a disk check, no command prompt. I am in the process of trying to slipstream the cd, however, I have NO CLUE as to how to do that. I cannot find the SATA drivers nor do I know what to do with them once I have them on the CD with my windows install. Is there any where online that shows how to do it? google aint cutting it... Also, cleaned EVERYTHING out, and it was not that dusty in there...Im hoping its just the drivers, that will make this so much easier.

 

KillerCucumber,

The SATA drivers can be downloaded from our support site (support.alienware.com) - You can put these drivers on a USB floppy drive and when running the recovery process, press F6 to specify additional storage that Windows won't be able to detect.

 

Ok, through the magic of history and the other hundreds of people who have had this exact same problem before me, I have found all of the steps on other message boards as well as through this one. I got nLite, downloaded the drivers for the D900T (didnt see Alienware-James post untill this morning) and started to burn the CD....5 episodes of Weeds, one bed side night stand from Ikea assembeled and a pissed off wife later, the cd was still being burnt untill it poped up a message about a character length having to be under 260 in length. At that point I said ok, it looked like it was still burning and I needed to go to bed. I woke up this morning and my laptop was turned off...Soooooooooooooooooooooooo I am going to go home and see if it worked, if not, USB floppy here i come. and I believe it was all ready stated that you cannot use a USB flash drive, right?

 

Ok I got the floppy and it then got it to let me attempt a repair of windows XP, and I did it and did a disk check. It told me that one or more area was bad....Now what? (inexperience SHINNING THROUGH!)

*UPDATE* K...So, I put in my original hard drive by itself, and I had the breakthrough of it loaded up in safe mode ( the first time in a year and a half that it has loaded windows or anything for that matter) however it took about ten minutes to load and then froze up after I logged in and could see the desktop. I have not been able to repeat this.

Second, I put in a BRAND NEW hard drive and attempted to do a check disk, it said it was damaged as well...yeah...

 

if you have bad sectors.... not just errors...

then you HDD needs to be replaced.... since it will only cause more problems if you keep trying to use it.

- get a new HDD and make that your new primary HDD to install Windows onto.
- you can connect that current HDD (with bad sectors) as a secondary drive to copy over important info over to the primary drive.

then send that bad HDD in for replacement... if its still under warranty... most HDDs have at least 3 years