Screen blacks out in Area-51 m17x after 5 secs - Suggestions?

Dears,

I am using ALienware M17X. The screen of my system blacks out after 05 secs. This happens even when i doing something. I have to close and reopen the lid to get it back or I will do Fn+ F6 to get it back.

I have checked all the settings for fading but it ain't working.

Some other diagnostics I have done,
When I try to start "ALIEN Fusion Control", Command center hangs up. This doesn't happen for Alien FX and Alien Touch
When the LID is off for more time, the blackout time interval increases for first couple instances.

I am suspecting that Physical Switch is not working or it is stuck.
Please I need help, this is really very frustating.

 

Try the 186.82 or 195.XX drivers and see if that helps.

 

I would rage so hard if I waited 6 weeks for my system and then this happened

 

Initially I was thinking there was some software problem, but when I was looking into BIOS, samething happened so it has got something to do with hardware

 

explain:

"Something happened" ?

Also, try the following:

*Take out the battery
*Unplug the power cord
*hold the powerbutton for 10 seconds

Go into the bios again and see if that "something" still happens. If it does, it might be something wrong with your MB. You will have to call D ell

 

Thanks Mate,

I meant "same thing", i.e., screen got black when I was in bios. If the problem was related to software, it shouldn't have happened when i was in in BIOS.

I will check the option you told and revert.

 

Done it, still same ..

 

Well, yesterday I found somethig very strange. When the PC is started without power connection (i.e., on battery) it works fine without any issue. But if I plugin the power or start the PC with power connected, the screen blacks out in a couple of seconds.

Any help here

 

Since it happens even on the BIOS screen, this is not a driver issue.
Start with the easy stuff first, call Dell and get the PSU replaced. If that doesn't help, they might have to replace the battery pack (even though it's working ) and so on till the issue is resolved...

 

But one thing I am confused about .. whenever i connect to external display everything is perfect (with power plugged in) , why things are messing up when I connect power without external display.

 

Switch up your display drivers to start. It sounds like it's a GPU issue. What GPU cards do you have?

 

I have 2 x NVIDIA 8800 GTX with SLI configuration,

I have installed 17x.xx, 18x.xx and latest 195.xx versions but the result is the same

 

By PSU Do u mean http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sn...&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=450-13434&mfgpid=1904653

 

You have a Area-51 m17x, right? I think this was esablished earlier. You should specify as there is a difference. The power supply you linked to is for the Dell/Alienware M17x system which was released back in June of 2009. You need to figure if its compatible.

Best of luck.

 

I totally agree with you. I am trying to contact ALIENWARE but for some reasons the call is dropping. I am located in Saudi Arabia hence i can not go to them. No email reply as warrenty expired .. so i am totally clueless now.
Only reson for above post is that I wanted to understand what is a "PSU",

Of course I will check the compatibility before ordering it.
Many thanks for the support. You can imagine how much frustated i am right now. My system worked great till it was under warrenty. I never contacted alienware. Now I need them and the reply i got was "Sorry, your system is out of warrenty. You can not get support by email. Please call us .. the charges are 28 pounds per support"

By the way, though off topic .. can you tell me how to change the post topic. I tried to change it but the topic of my post was changed only

 

I will change it. As an alternative, since you are out of warranty, you might consider going aftermarket for any parts.

 

Thanks Man ..

My question still stands, the picture i mentioned is PSU or not ?

or it is something inside the notebook

 

Have you connected an external display? Try that and see if you can reproduce the 'blackout'.

 

Yes, I have checked with external display and everything goes great without any problem

For one hour i connected the external display, I checked with games, movies .. no blackout

 

OK, Yesterday i plugged the system in 110V supply and no more backout .. though some flickering is there

I really wonder why the problem is on 220V volts

 

OK, Its back .. /me crying out loud

Here is the summary of my findings

When power supply is connected, Black outs happen but on battery mode, everything goes just fine

Two days ago, i plugged in 110V instead of 220V (i regulalrly use 220V), no blackout till yesterday .. from this morning same scenario .. though still battery mode is working fine (Thank god).. but as I have mentioned in anoth post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=462326 that I don't have control on alienwarefx, so battery power is used within 30 minutes.

External Displays are working great without any problem

 

seems like no more suggestion :/

 

OK .. one new finding, I reset my laptop to factory settings and it worked OK for some days, now it is showing same symptoms again.
I think problem started after the BIOS was updated by latest Command Center version (which I installed when I switched to Win 7)
Can anyone tell me how to check the current bios version and does anyone have some old bios with him for me to revert to

 

Restart and go into the bios (can't remember which key, splash screen will specify) and it will tell you what version you are running on the first page

I'm pretty sure the command center can't upgrade your bios automatically, as I know that you have to do it manually on the r1 & r2

From the issues that you stated it really does seem like a power supply issue. I would replace the psu

 

Thanks Mate, actually I have Area-51 M17x , not r1 or r2.
When I was installing the command center, it updated the bios automatically. Well, it is just a thought. I will see if I can find a new PSU.

 

Hope it works out. You should be able to pick one up on ebay.

What I meant by the r1/r2 comment was that on those models you have to manually load the new bios by either burning a cd or booting from a flash drive. I've never heard of a bios automatically updating.