*** Windows 10 + NVIDIA WHQL Drivers are Killing Alienware and Clevo LCD Panels ***

I've got my replacement LCD coming in on Thursday and I will be nuking Windows 10 with a clean install of 7. I would NOT allow Windows 10 to boot again unless I wanted my LCD to get fuggered again (which I offered to test for Nvidia if they compensated me).

 

They should compensate us for the first time... Just saying.

 

still waiting for proof that it is win 10 that's causing this...so far it just sounds like spite.

 

I'm still waiting here for a plausible theory to test, would really like to find out the root cause

 

Well, seeing as how it happened after I installed Windows 10, and it happened after everyone else here installed Windows 10 - and we all have Alienware laptops - and we all have 780M, 880M, or 980M Nvidia cards running the only driver available for Windows 10, the 353.62 driver - I'd say the correlation is fairly indicative of causation here.

EDIT: And I did offer to test it out for Nvidia if they compensated me for another ruined screen.

 

if with these new drivers on W7 or W8.x you do not have an issue then there apparently is some correlation between the drivers and W10.

 

That's complete BS if i ever heard it!

this is taken from the nvidia driver page:



did you try the other drivers listed? i guess not!

so to say that 353.62 IS THE ONLY AVAILABLE WIN 10 DRIVER is complete bull! especially if you're running an aftermarket 980M because win 10 sees it as incompatible and therefore it doesn't download the drivers and so you're free to install whatever driver.

 

The thing is I was running the exact same driver (Nvidias latest driver) on win 8.1.. Used it & restarted without HDMI a number of times.. I remember because I had a hotel reservation & took the laptop with me. It was only after upgrading to Windows 10, that the 8 beeps no post manifested. So if it's the driver; why was it not acting up on Win 8.1 but started acting up only on Win 10?? I'm leaning more towards Microsoft is to blame than Nvidia. Just personal opinion based on everything I've seen thus far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

other people have been running win 10 with older drivers like 352.84 without issue so i still think it's 50/50.

 

The thing I can't wrap my head around is why it's happening to only alienwares with the specific graphics cards.
I had windows 10 installed for a week before it bricked my laptop so it still could be the Nvidia drivers btw Daniel1983.

 

@Sspawn26
@thegh0sts

Yeah, I guess it is 50/50. What kind of makes sense is a possible DX12 glitch causing the issue. This is of course pure speculation; just common sense as to "what could change from Win 8.1 vs 10" & DX 12 is the first thing that comes to mind. I can't wait until we know for certain what it is.

 

You do realize that you DON'T have a choice with Windows 10 Home edition - Windows forces whatever updates on you that Microsoft wants you to have to include video drivers - ala 353.62.

 

tried running it offline? i do believe there's an option to block driver updates.

looks like aftermarket GPUs maybe the only saving grace when it comes to driver downloads because windows doesn't see GPU support compatible and therefore won't download. if you do have an aftermarket GPU then YOU DO have a choice because windows won't install it.



the best good news ever!

 

No I haven't, and not just because my laptop is bricked because of Windows 10 and Nvidia driver 353.62 - stop being a jackass, thanks!

EDIT: You may have not read what I posted earlier, but I did describe how I installed Windows 10 using the iGPU and then swapped over to the discreet GPUs and installed the Nvidia driver after.

 

My LCD is dead. 8 beeps. I decided to try full brightness again and then rebooted for the hell of it. Dead. RIP.

- I never uninstalled/changed the drivers, kept with what Windows Update gave me (the drivers of DOOM)

- Screen powered for approx 15 hours before it died

- My AW18 shipped Apr. 2015, which means it's likely the newest of the 18s

 

When you call Alienware's Tech support, please reference my ticket number so they can link this issue - 914989593

Please post your error code, laptop model and configuration to include OS 32/64 bit, and driver revision over on https://forums.geforce.com/default/...samsung-and-lg-notebook-lcd-display-panels/1/

I'm hoping someone, somewhere figures this out and fixes the issue.

 

Welcome to the club bud! Haha

 

I don't know why, but suddenly I can't help but laugh... Nowhere under Windows 10 minimum system requirements did I see anything about what version of LCD you must have... ROFL. This is so idiotic.

 

Yes. So far the only reason to believe it is Windows 10 that's causing this is just the matter of fact that about 20 of confimed bricks happened on Windows 10 and none on any other OS.
And the only reason to call 353.62 as the only Win10's driver is just because it's the only one which came the day Win10 officially released, and still is afterwards... + automatically dowloads by OS in 98% cases.

 

Withe the majority of those cases where the GPU was the original stock GPU. The only case that differs in criteria is the AW17. That's the only reported case here where it was running a non-stock GPU (a 980m). The user would have gotten an error in the get win 10 app that the GPU is not compatible.

Others like Robbo have gotten this error and that means the user has the power to install whatever driver they want with @woodzstack have been running win 10 with a non stock GPU + older win 10 drivers on an R4 with 60hz panels without issue.

So suffice to say if you're using a stock GPU: DON'T UPGRADE TO WIN 10!!!

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Or simply set your Internet connection to metered connection and windows wouldn't dare to run auto update

 

My 780M SLI is not stock and I was the first to report this. At least one other Alienware owner with an aftermarket upgrade was an early reporter as well. I don't think this has any relationship to the issue because it affects stock and aftermarket configuration in the same way. The problem is "stock agnostic" so to speak. It's clear from the documented reports the problem doesn't care whether or not the GPUs are a stock configuration.

Robbo's machine is an M17xR3 with a Legacy BIOS that lacks full UEFI support and none of M17xR3 machines owners appear to be experiencing this issue. All of the affected machines we have identified have 780M, 880M and 980M. It appears all affected machines are running the latest NVIDIA Windows 10 drivers.

The lowest common denominator here appears to be Windows 10. It might be the NVIDIA drivers, but Windows 10 allows something to happen that should never be allowed to happen. If you look at the bogus EDID registry information that is being added with Windows 10, something is definitely not right. If NVIDIA built the driver to comply with WHQL specs and did not screw things up, then that tracks back to Micro$haft as well. We don't know who to blame, and it is not likely that the responsible party is going to accept any ownership of the blame.

Remember that layman's definition of insanity? Continuing to do the same thing and expecting the outcome to be different isn't very smart.

Bottom line: it only happens under Windows 10 as far as we know. It doesn't happen under Windows 7 or 8 using the latest NVIDIA drivers, or at least no reports of it yet. That's not spite, it's fact. If Windows 10 is not the direct cause, at the very least, I think it is more than safe to say it is the gateway to disaster. Avoiding Windows 10, at least for the time being, is the only intelligent course of action to take if you own one of the models where the problem has surfaced. Until the exact cause is isolated, continuing to attempt to use Windows 10 is a foolish endeavor and is courting disaster. I really want Windows 10 to work right on my Alienware systems. But, more than that, I want my Alienware systems to continue to function. Chances are very great that they will not if Windows 10 has been installed.

 

Oh wow... I thought you might be one of those to escape disaster. It seemed like it for a bit. Sorry you were also affected.

 

I have an m18x R1 with a single 780m. You forgot me already lol.

 

I'm glad it happened, otherwise I was going to try to find a way to induce it, either by reinstalling 10 or whatever.

 

Sorry, not intentional... too much info to keep track of. But, your setup is not stock, so that proves the point that the problem doesn't care whether the GPUs are aftermarket or stock.

Well, the more documented cases there are, the more difficult the problem is for Micro$lop and NVIDIA to sweep under the rug.

 

It would be a really good idea to add user names and exact specs of system/bios/vbios/driver info of those affected to the original post. Also every person should call Alienware to report the issue regardless of existing warranty coverage. There are far too many of us with this problem. They need to find a solution & pin the blame on exactly who caused it. Micro$haft or Nvidia.

 

Why would you want to brick your laptop? I would love to not have to deal with all this and have to pay to replace my screen.

 

Won't cost me anything, and I can take the time to experiment and maybe find a workaround. I just want to be able to use Windows 10.

 

Why no cost? It fries the screen.

 

Oh for some reason I thought they were stock.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I've thought about this too but that's quite a bit of work for sure.

 

I think we are spoiling time unless someone either decides to buy programmer an reflash firware or ship his screen (or screens) to... well somebody surely wrote that he could justify buying programmer to flash multiple displays here buy I can't find who did.
It makes me thick trying to find single post manually with only 10 posts per page. Offtopic: can I set it to 20-40 post per page? Can't find option.
Or just wait Alienware/MS/Nvidia responce... Don't think that any of them is happy to refund.

 

Might as well post this up since I get the inf files for installing the drivers from you guys. My system so far seems to NOT have been hit by whatever this is thats killing these computers.

My own system is an 18xr2 with dual 980m's. Screen on it was replaced 9months after I got it in 2012 due to faulty pixels lines trough the middle of it. Replaced the stock 690s with 980s a few months ago.

Last stable drivers on win 8.1 I had on it was the 350.12. Later drivers were buggy with stuttering on a cold boot that required an immediate restart to fix. They eventually caused a os failure that required a fresh install.

I only happened to stumble onto these threads purely by chance. Had the current drivers with windows 10 installed since the 30th. Only issues ive had was once or twice the resolution from cold boot was low when the system was cold booted while under battery power. Restarting fixed this. In addition last one or 2 boots the system came on fine but on login icons were slightly larger than normal at 125%. Reatarting or signing out and back in fixed this.

My system is still under warrenty so I'm feeling ok with windows 10 for now and in addition Ive enabled defer updates in win update. Will change out the drivers as soon as a hotfox or update comes along. I also only use the laptop for a few hours at a time as well. Will provide more information if yas want.

Edit: Tried installing the earlier win10 drivers but they dont work on my system. They restrict vram usage to 180mbish while playing ffxiv and I was forced to reinstall the current ones over it.

 

Alienware will only refund If you are under warranty, Microsoft won't because we waived or rights upgrading to windows 10. Nvidia probably won't respond till we get more people or media pressing them..... I'm pretty sure we are SOL.

 

Anyone with a clevo getting these problems?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

I had been running Windows 10 from Feb until about early July.

Checks my Alienware 18:
GTX 880m SLI
Windows 10 build 10162 (started with 9926, most recent was 10130).

nVidia drivers 10.18.13.5330 (6/17/2015), which is version 353.30, I understand?
I started with 332.70 (maybe) back in Feb 2015.

I disabled my NICs (LAN and WLAN) within Win 10 back in July as I wasn't feeling the need to download any more builds to test. I went back to Windows 8.1 on my SATA SSD. I left Win 10 alone on my mSATA SSD. Now I am glad I did!

 

I've been going back and forth with Nvidia in the ticket that I opened. They are now trying to blame this issue on the fact that we aren't using Dell's OEM driver for Windows 10. Pretty stupid especially for those running completely OEM who got this problem with automatically downloaded and installed driver version 353.62.

I laughed and asked if they were for real then requested to speak with their supervisor / manager.

 

The driver version Dell has for the supported Alienware laptops is 353.54. Has anybody, who successfully installed this driver without any forced updates, ran into problems?
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...tails?productCode=alienware-18&driverId=VJW59
(Copy and paste link into URL bar. Dell's links act weird with me.)

 

I wonder if that driver would work on those pcs with aftermarket 980m GPUs upgrades.

 

Yes, if you modified the .inf file with the proper laptop and video card values.

@Mr. Fox - there are now 2 reports of dead screens with non-windows 10. An m18X R1 user with a single 780M with Windows 7, and a M18X user with 8.1 and 880M SLI.

 

I may know about one of them already. Can you have them post in this thread along with what drivers they were running? If not, I will look for the posts and ask them myself after work.

 

Im glad I got my Origin PC 3 weeks back, ever since then I haven't touched my Alienware 18, afraid to do so now even on Windows 7 who knows maybe it's the latest nCrapia Drivers that are burning the screens with their overclocked refresh rates?

 

Windows 10 is working as well as can be expected on the Panther. Still takes a hit on CPU performance and Windows 7 is still performance king. Basically what we already knew from my tests with the M18xR2. Crappy physics performance, LOL. Yay.

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/3dm11/10164323/3dm11/10164262

 

Hey, let's just keep releasing inferior products until everything is either broken or people stop paying us money

 

A level 2 service tech responded rather quickly to me when the case was escalated. Nvidia has, in so many words, acknowledged this issue and is actively working with Dell to find the problem. It may not help those of us with broken LCDs, but at least this might just get fixed and prevent future cases of this from happening.

 

After all you've been through! Steel! They're made of steel!

 

Will anybody try to follow Gustav's info about software reflashing? One of his links tells that you can install Linux and flash EDID. https://forums.geforce.com/default/...samsung-and-lg-notebook-lcd-display-panels/7/
http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=21232

 

Any reports of M17XR3 laptops with GTX 560 with dead screens ? Afraid to upgrade from Win 7 Pro to 10.

 

I don't have the GTX 560, but my M17xR3 is OK with Win 10 & 353.62 driver so far - I've had it installed & turned on 15 hours a day since 29/7. My hunch is that you would be OK, but it is your own risk to take of course.