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

Any advice on how to make sure the new panel doesn't die as soon as I try to fire it up? I'm still on windows 7 with a 2013 m17.

 

So, I used "secure boot" and pure UEFI, windows fast boot, hibernate, XTU, raid0, bitlocker. Overclock CPU, VGA and LCD. My LCD panel is Samsung 184HL (Dell XJY7J) (SDC4C48). Motherboard with hardware power swithes on PCB (04WJJ9, old revision?). Bios A10

 

i have secure boot off but fast boot on in the UEFI.

 

Those are really nice. Mine has them too. It's really stupid they removed those and the mini-PCIe slot next to the WiFi slot on newer revisions. But, having an older motherboard didn't save my LCD from the EDID curse.

If you're on Windows 7 and wiped the drive Windows 10 was on you should be good to go. I have not had any issues with the two panels I replaced on Windows 7 or 8.1 at all. I am using older drivers on both machines because they are 780M SLI and all drivers newer than what I am using induce severe throttling. Plus, I'm still not totally comfortable using the new cancer drivers that killed my LCDs under Windows 10. I'd recommend at least using a driver version released a month of so before July 29. If you already have never drivers installed, I'd probably just diskpart clean the drive attached to the USB port on another PC, pop it back in and do a fresh Windows 7 OS install to be 100% safe. It's not worth the risk. If you don't have the means to do that, boot into Safe Mode and run DDU before letting Windows load normally, but even that makes me a little bit uneasy. After all, who is to say whatever caused it can't run in Safe Mode and screw up the EDID?

 

I never installed Windows 10, it bricked with windows 7 + those drivers. I'm running raid 0 so I can't hook the hdd up with a USB port to another pc. I guess safe mode + DDU and hope for the best?

This also happened shortly after disabling optimus for the first time with fn+f5. Not sure if that's related or not.

 

Till someone from those who are responsible for this joke comes with a decent answer, you should stick to drivers older than 353.62 on any operating system.

If you are a witcher 3 player I would stick to 353.06 for W7/8/8.1 and 353.38 for W10

 

Fast Start-Up option disappear after hibernation was disabled, but nevermind. It seems that almost everyone in our community doing the same after windows installation. So, need to search somewhere else...

 

. . . this just gets progressively ridiculous by the day.

 

I plan on doing that ASAP, I just want to make sure the new display doesn't get killed before that happens.

 

The AW 17 with the 120Hz panel that blew a couple of days ago was a clean install using a DVD created with the Micro$haft "Create Media" icon, on a HDD wiped with White Canyon disk eraser.

 

I posted it on the wrong discussion, i was not aware of some model ' s problems and i only wanted to show my positive feedback on my 2 aliens!

 

I think there is a HIGH probability this had something to do with it. You were booting with Intel HD Graphics until Optimus was disabled. When it attempted to fire up the display using the NVIDIA discrete graphics, KABOOM. This also seems to point to an NVIDIA driver problem since you were running Windows 7 with the latest GeForce driver.

Here's another piece of advice to avoid killing the new display. Remove your NVIDIA GPU so the system MUST use Intel HD Graphics and boot up that way with the new display panel, then kill off everything NVIDIA with DDU. Run DDU in Safe Mode a couple of times, then in normal mode run CCleaner's registry cleaner and file cleanup features. Then reinstall your NVIDIA GPU and older drivers.

 

Hey guys, the long-awaited AW2015 is finally here and officially supports the 980m too. Link is:
@Mr. Fox @Kade Storm
Does that mean it will be easier for me to upgrade my 880m to the 980m given that the 980m dell version is finally available?

 

It might. Check the main Alienware forum and you will see a thread for this.

 

He bud. Follow my instructions above and you should be safe. Once everything is back up and running, please dump your vBIOS with GPU-Z and send it to me in a zip file. Check your private messages.

 

So excited, finally the 18 is back and ready to kick some major ass. BTW @Mr. Fox , do you think I'll be able to upgrade my CPU to the new skylark ones?

 

No skylake is a different platform all together.

 

A Skylark is Buick, but as Brother @pathfindercod pointed out it is a different platform. Plus, we don't know for sure if Skylake is going to be any good yet. We hope it will be awesome, but we should always be careful about hurrying up to grab something only because it's new. That's what the OEMs want us to do. I even have to remind myself... 3 dead LCD panels later, LOL. Second example, I have Windows 10 running fantastic on my Clevo and *drumroll please* it's a pile of crap OS.

 

Yes, like the panel you posted; LTN173HT02-T01 (SEC5044), which is LVDS. Really, this 3D/120Hz is like LVDS on acid; 60Hz+60Hz (left+right). It's just able to run very, very fast (hence it's a TN, to boot).

Thanks for the edid.txt, btw ; the SEC5044 is installed three times, but that's not alarming in itself and edids are fine (and identical):

Spoiler: 3x 128 byte edid SEC5044

Code:

edid_1_(SEC5044\1&8713bca&0&UID0):
00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,00,4c,a3,44,50,00,00,00,00,01,16,01,04,95,26,
15,78,02,a0,55,8d,51,5a,96,2a,1c,50,54,00,00,00,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,
01,01,01,01,01,01,01,5f,39,80,dc,70,38,40,40,30,20,35,00,7e,d7,10,00,00,1b,
00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,3c,96,10,fe,00,00,00,00,fe,00,47,4e,
33,36,54,80,31,37,33,48,54,0a,20,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,21,9e,00,00,00,00,02,
01,0a,20,20,01,d1

edid_2_(SEC5044\5&11918292&0&UID0):
00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,00,4c,a3,44,50,00,00,00,00,01,16,01,04,95,26,
15,78,02,a0,55,8d,51,5a,96,2a,1c,50,54,00,00,00,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,
01,01,01,01,01,01,01,5f,39,80,dc,70,38,40,40,30,20,35,00,7e,d7,10,00,00,1b,
00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,3c,96,10,fe,00,00,00,00,fe,00,47,4e,
33,36,54,80,31,37,33,48,54,0a,20,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,21,9e,00,00,00,00,02,
01,0a,20,20,01,d1

edid_3_(SEC5044\5&11918292&0&UID1090640):
00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,00,4c,a3,44,50,00,00,00,00,01,16,01,04,95,26,
15,78,02,a0,55,8d,51,5a,96,2a,1c,50,54,00,00,00,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,01,
01,01,01,01,01,01,01,5f,39,80,dc,70,38,40,40,30,20,35,00,7e,d7,10,00,00,1b,
00,00,00,0f,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,3c,96,10,fe,00,00,00,00,fe,00,47,4e,
33,36,54,80,31,37,33,48,54,0a,20,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,21,9e,00,00,00,00,02,
01,0a,20,20,01,d1

The first one runs over Intel HD and the other two point to nvidia (why two ?). One odd thing is that the second-to-last value is ' 01' (not ' 00', as is usual), meaning you have one extension block with extra data, but these are not included in the registry. Other panels didn't have that, but still failed, so ... probably nothing serious.

Mind that Daniel1983' edid was fine in this section as well, it was the 'driver' section that was wrong. Can you post the results of the other two three exports as well?

Code:

regedit /e classes.txt "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\"
regedit /e driver.txt "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\"
regedit /e control_panel.txt "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\Settings\Video\"

That will also help to find out how switching is taking place (the Class section). The 'Video' section might be overkill, but it shows '1Hz' optional on my system's eDP panel ... new power saving measure, perhaps.

It's not; they're a different species. DP = eDP and FPD-Link = LVDS, where the first of each pair is the external and the second the internal variety. Think the reason it took so long for eDP+3D is that something went unexpectedly wrong during development; FHD+eDP+3D needs 50-pin (and only 30-pin sans 3D), whereas LVDS can get away with 40-pin for both. That's probably not how they intended it; major selling point of (e)DP is fewer wires and, thus, lower cost.

You're surprised ??!

Before you zero the drive and re-flash bios; maybe write a bios export (afudos export.rom /O). Would be nice to find out whether MS does indeed do crazy stuff while it's installing 10 ... that is, presuming you haven't turned on Secure Boot ... (j/k).

 

This analysis is quite interesting but confusing.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Thanks for clarifying The edid.txt I attached was generated under Windows 8.1 Pro.
I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro and I attached the new edid file.
Do you think there'll be any difference in Parameters?

Cheers

 

What? You reinstalled the cancer OS again? Really? Why?

 

probably to get the EDID information.

 

If so; don't.

In fact; don't install Windows 10 on a Dell system at all. That is to say, any Dell system.

Not much, it seems:

One thing is display's "Capabilities"; changed from 224 in 8.1 to 228 in 10. Should be possible to find out. Main thing is Miracast, noticed this before; nvidia removed (or relocated) " Miracast.VirtualAudio" completely between 353.62 and 355.60. Strange thing is, indeed, that it's nested within the display section. And, funny enough, think it may be the result of all hubbub created by affected customers; ' better safe then sorry', might be nvidia's motive. Only ... it didn't help; 355.60 killed panels as well.

And nvidia's 'display link' changed a bit, but that could also be the result of a different driver version:

If you're still running a session on 10, then please run this .bat and drop the result somewhere:
http://www.filedropper.com/exportedidanddrivervalues

Problems only begin after a reboot, after all. But if you're not runing 10 atm; remove that virus at once and revert to something else ... anything else. XP was pretty good, I thought.

 

I'm always remove unwanted folders from installer, like this: http://c2n.me/3mn9GO0.png

 

↓

 

I hope it ends well. You're a brave man. *tips hat*

 

I am tempted to upgrade to windows 10


Alienware 18 Silver-Anodized Aluminum| 4800MQ i7 |512gb SSD, 256GB mSata SSD & 750gb 7.2k rpm HDD | Nvidia GTX 780m SLI | Blu-ray |16GB DDR3 | Logitech G700 & G15 | 4yr Warranty 11/2017

 

I would like to note that I used 350.12 on Win 8.1 & I'm using 352.84 with Win 10.
I attached the requested files : driver.txt & edid.txt.
Classes.txt here:
http://www.filedropper.com/classes

Couldn't generate control_panel.txt I don't know why.

 

We've all heard about the cure being worse than the disease, but in the case of the urge to install Windows 10 it's hard to tell the difference. The cure is the disease.

 

In case something goes wrong, they might replace your 18 with the new 18 , 970M/980M in SLI

 

Wouldn't that be a convenient use for Windows 10? I knew if we tried hard enough we would eventually identify something that it's actually good for, LOL.

 

If only I didn't need my laptop to VPN for work. I will get my m14x r2 up and running for work and then test out windows 10 on the 18. Alienware 18 laptop is already at the depot getting some work done. Once it comes back I will stress it and load up windows 10.....mwahahahahaahahaahahha


Edit: Good info right here about FREE Windows 10

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-faq?ocid=win10_auxapp_AnswerDesk_win10faq

 

Hey @Mr. Fox , can you tell me what your highest 3dmark firestrike score is for your 780ms?

 

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2330540
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8291584

 

wooohoo - its back.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-18/pd

Same CPU as you have Mr. Fox, maybe we'll see some BIOS revisions now

 

Already posted the announcement video here bud so kind of late Anyways I hope the 18 will officially support the upcoming 990m so I can upgrade my lappy.

 

990M is probably BGA because MXM couldn't handle 190W TDP.
Also 330W PSU won't handle two 990M so I think they won't include it in AW18

 

- you were able pre-order it from CEG in MXM if you have more money than good sense ($1600 USD for one 990M)
http://www.ceg-hardcorecustom.com/category/mobile_gpu_nvidia (pre-order link gone now)
- 330W was not adequate for heavily overclocked 680M SLI, not adequate for more than a moderately overclocked 780M SLI, and not adequate for stock 980M SLI

 

LOL.
I think you might have mentioned to early BJ that you had not used your dual power bricks for a while, maybe with 990's you can break them out again

 

I'm curious about the 980M SLI since the new AW18 still shows the 330W power supply in their spec sheet.

Homer

 

I got the laptop back couple hours ago from the depot and of course Aliewnare did not fix it. Now I have some wierd graphics glitching and they have thermal paste smeared on the lid and palm rest. Man these guys can't ever get their act together. I did a simple upgrade to windows 10 and installed the problem driver 353.62. Working fine (as in at least turns on) for couple hours and running 3dmark. Single card is running 924 on fire strike extreme 1.1. Is that score right for a single card. I just enabled SLI and it is now in windows. I am about to run a sli benchmark.

@Mr. Fox

 

@faiz23 - not sure what the FSX single GPU score should be. I've never run that in single GPU before.

Some of the videos I can see the artifacts you are referring to. That may be caused by the display running outside of specs if the EDID is getting fouled up. Is your BIOS in UEFI, UEFI with Legacy Option ROM (CSM) or Legacy mode? If your machine is going to act up as others have, you may not encounter a problem except at cold boot or reboot, but most likely cold boot. I never had any display artifacts. All three times the display seemed abnormally bright (but still very sharp and clean looking) and Windows 10 kept trying to set the display scaling to 125% even after I manually set it back to 100%, then later got the 8 beeps problem.

 

Those videos were on windows 7 and first thing I noticed when I received the laptop back from Dell. Does this score look right for SLI extreme


1574 Score
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8273427?

Edit: My score is low also compared to this run : 4974


http://www.3dmark.com/fs/741814

Here is Firestrike original : 3200


http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8273638?

Edit: Seems low

Compared to this run for same CPU and GPU : 7826
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/1222069

Here is Firestrike original : 3200


http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8273638?

Edit: Seems low

Compared to this run for same CPU and GPU : 7826
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/1222069

Here is Firestrike original : 3200


http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/8273638?

Edit: Seems low

Compared to this run for same CPU and GPU : 7826
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/1222069

Bios is in legacy mode

 

This is what i got http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5706362

 

I hope the 990m does have an MXM variant as I am really looking forward to it once it gets a price drop so maybe after the launch of Pascal. @Mr. Fox , when casually playing CSGO and the witcher 3, I can notice weird frame rate drops as well as clock drops sometimes. I downloaded a program that shows battery and watts usage and lo and behold, apparently my 880ms are using nearly 423W. It does not hppen too often though and a restart generally fixes it. I know @Kade Storm mentioned that but is there any way for me to do the dual PSU mod?

 

You can do it but it won't really help because Alienware did something different with the 18 to were it shuts itself of at a certain threshold. When I use my dual AC adapter setup on the 18 for overclocked benching the system shuts off due to lack power at the same point regardless of whether I have single or dual AC adapters connected. That's the "power handling limitation" you may have seen me chirping about in the past. Maybe we will find the new ones with 980M SLI had that fixed, too. I would be wonderful to be able to use the dual AC adapter like we can with the M18xR1 and R2. Guess we will have to wait and see.

 

I don't want to sound pessimistic but from my point of view, the 2015AW18 is nothing more than the 2013 AW18 with the addition of the maxwell gpus. Same motherboard, same chassis, same CPU combination. That being said, I hope I am wrong and that there actually is new features like proper power management. It would be great if it came standard with dual psus just like your clevo.

 

All those scores look terrible to me. Something is definitely messed up.

 

Going back to 7 since Windows 10 was boring. Their is some sort of heat/throttling issue. To think Dell depot repair ticket states they did extensive testing to correct the issue I was experiencing. Dell replaced motherboard, fan and heatsink. Did not even test or notice the artifact at idle or surfing the web. I have escalated the ticket for system exchange after 3 unsuccessful repairs. Thanks god for 2 years of warranty left. I can add 1 more yr for $205 otd.