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

Would be same for me with that 3200 result.

I think i had the same about results when i bought it about 1.5 years ago. Wouldnt be win 10 issue. I wondered how on earth on such setup that Iron Strike benchmark is lagging huge from start to finish, but i just assumed i had not good enough machine for this test. I didint try now with switching fn+f5 now and doing the test straight from ndivia card as i am still worried that i might have that lcd failure(fn+f5 doesnt work anyway, thought its because i dont have ge force experience installed, but only 353.62 direcly from windows)

 

I had no issues upgrading to windows 10 for 5 hours and then going back to windows 7. I never tried a cold boot and had it on all the time. I did restart it at least 15 times.

 

Windows 10 + Official 353.62 Drivers are Killing Samsung and LG Notebook LCD Display Panels

 

Have Microsoft stated something about this horror problem?

 

How much of a snowball's chance in hell do we have in getting our broken panels fixed gratis I wonder? (should they be repairable)

 

Accountability from the Master of Disaster?
Let's see now... telemetry, forced Windows Updates, removal of administrative controls... They do not care about doing the right thing... 100% crystal clear from their behavior.

Well, Brother @t456 is a whole lot smarter than I am about this sort of thing and I have no doubt he can fix it. Reading his posts is like ZOOM right over my head right now... techno-babble to a noob along my order of magnitude. But, I am 99.9% positive that I could probably do my best impression of a monkey and handle a rote process with sufficient hand-holding, then teach others how to play monkey see/monkey do.

As far as Micro$lop or NVIDIA paying for new LCD panels for everyone, that probably not going to happen. But, given the fact that a blind crisis recovery flash still works on at least some of the affected machines, it might be possible for them to develop a software solution for us to revive them via a forced EEPROM flashing process. Technically, they are still good parts with screwed up firmware. But first, they have to figure out what did it and remove it, or it's just going to keep on happening.

 

Man, this sucks balls Mr. Fox.

 

It sure does. Big time... but I've learned a valuable lesson about listening to that still small voice and letting others be Micro$lop crash test dummies. Never again!

Anyhow, in accordance with the prophecy... Skynet is online and self-aware.



And, when I posted this (below) you guys thought I was just exaggerating and being silly. Unfortunately, so did I.

 

Sounds like nVidia does not want anyone to beat their desktop versions using a laptop anymore. It HAS been laptops that were beating all the records for awhile. Probably hurts their sales. Also, it probably Hurts DELL's sales when no one wants the new Alienware's with those nVidia external GPU solutions, what they call it, graphics adapter thingy ?

When for 2,000$ you can get a SLI 980M clevo using a i7-4970K CPU with dual 330W psu's your easily beating any desktop equivalent in the same price range, in terms of performance. Alienware's come sorta close, but they do not have the desktop CPU, so the price goes up... (i.e using 4940XM, course just buy one of those engineering sample that were stolen from INTEL and your good to go)

 

Anyone know where I can get the Alienware Windows 8 ISO I used to have one, but can not find it, I do however have like 5 AW windows 7 dvd's and usb sticks.. but can not find a single one of my AW windows 8.

So anyone know what I should do to get it ? Or does someone want to send me a link to a ISO.... I think I will create a backup plan incase my windows 10 install kills my LCD.. (I use external monitors... but recently my EXTERNAL monitor died. It was using an miniDP connection. No idea if it is windows 10's fault, but I got a new monitor on its way)

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media
download the "create media tool"

 

Use drivers older than 353.62 and you won't kill a thing

 

Well I highly doubt that cause for 2000USD, you can get two 980Tis which for sure completely annihilates both the 880m sli and 980m sli with desktop CPU and dual PSU mod. The highest 880m sli score is around 15000 and the 980m is around 24000. 2 980Tis should give you around 40000. Laptop gaming will always be more expensive than desktop gaming.

 

Dell's own Nvidia driver 353.54 for Aw17/18 ?

 

In a change of circumstances I've now got an Alienware 17 R2 with Gtx970m.

Am I safe to update to Windows 10?
Should I even bother?

I've noticed there's issues with the 780, 880 and 980 series.
Any reports of 970m's going bust?

 

I don't trust dell enough ... Using 353.38 hotfix and it runs flawless

 

My 17R2 (980m) has been on Win 10 using Nvidia's latest driver for over 48 hours now. No issues thus far, you should be just fine.

 

I've upgraded a number of systems to Windows 10 including my previous M18x with dual Hd6990m and after I ironed out a few errors things seemed to be ok....

I'm covered under warranty regardless so I'll make the jump and let you all know if I land on grass or spikes.....

 

There is a way to 'fix' your screen - you would be able to boot into Windows and use the laptop again. For this to work, one needs to have OS installed in full UEFI (legacy disabled, secure boot can be on/off, does not matter), nvidia card will not work on full power until the display is replaced/firmware reverted to the original settings. It is only tested on my R4 with Optimus, it will probably not work with 120Hz screens due to the way it is connected. You could also change your OS from legacy to UEFI if data loss is ok - when in BIOS, legacy can be disabled and OS re-installed in UEFI mode.

What I did is took my brothers HP DM4-3002 and disassembled both screens. When any LCD (LED bl) with 40 pins connector is connected, Alienware works fine, so one can go into BIOS and enable UEFI (+disable legacy). Also remove the OS HDD just in case, so that the machine would have no chance for booting into Windows and screwing up another screen when nvidia drivers kick in. Then connect the original screen back to the laptop and it will no longer give 8 beeps - it will post fine and boot into windows. Nvidia card should be installed for this as machine might not post on Intel VGA (I am using SLV7 modded VBIOS). If it boots to black screen, connect hdmi and uninstall Intel VGA drivers in device manager (marking delete the driver software), restart PC - it will boot fine (no more black screens). Then, nvidia drivers can be installed (with modded inf in my case) - the screen will work fine for time being until the resolution is found. HDMI will not work without Intel drivers, but when Intel drivers are installed, laptop will boot to black screen. Games won't run properly as well, so this is a temporary solution only. We need to find a way to restore correct EDID info to the affected panels. In the meantime I also learned how to mod the drivers inf files, not that it would help at this point

 

I tried removing the HDD and even nvidia card, but nothing helped. Laptop would not post at all and multiple cmos resets either did not work or A13 BIOS in R4 defaults to UEFI with legacy enabled, which is when the 'broken' display does not work at all. That tool only works in Legacy and does not work in UEFI even with secure boot off (it was always off anyway), which can't be achieved at this time. I could run any other tool in Windows though if that would help.

Please disable driver installs via Windows update:

 

@Mr. Fox
I just got my new screen today and my laptop is 8 beeps again!!!
I didn't even boot into windows. I used a bootable usb with windows 7 ultimate. I had just got done installing all The drivers when it broke. I was using your Nvidia 345.20 driver and not the new one.
How the hell could this happen?!? I'm stupid and forgot to enable EUFI so I can't boot from HDMI either.

 

@Sspawn26 The only logical conclusion is they gave you a busted LCD. It wouldn't be the first time a replacement part that arrived did not work. Had that happen a couple of times.

 

It worked though. Did it just happen to break within the first couple hours?

 

Hard to say, but I had a couple of incidents where they sent out a replacement defective GPU and a few LCD's that were in worse condition than the one being replaced LoL.

Booting off of a USB should in no way reproduce this same issue we are having on a completely different OS. Others who replaced their LCD's are just fine.

 

What are the chances of the BIOS getting altered in a way that causes the screen to break? It just seems like way too much of a coincidence to me that it broke so fricking fast. I took every precaution to make sure this didn't happen.

 

Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?...

 

I don't know. It is really strange that you never loaded Windows and already have 8 beeps. You may have a bad LVDS cable or even a motherboard problem. Maybe the display you received is messed up. There are a number of things that can cause the 8-beep problem.

I am curious, however... How were you using any GeForce driver if you never booted into Windows after installing the new LCD panel? That does not make sense to me. If you mean the 8-beep started before Windows loaded, that's normal and expected. It happens when the BIOS looks for a display output and cannot find any.

If you had downloaded and installed Windows Updates, that may also be where you went wrong. Whatever part of Windows 10 is allowing the damage to occur could theoretically be facilitated in Windows 7 or 8 as a Windows Update, perhaps an update to make the older OS Windoze 10 cancer-ready. Micro$haft is already pushing cancer out to Windows 7 and 8 users to inject their spyware into systems of people that refuse to move to Windows 10. Automatic Windows Updates needs to be disabled completely to avoid disaster.

 

I never booted to windows 10 after the replacement. I was restarting my fresh install of windows 7 when it happened.

 

That's great news, actually. At least one part of the mystery is solved.

Yes, sure could. Anyone else too, of course, but you do need the proper tools first (~$75-ish). Did find a nice interconnect to make things easier, but you'd still need a programmer and also might have to swap its wires around first; pin location is not standardised.

Could make one, if anyone wants to try. Things is that the system has to pass POST, so either for semi-broken system only or some way to ignore the broken display. That, most likely, needs a special bios ... which might proof impossible to flash ... a Catch-22. Writing directly to the eeprom would be sure to work, only question is whether damage is permanent or it is, indeed, software-only. Would guess edid-only as well, seeing as they worked fine(-ish) just before the reboot and reported dead right after.

Thinking ... there's plenty offers for pre-programmed (v)bios chips. Could do the same for display eeproms (a novelty ...), but would need close-up photo of each type of display's pcb. Have to know the exact IC model present, buy a score of blank chips (only a few $s) and then program these with the correct edid. Shop can de- and resolder it. Or diy, of course. As for preventing this from happening again; depending on the specific eeprom, there is a very easy option to make it read-only:

There is a Windows-based tool that could do this, but that needs proper handling (it can write to anything ). Easier to make the same tool, only with UEFI-boot this time. Want to give that a try?

Wonder how this works ... have you ran MonInfo yet? Perhaps it's showing the HP panel as the current display ... either way, it's much easier; only need write-tool (and the correct edid, of course) .

Ah! Or it's a ' quick boot'/' fast boot' type of thing; limited check for POST. Running extended boot, reset to defaults or cmos reset ought to cripple it again, if that is the case ... wanna check that ? (j/k)

Quite so. Since edid eeprom was written to (when it was not supposed to), it stands to reason that the (v)bios eeproms are at risk as well. Of course, it always is; that's what its nvram is for, but with the current scenario it might affect read-only sectors as well.

Think the safest course would be to re-flash the bios, ec and vbios first chance you get. Any corruption present would be undone, even those invisible and not of importance so far. Clearing cmos alone would not suffice here. Also; format drive completely, including the boot sector (UEFI still uses this, as well).

Doesn't help you much atm, though ... maybe try mariussx's method?

 

I can't boot at all even with an HDMI so I can't try anything other then replacing it for a second time.
I'm going to see if I can send it into dell and have them fix it. I'm beyond frustrated with this crap.

 

I'm attaching the moninfo save file for my 120Hz Alienware 17 display. It's an SEC5044 according to the EDID. I'm hoping this may help someone. Still not having any problems with my Alienware 17 on Windows 10.

 

Yes, why not, do you have a link to the software? I need to get the proper display firmware image of LG LP173WF1 (TL)(B3) as well.
Might be useful:
http://www.avnet-embedded.eu/filead...r_TFT/LG_Display/LG_Display_LP173WF1-TLB5.pdf

I can't get the USB to properly boot in UEFI, will try that in 3 days when I can get the easy to use files for both UEFI boot and DOS on the same pen drive. Although usually DOS software does not work if you boot in UEFI I think (I will confirm this in 3 days as well).

MonInfo only shows samples now, not my monitor info. I did not boot past BIOS with HP screen connected as a safety measure. HP screen might have been corrupted, which would be a complete disaster. I will try installing Intel VGA drivers with HDMI connected later and try MonInfo again a bit later (watching a movie on TV at the moment).

EDIT: connected hdmi, installed intel drivers and attached proper file now

Fast boot and Secure boot were disabled. Legacy USB and UEFI usb screenshots below.

 

I'm not having any problems running Windows 10 on my m17xR4. I have a 770m. I haven't looked through this whole thread yet, but sounds like it's not the video card that's at fault. I do have a 120hz screen for the 3Dvision if that helps.

 

Not everyone is immediately affected. There is no way to tell when it will happen. Also there has only been one case reported of the 120hz screen so that could have just been a coincidence.

 

That's wonderful. Not everyone is having problems. It is random, but you are very fortunate to have not been affected. The only information you need to read to understand the problem is post #1 and post #2. Dell and NVIDIA are working to try to figure out what is causing the EDID corruption and stop it from happening. It seems to be GeForce drivers and a connection with Windows 10 causing it.

 

Okay, so really any possible cause at this point is speculation. I'm thankful I haven't had any problems so far. I upgraded, unaware of the problems some people are having. Guess I really lucked out.

 

Correct, the problem is clear, but the cause is not. So far, only NVIDIA machines are affected, and around 8 of 10 reports are on machines running Windows 10 and 353.62 drivers.

 

Not true Mr. Fox - I used the earliest WHQL drivers written for Win10, 352.84, for my second attempt using Win10 and they also caused the 8 beep code after I enabled SLI and rebooted. Albeit true I had used 353.62 drivers during the first failure, and I did not reformat the drive or reflash my BIOS or my cards' VBIOS. However I did set the laptop to boot using the iGPU in BIOS before loading Win10 and rebooting into safe mode to then use DDU 15.4 to uninstall the previous 353.62 drivers.

 

Fair enough, @Arestavo - but, how far off from 8 out of 10 does that take us? I'm just using loose numbers. The bottom line is, if you have an Alienware with NVIDIA GPUs running Windows 10 is a huge risk and cannot be regarded as safe at this time. If you are running Windows 7/8/8.1 with all Windows Updates applied and "Windows 10 Ready" with the latest NVIDIA drivers, you may also be at risk.

 

For what it's worth, I'm running driver version 355.60 on Windows 10.

 

Suicidal tendencies, huh. I like that

 

It's perfect; includes extension block .

Gathered all proper edids posted so far and a few similar models from databases, just in case.
Checked all of them: dell panels, correct edids

List of included panels:

Code:

PnP id        panel nr.

available
-------        --------------
LGD01CA        LP173WD1-TLA1
LGD0289        LP173WD1-TLA3
LGD0391        LP173WD1-TLE1
SDC3654        LTN173KT03-W01
SDC4C48        LTM184HL01
SEC314A        ···184HT03-001
SEC4A4B        LTN184KT01-J01
SEC5044        LTN173HT02-T01
SEC5448        LTN184HT02-S01
SEC544B        LTN173KT01

missing
-------        --------------
LGD02DA        LP173WF1-TLB3

Good question ... kinda skipped it as it was $$$ (industry tool). Had to be run over PE as well. This one is free and current: I2C Tools (Linux stick). Noticed interesting snippet from its 'updates' section (bit dated):


That's not a coincidence ... should think it somehow has sent a 'Write' command unintentionally ... but it might also be something closely related to that. From " I2C EEPROMs: Recommended Usage & Performance Optimization" paper:

Of course, that's not an explanation in itself; something must also have changed for 10+nvidia (or intel) to make that happen ... maybe excessive nvram writes?

MonInfo pulls from registry only and it's your saving grace there's only a sample edid there (since OS runs on fallback settings). Try PowerStrip, that may be able to extract straight from display, since it's an older system ... at considerable risk, however, considering the setup as it is. If this triggers OS to do a display-update then you're ... not a happy camper .

That is very, very, very useful. It includes both the edid (pages 33-35) and the edid pins on the display itself (page 9). If you find (or buy) this for the TLB3 then you have all you need. In a pinch; might even wing it and use TLB5 data, shouldn't be too much off.

 

this is my first post here, though i have been following notebookreview for years now,
so i have been using my alienware 17 R5 780m 120hz 3d with windows 10 (uefi mode) since its initial beta release, and never had a problem,

after the official release of windows 10, i went back to windows 8.1, updated all my drivers and went back to windows 10.

once again, didn't experience any problems, how ever couple of weeks back, i woke up to find my computer keyboard lights on and a black screen, (i always sleep with the computer on)

so i just held down the power button till it powered down, and restarted, it gave me 8 beeps, after a quick google search i found out its GPU related,

and since i did a GPU repaste not long before this, i figured i screwed something up there,

now, since i have a 120hz 3d screen, i cant use optimus,

so i decided to put my original 60hz screen back, and to no surprise my computer booted up without a problem, so i decided to put the gpu back, first thing i did after reinstalling my gpu, i went into bios, (i am running a14 the lastest one) and i saw that it showed me that the discrete gpu was detected, but after entering windows, under device manager there was a not working properly icon was there, but it did show the 780m, so i just uninstalled all the driver simple with add program and features, rebooted into bios again, and suddenly no discrete graphics are detected, i was shocked again, how ever when i booted into windows my gpu was there, so i went back into bios but this time my gpu was there, but the screen was showing vertical lines and it was all blurry and distorted, so i just repasted my gpu, and resit it in the slot. booted back into bios, problem solved, went into windows, installed the drivers no problems, after a week or so i installed my 120hz 3d screen back. and never had a problem again.

just now that i got my hands on a barebone alienware m18x r2, since i am in china, finding parts is easy, and dirt cheap. i started building that, i was looking at my gpu opetions and i ended up here.

so can someone please tell me if the issue i had was just a coincidence or is it related to windows 10.

and give me some answers, as i have been wondering about this and its been driving me insane,

that being said, any tips on what hardware to use with my m18x r2, or redirecting me to the right forum is welcome,

regards
ali

 

Get the 980m sli if you can or you can get the 880m sli for a good price now (slightly weaker than a 980m sli by 25-38%). To be honest though, just wait for the 990m to be released, this thing is driving me crazy. The performance is speculated to be around 20% faster than a 980 desktop so yeah two of dem bad boys and you are king of the hill baby. Oh and by the way they cost 1600USD each so yeah you'll be king of the hill and broke at the same time.
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i can easily afford the 880m as its only 1800元/280$ here in china, however i have been going though some benchmarks and it seems as if the 970m is a much better GPU, and uses much lower TDP. and i find it easier to get one gpu, and then another one later, but 980m, is already kinda ludicrously expensive.

 

*in reply to* PC Gamer
Haha, well it was before I learned about the problems some people are having. It's been working fine for a few weeks now, so I think it should be fine.

 

there's not much of a performance difference between the 780M and the 970M as the boost is so minor so i would just save and get a 980M.

 

If I were in your shoes (depending on how long you are staying in China) I'd try to get my hands on a 990m.. If that fails; settle for no less than a 980m. Chances are you'll save at least 40% in China. Do a ca$h deal.

 

Just got my computer back up and running. The seller on ebay sent me a cheap 1600x900 screen instead of an lg 1080p one like in the description, so hopefully he makes it right. Thanks again for all you contribute to this community Mr. Fox.

 

Thought that didn't work anymore ?
Either way it is not the Alienware Windows 8. I had a single windows 8 disk from them, and I think I left it in a laptop when i sold it.
I should not have.