The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
@Daniel1983 You have a newer model that is capable of FULLY booting even when the main display is broken/not detected if an external monitor is attached. That is NOT THE CASE for M18X R1 and M18X R2 laptops. If those don't see the main screen, it ain't booting even with an external display - period.
Fair enough.. I'll save the vBIOS from my 2nd (identical) AW 18 which has only ever been on Win 8.1 or Dual boot to Win 7 Ultimate. The latest driver that machine has ever seen is 353.30 & I haven't had any issues with it at all.
Thus far the affected AW 18 has received a complete SSD wipe & a fresh install of Win 8.1 with all updates complete & latest drivers installed. 8 beeps, no post without HDMI.
So tomorrow, I will flash the vBIOS from the working AW 18, and flash the BIOS again. Any particular order to do this in? vBIOS or BIOS first??
Anything else anyone may want me to try; now is the time to tell me. I am open to suggestions.
Yes; save bios and vbios of both systems (if identical versions). Would make a compare of both possible, see what else is 'off'. And is the 8-beep system UEFI or Legacy? If Legacy, boot once from usb drive with this tool:
Export the .7z and write the .img to a usb stick (min. 1GB) using
USB Image Tool.
If UEFI it'll have to wait, since switching UEFI->Legacy bricked mariussx's system. Though that may simply have been the trigger for a re-read of the edid. If you want to risk it; flash bios, set to Legacy once, boot usb drive and reset to UEFI.
Little difference, but BIOS first.
Also ... forgot the
ME firmware (considering Arestavo's experience with HM77 driver):
bios
vbios
ec
me
edid
Heck ... there's even more eeproms, actually; hdd/ssd, wifi/lan ...
the AW17 R1 uses the series 8 chipset so you need ME firmware v9.0.xx.xxxx. make sure that HWInfo is closed as it was blocking my ability to flash the firmware.
EDIT: No, you can't jump between firmware branches (i.e. from 9.0 to 9.1) as it may cause your system to break. There have been instances where it works fine but to be on the safe side just stay within your branch.
BIOS = A14
ME Firmware = 9.0.31.1487
vBIOS = Prema's v1.1.1 (84.04.22.00.F1 according to GPU-Z)
@Mr. Fox I would definitely appreciate a phone number or something as well for getting in touch with your dell contact. I'm in the same boat as
@Arestavo with a broken Display after a fresh windows 7 install. I've tried to contact Mr. Gomez with no luck.
@Sspawn26 - You already have the same contact information that I do. If you have sent the email to Mr. Hernandez as noted in post #2 they have your information and anyone affected is certainly free to send a follow up email. My communication with Manuel Guzman (NVIDIA) is on twitter. You can find him using his real name there and send him a message, or you can reach him by email to driverfeedback at nvidia dot com. I am not having any communications with them by telephone. No new information about the status of isolating the cause of this problem is available. As far as I can tell, they are not sure what is causing it yet. If they have pinned it down, they have not said so and until there is a solution I suspect that no information will be available to us. I have not been contacted by anyone from Micro$oft. The most information available anywhere is in this thread and
@t456 has shed more light on this for us than anyone else has so far.
The number of us that appear to be affected may be small compared to the number of owners of the same systems. Since the problem doesn't seem to be universal, reproducing the problem may be easier said than done, but I trust they are working on it. Perhaps there are not more reported examples because word has spread and many have avoided the Windows 10 upgrade because they are reluctant to risk ruining their system. Since 18.4" display panel supplies are limited, that is probably a good thing in the grand scheme of things. If every M18xR1, M18xR2 and Alienware 18 display in use were bricked by this problem after a Windows 10 upgrade, there probably would not be enough replacement parts available to repair every system.
NOT TRUE AT ALL. let me explain, the SLI setups of 122W videocards like 980< or 880M limit your total power available for your CPU and components, even things like your USBs stopped working... with the 970M's only taking half as much power.... you do not need a fancy dual 330W adapter/risk to get full performance. Also, DirectX 12 supported, AND the 970M' kick the 880M's arse in terms of overclockability. If you also put 100W heatsinks on these, you can get very close to 980M performance without a sweat- and also avoid throttling due to power inefficiency. The 970M are GREAT cards.
For the logest time, the lineups below the 680M 780M 880M were not so great, but the 970M really changes that alot !
I tried messaging him yesterday through the email that was provided. I suppose I have to remember it's the weekend and all. Just really fed up with wasting money and time with all this and I want to get this all sorted out ASAP lol.
Is there any way to get my 2013 m17x to boot from the external monitor in case this happens again? I'm using it as a desktop right now and it doesn't recognize the monitor until the login screen.
When the Haswell machines were released the M and X were dropped from Alienware's naming conventions. Old habits die hard, but it can be confusing trying to identify what system folks are referring to when they do not use accurate model names.
@Mr. Fox - I just remembered. I only put my computer to sleep after installing your modded drivers and restarting - but there were several Windows 7 updates that were installed after resuming windows.
One of them was for the Windows 10 upgrade sign up. I remember seeing it for the first time right before I restarted and got the 8 beep code, and I did accidentally click on it but did not sign up and exited out of the prompt immediately. I am not a die hard conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if that and not the HM77 chipset installation that caused the 8 beep code to happen again, this time in Windows 7.
Not sure about the HM77 chipset driver causing it, but my theory is the only Windows 7 and 8.1 machines that might experience this are "Windows 10 Ready" and since I do not allow Windows Update to run on any of my systems that is likely why I have not had a repeat performance of this nonsense.
Below are the Windows 7 Updates installed on my system.
And, here are the Windows 8.1 Updates installed on my system.
And, this is what you see on my Windows 7/8.1 systems when you open the Windows Update utility.
@Arestavo are You referring to the set of 5 or so updates at the end of all the windows updates? That's when mine crashed. We may be able to link a certain update that is causing the issue
Not that we know of. The 13, 15 and 17R2 are very different, including a totally different system BIOS. As far as I know, 100% of the affected models have InsydeH20 BIOS and the latest models have Aptio BIOS and the graphics/display system is also made very differently. Your display output runs through the Intel iGPU if I am not mistaken and the older machines handle integrated and dedicated graphics discretely and totally independently of one another.
@Sspawn26 Yes, exactly! Of course, now I have no way of seeing what exactly those last updates were, only that it was the set that included the Windows 10 update prompter.
While this is entirely possible, I am somewhat more inclined to think that something very nasty may have been left behind from when your system was infected by the Windows 10 virus/root kit. But who knows for certain... perhaps those last few filthy updates are carriers of the Micro$haft virus/root kit.
How could anything be leftover after a format? I did have a separate drive for games - so maybe Windows 10 hid something there that didn't manifest until multiple restarts later? But it was fine up until I installed my missing device drivers / installed the last few Windows 7 updates (which included the Windows 10 upgrade prompter). I did have a card reader with a 128GB card in it and some Windows ISO's on it, and it wasn't visible to the OS until after I installed those device drivers.
Did you flash your system BIOS and actually secure wipe or diskpart clean the drive Windows 10 was installed on? Formatting alone may not have been enough because it does not remove firmware rootkits.
My Origin PC Millennium came with Windows 7 FTW pre-installed on it, what I did is, I used another Windows 8 Pro license and installed that on it, then upgraded that license to Windows 10 then did a clean install via diskpart /clean (I always do that anyway)
Then I installed Windows 10 again (clean install) again via diskpart /clean and used that Windows 8 Pro license it got activated on Windows 10 the moment I went online.
I did the same thing for my wife's Dell Vostro, upgrade, then clean install. Mind you, after the upgrade, I used a product key viewer on her Vostro to note down the new upgraded key.
My Alienware is still on Windows 7 as Dellienware still didn't release all the drivers/apps for Windows 10.
Well, as far as I know neither your desktop nor your wife's Vostro are subject to damage or affected by the EDID corruption caused by Windows 10/Windows 10 Ready machines with NVIDIA GPUs the way some Alienware systems are. Had you installed Windows 10 on your Alienware 18, it might be bricked the way others have been. What you quoted was not to get ready for Windows 10, it was recommended drastic measures to be taken in an effort to prevent destruction from reoccurring on a good display once Windows 10 has inseminated a system with its evil seed.
That wasn't intended to be an all-inclusive model list (see subforum titles for different models), but the M15x was the same generation as the M17xR2. The M15x was essentially the single-GPU version with basically the same core components.
Hey
@Mr. Fox , mind if I ask you what updates to remove so as to get completely rid of windows 10? I am still windows 10 ready and thus fear for my lappy. Also I can just "search for updates" later on when the problem has been cleared to get windows 10 back right?
Well that's true, in terms of power usage the maxwell cards does have an edge over the Kepler ones and thus makes overclocking a whole bunch easier as well as being able to do it without the need of dual PSU. That being said, let's take out the overclocking factor for a minute as only 5-10% of notebook owners know how to properly do that which thus leaves us with stock to stock performance. Stock to stock performance shows that the difference is negligible when comparing both cards. DX 12, to be honest, is not an issue for me as my 880ms should make use of around 60-65% of it which is more than enough for a user who just wants to play games at ultra settings. If benchmarks were important to me, I would have already upgraded to the 980m but I can't justify wasting 1000USD only for a GPU that is about 35% better than mine. Not gonna lie though, the 990m is shaping up to be one hell of a beast GPU.
I've already posted screen shots showing my Windows Updates configuration. Back up your data, secure erase and go back to Windows 7 or 8.1 and disabled Automatic Windows Updates. Reflash your BIOS and vBIOS and shut the door on shenanigans. This Windows 10 scheme has been in the pressure cooker for a long time and we don't know what kind of trojans have been sneaking into "security" updates over the past 6 to 12 months.
If you want to be secure, pay for a third-party suite from a company that doesn't kowtow to the Micro$haft machine, and forget about Windows 10 until we find out what Pandora has in her box and decide whether or not we really want it. The fact that it is shiny and sparkles a lot is a warning sign. This 8-beep/no boot thing may also be a huge warning sign and a blessing in disguise... maybe it's a machine marking and sinister cataloging agenda that accidentally went wrong. Something happened with firmware that had no business happening.
Maybe it's not a warning sign of foul play and only a weird glitch, but I don't want to find out the hard way that I should have been more afraid and asked more questions about how and why it could ever occur in the first place. Read
the stuff on this page and decide whether or not it's better to start over with a clean slate rather than trying to dissect which updates are safe and which ones are not.
You guys are creating way too much mess of this with vbios, updates, IGP, try this and that etc etc etc. Hard to keep track of anything.
What is the status here? Problem? Fixable? Or does it break the displays and you have to get a new one? Does it affect other than notebook displays? Are desktop users affected?
Read post #1 and #2 and you'll know as much as everyone else does at this point. The thread keeps going off topic and if it continues I will just lock the thread. This is important to the people affected with damaged machines. Some people are coming here looking for help and answers. We cannot provide either one right now because we don't know why it is happening, but having to sift through unrelated discussions is not good for people looking for help. Short of reprogramming EDID information to the LCD EEPROM the display panels on the affected machines are ruined. Theoretically, it should be possible to fix them. From a practical perspective, it is beyond the skill set of most to attempt it, and buying a new display is the likely solution. Unfortunately, the problem may return and destroy the replacement display unless drastic measures are taken to eliminate the cause, which has been loosely identified as several of the latest GeForce drivers in combination with Windows 10 and/or fully updated Windows 10-ready systems. It only seems to affect a few models of Alienware notebooks.
I got wccftech to write an article about it to get some coverage but its been taken down. Not sure why but it could be because this whole situation is too messy and unclear (hence my critisism)...
That part... unfortunately. All we have is symptoms.
Wow, that did not take long. Where did I put my tinfoil hat, LOL. That's crazy.
Another example of why the unrelated banter in this thread is no good. Too hard to understand the situation.
@t456 has uncovered some meaningful information shedding light on what the damage is, but we still don't have any solid proof about who is responsible for it.
Ok, then get that down in the summary. Short description.
Issue kill displays, could be fixable but it requires modding etc and affected users should contact Alienware/Nvidia for clearance on what to do.
Alienware 18 and 17 plus M17x and M18x is a lot imo, wouldnt exactly say few models though. They use expensive displays too. 120Hz which isnt even made anymore. The horror of losing that because some smuck in Nvidia/Alienware department wrote some code that perhaps peaks the refresh rate over what the display can handle for a couple of miliseconds and ultimately kills it.
Any desktop guys/panels affected?
Yep, thats the point. Ive reached out to a few other big guys but they are probably sitting idling and not sure what to write because nobody here seems to know either. Plus there isnt any good summary in the first place (although I cant blame you due to the uncertainity of the situation).
PROTIP about the media world . . . They aren't the least bit afraid of messy sources and uncertainty. Hell, they erect mountains from molehills of vague information. They're known to publish anything even remotely nonsensical and speculative -- even resorting to circular logic and reasoning as seen with the GPU speculation that emerged from this forum -- to drive hits and make claims. On the other hand, when it comes to courting counter-establishment controversy, they have to make judgement calls. I am almost certain that the taking down of this article had more to do with something else, such as potential damage control vis-a-vis the status quo regarding Windows 10, than any potential issues with the organisation of information in the first two posts.
In this case, sorting out a decent summary is a start, but one has to persevere in pushing the information forward without absolutely acquiescing to the excuses from the other side about the information not being good enough.
But what's strange is I and others have always been overclocking our displays on laptop monitors to let's say from 60 HZ to 75 HZ or even 90HZ with no damage.... strange what Windows 10 does to the screen that could fry it in no time.
Ok, this is quite interesting. Due to the fact ME firmware is OS independent, I believe it might be the cause of display firmware corruption on Windows 8.1/8/7 machines after wiping the HDD/SSD from Windows 10. ME firmware once updated on Windows 10 (if that is even the case though), carries over to whatever OS is installed later even if you secure wipe the SSD. To confirm this we need to clarify if all customers with the broken displays on Windows 8.1/8/7 previously had Windows 10 installed + if Windows 10 updates/changes ME firmware in any way. Even though this would explain the damage to the displays on Windows 8 etc, it still does not explain why the display firmware overwrite occurs only when nvidia drivers are installed/enabled.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
![[IMG]](images/storyImages/hd20150806.png)
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