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

If so, looks like more than one example of isolated cases.

Yeah, that would be great. It's a long ways from here to Australia. I wonder how much the shipping would run?

 

Mr fox, I would link it to you but since i don't have a functioning laptop I can only use my phone which doesn't really have all the desktop features. I posted it it in the Alienware 17 sub forum under 980m 8 beeps this morning. My lcd randomly died last night with the computer off


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did any of you update the IMEI firmware?

 

Now I don't know whether to buy a new lcd panel or try your ram method of resetting bios even though I didn't make any changes to bios in weeks. I'm having a lot of trouble getting the cmos battery out of the 17. Been trying for an hour and the little posts that hold the wifi antenna cables refuse to let it budge


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Yeah ghost I update Imei firmware exactly like you to the same version you did and it worked fine for 2 or 3 days


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you literally have to tear the whole thing down. i had to do this when i had a memory beep error.

i still wonder if older drivers are ok just to see if it is Win 10 or not.

 

I found it, bro. Thanks.

While the motherboard is out, simply carve away about a half-nickle sized semi-circle in the chassis directly above the CMOS battery and that will change your life for the better. You can touch up the edge with a black Sharpie pen and it will look like it came from the factory that way if you do a neat job of it. The AW17 chassis design was not very smart in this regard. Can't believe they did that... hopefully, it wasn't on purpose. Trouble is, removing the CMOS battery never worked for me anyway because all the settings (good or bad) are "safely" stored in NVRAM. You have to force the NVRAM to be dumped using more drastic measures. It was an idiotic decision to make the sBIOS like this, especially on an enthusiast machine.

 

where's the report of the Y50 failing?

353.62 drivers? someone needs to try older drivers to see if it's an nvidia issue or a win 10 issue.

@Mr. Fox any luck with the AW18 R1?

 

Still testing with Intel HD graphics. About 12 hours so far. Haven't switched over to 780M SLI yet. I want to give it enough time to see if the LCD panel dies using Intel graphics first.

@Rotary Heart is already using my older driver mod without issue thus far.

 

how did you do that? just remove 1 card? can you test with say the 353.38 drivers as much as they don't bench well just to prove (ok, i mean demonstrate) that an older stock driver is ok?

for now will stick with 8.1 till i get the 3D cable and install the 120hz panel.

EDIT: Please post your display's model number. any metric helps.

 

@Mr. Fox - The AW18's display should work as long as you use the M18x's cable. Not so nice excuse to get PLS on all of your systems As for who is up for blame, I'm really interested to see. Any anomalies with the AW18 on Intel so far?

 

Yes I have to mod it. Windows 10 installed generic Windows driver for the GPU. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for Windows 10 to install any new update, because I, literally, booted windows 10 disabled driver signature enforcement and installed 345.20 with your mod.

 

So mr. Fox, essentially I have to remove the motherboard, remove the cmos battery, put the motherboard back, reinstall everything, try your ram removal method then if it posts, remove everything again and put the cmos battery back or can I do your ram method with the cmos battery in the machine? Because I read that you said that removal of the cmos battery is pointless


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Hey ghost, I was just wondering since you know about the 120hz 17 ranger panels if this one would be compatible because you said some revisions cause problems. And seeing as I have to replace the display anyway might as well upgrade.



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I've had windows 10 installed on my 18 since the beta, the only difference now is i was using Geforece experience to get my drivers ect., with windows 10 i used the windows 10 update driver for my 780M's, i didn't get the driver from the nvidia website. So far its been working fine.

 

OK, sad to report, the same thing has happened on the Alienware 18. It took less than two hours. Switched from Intel HD Graphics. Downloaded the Windows 10 driver from NVIDIA... no mods. Now I get 8 beeps, no backlight and no boot. Updating opening post.

 

Do you have a rough idea if it is still the OS or the nvidia drivers or both? Was it fine just on the Intel GPU?

I am hesitant to upgrade now.

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I cannot prove it, but I believe it is the GeForce drivers. There is no way this is a coincidence now.

 

Can those with busted screens share the model number of the screen cos I want to know if it is panel specific.

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AW18/M18xR2 & AW17 are all LVDS w/ Samsung panels?

@scarastisis is your AW17 the optimus model or 120Hz? Upgrade screen?

 

@j95 - Yes, all three of my dead/killed 18" displays (M18xR1, M18xR2 and AW18) are Samsung LCD.

I am guessing either Windows 10 or NVIDIA drivers are forcing them to run out of spec and damaging them.

I have not installed Windows 10 on my Clevo P570WM and now I am too scared to even think about doing so. If that kills the Clevo then I will be without a working computer.

 

This is distressing news. Just when I thought my PC was humming, win10 and newest Nvidia driver working well, I'm learning there's possibly a hidden ticking time bomb inside. Just freaking great, Mr. Fox I will say this I have noticed that right before my PC turns on (this is when screen is black and right before lock screen comes on) I see a kind of flicker that wasn't there in win8. The only way I can really describe the flicker is like what used to happen to a TV when someone ram the vacuum cleaner its real quick but Noticible. Even though I keep my PC lid closed and use the external display, I'll roll back to 8.1 when I have a chance. I've replaced a Lcd before for my kid and I know it's a pain in the rear, and you have three to repair are any under warranty? More to the point would Dell have the lcd to repair? It would be ironic if you sent it in and got one of those new inferior models.

 

What drivers are you using specifically? Are they the generic drivers included with the Win 10 installation, or are they the latest / greatest from Nvidia (353.62)?

If its the drivers (the ones from Nvidia) couldn't they possibly affect Win 7 or 8 machines as well?

 

So no one tried older win 10 drivers to rule out the OS?

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Your Clevo is LGD02C5 eDP 50 pin, I have the same panel (M17xR3) no issues at all.
Samsung LVDS AW18, M18xR2, AW17 Optimus.
Alienware 17 120Hz eDP Samsung
Alienware M17xR4 120Hz eDP Samsung.

 

What panel is in an M17x R4?

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I am just guessing that you are OK so far because you are using an external monitor. All three machines are out of warranty, so no... on my dime unless I can prove NVIDIA is at fault and convince them to pay (snowball's chance in hell of that happening). If your machine is under warranty, disconnect the monitor and run on the internal LCD and see if it burns out. Everything was flawless on the 18 running Intel HD Graphics and it was an hour or less before it died. The M18xR2 worked fine until it was shut down. The 18 made a click, screen went black and it shut down. Now it refuses to boot with 8 beeps.

In all three cases I was using the Windows 10 drivers available from the NVIDIA web site.

No, that is not correct. My Clevo has a 60Hz LDVS AUO panel, not 120Hz LG eDP display.

I know exactly what flicker you are speaking of. I had the same thing. It did not do that running on the Intel graphics. I have no warranty on my machines, so it will be up to me to buy the replacement parts.

 

You used the machines @ 100% brightness?

 

Sorry to hear that, really sucks! There's definitely a link between all your machines and their failing LCD screens. Windows 10 and the NVidia Drivers seem like the obvious link, but I know you do run them all through a UPS - could it be that something could have malfunctioned with your UPS in the way it delivers power that could have caused these problems - have you tried running other laptops on your UPS recently? Or maybe you use the same modded power bricks on all of your 3 laptops as another common denominator for the problem? I'm not saying it's likely those things, but just thinking about it from a different angle.

 

Sorry to hear about the LCDs going bad Mr.Fox. I was about to install W10 but after reading this I'm not going to. At least for now. But I found this thread from a year ago or so and the guy installed and have used W10 with no issues as far as I believe. Would that rule out the OS being at fault here? Most likely the Nvidia drivers?

 

I see..I thought it was the 120Hz panel. I will warn users to install v352.84.

 

None of them are connected to the UPS. Only my Clevo is connected to that all the time. The failures resulted in different rooms, different electrical circuits. No modded power bricks involved. I haven't used my dual AC adapter setup for months, since NVIDIA GeForce drivers released from March forward cause SEVERE throttling. I've had no reason to do any benching. The 18 requires no INF mod to install drivers and it died almost immediately (an hour or so) whereas the displays on the M18xR2 went 24+ hours before dying.

 

Its the same x64 installation files regardless of the OS, so that means there's a chance, assuming it really is the drivers causing the issue, this could affect Win 7 or 8 machines. I'm running official 353.30 at the moment and it seems I should stick with it for the time being.

I'm surprised this issue hasn't shown up on the Nvidia support forums yet.

 

I had no issues with the Windows 10 Technical Preview (other than the OS is a pile of trash). If I were a betting man, I would bet that NVIDIA GeForce drivers are killing them. The 18 was fine on Intel HD Graphics. The LCD died in about an hour running on NVIDIA graphics.

Perhaps. It certainly could affect other OSes running on the same driver. I haven't been able to use GeForce drivers released after February due to throttling. On the chance that it is not OS specific, you're probably safest avoiding the latest driver. It could be something with how Windows 10 is handling the driver also. Impossible for me to know. They only thing I know is, all three LCDs died/got killed running Windows 10 with the latest display drivers from NVIDIA.

We need people with machines under warranty to take a risk and see if their displays get killed. If we are going to hold a knife to NVIDIA's throat, they'll want to see more than one person with 3 dead LCD displays before they will pay any attention. (They may never pay attention no matter what, but I doubt they will give a rat's butt about me as a single individual.)

 

Is it breaking for those with 120hz panels?

So it works for over a day with no issues?

 

I'm going to leave my 18 looping a video with full brightness. I will see if it can run without dying...

 

I don't know, I've only read what Mr. Fox has posted. He's got x3 60Hz screens I think. I've not heard of any other laptop screen failures, apart from that other guy that PM'd Mr. Fox about his failed screen on his Alienware. Will be interesting to see if any more M18xR1/R2/A18 users end up with issues on Windows 10 - if there's a common link to all this then I expect we'll see some more failures.

 

We already have 1 aw17 r1 casuality. Not looking good.

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One thing I'm noticing just now, that just browsing around the internet my card keeps flicking up to 3D clocks and then back down to 135Mhz idle clocks. It didn't used to do that in Windows 7 - used to sit stable at 135Mhz clocks (using Chrome). Actually, that's got nothing to do with LCD failures I guess, although it puts a bit more temperature cycling on the GPU, and maybe some other stresses.

 

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...eedback-thread-7-29-15-/post/4624189/#4624189

 

@Mr. Fox , you might be interested in this Windows 10, Geforce Driver 352.62 performance related curiosity! Cold boot on my system, 3DMark11 Graphics Test 1 consumes only 145W global wattage and runs 7 fps lower. Warm boot (restart), 3DMark11 the same test uses 160W global wattage and runs the normal expected fps. Also, I noticed that after the cold boot the GPU "Bus Interface Load" seen in GPUz runs at a high 15% during the test, whereas on a warm boot (restart) the "Bus Interface Load" is only 2% (the normal low amount I see). No throttling in GPU load or clocks during either run. Thought you'd be interested in this because it seems to be related to Windows 10 / Geforce Driver power control somehow, and potentially related in some way to the poor performance you've seen with latest drivers. (I admit that this is unlikely to be related to the screen failures of this thread!)

Seems that if I want to do any gaming on this laptop under Win 10 then I'm gonna have to make sure it's done after a warm boot! Hmm, I don't like Win 10 so much now!

 

Some one mentioned in this thread earlier 100% brightness. I just noticed my display is locked at 100% brightness. The slide bar is greyed out and I can't change it. This maybe part of the problem

 

i want to know if the 353.38 drivers are ok to use.

 

Is it grayed out with no external monitor connected?

The slider worked in the M18xR2, but it was grayed out on the 18. I was planning to reboot after changing to the balanced power mode to see if that changed the slider but it didn't live long enough for me to find out.

The problem is none of us have a "right" to own machines that run great and are upgradable like these beasts. Maybe they figured that the best way to fix that was to cripple some and kill the rest. Even Micro$haft tried to lie and say GTX 780M was not Windows 10 compatible and their "solution" was for me to buy a new computer. The days of UEFI Class 3, full-system hardware signatures and whitelisting/blacklisting at the whim of each OEM, and BIOS "expiration" dates will be here soon.

 

Just so this doesn't get lost in another location: Alienware 17 R1 980M - Windows 10 - 8 Beeps

 

i never had issues with it in max performance but i switched to balance because i didn't see a difference in performance and probably will help the CPU last a little longer.

is the busted panel thing only happening for 60hz panels? i haven't heard a thing for 120hz panels.

also @woodzstack said their M17X R4 is working fine and I am hoping they'll report their usage findings.

 

Maybe it's only SLI machines that are affected. I didn't have throttling issues with one 780M using newer NVIDIA drivers, only with SLI. Maybe it's only certain Samsung panels that the drivers are screwing up. Not sure. I'd love to install Windows 10 on my Clevo, but I am too scared I will be left with 4 dead beasts, no computer to use, and a small fortune to fix them all.

I doubt they will do anything but laugh at being asked to pay for them. Maybe I should take one or both of them to small claims court.

 

i didn't get a chance to see my m18x live to check the screen. it was 8 beeps on start up when i got home.

 

@Mr. Fox I disconnected external display and brightness slide bar still greyed out. Also, at your suggestion I went in and disconnected my internal display so far only thing connected is external display. I would rather only have to replace external monitor if it blew. I changed my power setting to balanced, but brightness slide bar is greyed out with only external monitor connected. So far so good. Just to help keep track using win10 Nvidia driver 353.62.

 

when i was using win 10 the brightness slider for me was not greyed out.