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

Nice setup. Mine is in my sig that's so true, windows 10 only has dx12 going for it. On the subject of DX 12, turns out the 900 series( Kepler series too so 8xx, 7xx and 6xx) don't fully support DX 12 and are failing to AMD in that department. One more reason to stay away from Windows 10. I am gonna give the new drivers a try though cause not having Sli support really annoys me not in the sense of extra performance, cause one 880m is already enough, but just the fact that one is active and one is sleeping just doesn't get to me plus it lowers my overall temp due to load being shared equally.

 

Yes, I think it might be. And, you're very lucky your LCD hasn't bricked yet.

Thank you for posting. This is more confirmation of what a screwed up pile of feces Windows 10 is. Even though your LCD EDID has not been compromised other things are really messed up.

The problem is MOST PEOPLE don't pay any attention. They assume newer means better, and if things were as the should be that be accurate. Some folks also think they will magically have a different outcome than others. I was part of the Insider Program as well and ran Windows 10 Preview for the first several builds. Performance was inferior to Windows 7 or 8/8.1 and I finally said "screw it, I'll wait for the finished product" and stopped participating because the performance impairment was a deal breaker. Unfortunately, it was the finished product that caused or contributed to the LCD damage and it STILL DOES NOT perform as well as Windows 7 or 8/8.1. So, I have to ask myself what they have been burning all of their calories on for the last year? With a year of practice and feedback from thousands of "Insiders" this OS should have been very close to perfect on July 29... But, it's still the crappiest version of Windows since Millennium Edition.

 

Mr. Fox, MS needed all that time to make it NSA Certified, SnooperDuper

 

No Problem, try to help with this problem.
But can you explain me your: " other things are really messed up."
My english is not the best and don´t understand it. ;-)

Do you mean my EDID is not compromised but there is some wrong with it?

Ps. my problem startet with win8.1 and not with 10.

 

Other things in a broad sense: video drivers that misbehave, dependency on UEFI, corrupting firmware, (including system BIOS, even on desktop motherboards,) very serious W10 privacy issues, forced Windows Updates, etc.

 

Currently nuking W10 and installing W8 that came with my machine.

Hopefully it is the GPU and when it is replaced all become good again :'(

 

Please re-flash your system BIOS, and do a Diskpart clean on the OS drive just to be safe.

 

OK thanks.

Perhaps does the problems comes with Hibernation mode?
Are using the User with the Problem Hibernation Mode or any other energy shutdown options?

 

Hey @Mr. Fox , what do you mean by re-flashing the sBIOS and how do you do that. Also is the Diskpart a program of some sort? Excuse my noobiness I just re-installed windows 8.1 and disabled updates, that's pretty much what I did and no problem so far in fact it's working way better than before.

 

only the system bios no need for the vBios since it will be a new GPU all together right ?

 

Right. I left that out since the GPU was being replaced. Otherwise, I would have recommended that also.

You flash the system BIOS by downloading the file from dell.com/support and running it. Or, if you have a machine with an unlocked BIOS, you flash it as you did before to unlock it.

Diskpart is the Windows Disk Partitioning Utility. You run it from a command window with Administrator rights. Below are the command sequences you would follow to kill all partitions and prepares a clean disk for a new Windows installation. All data and partitions are destroyed using the "clean" command, but I followed that by a secure erase to actually remove it rather than make it merely unreadable as an extra step. I did not want anything on a boot sector or hidden partition left over. You can run this during Windows Setup as well as within Windows. Press F10 to open a command prompt while in Windows Setup before you begin the installation process.

1. diskpart (starts the utility)
2. list disk (returns a list of drive volumes - a RAID0 volume will appear as one "drive" here)
3. select disk (followed by the disk number associated with the list above)
4. clean (destroys everything on the disk)
5. convert (followed by mbr or gpt - converts the disk to mbr or gpt)

 

Are you upgrading GPU or getting a new 880M?
Sorry for the irrelevant post

 

I already installed the OS & too frustrated to go through this again ... Is this much different than deleting all the partitions from installation CD because that's what I did and always do I just delete all the partitions on the SSD and then create and format new ones.

This is my 2nd day in Germany because I just moved there and the DELL experience was horrific because I don't speak German yet. Microsoft really ruined my day, weekend and maybe more if the computer wasn't fixed.

No upgrading just getting a replacement from DELL and hopefully they have a replacement GPU don't wanna go through a whole system exchange with the crap they are selling atm.

 

oh okay was just wondering. Whatever you do, don't buy the 2015 models, they downright suck especially the amplifier as this is just a gimmick and waste of dosh.

 

That sounds like a dieing GPU... I had my 970M die due to Windows 10 and your case might reinforce my point of staying away from that cancerous OS....

I would stick with 353.06... If you are brave do you mind trying 355.82 now on 8.1 and see if you have any problems?

BTW @Mr. Fox, my Batman is up and running...

You might be a bit experienced with this however my LG pannel has a slight yellow hue IMO... Is there a way to calibrate it in NVIDIA control pannel or to make a colour profile for it?

 

My biggest fear right now is that they may not have a GTX880m

so it happened to someone else ... What were the symptoms of your problem ?

 

I've been running windows 10 for over a month before going back and the amount of issues that this OS caused to people is too damn high. @TomJGX are you sure windows 10 is to blamed here? every other reports don't make mention of what @MahmoudDewy is experiencing other than the usual LCD issues. My take is it has nothing to do with the OS but more of the fact that the GPU is failing. Then again, that should no happen. Even older 400M GPUs are still fine. Maybe the 880m was defective from the get go.

 

sticking with 8.1

 

Went back to 8.1 anyway ... I ain't risking losing another GPU when my warranty ends on 01-Oct-15 ... See that is the problem when corporations aren't clear on what is wrong with their products, it gives a huge room for personal interpretation and huge doubt in products reliability ... If someone from either Nvidia or Microsoft spoke out about the problems people are facing in a clear way we wouldn't have been in doubt about what is going on with our systems

 

I was. On both. I am RMAing because not even fn+b works!!! (Or anything else tried for that matter). I wanted to try to unplug the lvds, but that is more of a tear down than I've ever performed on a Clevo and won't risk it under warranty (maybe next year). Also, did you notice Nvidia has gone from the most recent three drivers to including older drivers dating back to April? (355.82, 355.60, 353.62, 353.30, 352.84, 352.63 beta) funny how 355.80, the driver I installed the day my computer went down) is not on that list and was pulled down extremely quickly!!!

Edit: pidge answered below. Still wondering though the cause though, as it started in 355.60 and built from there.

 

Ah. I'm on 355.60; I find it funny that that driver was indeed pulled pretty fast. I've heard of people getting white lines after waking from sleep on 355.82 as well. Glorious drivers nVidia have.

 

355.60 started all my problems, including having to use an external display to access the bios. I hoped the update would fix it. NOPE! Also, I'd have to review the EULA, but certain waivers are unenforceable, although they most likely have an arbitration clause, choice of law clause, and forum clause that are enforceable. I'm not speaking to the chance for liability or winning in court (i'd have to review the license and the evidence to decide if the case is worth it and whom the proper defendants are), but certain waivers are against public policy (yet companies still include them). Once again, I'm not speaking specifically to anyone's case and am not giving legal advice. Just general legal principles and information.

 

Wow, that's great news and potentially a very good sign! They may have discovered what is causing the LCD bricking problems and pulled them to keep those drivers from killing more panels.

 

that's being hopeful

 

If you look back around page 120, driver 355.78 was mentioned. This also doesn't exist on their site. After issues with 355.60, they released a new version of it. This didn't work, so they did 355.80 (also in part dealing with sli memory bleed). This failed too and was pulled just as quick as .78. They then put out, 3 days later (355.78 on the 21st, 355.80 on the 25th, and now), 355.82 on the 28th. To be honest, I'm surprised it is still up with the speed they pulled the other two!!!

 

That's a fairly common issue. Think where it went wrong can be traced back to this snippet (from an MS UEFI presentation):



It could also explain the 120% scaling issue with 10. Either way, they succeeded with the ' single or none mode switch'; black.

Something else from that pdf ... Microsoft's ' Problems with BIOS':



Let's rebut:

1. Yes, which can force usb boot (and flashing), boot-overrides etc.
2. Yes, otherwise you can't initiate those rescue methods ...
3. Yes, so driver (or virus) can't write directly to non-nvram bios. Should think that's a very sane idea.
4. Yes, rather like that and at least it's 1984-'the style', not 1984-'the novel' .

Thanks for that. It's an eDP, so probably safe.

Btw, since your panel is G-Sync 'approved'; will copy/paste its id header into my eDP panel's edid and flash it. Think that should enable gsync to work. At least with Intel HD (when they get that going), but can't turn my 860M into gsync gpu (though 960M should be doable).

Yes, think it was NOS; brand new, only sleeping in storage for the past five years. When Dell ordered them for their AWs, they'd have them calibrated and tagged with their inventory id. Yours is an original pre-Dell.

Hope you like the result. If not, then just use 'update driver'.

Sure thing; can use it for various mods.

 

We are still root causing this issue.

Driver 355.80 was a hotfix driver. Hotfix drivers never appear from our driver downloads page. They only appear from our knowledge base website:

http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3738

Driver 355.78 is a developer driver and also not available from our driver downloads page.

 

Did you not wonder what may be causing it to have the incorrect refresh rates? Or that it was corrupting something or forcing hardware to run out of spec? This could be the toned down admission.

 

Thank you so much for posting in this tread! We appreciate that you are working on trying to isolate the cause.

 

Yes my Clevo P771ZM-G is a GSync Book.
And the Display is the 75HZ G-Sync.

 

Flashing the bios and then vbios for gpu is not enought. Had the screen flashed again and after all that booted into safe mode, ddu gpu drivers and installed 355.06. I had those on win 8.1 before win 10 and never had any problems. This time, however, after switching to dedicated and installing the same driver screen eeprom got corrupted after the first restart. This time I will be blind flashing the bios, flashing the gpu again and wiping the ssd clean.

 

Observation: We have heard from Dell/Alienware and NVIDIA and both of them are working on trying to identify the cause. They have skin in the game and obviously care enough to want the problem to be fixed or they wouldn't be bothered by it. But, I find it really interesting that Micro$haft has not responded to my messages and hasn't expressed any care or concern about what part their new cancer OS might be contributing to this nightmare some of us have had to deal with. That's sad, because there is a very strong correlation to their flagship operating system.

A blind crisis recovery flash might be necessary to completely flush anything stored in NVRAM. A normal system BIOS flash may not be enough to flush that out. My problem has not resurfaced and I blind flashed my system twice before installing the new display. The nice thing about that (if there is anything nice) is that you can blind flash the M18x with a bricked display still connected. It writes to the BIOS at such a low level (as soon as power hits the motherboard essentially - before POST starts) that none of the hardware (including the bricked display) or existing firmware can intercept or halt the flash process. It's also not something you take lightly or do unless you have a need to, for those same reasons.

Those with Haswell (17 and 18) may want to try this procedure BEFORE re-flashing their system BIOS and repeat it AFTER for good measure.

**Alienware 17 (Ranger) /18 (Viking) Owners** - How to 'Un-Brick' Your Mobo

After chatting with @mariussx I ordered one of these suckers today. I hope I can use it to fix my corrupted panels and have them as spares. It's coming from China, so it may take a while.

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6880543954.html?orderId=69118327300579

 

blind flashing might be useful for Alienwares, but anybody on another machine probably has no access to such capabilities.

But my suggestion was toward the people who had already installed 7 fresh, and had no traces of 10. For them to flash their sBIOS and vBIOS then install windows freshly anew.

 

@t456 tried your inf and it failed because it wasn't signed...did i miss something?

 

Yes, as silly as it may seem, you must temporarily disable Driver Signature Enforcement prior to installing it. This driver (the monitor INF) is no different than any other unsigned driver. When you are using a retarded OS like anything W8 or newer you have to do that or it will always fail. No such silly nonsense to have to deal with in most cases running W7.

 

ah ok will try that

EDIT: OK, i rebooted my PC and installed @t456's panel INF and when i load up monitor assess manager all my panel's information changed. Did i just permanently alter the panel's EDID info or just the info stored in the registry?

 

Let us know how the reprogramming goes. Definitely be willing to pay for something like that or maybe even try myself if it's easy enough.

 

Oh for sure. If it works, I will post instructions on how I did it. It should work. I'd like to help people fend for themselves because that is cheaper, faster and easier, but I also won't mind doing the work if someone doesn't feel comfortable with it. It may be a couple of weeks before I get the tool from China. It's seldom very fast, and I have ordered things from that part of the world many times.

I just got a PM from another M18xR2 owner that had his third LCD bricked, immediately after installing the latest GeForce driver and rebooting. He had downgraded to Windows 7, things were fine, but everything went sideways when he upgraded to the latest display driver.

Most likely just the registry. Try rolling back the driver in Device Manager and see. If things change back to how they were before, it's not changing the display panel.

 

now thats some scary new info, downgrading to win7 but using the latest nvidia driver still kills your lcd, yay...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Your "Batman" should be fine cause you know it's BATMAN.

 

haha, personally im not worried with my current config, otherwise the problems wouldve already started showing up. been running for a month now with only the known lil win10 glitches, but nothing to do with gpu or display just following this thread out of interest and compassion for other mobile entusiasts here. but one thing it taught me: sticking to my currently installed nvidia drivers

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

He probably didn't secure erase his hard drive or more importantly In my opinion blind flash his BIOS. Mine and Arestavo's both bricked using 345.20 drivers and at the same time installing windows 10 ready updates.

 

I didn't do all of that and my AW18 is still running fine although I have driver 352.86 installed. A friend of mine has the latest one installed and no prob so far. I think this issue affects the M18 lineup way more than the AW18s which is extremely sad but somewhat of a good news for 18 owners.

 

Which driver version?

 

@Mr. Fox once M$ replies on the LCD panels they also give credence to the issue being related to the new OS. They are trying as long as possible not to do exactly that. As it is if the other OEM's find an issue with the OS they either hope they can settle issues quietly and directly with them or as an individual basis quietly through arbitration. They have way too much in the W10 game for negative publicity especially this early on.

 

@Mr. Fox ... DELL guy came today changed the GPU and same problem is present and after running the DELL diagnostic thing he wants to change the motherboard and says that the screen is doing fine ... What should I do ?

AN UPDATE: If I remove system CMOS battery I can boot normally install drivers and the computer functions normally ... If I put it back in the system gets the screen corruption

Note that I reflashed the system bios, vBios & did the whole grueling bios reset procedure

More strange Update: Now even with the CMOS battery installed I can boot normally the screen works marvelous and the system benches like a banshee ... Should I call DELL and tell them no need for them to shred my laptop into pieces to change my motherboard ?

 

so far the 355.82 drivers are ok....so far (to iterate on that point ). i don't think i have EVER installed 10 on the current SSD i am using as my OS drive - only attempts to try and upgrade from win 7 which failed due to the system being set to UEFI I think. All my tests with 10 have been on an SSD that i no longer own and since [selling the SSD] i haven't touched the dangerous OS (all win 10 installs haven't lasted more than 1-2 days before reverting back to 8.1). i know there's a list of KBs that i should remove cos the win 10 thing is annoying.

can anyone pass that list so i can remove them?

EDIT: the only thing my SSD has seen that's win 10 is downloading the ISO. strangely my asus 1215b eepc is working fine but then it is a low-end netbook. will install linux mint this weekend.

 

They've taken a standard programmer and duct-taped the lvds cables to that, it will work if the chip is supported. Apart from edid eeproms; remove the tape/cables and you can use it for bios and vbios eeproms as well .

1.) Since it auto-detects the eeprom, you can use this to locate the actual chip on the panel's pcb:

Spoiler: auto-detected eeprom

2.) Now we search for the AT24C02 spec. sheet: Atmel Two-wire serial EEPROM (yay!). And search the pcb for an 8-pin eeprom marked ' AT24C02' ( tiny letters!). Example of a typical mxm vbios eeprom (on the left; ' Pm25L ...' ):

Spoiler: MXM vbios eeprom

3.) With spec. sheet and physical chip we can now make it read-only. In this instance:

Spoiler: Atmel AT24C02 - write-protect specification

4.) Now we can hack it. Don't forget to cut pin #7's feet (or the trace on the pcb, if you can find it):

Spoiler: Atmel AT24C02 - write-protect enabled

Registry only, like Mr. Fox mentioned (it's an override). Also, the settings are not in effect when you have signature enforcement active. Try to find out which colours you like better. If you can't see the difference then just roll back driver.

Aside from the colours; with the override edid you should have a 3D-approved panel. Unless Dell's bios white-listing looks at the actual edid pulled from the panel, not the registry. If you can, check if ' Stereoscopic 3D' is active or greyed out in nvidia control panel with standard or override driver.

 

the driver is fine with DSE on as the EDID is visible.

EDIT: thanks to @t456 for taking my 60Hz AUO panel...may it help in your investigations.

i should be able to ship it out after work (post offices here close late so all good).

 

353.62