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

Nope, SEC5044 only. Ask someone from the AW17 forum to post HWiNFO or AIDA64 screen information.

 

Ok SO... I made the move on my AW18 from Win 8.1 to Win 10 using the Microsoft alert system upgrade tool. Said my Win 10 upgrade was available on the 29th; I completed the upgrade around 11:00am.

Immediately after it was complete, I noticed the flickering each and every time I boot into Win 10. I had Nvidia's latest driver installed. The flickering ALWAYS persists when booting into the desktop.

It doesn't matter if I boot directly onto the laptop's LCD, without any external monitor connections, or if I use my HDMI to connect to my 55" LED LCD... It does the same thing EVERY time.

I have been gaming A LOT with it, and it seems great there, I did notice a small FPS boost in a couple of games, however both GPU's don't always run at 100% in game. Sometimes I am obligated to reboot the laptop or game to see both GPU's at 100% in game. I'd say 30% of the time I have to do this.

I should also note that 90% of the time my AW18 is connected to my 55 LED LCD via an HDMI cable... But, I did test it (briefly) a few times today without external monitor connections... Not more than an hour TOPS since win 10 upgrade.. I fear to do it any longer because I don't want to go through what brother Fox had to go through.

I don't know what is causing this annoying flickering each and every time, but I don't like it. Aside from that; my system seems to be running just fine.

I think to be on the safe side, I will roll back to a previous driver. If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to comment.

Link to my video that shows this "flickering" problem.

 

try downgrading to older drivers and see what happens.

 

Wow, @Daniel1983 that is one amazing setup you have there. Congrats.

There was a weird flicker during logon for me also, but at the screen where I enter the PIN. I think what you are seeing is HWiNFO64 scanning things during startup instead of caching information. Trying disabling HWiNFO64 at startup and see if the problem goes away. If it does not, then I would be concerned. Either way, definitely go back to an earlier driver just to be safe.

If temporarily disabling HWiNFO64 makes the flickering problem go away, I can show you what boxes to check that should stop that from happening.

Thank you for posting the video. Awesome!

 

Not literary burned then. There's the other option - corrupted EEPROM.

I see that you don't want to reach Alienware, and they most likely made the tests for compatibility with earlier drivers, BUT if your car breaks down, you don't go to the part supplier/manufacturer, but at your dealer. So the logical way is to reach Alienware and they'll deal how they find best with their partners/part suppliers. Even out of warranty, I think that you still have something to hold against them, particularly for the AW18.

 

Thanks brother fox. I will apply your suggestions after dinner. Will report after testing.

 

Actually, I have already been in contact with them. They are aware of the situation and know of this thread. I am not asking them to accept any responsibility for the problem, but they definitely need to know about it and try to determine why it happened to prevent it from happening to other people as much as possible. It was my decision to install Windows 10 and use NVIDIA's latest cancer drivers. If anyone is responsible, it is probably NVIDIA, and Dell/Alienware is in a far better position to hold them accountable for this than I will ever be.

Your point on going back to the car dealer is valid if the problem involves original equipment parts. If you install an aftermarket part that causes harm to the original equipment parts, the dealer is going to just laugh in your face if you ask them to absorb the cost. Windows 10 and NVIDIA GeForce 353.26 drivers are aftermarket parts.

No problem... let me know.

 

Here is monitor info on one of my M18'x (R2)

Is this the same model you had the problems with Mr Fox?

 

Well, I've just got the Windows Update notification to update to Windows 10 - been reading this thread with some trepidation, too!!

I have 780m sli in my 18, all running stock - vBios and Bios with no overclock. The updater completed about 30 mins ago and Win 10 is now up and running on my machine. I don't appear to have any flickering and my machine is still alive (albeit for maybe a short time, LOL) so I don't know what gives here. Nvidia CP reports 353.62 installed. Running at full brightness on high performance plugged in and all seems ok thus far. Samsung panel SDC4C48.

Gonna watch this thread with a hawk eye, who knows, my machine might be dead in the morning.

Brother Fox - man, sorry to hear you've had such bad luck with this - hit me up if there is anything I can maybe help out with.

 

Yes, that is exactly the same one as the dead M18xR1 and M18xR2 display panels.

 

I disabled HWinfo on startup just like you said; and no more screen flickering!! WoW, thanks SO much! Very strange that before upgrading I didn't have this screen flickering, but after Win 10 it started happening. :| Glad its not something worse. I feared maybe the GPU.

You mentioned I need to check off some boxes to stop the screen flickering from happening even if HWinfo is enabled at startup.. What boxes?

Thanks again!

P.S. Still waiting on that link (whenever you get a chance) so I can push the OC to at least 4.5 or 4.6GHz stable, (maybe more) .. I'm not too good at gauging the accurate voltage increments needed; all I do is increase the multiplier per core in ThrottleStop with a very slight voltage increment. It'd be nice to have some stats to follow.

 

I will get you some info for those clock speeds as soon as I can. Remember, my Alienware 18 has a dead LCD and fails to post with 8 beeps, so I cannot just give you some fresh screen shots or XTU profiles. But, I think I already have some, just have to find them after work, and my work after work, are all done.

I knew about that because I had the same issue with Windows 10 Technical Preview being spastic with HWiNFO64 scanning exactly like what your machine is doing.

Here are the HWiNFO64 settings to emulate. Right-click the taskbar icon, then choose settings to get this window opened.

 

Thank-you. I've applied those settings. .. No worries on the fresh screen shots for the overclocking profiles, whenever you can manage. Wish I could fix your broken LCD's . WHY did this have to happen to you out of all people?! Hope some good comes of it somehow. You are incredibly helpful all the time-your drivers & upgrades should always work BETTER than anyone else LOL not worse & cause crashes. Shame on you Microsoft & Nshitia. Have some respect for the elite!!

 

Here's mine, running with Mr. Fox 345.20 Desktop Driver Mod since the 29th

 

looks like all the 18 inchers are all 2010 samsung panels.

 

Brother @Rotary Heart - That screen shot... is... so... WHITE... LOL.

Did that fix the screen glitching?

It's a shame that it happened to anyone, but better that it happen to someone like me that has the ability figure out what the problems are and fix them rather than a person that doesn't know where to start and cannot fix it on their own. Imagine how discouraging it would be to face this sort of problem and not have a clue where to even go to ask for help.

I am always glad to help others. It's very rewarding and the appreciation that is usually expressed makes it even more so.

 

who was the other M18X R2 that got busted?

 

UPDATE: Even after applying the changes to HWiNFO64 that you shared in the screenshot above, after enabling HWiNFO64 to start up with windows; i STILL get the flickering. :| Evidently the only way to get rid of it is by starting HWiNFO64 manually.

 

Try taking ownership of the folder where you have HWiNFO64 and if properties for all of the contents are read-only clear the check box. If that still does not work, shut down HWiNFO64 and rename the INI file to .OLD and relaunch it. This will create a new INI file.

If that still does not work, clear the box for HWiNFO64 to Auto Start and manually create a task to run HWiNFO64 at logon with highest privileges. If you already see a task in Task Scheduler, delete it. Delay the task from auto-starting for 5 seconds or 30 seconds.

I cannot remember now exactly what I did that fixed it with Windows 10 Technical Preview, but I think it was one of those things. It only did this on the Alienware 18, not the M18xR2. If neither one of those fix it, let me know and I will try harder to remember what it was. I remember how it bugged the crap out of me until I fixed it.

Edit: You can also try shutting down HWiNFO64, renaming the INI file to .OLD and UNCHECKING (yes, I know the screen shot showed it check) the box for "Flush Buffers on Start" and that may also do the trick.

See post #35

 

ah, if they can confirm if they have the same panel that would be great.

 

All M18xR1 and M18xR2 use exactly the same panel. There was only ever one option for them, so we already know which panel it had. As far as I know, there was also only one PLS display option for the Alienware 18. They are very similar, but two distinctly different panels.

 

Revered back to win8.1. The flickering is gone and the brightness slider is back. I did not realize how bright my screen was it was at 100%, turned it down to 85% no more looking into the sun. Using driver 353.38. Going to hold off to new driver and things settle down.

 

ok, we still need a bit more info on the panel models cos i don't feel like ruling out specific brands being broken because of drivers.

 

Good idea to play it safe. Can you run the Monitor Asset Manager (see above link) and post your LCD details? We can match it to confirm yours is the same as what @steviejones133 posted.

 

i wanted to see if it was ok to use win 10 with 353.38

 

Somebody talked of EEPROM corruption in this thread. It HAS HAPPENED in the past, but in this case, it was a transition from an nvidia fx3800M to a 6970M MXM card. Not in the same way, but it IS possible that some sort of EEPROM corruption has happened.
http://ridingtheflow.blogspot.com/2011/04/is-thinkpad-w701-mxm-kind-of.html
To sum up,
"Finally I have found out that lucking none of the internal circuits were damaged. What in fact happened, is several first bytes of internal LCD panel EDID EEPROM were corrupt, overridden with some garbage. No doubt this happened while HD6970M was connected. This did happen because EDID EEPROM on particular RGB LED 1920x1200 panel lacks any kind of protection, and if you just issue "write" I2C command instead of "read", the data will be written to EEPROM containing all the data which needed by graphics card to communicate with the panel (resolution, frequencies, etc).
In my case luckily only about 3 bytes at the start were corrupted, and this is just the EDID header. So none of actual panel parameters were lost, I've restored the header and brought laptop fully back to life. But this is an important lesson - you can actually damage your laptop by trying a third-party MXM board in it, even if laptop appears to have a MXM slot."

You guys have scared me, seriously. There will be no windows 10 on my computers, and no latest nvidia driver on the Alienware 18 when I get it back.

 

i don't think it's win 10's fault here.

EDIT: but the problem is occurring with both MXM cards that are stock to the laptop as well as after market.

 

I am sure most of you are VERY aware of the Windows 10 privacy concerns. They are absolutely insane!

I found these instructions online which help fight back: LINK

If anyone else has anything useful that can help us disable them from stalking us to the extent they are trying to; please share it. There should be a thread dedicated to that purpose alone.

 

Well, the " Windows 10" thread has more than enough vitriol, but here is one that fits the bill: Why I don't like Windows 10

 

Should have added THIS to your list.

 

Well, after updating to 10 last night, my 'puter is still alive and kicking this morning, fortunately. Don't appear to have any issues........although saying that might be tempting fate!

 

We still need to remove win 10 as a factor in this issue. So use older drivers and verify.

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New Windows 10 NVidia drivers now for you Alienware Owners (released by Dell):
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/31631-dell-mobile-geforce-drivers-35324/

 

would probably still need to mod them for aftermarket GPUs.

my LCD cable can't come any faster.

 

Considering the anemic systems those drivers are intended for, they might induce severe throttling unless you are connected to an eGPU.

 

still waiting for someone to test older drivers on win 10.

 

Yeah so if I reinstall windows 10 on my 18 with the old nvidia drivers, how do I prevent windows from updating the drivers automatically and burning out another one of my screens? Cause right now I'm thinking of installing it, install drivers, run ddu because it disables the driver updates, and then reinstall the same drivers. Anyone know how to get around this?


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what was the model of the busted screen first?

 

Yeah I just finished getting it out now



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It's says lg display but I don't know which number is the model number


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Your model is lp173wf1-tlb3

 

probably the LP17xxxx is the model number.

so i guess we can rule out it being brand specific.

 

Why install a beta OS and let M$ burn your crap up? Just use windows 7 or 8 for a while till the first year or two beta period is over for windows 10?

 

there's no evidence that proves it's the OS that's causing the screens to go bust.

we still need people to test older drivers like 353.38 in win 10 to prove that it's the 353.62 drivers that are causing it.

 

upgraded to Windows 10 the day it was released on my alienware m18xr1. I have dual 580m's..no issues like this yet and I sure hope I don't!

 

are you using older drivers?

 

If you are using 353.62 drivers, you may want to use an older driver just to be on the safe side.

 

yes, we need to confirm that older drivers do work.

 

Man this site is screwed up tonight.

soooooooooooo lagggggggggggggggggyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

The old AMD CCC (v14.4 I think) will install but it does not work.

It bugs out and keeps display the error message "Display driver has stop responding but has recovered"

The NEW IMPROVED AMD CCC v15.XX raised temps on both the 17 and 18 by over 20%

Both the NVidia and AMD drivers look like their FAILURES AGAIN

 

Don't know if anybody answered, but yes that will work in the Aw17 R1. I have that exact panel - though I'm not using it since I can't get my 970M to work with it. Others haven't reported the same issue I'm having.