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

I don't know of any way you can predict it. You can check it by pulling the EDID code from the display (use Monitor Asset Manager - download it here) and then paste it here: Web Based EDID Reader and click the button to "Parse EDID" to see if it shows good.

Some machine may work OK with a corrupted EDID, others not at all. It depends on how it is engineered.

 

@Mr. Fox Didn't they already identified the issue but don't give a damn? There was quote from some nvidia guy in thread before.

But the AW18 got destroyed without EVGA Precision X?

Do your third AW with never win10 installed works good with newest drivers?

 

the DMs dont have the iGPU active, so that shouldnt be an issue...

@ajc9988: what base for clevo gpu oc is used? driver-wise? oc-tool wise? please specify

 

More than one person has reported EDID corruption without EVGA Precision X installed. My Alienware 18 is not the only example. I suspect some of the Clevo owners having issues with their LCD panels also did not have EVGA Precision X installed, but that is an assumption on my part since none have stated as much.

As far as I know, Alienware is not giving up and blaming EVGA Precision X, but that might be what NVIDIA intends to do. I don't know. Neither of them has told me their position straight up on the matter, and I doubt they will do so. It would be a shame for EVGA to be the scapegoat here and have the problem swept under the rug. Like the 780M SLI throttling problem, pretending it doesn't exist does not make it go away, but that seems to be the modus operandi for NVIDIA. If it's not something new they are trying to sell, they don't seem too concerned about burning any calories to fix it. They say they cannot reproduce it. Might be true, but I would think their engineers should have the intelligence to know what changes they have been making architecturally to drivers and vBIOS and have at least some ideas what might be triggering it, and demonstrate some sense of obligation to undo their mistakes.

If the problem is solely something with Windows 10 and Windows 10 upgrade readiness updates, they might not know where to start... depends on how much information Micro$loth has disclosed to them.

 

If I did pull the right code from the MonInf app (thx @Mr.Fox) then the website linked does indeed show that my monitor is ok:

Valid Checksum: TRUE
EDID Header: OK
EISA ID: LGD
Product Code: 46F
Serial Number: 0
Manufacture Date: 0/2014
EDID Version: 1.4

Gues it is just some sort of graphical corruption based on drivers and gpu with different id? (the drivers, even though provided by Clevo, give me a popup that they are not certified and if I choose to install them).

 

Actually, every zm had precision x on it! I didn't change pixel settings, but it was enough.

That's what I'm asking, whether Clevo uses a similar base to precision x. Msi afterburner still isn't fully ruled out either, but people have used without recurring corruption also, so it's a maybe safe (need to re-read reports with it present). Need more info on afterburner. We all know Nvidia inspector is safe. Just running scenarios...

 

aaaah, ok, gotcha. well im pretty sure you can rule out the clevo gpu oc utility, since its automatically installed together with the hotkey / control center. that would basically brick EVERY clevo out there running win10, if it were a trigger

 

Looks like you added this question since I responded.

My M8xR1 has never been touched by Windows 10. The newest drivers have not hurt it. Windows Updates are disabled on all of my machines by Group Policy. I do not allow any of them to be updated by Micro$loth. Even my wife's XPS 15 has no installed updates for over a year. Allowing it is like rolling the dice, so unless I elect to install updates nothing gets installed.

Likewise, the M18xR1 has no recent Windows updates, so that could be why it has not been harmed by the newest drivers. I will check again in a few days with the M18xR1. I will uninstall with DDU and reinstall the latest GeForce drivers and see if anything gets messed up.

 

http://forums.evga.com/m/tm.aspx?m=2404129

Sorry for the mobile link (on my phone atm), but it looks very much like a desktop is having EDID corruption. At least the Windows copy of the EDID it seems.

 

What? Where? The hot key app?

 

I'm referring to mine and scerate, the two confirmed zm cases. Not saying it comes standard...

 

Latest hotkey app has the oc app included. The latest one from clevo website is v5.0000.0.16 (from the dm/dm-g download section) but somehow (and I honestly don't know where from) i got v5.0000.0.24. I can share if anybody wants.

 

i wonder if the DM hotkey revision also works on the ZM machines

 

Sounds like a plan!

 

Gotcha! Relief!

 

my laptop just stopped working with 8 beeps...never had windows 10 installed but im starting to think that the guy that had this 980m before me may have.....

 

This problem affects the LCD panel in the laptop, not the GPU (atleast, that is how i have interpreted all the info in this topic).
Might be wrong though.

 

It was speculated earlier in this thread that Win10 could eventually write something onto the VBios of the graphic Cards. And yes, the Card could turn out then as virulent as diarrhoea and affect other rigs when implemented.

Another trigger could be, if you had Win10 ready update Drivers installed. EVGA Precision X turned out to be incubator as well. Did you have Prec X/Win10 ready updates installed?

@Mr. Fox, @t456 what do you think?

 

im really not sure about the windows10 ready updates but how do i proceed at this point? i have never had precision X, in fact i read the thread about the 8 beeps far before this problem occured and thus completely avoided win10

also the computer threw 4 beep error and 5 beep error at certain points when i was resetting the CMOS battery and trying to boot up but now its back to 8 beep error only

the thing is, i have 2 other m18x's i can swap displays with but from what i read if i already have the issue then ill just brick the other displays

 

@Mr. Fox figured out how to fix it with @t456 doing his Magic, see post on page 158.

 

I've used it loads and my EDID is absolutely fine. I was on Windows 10 BUT not a single driver was installed, I stumbled across this thread around 4 hours after installing 10 so it had touched 10 and afterburner (used for OSD) hasn't done a thing

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

i have to say the directions for fixing it are a bit confusing to me

do i have to swap another display and flash the EDID through linux and THEN cut the wire on the LCD?

 

If you had your BIOS in UEFI or Legacy and UEFI you should be able to use an external monitor through HDMI however.. If you have pure legacy I think that's where you need to hot swap

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

i do have pure UEFI unfortunately do not own an external display...i assume i need one for this procedure

 

Trust this helps?

 

Luckily this means you should be able to use any external monitor through HDMI and follow @t456 guide.. A lot easier than trying to find another panel for your laptop

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

what page is his guide on?

well at this point its much easier for me to just put on my other m18x screen than try to find an HDMI monitor so how much risk am i running doing this? will i have to cut the LCD cable on the 2nd monitor as well ....isn't it just going to get corrupted like the 1st if i swap it onto the affected computer?

edit: let me rephrase the question a bit...if im trying to re-flash the edid on the affected monitor then how do i use another m18x LCD to achieve this?

my other concern is at what point do i have to cut the lcd wire? after i successfully flash and shut the computer down or should i flash then restart to see if it works and then shut down and cut?

edit2: there are more recent posts from mr fox implying that cutting the #5 wire was not a successful permanent fix...or did i misread that?

 

My M18r2 is still OK according to the EDID reader.
Running it with a 970M on Windows 10 + the latest driver but without any OC programs.
Just installed it last Sunday, and disabled automatic driver downloading immediately.
Went to geforce.com and downloaded the latest driver.

Can't install Windows 8.1 for some weird reason, and W7 on full uefi doesn't want to cooperate.

Btw; the person with a desktop edid problem found the problem - his modulair power supply cable melted

Edit;

By preforming a hot-swap.. I guess that means just disconnecting the good one whilst only needing to press enter to start the flashing and connecting the bad one.

 

i have a problem, i just connected another m18x display and im getting the same 8 beeps .... ??

connecting the 'bad' display to the other m18x, it boots up just fine......now what..?

 

That sucks!
I would say try to test the 980m, and check all of your cables.
I forgot something, causing 8 beeps. If you reset your bios, i asume it goes back to legacy, and then your 980m won't work - 8 beeps.

 

Sounds like it is the 980m, and not your display.
Remove it, and try booting on iGPU

You can also try it in your other AW ofcourse, since it appears the LCD doesn't get corrupted when doing so.

edit; Did 3 refrseshes and didnt see my 1st post. my bad

 

im about to throw my 560m in it to see if it boots

i thought a failed GPU had a different beep code?

 

Yes, 5 beeps. But 8 beeps is a problem with outputting a image to the LCD panel, if it's not the LCD panel, it's gotta be the GPU.
I can't remember how many beeps the UEFI / Legacy setting gave when in the wrong setting (560 won't work on full uefi, and 9* doesnt work on legacy).

iGPU will work on both, if set to automatic.

 

sooo what am i supposed to do....my other 18x has a 7970m...should i be putting that in instead? my bios is set to full uefi...or was at least until i began messing with the CMOS

edit: just remembered i have 2 780m's sitting around....im dumb

 

I was messing around last Sunday for about 6 hours, before getting it right...
Switched between 670m, 970m en iGPU due to faulty bios settings....
I found that its more easy to try the laptop with iGPU then with one MXM card...
iGPU is compatible with every bios setting, while your nvidia mxm cards don't.
Cant Judge about 7970m though.

Btw; Resetting CMOS --> Back to legacy

 

the 780m is compatible with both settings though so its unversal?

 

Yes, i think so.

 

so if this works ill be out 650$ for a 980m before i even got to play a single game on it...nice

EDIT: laptop booted up but windows wont start, throws an error probably need to run startup repair or something....basically my 980m died is what it's looking like?

edit2: had to switch back to AHCI...windows booted...hurray...sortof

 

I can't Judge, you can still try using the 980m in one of your other laptops.
If i gives the same error there, it's most definitely "dead".

I'm no hardware expert though, that's just a logical conclusion.

 

id have to put the other comp together, switch to UEFI only then take it apart and put it in right? what tab is the UEFI setting under?

 

Don't know, it's somewhere on the right - most likely under boot

That's what you can do, but you can also partly assemble it...
I didn't build it up again before making sure everything was working.
Looks like a mess, but saves alot of time and effort.

Just remove the powerbutton from the frame around the keyboard, connect it.
Do the same for keyboard (or better, use a usb keyboard), and do what you needed to do.

 

ok , now im REALLY confused...just threw the 980m back in and it booted up fine....woooow

how could this be any kind of an intermittent issue?

basically, my computer works again but i neither know what caused the problem nor how i fixed it....not good

judging from the fact that it was 8 beeps id say the problem probably lies somewhere between the gpu and lcd...maybe my cabling is damaged in some way causing an intermittent issue like this? the strange thing is the computer wasnt being moved in any way i simply clicked "restart" and it stopped working

edit: restarted computer 2x to try to reproduce the problem ..no issues

 

I would suggest shutting down your computer, remove battery and AC adapter and then restarting after a while, see if you get error... It might just be a faulty LCD cable though...

 

i'd like to see LCDs brick with AMD GPUs to see if it is indeed precision x triggering it.

 

I'd like to see this never happen to anyone again lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

well, i meant for science!

 

Thanks. Mine appears to be the SDC4C48 and is brickable. It came with a 2013 BIOS A03, which is very old. I should not have updated it to A12, but I doubt it'll change anything. Currently typing this on that new Alien 18 now and on Win8. Installed using UEFI and Secure Boot... so far so good. I'll read up on what exactly I'll need to do to do what you'd like in terms of writing.

By the way, the LCD is FAR nicer than I ever expected. Viewing angles are fantastic and so are the colors. They appear to be spot on! I have grown tired of laptop LCDs where you view it straight on and the corners start to invert colors. I nearly got used it. This has none of that. It also doesn't appear to dither colors. Very happy. Sad if it bricks, but I'm under warranty so I'm game.

Also played around software and hardware RAID. Tried software RAIDing 3 SSDs.. tops out at 1200 MB/s. Hardware RAID was 1000 MB/s exact. I'll play around more this weekend.

What a beast laptop. It shadows my previous HP HDX 18" which was big already.

 

Remember that SSD speed is useless. What matters is access time and IOPS

Im checking this thread everyday and im more and more unsatisfied with Nvidia and MS

 

Great, thanks for offering to help . Make sure to hold off Windows updates for now; if any 10-ready update is installed it'll be too late and the write-edid check is useless.

Made two modded edids to check the ' flip-WP byte' theory:

SDC4C48 - stock edid and mods



The only difference vs. the ' stock new' is that the mods will say ' SDC MOD V1' or ' SDC MOD V2' where the Dell inventory number used to be. This has no effect anywhere, but will make it easy to spot the change (in Linux, too, when using ' i2cdump').

Btw, there's two known edid revisions for your panel ('old' and 'new' in the archive). Doesn't matter which you flash; both will work. The 'old' edid is as it came off the factory line, the 'new' is as it was ordered by Dell, so that revision includes their inventory number. All AWs will have the 'new' edid, unless the panel was swapped after-market (with a non ex-Dell).

 

Thank the gods I've stumbled across this thread before wasting money buying spare parts. So my AW 17 R1 has become the latest victim of MS/Nvidia debacle. 8 beeps/burnt LCD. At the moment HDMI external monitor output is my only saviour.

Technically speaking, can Dell help us fix the problem (EDID corruption) by issuing emergency BIOS updates to all 'infected' systems? Worst case scenario, swapping a spare LCD in, wipe clean all drives and downgrade to Windows 7 will it work?

Now I'm worried about my P750ZM too. Will steer clear of Win 10 until this is resolved