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

with what proof that it's causing the issue?

 

Both the laptop & the TV are LINKED as one. In other words, both are the MAIN display. I am scared to make changes for fear that if I do; I will not be able to boot into my desktop & get past the 8 beeps no post, even if I connect the HDMI cable.

Right now, I am uploading a YouTube video; once it is done rendering- I will post it here so everyone can have a clear representation of what was happening exactly, what happened and what is happening now. I literally replicated exactly what's been happening (thanks to an earlier video I uploaded) before this 8 beep no post b/s started happening.

I changed the options so that only my laptop display is the main one. Cannot reboot until video is uploaded & posted here. Once that is done, I will reboot without HDMI cable * see if I post. (Unlikely) but worth a try. Fingers crossed that if I don't post, after connecting the HDMI again, I will at least be able to post that way until this is fixed (if that's possible) that is.

Will keep everyone posted as this unfolds.

Thanks to all who are trying to help. Greatly appreciated; this is extremely time consuming.

 

@ the gh0sts - Mate, what are you talking about, have you not been reading the post here.

There are numerous issues with this stupid (Beta) OS

Causing LCD problems is only one issue.

Forced updates, security problems, permissions, restricted control panel options - the list goes on and on

 

If you get 8 beeps after this then remove the coin cell battery and try a full power drain, that should revert everything back to the way it was before you made changes now and enable you to at least boot with HDMI

 

how do you know it is the OS causing this? you don't. we're trying to eliminate possible factors, not making blind accusations based on zero proof. that's why i keep asking people on win 10 to test with older drivers, and if your screen is broken provide the model # to see if there's any correlation.

JHC!!!!

 

I got geforce experience uninstalled and got only that drivers from windows update, it says driver version 10.19.13.5362. Wich i believe could be 363.62 according to last 5 digits

In Support Assist this is what i have : 1GB memory displayed for Inter Graphics and 3GB for Nvidia. I checked in dxdiag and it was fine with Aproxx Total memory about 12 GB for Inter and 16 GB for Nvidia.

How come this discrepancy?

Doesnt look right, but now at least i dont have those black window crashes with weird sound during work and only curson visible, that i had with geforce experience installed with latest drivers.

http://postimg.org/image/5atpign8r/

 

To bring some clarity & order to my previous posts now that the second video is done for demonstration & summary of exactly what has been happening:

My AW18 had Win 8.1 64 Bit. Everything was up to date, all updates done, latest Nvidia driver 353.62. The laptop was in 100% perfect good working order. Successfully upgraded to Win 10 on July 29th, 11:00am. My AW18, was connected to my 55" LED LCD TV the entire time (as it is 95% of the time). During this time, I had no serious problems at all. August 03, 2015, I uploaded a video to YouTube to try and figure out why every time I get into the desktop my screen flickers (as this is the only change I noticed that I didn't really like since the Win 10 upgrade) and I didn't have this issue on Win 8.1.. So, from July 29th to August 3rd, I had been watching movies, surfing, YouTube, lots of gaming--no big issues. We figured out that the screen flickering was caused by HWiNFO64, so I disabled it from auto startup, problem fixed.

Here is the 1st video I made for that screen flickering demonstration:

* Notice in the above video how when restarting the laptop I was NOT able to see the BIOS password prompt screen on my TV, only on my laptop's LCD.. After entering the BIOS password & pressing the enter key, only then could I see the Windows password screen on my TV. This is how things have always been for me, since the day I got my AW18.


On August 05, 2015 I had to remove the HDMI cable from my laptop which was connecting me to my TV. After doing so, I restarted the laptop. Got 8 beeps, no post. Tried powering the laptop off and on a few times only to be greeted by the same 8 beeps, no post loop. I then attached my HDMI cable to my laptop, so now my laptop is connected to my TV vi the HDMI cable, and I turned the laptop on again. No beeps, posts just fine, I get into the desktop. Both my laptop LCD work, and my TV. I see picture on both of them.

Immediately after that I tried launching Nvidia Experience in an effort to roll back my driver; but it crashed right away with an error message I can't seem to recall exactly what it said. I then went to Device manager>display adapters>880m properties>unable to roll back the driver. The option to do so is not there. (Strange, I know).

I uninstalled Nvidia Experience, then manually successfully installed Nvidia's official 353.49 driver. Disconnected the HDMI cable from the laptop, enabled SLI, restarted laptop. 8 Beeps, no post. Connected HDMI cable, no beeps, posts fine, I get into the desktop SLI is enabled & everything is working just fine. I have picture on both my laptop's LCD & TV.

Important notes: The only way I can post is if my HDMI cable is connected to my laptop. NO OTHER WAY, or I am greeted by the never ending 8 beeps, no post loop. Another thing that caught my eye since the first reboot after the very first no post experience, right after I connected the HDMI cable & posted just fine, I was able to (for the first time in my life) see the BIOS password prompt screen on my TV! I like the fact I can see it, but clearly HATE the fact that I cannot post without the obligation to be connected to HDMI cable/TV. WTF?!!

Here is the new video I made demonstrating exactly what is happening:


I don't know how to fix this. Seems to me like Nvidia desperately needs to fix their Windows 10 drivers because they are either completely burning out laptop screens or causing the nonsense I am experiencing!

If anyone has any kind of a solution; please share it with us. These first world problems are about to give me a heart-attack.

Thank-you.

 

@Daniel1983 - If you switch from NVIDIA to Intel HD Graphics do you get the same 8 beeps and no POST? I cannot test that since I cannot boot using HDMI or mini-DP, meaning I cannot do anything until I get a new screen for each machine. It would be interesting to find out if the machine seems to function normally using Intel iGPU.

The other thing I am curious about (that we may never know the answer to) is whether or not you and @Scanner can boot using an external screen because that was pre-configured prior to the failure. In other words, had you both not been using an external monitor before the failure would you be in the same boat I am in now, or if it would still boot with the external screen connected.

I think the NVIDIA driver is causing the screen failures, but I believe something new and different about Windows 10, how it handles video or signatures/certificates is allowing it to happen whereas I believe it would/could not happen using Windows 7 or 8.

What we are seeing may be the future for hardware and software signature enforcement filth, a small glimpse of the feces-paved pathway to UEFI Class 3 and Secure Boot garbage in the perfect storm OS environment. Yes... it's OK to be scared. Anyone with a lick of sense will be scared and furious.

 

I disconnected the HDMI cable, switched to integrated. Posts just fine, no beeps! Problem: After I enter my BIOS password, and windows starts to load, it never actually gets to the Windows enter password screen; the LCD just stays black but WORKS fine, as I could see the Alienware logo and widows loading screen... It's just black, and never seems to finish loading & get to the Windows login/enter password screen. After trying that loop a few times without any luck, I connected the HDMI cable. Now my LCD screen on laptop is just dark all the time, but I got into Windows as I could see it ONLY on my TV in a very odd resolution however. This is truly messed up! WTF is happening here????? I just don't know what to do anymore.

Feel like going back to Windows 8.1 on the AW18 with all these Nvidia/Win10 issues, THANK GOD my other AW18 is on Windows 7. My heaven! -- This (main one) is going through resurrection hell. I have hope.

What to do? Leave it in Win 10 to try & attempt fixes, or go back to Win 8.1 to see if that would fix its self?? Windows 10 & Nvidia drivers are a CLEAR Nightmare for us Alienware owners!!

Edit: I fixed the resolution on the Integrated but only see picture on my TV, not on the AW18's LCD.

 

@Daniel1983 - based on my limited understanding of the graphics architecture on these machines, my impression is that you can boot without the 8 beeps problem using Intel HD Graphics because it does not "look for" a display, it just blindly outputs to whatever you have attached because it is not very sophisticated, whereas the vBIOS on the discrete GPUs goes through extra gyrations to identify where to send the signal and what path it needs to take to get there. I suspect the screen is black because of some sort of damage to the LCD, but that could also be an indication that the Windows 10 Intel HD Graphics driver is either not loaded or it is screwed up and just doesn't work right. It may also be a problem with Legacy/CSM BIOS (assuming you are using that since it is the best approach) if the Windows 10 Intel Driver is looking for a signature for UEFI/Secure Boot/GOP and not finding it with Legacy/CSM enabled. Does Device Manager show it as a Microsoft Display Adapter or Intel HD Graphics?

 

I am on 353.30 for a couple of days gaming, browsing, general using ... etc. and I am doing just fine and all the screen corruption crap I had with the 353.62 is gone.

Hopefully the 353.62 is the culprit

 

Let us know again after a week. We need to be sure.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

This is what it shows:

 

Well it's been 5 days and my screen is still good. Thank god.

 

OK, that's good and bad. Good that it's got a driver. Either the driver is no good, or the symptoms of the black screen is just another symptom of the damaged LCD panel, or both.

Happy you haven't been hurt yet.

Questions:

Are you using UEFI without Legacy Option ROM and/or Secure Boot? If so, that could have something to do with it because Legacy BIOS boots using VGA versus GOP. If something is being written to the LCD EEPROM, that could have behavior that is different in a pure UEFI versus Legacy/CSM environment. Perhaps something is being changed in the LCD EEPROM that refuses to handshake with the LCD using Legacy/VGA after the LCD has been "updated" by Windows 10 or NVIDIA's latest drivers.

Are you the kind of guy that likes to use sleep and hibernation? I ask that only because if your machine is typically put to sleep and has not been completely powered off and cold-booted every day, it is possible that your LCD panel may already be hosed and you haven't discovered that yet.

 

Yes, I do leave the system in sleep mode daily, usually for a few hours at a time. There is NOTHING wrong with this LCD. When I boot into Win10 with my HDMI cable connected to my TV & laptop, I see normal picture on the laptop's LCD & the TV. While in Windows; I can remove the HDMI cable, and only have picture on the laptop's LCD--works perfect... Only when I reboot without the use of the HDMI cable, I get no post, 8 beeps. Tempted to remove the LCD from this AW18, and test it on my other one which hasn't been upgraded to Win10 yet... Complicated process; limited on time here, but if I were to do that and it boots just fine on that machine, we can definitely conclude that the LCD is fine which I believe it is.

I will check the settings in BIOS to give you the rest of the answers after completing some errands. Thanks for your help BTW, much appreciated as always.

 

I have no idea to the first part of the question. I never use sleep or hibernation. I turn my laptop off every night.

 

You're using 353.62 right? (Me too)

 

The 8 beeps is because the LCD is messed up. If you put it on the other machine, it should do the same thing with no external display connected. When my first LCD got killed, I put it on the M18xR1 and it caused it to have 8 beeps. I put the old one back and the 8 beeps went away. I put the M18xR1 display on the M18xR2 and it was instantly fixed... until that one got killed. The difference is that with the HDMI cable connected your AW18 can boot from that instead of the LCD. The LCD is only working because it has already booted. When you disconnect the HDMI cable, it tries to boot from the LCD and it cannot. Hence my speculation that the GeForce driver for Windows 10 or Windows 10 (or a rogue Windows 10 update) writes something to or corrupts the EEPROM on the LCD so it can not longer be found by the BIOS during POST. You're merely lucky that your AW18 can find the HDMI cable or you would not be able to boot. Not sure whether that is because it was already configured to boot that way or not. If you have never, ever used HDMI or mini-DP before, not sure whether or not the situation would be the same. It could just be something different between the M18xR2 and AW18 system BIOS that allows it to boot from an external display port where the M18xR2 lacks that capability. It could also be something different with your 880M vBIOS that allows it to boot using an external display. There could be a difference between 780M and 880M vBIOS in this manner.

 

Can someone take a look at my post too please ?

Mr.Fox i've sent you pm on geforce forum about same situation

 

You have 353.62 GeForce drivers according to your screen shot. It looks like Windows is measuring total available memory including GDDR, system RAM and virtual memory to arrive at the 12GB. You can ignore that.

 

So simply Support Assist show it wrong as of course i got 16gb on nvidia. I havent run any pcmark test or tried to switch to nvidia card but when i run test through support assist program, it used only 1GB on Intel.

Thought that there could be an issue also here with this win10/nvidia drivers

 

I understand what you are saying, but your LCD's do not work at all. So whatever may have been written on mine, only corrupted the LCD from posting without HDMI, but when it posts, it works perfect. This to me indicates that the LCD's ability to show picture is 100% functional. It's ability to post however is another story entirely. It is so strange that while using the SLI config, I have picture on the laptop's LCD but with the Integrated card I can only see picture on my TV.

I wonder if I were to install the LCD from my working laptop (aka laptop [a]) (after installing a fresh copy of Win 8.1 on it) ; if everything would just work as it should.?. What driver version should I load if I choose to test this theory? This is all so very sketchy now.

 

We are saying the same thing. Mine are not bootable and neither are yours. My backlights come on if I close and reopen the lid, but they are not receiving a signal to display the picture because I cannot boot with HDMI or mini-DP as the default like you can. The ability to display something appears to be there.

 

Sorry mate if thats stupid question still a little bit confused and you got bigger problems but really last thing from me.If Windows(Support Assist?) would be measuring those things, why would it say only 1GB for Intel Graphics and 3GB for Nvidia. Shouldnt it be higher than real numbers if so?

I will keep this drivers until i come back from the weekend and hopefully there is new nvidia drivers version update then, that can fix all the issues and i can connect external display to it and use it without troubles

 

No, it's not a stupid question. It's a legitimate one. It's just Windows reporting information is a goofy way that is not accurate. I have seen this before. It may be due to Windows not knowing how to process things correctly with your Optimus system. The Intel HD Graphics have no memory and the BIOS is probably allocating 1GB of your system RAM for that.

 

So this is only the matter of how its displayed? Really strange stuff. It will work fine and no need to look how to change it to make it look right? Its not important at this point for me, but when i get back and they fix this problems with drivers i will need nvidia card to work properly with 16GB allocated, not 3 of course

 

I wish you guys good luck in dealing with your Display issues.
I found on this thread someone mentioning that the display in Windows 10 is brighter than 8 & 7.
I use my R4 (120Hz) most of the time in dark rooms, with windows 7 I could increase the brightness to the max (100%) and it won't bother my eyes.
However, with windows 10 in the same room the max comfortable settings is (75%) anything above that is way to bright.
I don't know if anyone noticed it but I did

 

Yes, I am using the latest drivers and everything has been fine for 5 days now.

 

I wonder if no brightness control is a sign of failure to come?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Right. If your NVIDIA GPU has 3GB of VRAM and more than that is required the system will use virtual memory and system memory to make up the difference. This is how things normally work and you should be fine. Windows is probably telling you want resources are available if it needs use them and this is definitely not how much dedicated video memory is available. There are no GPUs with 16GB of VRAM.

 

It took me over 15 tries to get into BIOS without any luck through re-starting... Then I remembered that the AW18 has the advanced option to access UEFI firmware settings through update & recovery which tricks the system to automatically get into BIOS. Why didn't I try that sooner? LoL

 

enter setup i guess.

 

Where in the BIOS can I check exactly if I am using UEFI without legacy option ROM.. Been browsing through the setup; I don't see where this is?

 

It's under boot, to the left of "EXIT"

 

While you're in there, get rid of that BIOS password. I've been using computers since the 8088 and don't understand why you would want one or need one. Obviously, it did nothing to keep NVIDIA or Micro$haft from screwing things up.

Edit: Yup, looking at your screen shot, you most definitely have the UEFI cancer turned on. That may be why you can boot with HDMI connected and I cannot. It is using GOP. My systems use VGA because I have the "Boot List Option" set to "Legacy" instead of UEFI.

 

I can get through ANY windows password within 5 minutes (literally). I am yet to see anyone do that through the BIOS password. This is why I have it personally.

 

Pick your poison!

 

So, you have it as a BOOT password, or a password to open the BIOS, or both? I can see a valid reason for a BOOT password if you are at risk of having the machine stolen, but not a password before you can open the BIOS to access BIOS settings. I thought the latter was what you meant.

 

Both;same password. Added security. Don't want anyone messing with my settings but me.

 

All right. As long as you don't get locked out by Windows 10, LOL.

But, yeah... using UEFI and booting with GOP is probably the reason you can boot from HDMI. My machines all use Legacy BIOS and VGA by intent. Unfortunately, you HAVE TO use UEFI settings (minus Fast Boot) for 980M to be bootable in an Alienware. 980M fails to POST with 8 beeps using VGA just like what we are seeing with the LCD panels right now. Which causes me to be even more suspicious of Windows 10 itself being the problem. Either Windows 10 or NVIDIA drivers must be writing something to the firmware on the LCD panels. The questions are "what" and "why" because there is NO VALID REASON that it would be REQUIRED for that to occur.

 

Haha, now you wish you had it turned ON don'tcha? LoL

Can't wait until the on site tech arrives to replace the LCD. I'll be going back to Win 8.1 until they sort this mess out (if they ever do). If they manage to get it sorted out, I'll buy Win 10 Pro.

Glad we're getting closer to discovering the culprit. Gonna go back to some gaming now & enjoy racing Project Cars; need to calm my nerves from this mess.

Thanks for the info about the 980m config; since I'll be upgrading to it soon enough that's very good to know. On the upside, we're all learning from this as frustrating as it may be sometimes.

Cheerz!

 

so are we still thinking it's the drivers?

 

Nope, wouldn't matter. I would not want it turned on under any circumstances. Plus, I don't use my machines with an external display... ever. I only tried it to see if they would boot.

Besides, both LCD panels are messed up and the M18xR1 does not support UEFI/GOP, it is only Legacy BIOS and those settings do not even exist.

 

Strange, I have the setting you're looking for above secure boot. I'm doing a load test with WItcher 3 ATM, seeing if the laptop can hold an overclock for a couple of hours. I'll post an SS later.

 

so are we still thinking it's the nvidia drivers?

 

So where do we stand on what's causing this?? N$hitia's drivers or Micro$hafts OS? We need to hear from more people running Win 10 & driver versions, I think, as well as their specs.. That would help.

It's odd that a number of us are going through this and the rare few seem to be just fine. How is this "selective"?

*Bangs head against wall*

Sometimes I wish I had third world problems instead LoL. At least I'd know what they are.

 

Of note: I had my screen replaced a year ago so it might be different than most others. Everything still okay with me.

 

I wonder why the firmware is only being written to Alienware laptop screens then, or even more specifically only certain Alienware laptops - mine's ok, and there's a few A18's that are ok too on here IIRC (steviejones was one I think, maybe some others too). It sounds like a bug that is triggered by a specific set of circumstances regarding hardware & software/firmware configurations.