Area 51m 766 wont startup...help!

Hello,

Last week my area 51m 766 (3ghz, 1 GB ram, 16.1" screen) laptop started buggin out and will not boot anymore. I was using it with a cooling pad, and suddently the display got really distorted, just like when a cartridge wasnt loaded in correctly on the old 8 bit nintendo.. The graphics became all choppy and distorted, and objects on the screen became unrecognizable...then it shut down. I have gotten it to boot once or twice for a few minutes since..but now it hardly every boots, and only for a minute.

I have been having overheating problems in the past (my video card fan broke so I removed it, and have been using a cooling pad)
The screen has been dimming and brightening occasionaly
WHen the computer DOES boot, the screen itself appears OK

Please help! I have reseated the RAM and also the Vid card to no avail.

 

When was this purchased?

 

about 3 years ago.. its well out of warranty.

 

My Area 51 7700 did the same thing now it starts most of the time but sometimes in just hangs on the xp screen. I have to remove the battery to get it to shut down then restart it and start in safe mode then go back to a recent restore point, sometimes this works sometimes I have to do it two or three times. This is the latest in a long long line of problems I have had with this machine.

 

Are there still sites that sell remains of these swappable video cards that were published with the 766? There were some not too long ago. Would be worth it just replacing the video card.

 

Depends on how much the card is; I don't know of any sites. If may end up being less trouble to simply get a new machine; if it is already three years old then there is a higher probability more stuff is going to fail in the coming months/years. Your battery is probably already dead so there's another reason to get a new machine.

 

I used to stumble upon the same site for a couple of times that had a major list of replacement Alienware parts (among many other brands) such as displays, batteries, RAM modules, HD's, and yes also the modular video cards. I am trying to find it now, will edit as soon as I find it. I am 99% sure this vendor still has them in stock, or at least their site said so.

This post is on the same topic and sort of confirms it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=37852

Will keep this updated.

 

Hmm. No video card modules found yet, but found just about anything else:
http://www.laptopking.com/searhbrandresults.asp?brand=alienware

They even have some of the first Alienware lids ever made... Funny to see how those looked compared to the current designs...

 

OK. I have this thing apart but still intanct enuff for it to boot if it was working. So...

The system powers up and the HD and CD light stay on. And thats it. Nothing on the screen and no beeps.

I removed the RAM and SAME behavior

I put back the RAM and removed the Video card and SAME exact behavior.

How is a healthy system supposed to react without a VIDEO card? Would that stop the HD from booting up properly?

 

I am going to move this to the Hardware forum so you can get more responses.

 

I'm guessing you should have got some sort of beep codes when you pulled the Ram or GPU? You might contact uniwill(?) or alien for some "friendly" help.

My guess is fried GPU. Let us know what you find out.

 

Thanks for the reply. No beeps, nothing.

I will try calling them and let you guys know.

 

Dude. Same exact thing happened to me today. Did you get ahold of Alienware? I bought mine used so I have no dealings with them, I'm on my own. Not only that but I'm now in Australia - God help me. Have you found a place to buy an old 5700 FX GO anywhere??

It's totally dead on startup, black screen, lights are on, but no beeps, nothing to work with here. Its got to be the video card? Sucks!