Black Screen on P150SM-A

Hello forum users,

I'm new here, so I'd like to introduce myself. I'm 33 years old and live in Lisbon Portugal.
I have tried to write on different forums regarding my problem, with no luck so far.

So basically, I have a P150SM-A laptop with a NVidia 970M.

Yesterday, I decided to reboot the computer from Linux to Windows to play my games. And the weirdest thing happened. As I turned off the computer to clean it up, and turned it back on again. It took it something like 30 seconds to pop in BIOS mode, saying that something was wrong about EFI (I don't use EFI).

So i decided to load the BIOS factory settings, and rebooted. Again, the computer took lots of time before doing anything, and when it finally turned on, it was in BIOS mode again, in something like "recovery mode". I pressed continue as i didn't know what to do next, and some progress bar showed up then went all the way to 100%. Then the computer rebooted. When the computer was in this sort if "recovery mode", i remember that the screen was saying "Reset NVRam" and another option, both were set to "Enabled". Not sure what this means tho.

Now, if I turn the computer on, the keyboard is backlit, the fans are spinning, and that's it, the screen stays black. I was able to connect an external monitor to the HDMI port, but nothing shows up on it.

So far, here are all the symptoms that I have collected:
- When pressing Fn + 1, the fans go full power.
- When pressing Fn + B, the computer reboots.
- When pressing CapsLock or NumLock, nothing happens.

I tried:
- Removing all power sources (Battery, AC, CMOS plug) and let it sit for 30mn.
- Removing all storage devices including the M2 SSD.
- Removing / Changing RAM from slot 1 / 2 to 3 / 4, and also just keeping one RAM stick.

Every time, the result is the same, the computer just won't do anything more than that.

I have read pretty much all i could find regarding this problem, and I'm still not sure what to think... The computer has stock BIOS, and I'm not too comfortable flashing it. But I have read somewhere that putting a .rom file on a FAT32-formated USB stick and pressing "Fn + B" might give some results... However as i dont know what file to use exactly, and don't want to loose the warranty if this solution fails, I'm a little reticent about that.

Do you guys have any advice regarding this please?
Thanks a lot for your time!

Doodloo.

 

You didn't happen to install Windows 10 did you? If so, that's your problem right there. And from what you're saying this would actually be the worst corruption yet reported.

Check out this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...illing-alienware-and-clevo-lcd-panels.779449/

 

Hello Ethrem,

Actually I did =\ So this thread is saying that the TFT panel would be fried... But I tried plugging an external screen on HDMI and nothing happened... Could this fact eliminate the possibility of this problem happening to my laptop? Also, people seem to have modded their BIOS for this to happen, right? I was running the stock BIOS. Right now, my computer is at my reseller... They will probably send it to the manufacturer for a thorough full diagnostic.

Thanks for your help!

 

It has been discovered that Windows 10 writes to the system BIOS as well although your situation is the worst I've heard of. Nobody has reported the BIOS recovery stuff yet until now. Of course, Clevo machines aren't Alienware machines, they use different BIOS. The Alienware systems use InsydeH20 which is not modifiable like Clevo and their AMI EFI.

I added your machine to that thread. NVRAM corruption has been seen with Windows 10 but it's mostly been reported with InsydeH20 (Alienware, Acer, Lenovo, HP). Your SM-A would be the third Clevo that has been reported.

@Prema what do you think happened here?

 

@Etherem: I really appreciate your insights, thanks. I'm already discussing this with Prema in TechInferno. Be sure I will report back to all threads for the sake of other users.

So if I understand correctly, the only viable options would be either:
- Mobo replacement?
- In-place SMC replacement of a reprogrammed CMOS?

Also, I'm wondering... The O/S being able to write to the BIOS sounds like a ping-pong between manufacturer and Microsoft to redirect the blame to each other... Any precedence on similar cases? First time I hear about the O/S being able to write on CMOS... But whose flaw is that? Is my warranty even going to cover that?...

 

If you're working with Prema, you're in much better hands than my own. I know a lot but when it comes to low level firmware, I would go with the expert. What I don't understand is how Microsoft is getting access to the system NVRAM when using the CSM for legacy boot. I would have figured that legacy BIOS would prevent low level firmware access by the OS but it appears that isn't the case at all.

If you direct them to the Alienware thread on here and explain that you were running Windows 10, I don't see why they would void your warranty. Windows 10 has been bricking machines since Insider 10130.

http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...pdate-corrupted-my-bios-what-should-i-do.html

 

Please let us know of the "diagnostic" outcome of your Reseller/manufacturer! Insist of a Report of the diagnostics. Would love to hear what they have to say....

Was one of the foolish ones who got this cancer let rape my rig! But so far all is running with no problems I am aware of (fingers crossing). Wanted to go back to ol' 8.1, but as I have read the horrific stories about MicroPop polluting the BIOS/MoBo permanently, regardlaess of reverting back to a former Version, I'll stay that way....

 

As far as I know, it's IMPOSSIBLE (99.9%) for Windows 10 to cause the same display issues for your laptop as Alienware laptops. The reason for this is the big black screen 8 error POST bug on Alienware laptops works because NVIDIA allows EDID to be editable and thus corruptable, whereas any laptop with an Intel iGPU cannot have the EDID edited. Therefore, I don't think it was Windows 10 that did this, it probably was something else.

I'm pretty sure that you CAN modify Insyde BIOSes, but I'm not positive... I know you can extract them, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to modify them... Unless you mean that Windows 10 cannot modify them, in which case I don't know.

Regardless of any of this, this is scary that so many random failures are happening.

 

Windows 10 is gaining access to NVRAM even in legacy mode which can cause legitimate firmware corruption outside of the display. The EDID issue with Alienware machines is one matter but the BIOS corruption is another.

InsydeH20 can be modded but later Alienware models have an encrypted BIOS from my understanding. I've never owned an InsydeH20 machine so I can't say which ones but I know the 18 (and presumably the 17) is among them. These systems use a signature that prevents unsigned system BIOS images from flashing. What is really irritating about these Windows 10 issues is that the OS is still getting low level access even in legacy mode which should technically not be allowed.

 

Hello guys! Up until now, no news from the reseller... I'm a bit scared of what could actually happen.
What would be a possible solution for me in the event they won't have my back? Mobo replacement? SMC de-soldering and replacement?

Let apart the fact that i don't have any hardware to do that by myself, I live in Lisbon (Portugal) and i highly doubt that anyone here in Portugal could do it...
If you have any idea, i would really love to hear about them

Have fun, I will let you guys know about what comes next for me and my hardware.

PS: Another thread I started is here: http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/10931-black-screen-stock-bios-p150sm.html It is the thread in which Prema is helping.

 

It comes down to the type of protection, Aptio V is the biggest killer for mods since it locks out most things.

Anything is possible as far as replacements go depending on the exact cause of the issue from bios chip replacements to new motherboards.

 

Huh? How is that? Did an AW 17 R2 Mod (using an Aptio V base) for someone some 4-5 months back, was working just fine...

 

I thought the alienware mods were based on Dell regressing back to Aptio IV?

 

Honestly, no idea what they are doing in AW land...
The Mod I made for that user back then was already based on the first BIOS (A00 / Aptio V) and we had no problems.

BTW, ALL new/upcomming Clevo BIOS are Aptio V and its looking good from my end.

 

Found any solution or knew what the problem was? Having the same issue on p170sm windows 10 what should i do next, not even on my country(pt) right now...

 

sorry about your luck I had this same problem and I had to RMA good luck

 

How long did it take the RMA?

 

Sager only had it 3 days so it was less than a week it was really fast I was surprised...

 

send it in for repair to the manufacturer. It could also be a LVDS cable , but less likely then being the screen and a windows 10 issue....


And PREMA is great, if he is helping you, then your fine, his reasoning has helped sooo many people.

 

What did it end with? I've experiencing the same problem with a P170HMx6

Did you get it to work?

 

hey any of your guys getting black screens, were you guys using precisionX from EVGA ?

 

nope not me

 

I would use another application, Mr. Fox was mentioning the program causing issues I think.