parasomia

Hey everyone,

I got my M9750 over a year ago, and it has worked well. Recently though it isn't happy. Lately it would shut it self off (which I thought.. ok overheating) and I still think thats what it was. But it would be ok.. let it cool down and it would boot right back up. It was usually when I had it in a not so ventilated place.. my bad!

Last night I had fell asleep and it was left on. It wasn't doing anything heavy so it was fine. I woke up and it was still good, and then I went to shut if off. Later I turned it on.. nothing. Oh it lights up.. the power button, the HDD light will for a few seconds, Disc tray. etc. But thats it. It isn't the screen because I can tell the hdd isn't loading. No POST or anything. Oddly enough I can eject the disc tray or push caps lock or whatever and it will light up. Now this similar thing happened the other day.. except after a few tried it did boot. That isn't the case today so far.

Well here is what I have done/tried. I reseated the RAM.. nothing. I took the RAM out and put the original modules back in.. nothing. I cleaned out the fans and what not, Nothing. I redid the thermal paste on the CPU with some the lovely Arctic Silver 5... nothing. I unplugged the Cmos battery for a few minutes (that is all Alienwares site said to do... left it off till I redid battery).. nothing. I switched hard drives around just for a try.. nothing of course.

I'm kind of stuck with what could be the issue. Funny thing is.. it will turn on by itself. If I connect the power adapter or put the battery in.. it just turns on. If I turn it off by holding the power button down.. it turns off and turns right back on! Strange little creature!

No warranty now, so I'm planning on attempting to fix it myself. I'm just kind of loss on what the issue could be! I don't believe it to be completely dead. Anyone have any ideas? ANY help appreciated!

Thanks,

TriggerFinger

Have you tried with an external monitor?

parasomia

TriggerFinger,

Thanks for the reply.

I failed to mention that yes I did try connecting it to an external monitor with no results. Even though I figured that wasn't it.. I checked.

One thing I should add though. From the very first day I got this it had a nagging issue here and there with turning on. Meaning, if I had the adapter plugged into it, the adapter icon would be lit on the laptop (up near the media controls). And when I would press power.. that light would go out and nothing would happen. Basically the laptop was completely shut off and wouldn't start AT ALL (no power). It just took a few times tinkering with it and it would power up. Didn't happen a lot by any means. I just remember the first day I got it and it wouldn't turn on lol.. I freaked out... nagging issue that only happened here and there.

TriggerFinger

So basically you get nothing when you power ON... no lights, no activity from HDD or CD drive, no images on screen.... as if you have not powered ON at all... is this correct?

Make sure your ac adapter is good and is giving out the correct voltage. Also make sure your battery has some charge at least. Power ON using one or the other (batts or AC). If you get the same thing, have the power ON button/switch checked... worse case is you have dead motherboard.

parasomia

Oh, I get some stuff. As originally stated (and its odd) all I have to do is plug the adapter in or put the battery in and it tries to turn itself on lol. When I turn it off (holding down power button) it turns off.. and then right on again. Odd thing. Don't get it.

When it turns on however, lights do come on.. such as the power light.. the disc tray light.. the adapter icon light, and even the hard drive light for a few seconds... but it doesn't go any further any that. Its running (but I know it isn't booting up). I watched the fans.. they work as normal. I don't get it. I have the thing torn apart now... can't figure out. I just don't think it is completely dead.

TriggerFinger

parasomia

No, Nothing on screen. At all. I don't think the mobo is dead however.. specially if some stuff is working. Doesn't add up. Since it is Sli and has two video cards.. could the primary be dead? Would it cause these symptoms? I wish I could video it.

TriggerFinger

Assuming you get the following when you power ON:
1. LEDs light up (just like in a normal boot)
2. HDD activity as if initializing (HDD LED indicator blinks a few then stops).
3. CD/DVD drive activity as if trying to read media
4. Fan spins (for a few seconds then stops).
5. Nothing on LCD (or external monitor).

It could mean 1) a corrupt BIOS or a dead motherboard or 2) a dead video card.

parasomia

Trigger, I really appreciate the help so far!

Alright, here we go.

Leds do light up like a normal boot.

HDD led does the initialize thing (stops after a few seconds per normal)

Can you the Dvd drive spin up and read (can also eject)

Fans do spin for a few secs and then stop (will start up again if it gets too hot)

Nothing on LCD or external monitor.

A corrupt BIOS- Possible (can this be fixed by unplugged the cmos battery for a few mins? Did try that already)

A dead motherboard - I really hope not.. Anything is possible but I can tell you that components do get warm as if they are running (meaning if I tough CPU/GPU heat sink, they are warm after awhile.

A dead Video card.. we might be on to something here -- I was checking lots of things this morning because I am ocd'ing on this now. It is an SLI configured laptop. two nvidia cards. Daughter is primary, parent is secondary. I noticed late last night that the daughter card was getting Extremely Hot. Just letting the computer sit there while it was clearly not really doing anything.. ya the other components got warm. but the daughter card was insanely hot... difficult to touch.

I messed around with a few things this morning and finally decided to take the daughter card out. I left the parent in and just booted it up. Guess what? The lcd screen now turns on! It still isn't booting however.... yet. Could this indeed be a video card problem? Maybe it won't do much cause the parent card can't act as main? Is it ok to switch the secondary into the primary's slot? I'm not too familiar with how SLI operates.

So basically, with primary card in.. screen won't even bother turning on. With primary out.. screen turns out.. rest acts the same but it is interesting that it does this.

TriggerFinger

Obviously you have a problem with the video card. This is one of the things I hate most in working on laptop - the need for a temporary replacement for analysis .

If you can find some video cards to use, I suggest you try replacing both just for testing. The 'very hot to the touch' card, if you ask my opinion is defective thus the high temp. Start with replacing the two and see if you can at least go and see your BIOS settings either on the LCD or on an external monitor.

Post back what you find out.

parasomia

alrite.. few more observations

I took the primary card and put it in the secondary slot. I took the Secondary card and put it in the primary slot. Guess what? Screen wouldn't come on.

I took the secondary card out out of the primary slot and kept the primary card (the one I thought fried) in the secondary slot. Guess what? Screen comes on again.

Soooo, both cards will at least turn screen on in secondary slot. Whats going on here? Is the primary slot dead? Once again, I don't know SLI much.

I don't know if Ill be able to get a hold of video cards .. not much money to spend atm. This is confusing though.. now.. again!

parasomia

lol ooooooooooooook.


So I take both video cards out.. just to see if I could get a post or something.. nope. same thing HOWEVER the screen turns on still. LOL ***?! I know the LCD is connected to the other side of the board and all... why would the screen still turn on with no graphics cards?! Of course putting a graphic card in the primary slot yields bah results.

This is very interesting and yet.. seems hopeless.

TriggerFinger

I am just curious... could you possibly post an image of the video cards that you are referring to? Post an image of the both the daughter and mother card. Also post an image of where the LCD is connected on the boards.

parasomia

Sure can dude. Hopefully these are what you are looking for.

I took two pics of the video cards. Front and back side. These are located underneath the system as you can see here:
http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/a...p?p_faqid=5557

That is exactly what it looks like in the system where the video cards go. Right below the video cards is the mobo I would assume. On the front of the laptop, underneath the keyboard area is where the LCD plugs in to. It has a few plugs (some are small wires for wifi). The two bigger gray-ish wires I think are the video ones? Yes it isn't very clean at the moment due to all my.. crazyness of trying to fix it!

Let me know if you got any ideas.. Quick question too... where can you even buy video cards for these.. I have a feeling I may have to test parts.. if I can come up with money. I'm sure they are expensive. I'm so used to the desktop ease!

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SparkerR

It sounds like a dead motherboard to me. I bought a cheap PCI-e budget board a while back for a secondary system as a replacement and it was DOA. As a desktop motherboard the symptoms you describe are almost identical to what I got.

as soon as I flipped the power switch on the back of the power suply the whole computer would automatically turn itsself on. everything seemed to power up except the screen and I never heard the reassuring Post beep :(

I thought it was the video card at first but it tested good in another system and a replacement motherboard worked. Do you have any friends with the same type of laptop configuration? You may be able to test your video cards in thier system.

parasomia

Sparker, appreciate the reply.

There are two directions that I'm looking at.. one is the video card and one is the the motherboard. Since I have two video cards and I barely used SLI.. I do have a hard time believing they both died at the same time. Still keep in mind I don't know how SLI works when it comes to needing each card.

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone around that has the same system or a system that would accept these graphic cards. Come to think of it.. I don't think I know anyone with a laptop lol. I'm always the black sheep!

I need to find a place that could possibly sell replacement parts. Hopefully NOT expensive (which I'm sure Alienware is). I don't know the possibility of this, but could I use a OHM/Multi-meter and read to see if the cards are dead? My brother has one and will be coming down in a few days. If I knew exactly how to go about doing it.. I could test the vid cards/cpu/motherboard. I was thinking of that idea last night.

TriggerFinger

According to this http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/alie...tag=mncol;rnav

your model of laptop is using GeForce Go 7950 (details of this video controller can be found here). Many similar types can be found in eBay.

Also as per the images, I am assuming there is a heatsink mounted on each card. If yes, is that gray/white thing on the GPU chip, thermal paste? If so, isn't that too thick or is it a fresh apply? Or you can try thermal pads.

parasomia

Well, it is a fresh apply.. as in a day or 2 ago. But yea, I think I might try redoing it. I have no thermal pads at the moment though and I'm running out of arctic silver, but I do have some other brand here. think ill try redoing something.

I was talking to someone else with same laptop. He is having same issues, but a repair shop got it running somehow. Will figure out whats going on and what worked. I'll continue working on it and post back.

I'm still unsure of it being vid cards. I just can't see two vid cards dying at the same time. Hmmm, but if it is.. well I can at least buy them unlike the motherboard.

TriggerFinger

Follow the steps here re: Arctic Silver 5 application

parasomia

Thanks trigger,

That will help. I have a little bit of arctic silver left.. should be enough via that method.

I still get confused here. Should I guess that the mobo in this system has onboard video? Is that why screen turns on with no video card? I also started thinking about the ram again after someone mentioned it. Ya I have messed around with 4 different modules and all, but check this out.

Remember how I stated above that when I plug my computer in, it automatically turns it self on? If I shut it off... turns right back on. Of course this could be a motherboard problem as stated above. BUT let me say this. The other day when it did this to me, same scenario. Nothing would come on, besides leds and initialize sounds. It also kept turning itself on during that time. Until it actually booted. I keep wishing for that boot luck again but nooooo. Anyway, ya when it did boot and I shut it down.. it had no problem with staying off till I pushed button to turn it on.

Odd? I like to think So.

Another thing dealing with RAM now. I forgot about this, but if I take all ram out of the system and turn it on. It will turn on (hard drive led does not light up) and it will keep resetting itself. Now I've had computers with broken ram and no ram. I don't ever remember them resetting themselves over and over again. Could we be having some strange ram issue?!

Wow this is all over the place. Sorry for rambling. but this is me. I just keep at this till I can hopefully find something. Go through all possible situations. I would love to just hear some fricken beeps.

I will apply arctic better in a bit. I will say too though that I don't believe the heating is the main problem. I mean it CAN be, but would it honestly keep it from booting up for at least a minute till it got hot? I would still think it would do something. Interesting eh?