Laptop, blue squares everywhere! - Hardware & Software

Before I start, Alienware are absolutely bollocks. I bought an Alienware m15x laptop from them when I was 14 ( around 4 years ago ) and back when I was 14 that seemed like a great idea! Flashy lights and everything. Although like many things, I've learnt from my mistakes. I've had countless problems with the laptop but most have been fixed ( under warranty ) however the warranty soon ran out and we couldn't renew it at the time due to the price being just plain silly, but Alienware know the build quality on these things are piss poor, hence the price. Around two weeks ago my mum brought the laptop in and told me it wouldn't start, it would crash on the windows 7 animated start up logo thingy-ma-jig. Although I was more worried about the fact that there are blue squares everywhere! [img]http://filebox.me/files/6k961f7e6_IMG_0249.JPG[/img] [img]http://filebox.me/files/wiwudkxv7_IMG_0250.JPG[/img] The laptop starts up fine and I'm greeted with the "The computer was not shut down correctly" If I proceed it completely locks up at the animated logo windows 7 loading screen thing. If I hit the repair option, it tries to repair it for 30 minutes then gives me a "Cannot automatically repair" and I can send the data to microsoft. Now, this is where things get confusing, I took it to PCworld ( Not the best place but, I couldn't think of anywhere else ) and they confirmed it was a graphics card problem, so I rang alienware and again, graphics card problem. Not only did they say it was a graphics card problem but had the nerve to offer us a new one for £500, that's right, a 8800M GTX for £500, I know laptop components are usually more expensive but.. £500? Fuck you Alienware, you twats. I consider myself quite computer knowledgeable but laptops just phase me, however I knew for certain this laptop came with TWO graphics cards. The 8800M GTX and an Intel integrated X1900 or something, there is an option to swap between the two at any point by holding "FN" and clicking "F7" however when doing so, nothing changes. Maybe you can't actually change the graphics card until successfully booted into the OS and loaded all the drivers and whatnot, but something doesn't seem right. Any help facepunch? [b]P.S:[/b] Yes, even Time Lords buy from Alienware and regret the fuck out of it.

Tried the BIOS setup?

There is nothing in the BIOS at all really, Change time and date, couple of boot options, that's really it. Although now there's a 50% chance the laptop will display just a grey screen when turned on. Weird.

Probbably a capacitor or something has gone poof

I tried repairing again but, nothing, I might actually have to pay £500 for a graphics card.. sigh.

Why dont you buy something better? A new decent computer or something.

My parents still use it frequently and I was planning on also using it come September, once I start my second year in College. My desktop is still great and I'm getting a 5870 soonish, but I might have to post-pone that to get this silly graphics card. I'd rather pay £500 and keep my current laptop ( That has windows 7, a fantastic quad core processor and other great components ) than buy a brand new £300-500 laptop. It'd be cheaper in the long run to just go with the graphics card, but, I thought I'd post and hopefully it might of turned out to be some dodgy switch on the back of the computer that enables blue squares and load up freezes, or someone would know how to switch to the integrated one.

There must be a way to switch to the integrated graphics card via some super secret BIOS or something, surely.

[QUOTE=David Tennant;22551434]There must be a way to switch to the integrated graphics card via some super secret BIOS or something, surely.[/QUOTE] I very much doubt it. Enough to bet my computer on it in fact..

Something's probably wrong with the graphics card/chip. It might have gotten to hot and broke some solder joints.

It would have to be the gpu, nothing else would do something like that.

Would there be any of switching to the integrated one? It came with two so you could switch between and conserve power + heat whenever you needed. I know Mokkan13 said he would bet his computer that there isn't, but you never know, worth another ask before I actually give in to the Alienware scum.

One last shameless bump before forking over my hard earned monies.

It might be the integrated GPU that went out (its not impossible). I've never had a laptop with two GPU's before, so I have no idea if it uses the integrated graphics until it gets into the OS or what.

Something is fucked with the GPU, I have had a similar problem on one of my very old PC's. It was under warranty though and someone came out and replaced the GPU for free and it was fine.

[QUOTE=David Tennant;22551434]There must be a way to switch to the integrated graphics card via some super secret BIOS or something, surely.[/QUOTE] Yeah, via Windows! ¬¬

I had an m15x (what I think your laptop is) have its 8800M GTX burn out, but I could still boot into windows and switch to the integrated while I waited for them to send a new one for me to put in. Good thing I had a warranty. Apparently the 8800M GTX is prone to breaking.

Your GPU is overheating.

It could also be the monitor connection screwing up.

What about checking for a guide to open the laptop, remove one or both of the 8800s, then seeing what happens.

Use your sonic screwdriver.

Once you've exhausted all other alternatives, and if you find a way to get just the graphics card out of the laptop, this might be worth a try: [url]http://hackaday.com/2009/05/31/ghetto-electronics-repair/[/url]

Yep, that is the GPU

A bit collided though, people are saying it's the Graphics card, couple are saying it's connectivity to the monitor? I would put my money on the graphics just purely because it crashes on startup, where-as the monitor has nothing to do with it starting up. I'm going to open the bugger up and see if I can remove the graphics card, it might start with the intel automatically with it removed, or I can see if something is dislodged. I rung them up to ask how I could switch the graphics cards via hardware or software, they said it would cost £100, £100 fucking pounds to TELL ME how to do it... Cheers for the replies, I'll try booting it up a couple times and if that doesn't work I'll open it up and fiddle around!

[QUOTE=David Tennant;22603113]A bit collided though, people are saying it's the Graphics card, couple are saying it's connectivity to the monitor? I would put my money on the graphics just purely because it crashes on startup, where-as the monitor has nothing to do with it starting up. I'm going to open the bugger up and see if I can remove the graphics card, it might start with the intel automatically with it removed, or I can see if something is dislodged. I rung them up to ask how I could switch the graphics cards via hardware or software, they said it would cost £100, £100 fucking pounds to TELL ME how to do it... Cheers for the replies, I'll try booting it up a couple times and if that doesn't work I'll open it up and fiddle around![/QUOTE] Then again, at least on older laptops, if the screen isn't properly connected to ground it won't start.

I can see most of the screen, I just have those squares all over. I tried putting in the system recovery disk and boot from the drive, when I was asked if I wanted to boot from drive I had loads of C's with dangly bits everywhere. Just scattered all over my screen in random places like a mine field. Not only that but when I restarted earlier I took a picture of what it said: [img]http://filebox.me/files/4i3n22w17_IMG_0254.JPG[/img]

That is how my bios looked when my gpu burned. That and random graphics glitches.

I reinstalled the operating system using the Alienware recovery disk and harrah, I actually got to the desktop! ( Albeit with all the crazy blue lines/squares ) so I decided to quickly take the opportunity to change to the Intel graphics card. I held FN and clicked F7 to change to the other graphics card.. nothing happened so I restarted thinking It'd need it and now all I get is a Grey/black screen. The weird thing about the screen is that I can hear the laptop loading the operating system ( Windows sound when loading & then logging in to an account ) but all I could see was black nothingness. So now I keep restarting it to try and get back to my desktop, it's a weird problem. [editline]06:32PM[/editline] Now it's getting strange, it seems that whenever [b]I use the Intel graphics card, I get the black screen of nothing, if I use the 8800m gtx I get the crazy lines/squares.[/b] I'm also getting a message when booting up: ( Your computer can't come out of hibernation. ) [img]http://filebox.me/files/zt8sy7e69_IMG_0255.JPG[/img] This is what the desktop looks like: [img]http://filebox.me/files/zdfweawaw_IMG_0256.JPG[/img] And this is the black screen, even though I hear the logging into windows sound: [img]http://filebox.me/files/n4sq3i38k_IMG_0257.JPG[/img] I honestly can't make anything of this, are both cards broken? Or is this actually a screen issue? They both can't be broken, surely?

I've also posted this in another forum in which told me to get the m15x in the first place, two of them said: "What's common between the Integrated Graphics and the GPU card? Probably just the data highway, (PCIe), the MOBO chipset or the BIOS - must be worth a try to flash the BIOS." Worth a try. [editline]07:20PM[/editline] I tried restarting it and changing the graphic cards a couple of times and.. well not I'm not so sure. With the screen working ( squiggly lines ) I changed the card, restarted and got the black screen, then I waited until I heard the logging in sound, changed it back and restarted.. still black screen, then repeated changing it again and three times later I STILL have the black screen, so maybe it's not actually changing graphic cards... Ahh, this is getting really frustrating.

As someone other suggested, try baking the card, it might just even work.. And is it not like, when you got a card plugged in the integrated won't work? Atleast it's like that on desktop..