Alienware 13 r2 GTX960M

Question

Hello! I've had my new Alienware 13 r2 notebook for about a week now and I currently have it plugged into an external monitor via HDMI plug. For a while, with the drivers that the notebook was shipped with, I was getting continuous flickering and dropped connection to the external monitor. From reading online, I tried updating the GTX960M and the Intel Graphics drivers. Once the drivers were updated I think the flickering was less frequent, but then still with the external monitor connected, video being played on the laptops monitor was extremely choppy and low frame rate - much worse than my next older laptop. The video would then freeze when moving the window over to the external monitor. From there, I called Alienware support, which pointed me to rolling back my GTX960M drivers to the last stable version on the Alienware 13 r2. Once the graphics drivers were rolled back, the video playback improved, but the flickering is back. How can I both get rid of display flickering AND be able to have a fully functioning video card? Along with this, with this, both versions of the NVidia driver did not show multiple display properties in the NVidia manager. Now with the rolled back drivers, there is very few options available in the NVidia manager which removes other functions I would normally have access to. The Windows display manager at least gives multiple display options, but no other color control. Thanks for the help!

Alienware - Rodrigo · Answer

Hi,

Make sure your system is running the latest Bios version (1.2.12). Try using the latest driver from the NVidia site, click here for the download link. If the issue persists, test another HDMI cable if possible.

thehayashimanca · Answer

BIOS is up to date and I tried now for a second time the latest GTX960M drivers from NVIDIA website. Same issue occurred where video playing on the laptops display that could definitely be handled by even older Intel Graphics was jittery and missing frames. On the external display, the video ran fine and appeared to be running by the graphics card. Trying to span a video window between the two monitors, or move the video from one monitor to the other caused the video window to go black.

With that, I rolled back the drivers, again, this time going with the drivers on the Dell website for Alienware 13 r2. These drivers seemed to solve most of the video card issues, but I still notice that the NVIDIA control panel only shows information for the external display, and then Intel’s Graphics Properties on the right click on the desktop only shows the laptops monitor information. This still seems to point that the GTX graphics card is only powering one display.

As for the screen flickering – it is back now I’ve rolled back the driver.

I’ve tried two other HDMI cables with no change – the external display still flickers. I’ve also tried an older computer plugged into the HDMI port on the display and no flickering occurred.

Alienware - Rodrigo · Answer

Hi,

It seems you have tried all of the recommended troubleshooting procedures for this type of issue. I can't think of anything else that you could try besides reinstalling Windows. You could also send it in for repairs so our technicians can diagnose and fix the issue.

Locked Topics – Alienware General

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