M17x R3 no pre boot. 8 beeps over and over

Question

Just got my M17x R3 two months ago. If you surf and just to document stuff everything is okay If you run diagnostics everything will pass. Then I tried playing Starcraft 2 and the game kept on freezing after every few minutes of game time. I tried playing World of Warcraft and it also freezes after every major event. Finally Diablo3 came and as usual the game also froze. I finally succumbed and called in tech support. After hours and hours with Tech Support tinkering with the settings the game still kept on freezing. They finally decided to have my laptop sent back to the depot and check it out. After two weeks my laptop is back, I see from the report that they replaced the Heat sink, Optical drive and video card. First thing I did was to play Starcraft 2 but I got only to the login screen before it froze. Now it takes at least 5 times to reboot the laptop before it gets into windows. After a few more tries of playing Starcraft 2 I still only get to the login screen before it freezes. A few more reboots and windows is not booting anymore. A few more minutes pass and now there is only a blank screen and 8 beeps a pause then 8 beeps again over and over. I have been dreaming of having an Alienware for 10years. Now that I am able to buy one... I thought I was going to have an awesome experience with an Alienware but instead I am met with grief and disappointment. Now it seems I have to send it back again which is really a pain.

I have read from the dell website that Intel is recalling Sandy bridge and that the M17X R3 is included in the list of affected machines. see links below.

http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19363988/19818758.aspx#19818758

But everytime I tell this to the tech support they just ignore it. Instead they replaced the Optical drive and the Video card. Now my laptop does not boot anymore and to think I just got it this March. I am really disappointed with my laptop and am very much considering to just send the whole thing back and get a refund.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

8 beeps = LCD failure

If your specific M17x-R3 was on the Cougar Point Chipset issue list, we would have already notified you. The effected M17x-R3s shipped prior to March 1. Send me your service tag number via private message so I can verify when it invoiced.

JOJO5656 · Answer

Just an update... I called Alienware support last week and they told me they were escalating my problem and that they will be sending out a box so that I can send back my laptop for repairs.... Guess what? It's been a week and still no box. If that is escalating my case? Then I don't want it anymore. To think that I paid a large sum to be able to buy a brand new defective laptop. I don't think that will happen again. Thanks for the service Dell.

ashbird · Answer

they forgot to send  the box  to me the first time you should call

ashbird · Answer

my laptop has started to do this as well after i had the lcd flickering fix called dell to have it repaired again ordered my laptop in march of last year

JOJO5656 · Answer

I called Dell again to ask about the box. And as expected they did not know anything about my call last time. They did not even have a log of my call last time. WOW! talk about technical support! So this time I made them email me the details first so that I know they have a record. After 2 days and a weekend of waiting the box finally arrived. I am just speechless.

BThib · Answer

Mine began freezing within a minute of startup.  Took 1 to 3 hard resets until I could get in.  Support updated BOIS, and drivers, it seemed to work, but the following day it began freezing again.  Now I am getting black screen and 8 beeps.

kthrockm · Answer

The alien just stopped glaring at me.  Maybe he's dead.

kthrockm · Answer

I am experiencing serious issues with the Alienware m17xr3 that started happening two weeks after the warranty expired. They could be related to the same problems you are having. I have spent many hours uninstalling and reinstalling the video driver from Dell's website and still nothing but black screens as long as I am running the dell drivers. When I use the standard windows VGA drivers, the problem disappears. This has been the same result over many boots so I am pretty sure it is a driver or possible hardware issue with the 6900m and intel graphics. The newest driver on the dell website is nearly two years old and doesn't fix the problem. I have done two restores from a ghost image we made in February of 2011. The first time worked for a few days but then the problem came back. The second didn't help, the problem was there from the first reboot. I switched to the standard VGA drivers and it 'works', to the extent having to run the standard drivers can be considered working. I am extremely disappointed with this. We paid top dollar for what we thought was a top of the line machine that would last my son through his college years and as it looks now we'd be better off with a $500 Best Buy special. This is not at all what we expected from Alienware. They used to be the top of the line machines, at least until dell bought them out. I wanted to call for support but it looks like they are going to want my credit card number before they'll even talk to me because I am about three weeks out of warranty. To make matters worse, now I can't even get the thing to boot at all. I went in to the BIOS and changed the display (I think it was the display setting but since I can't even get into the BIOS setup now I can't be sure) from SD to PEG and now I can't even access the BIOS setup. I just get continuing beeps. When I try to shut it off it won't turn off completely unless I unplug it and remove the battery. When I restart I get the same repeated beeps. When it try to turn it off with the power button the beeping stops but the cursed alien power button just glares green at me and won't even turn all the way off. What's up Dell? Are you going to stand behind your products? Can I talk to someone about it without having to whip out my credit card first? Three weeks out of warranty now, just under two weeks out when the warranty expired! Are you going to stand behind your products?

kthrockm · Answer

This looks like a dead video card issue.  The eight beeps mean a memory issue of some sort, most likely the video since that is what has been giving me problems.  Looks like a new one is going to cost me around $900.  Come on Dell - are you going to step up to the plate on this one?

JOJO5656 · Answer

Alienware had me send the unit back to them so they can fix the issues last year. Apparently now windows keeps on crashing on reboot due to drivers. So I did a fresh install and removed all the software that came with Alienware. On VGA graphics the laptop is stable. Once you install any nvidia drivers it crashes on boot up. My warranty expires this March, so I better call them again.

kthrockm · Answer

That is the same behavior I have been experiencing with the Radeon 6900m series GPU in my son's m17xr3. What may be happening is that the nvidia card itself may be defective and the Intel on board gpu is carrying the load when you use it. I believe you can test this by going into your BIOS as I did and setting the display to "PEG". That will force the system to use the nvidia card. If you get a series of 8 beeps on boot, that, I believe, means the nvidia card is bad. That is what I did yesterday and then could not boot at all. I thought I was sunk at that point but then figured I'd try removing the Radeon from the system altogether (easy to do) and boot without it. When I did that the system booted, I went back into set up and switched the display setting back to "SG", and the laptop is now working reliably utilizing only the inboard intel graphics processor. Apparently bad memory or some other defect on the Radeon prevented the system from booting. Unfortunately, we are now running without the very expensive high end graphics card that makes a gaming laptop a gaming laptop. Half a loaf is better than none I guess, but again, this is not what I would expect from a piece of quality merchandise. Dell- where are you? I'd call if I could do so without you wanting to bill me. My warranty expired on 2/8/13 and the problem manifested itself on or about 2/16/2013.

If I were you, I wouldn't waste too much time with Dell on the phone (since you are under warranty they will talk to you) talking about bad drivers until I had set the BIOS to PEG as described above. If that gets you 8 beeps and a failure to boot, then you need to talk to them about replacing that video card under warranty.

JOJO5656 · Answer

For some reason my m17xr3 is working properly. I have been playing games on it for more than 10hrs per day and has stayed overnight downloading games that I bought. It has been having issues before when i switch from 3D to normal settings. I tried to reseat the video cards and memory and have been pushing the laptop to its limits. I am now at 3D settings all the time and it has not rebooted on its own so far. Is this real? I will know before my warranty ends this month. I just hope it does not break after my warranty.

kthrockm · Answer

Glad to hear it.  If you haven't already, I would make sure it actually is using the nvidia card, and not the onboard intel graphics processor, by switching it to PEG in the BIOS.  I guess that you are doing 3d probably means it is, but switching to PEG will make sure.  If it fails to boot afterwards, you have a problem.  Removing the add in card would force it to default to the Intel processor again so you could switch back.

JOJO5656 · Answer

I do not have an onboard intel graphics card on my m17xr3, only nvidia gtx560m. When I try to set it to SG it beeps 8 times and reboots then goes back to PEG. So far everything is okay. Crossing my fingers.

JoBeMA · Answer

Hello guys!

i'm experimenting the same problems as you describe... 8 beeps and sometimes the laptop doesn't gimme me the option to turn it on. Do you have found any solution?

I'll call to Dell to replace my nvidia gtx580m, my warranty expires at the end of the month :S

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M17x R3 no pre boot. 8 beeps over and over

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