17 R1, freezes when installing graphics driver

Hi @BobbyB999 thank you for sharing update. 

Pease run windows Reliability Monitor and wait for event timeline to be created. Hopefully, the windows operating system is complaining and creating critical events, open event to reveal root cause and Microsoft error code. How to use Windows Reliability Monitor to identify software issues | Dell US 

Hi @BobbyB999 thank you for sharing update. 

Installer Error 1624 means there was an error applying transforms and update address is not available. Please download the update package from website onto your Alienware 17, verify the checksum value to ensure the integrity of your download file, and install using Run as administrator. If windows update software already installed, it should automatically download file and install, then Restart (not Shut Down) to save change to operating system. 

The Free MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility, or similar should be used to verify the checksum value.  

Never try and install updates over the internet. Always download file and then install. 

The Reliability Monitor shows "Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: AMD Catalyst Install Manager. Product Version: 8.0.916.0. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.. Installation success or error status: 1624"

Googled error 1624 which showed "Error 1624 means that the during the update installation, Windows installer was not able to find the original product installation content and could not resolve the path to the transforms file (. mst file)."

Don't know what that means.

I've working on quite a few 17's and I've come across two AMD machines with the M290x that had the same issue. In both instances it was a faulty graphics card. The system would freeze randomly even when just on the desktop and before a driver could even be installed. I'd have to do a hard forced shutdown. 

Without a driver installed the card should show as a Basic Microsoft Display Adapter. 

@crimsom The 8970M is the R9 M290x. It’s the same card but just rebranded with a different vBIOS. 

Hi @BobbyB999  the graphics card is not AMD Radeon R9 M290X, but AMD Radeon HD 7950M/8970M card? Why is there no Discrete AMD Radeon R9 M290X card? 

Alienware 17, Radeon R9 M290X - Notebookcheck.net External Reviews

You can try but the M290x is the same card as the 8970M so I doubt it will make a difference. Drivers are usually released in packages that include a vast array of different GPU's so the driver for the 7950M/8970M should be the exact same one as the M290x, this is how Nvidia do it anyway. I don't have a lot of experience with AMD cards but I wouldn't imagine they do it differently.

Try as many driver versions as you can, just in case it is a software issue. Have you run the system for a decent period before attempting to install the driver? It is still crashes the laptop then it's 99% a hardware issue. It still could be even if it only happens during the driver installation

Thank you guys for all your help!

Should I be looking for an AMD Radeon HD 7950M/8970M driver?

Hi @BobbyB999 there could be a problem with the operating system files. Please run all the reliability diagnostics listed by user RoHe in Solved: Reliability History has many appcrashes - Dell Community.  

It’s me again. Did a search for a driver and saw it works with my card. Did the install and before I could click on Restart the laptop froze. Rebooted by using the power button and now when I turn on the computer I see nothing. Blank screen. Hoping I can boot into safe mode and remove the driver but I can’t figure out how to boot into safe mode!!

Several times in safe mode I uninstalled the device and deleted the driver in Device Manager or uninstalled the AMD software and driver using RevoUninstall. But once the laptop was rebooted, the device and driver came right back.

Next step, I guess, is to uninstall the card.

Thank you so much for your help.

Next question is, if the card needs to be replaced, what am I looking for for a replacement?

Mattyb, do you have any recommendations for where to buy a new graphics card? Looking on Amazon and Newegg.com and not finding any of those Nvidia cards.

By the way, I removed my graphics card and cleared out a lot of dust from the fan and vent. I left the laptop on for awhile and no freezing.

Finally got a chance to reapply thermal paste to the CPU and GPU. The CPU fan vents were clogged with dust so I cleaned that but when I started the laptop, it froze. Took the GPU out and all is fine.

I found a Nvidia GTX 780M on Amazon and an AMD R9 8970M on Amazon. The Nvidia card can be returned so I'm leaning towards that card. That card will work in my laptop? Install it and download the driver? No tweaking?