17 R4, screen stays black after power up

Hi @NamNguyen191,

Make sure the BIOS is up to date, as well as the video driver.

Also, you can try a power drain. 

Hi Eimy,

Thank you for the reply. My Bios and graphic driver are up to date. I guess the last thing to try is to do a power drain, can you guide me on how to do that, do I just let the laptop run on battery until the battery ran out?

@NamNguyen191,

For a power drain: unplug every external device (including the AC Adapter), open the bottom cover and disconnect the battery cable. Then hold the power button for around a minute to drain all the power out. You can use this video as reference on how to disconnect the battery cable.    

Did you find a fix to this issue? I've had this issue on two brand new seperate AW17 R5s and have not been able to find a fix..

So this happened on both brand new AW17 R5s, pretty much out of the box for me. The first machine i had for about 2-3 weeks, RMA'd it because of this issue and a couple other issues, and sadly this one has had the same issue since day 1, i've had this replacement for about 4-5 months i believe. 

I just did a completely clean install 2 days ago hoping it would solve this issue (and some crashing issues i was having due to a DCOM error), as i thought it may be software related, but unfortunately it's still happening. The only work around i have found is to have nothing plugged into the machine when i start it up (besides my mouse dongle), wait for the alienware logo to appear and then plug everything back in.

Also, when i get the black screen, it is literally just that. No BIOS, no logos, no backlight or anything, just the Alien FX lights, and sometimes i can hear the windows sounds. So maybe its an issue with the panel or drivers, i just don't know. I've been searching for an answer to this issue since day 1, i've posted on multiple threads, forums, and have not come across a fix. The only reason i dont think it is a panel issue is because it only happens on start up, it's never just turned off while gaming or using the machine.

When i contacted Dell they wanted to replace my DC in port, which frankly i'm 99% sure is not the issue, unless quality is just that bad. It's hard to believe this as a hardware issue when 2 completely seperate brand new machines have the same issue, and as someone else has said, they also had 2 different machines have this problem.

Thanks. So they sent a tech out (a tech that messed up my first repair, and even though on multiple occasions i told them not to send him out again, he showed up on my doorstep) today to do a motherboard swap and to change the DC IN cable  and he completely stripped the heatsink screws. So they're sending a new heatsink to me tomorrow along with extra screws so i can do the swap myself, which i had asked to do in the first place... 

Never again will i let anyone work on my computer.. Just hope the new motherboard fixes the issue. I tested the laptop today when the display wouldn't turn on and it showed on my TV, so i assume its a hardware issue from what i've read, just odd that the only issue i have is on start up with the power supply plugged in.

Close the screen, and then open it again and see if it fixes it.

I've tried that, along with everything else. They sent me the motherboard, 4 hours later i get it installed, to find out it was DOA... So now i have to have them send me another one and spend my time swapping it out and hope it isn't DOA as well.. Ugh, this is getting pretty annoying.

Weird, check the display cable and see if its got a short or unplugged or loose?

I've tried that. I'm going to try to put it back in once more sometime before i ship it back to them, just to be 110% sure, but i did double and triple check everything when i put it in. The old motherboard worked though, so im pretty certain it was DOA. They won't do anything but send it to depot now, because of something they did. I've made it clear i can't send it to the depot, as i can't be without a computer for a month or longer. I've asked for another replacement, but haven't heard anything back..

Hi @NamNguyen191  thanks for good description of intermittent screen problem. Cleaning and Reseating the RAM cards to ensure good electrical connection might be your fix. It is rare for RAM cards to fail, installing one and then the other in different sockets will usually find which card is giving the problem.