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April 22nd, 2020 00:00
M17x R3, weird power issues under load + BIOS issue
I have been given a sick M17x r3 laptop from a friend, but it is proving difficult to narrow down the cause if it's issues. Any insight would be appreciated.
Originally the laptop would sometimes boot into a really low display resolution. Restarting repeatedly seemed to fix. At this time we suspected a bios issue or a faulty GPU was to blame, but wasn't worth replacing as was still usable.
Swapped out the original battery for a third-party. Seemed to hold decent charge.
After a while, when under strain (playing the Witcher 3), a "charger plugged in, not charging" or "charger not recognised and swapped to battery" appeared and the framerate would go WAY DOWN as the laptop swapped back to the onboard graphics. Checked drivers, all up to date.
After swapping out the CMOS battery during troubleshooting, MORE issues arose, as windows would no longer boot. Seems the BIOS defaulted to RAID settings for the HDDs (not sure what it was before, should have recorded old settings). Once swapped to AHCI windows booted. However now the keystrokes and mouse scrolling doesn't work in windows apps! Audio does not seem to be working also
Seems like some drivers may not be running from boot anymore...
Also now the battery doesn't work at all. Laptop shuts down as soon as A/C is removed and won't boot from the battery. Though the battery is recognised (permanently 69%)and diagnosed as fine by the dell support app.
When running the witcher, the whole unit will die after some play time! It has been suggested in these forums that the motherboard may be overheating when supplying power to the GPU....
Please help! Thanks for your time.
mattyb3
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April 22nd, 2020 16:00
Hello. Have you repasted your CPU and GPU at all? You should really do it at least every two years, if not more. It is also a good idea to clean out the fans and the heatsink fins as they build up with dust/fluff and can really hurt performance.
The machine should only revert to the Intel graphics when the mains power is disconnected and the battery is being used. If the battery isn't working then it shouldn't revert to Intel. You can try a power drain which can sometimes help the 'Plugged in, not charging' issue. Remove the power adapter and battery and hold the power button down for 30-60 seconds.
Removing the CMOS battery resets the BIOS to default so it's not always a good idea to remove it unless you've messed with your BIOS settings and you need to get it back to normal. You may want to flash the unlocked BIOS which will unlock a few extra options, do this at your own risk though. I think the HD Audio setting is hidden in the standard Dell BIOS. Maybe it was somehow disabled when you removed the CMOS battery.
If you're running on an HDD I would strongly suggest to buy an SSD and do a clean Windows installation. Over the years your drive can build up with junk and a clean installation is a great way to refresh the system. If you are still using Windows 7 then you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free by using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool and choose to upgrade this PC. Then when you reinstall Windows on a new SSD you will (should) have a fully activated Windows 10. Windows 10 will automatically install the required drivers unlike Windows 7.
mattyb3
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April 29th, 2020 23:00
No problem. Hopefully it helps. Just be very careful once you start removing parts from your machine. Don't rush and make sure your hands are clean and dry. An anti-static wristband is a good idea if you're worried about frying something.
Carefully remove the old thermal paste from the heatsink and die before applying the new paste. I use a microfiber cloth, paper towel and plastic pry tool. You can also use some isopropyl alcohol but I never bother and it's hard to get right now due to the virus. You only need a small blob of new paste in the center of the die and once you carefully put the heatsink back on it will spread the paste around the die. Too much and it will spill over onto the component and it's just a waste.
It can be hard to remove the GPU heatsink the first time as the thermal pads have been compressed between the GPU and heatsink for so many years. Be extra careful when separating them.
The moral of the story is to be extra careful all the time
SimSim91
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April 29th, 2020 23:00
I've ordered some thermal paste and working through your other suggestions. Will post results when done. Thank you so much for taking the time to help, I really appreciate it!