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August 9th, 2020 12:00

m15 R2, NVIDIA driver installation freezing

Hello,

I have had my M15 R2 for over 6 months. It runs hotter than I would like while gaming, but I am used to it now.

I usually disable windows update (for allowed 2 months). But last week, 2 months were over and it installed some updates while restarting. On my next gaming session, the laptop crashed to a sky blue BSOD. Since then, I have been unable to completely recover my Laptop. I have tried many many times. The hardware diagnostics is clean and everything passes.

Clean installation of windows goes fine, but the moment I get to NVIDIA driver, whole laptop just freezes and starts running hot.
And on hard reset, it does not boot up. I have to boot into Revovery->Troubleshooting and do System Restore to get the Laptop up and running.

I have tried all multiple ways of installing NVIDIA Driver - Dell provided drivers, from GeForce Experience and using Windows Update as well. All the times, my laptop freezes halfway through installation and I have to repeat the above hard reset, system restore to use the laptop.

Any suggestions, what could be wrong with my System ?

 

Thanks,
PS4 Gamer

 

4 Operator

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20.1K Posts

August 9th, 2020 14:00

Dell has customized the Nvidia driver for your exact model. You cannot use drivers from Nvidia. Reinstall the Dell driver. https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/alienware-m15-r2-laptop/drivers

The problem you are having is probably caused by installing drivers in the wrong order. Chipset drivers must be installed first or all the other drivers do not install properly. See if this helps-

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln148687/how-to-install-dell-drivers-in-the-correct-order?lang=en

Second-- you have agreed in your license to use windows update. Stop delaying the updates. When reinstalling, run windows update to catch up with all the new updates after you reinstall windows.

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 9th, 2020 15:00

Also make sure if all else fails, install the drivers in safe mode.

15 Posts

August 9th, 2020 19:00

My reason for disabling Windows Update was only due to annoyance of Windows Update running everytime I shutdown/start my Computer.

As for the Order of drivers, I did install them as per that link only.
Other drivers install fine. Only when the turn comes to NVIDIA driver (I am installing the one provided by Dell), the installation gets stuck at 45%, and upon waiting for like 20 mins, my whole laptop gets frozen.

So, I have install all other drivers (except NVIDIA) in that order and created a System Restore point, so that I can try different ways to install NVIDIA driver but none have worked so far.

Everytime the Laptop gets frozen after waiting, and I have to do Hard Reset followed by Restoring System to the created Point to be able to boot into Windows.

 

I will try the Safe Boot option also to install the driver, though not sure that will work.

 

 

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 9th, 2020 20:00

That’ll work if you either have the driver on a usb or use the safe mode with networking option.

15 Posts

August 10th, 2020 00:00

Installing driver worked in Safe Mode. It got 100% installed.

But after that, when I booted into Normal mode, all I see is a Black Screen (Same issue which was happening before during partial driver install also)

Also, I tried to do Hard Reset and System Restore, but looks like Safe mode turned-off the System Protection on C:\ drive.

 

What to do next ?

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 10th, 2020 08:00

Can you try turning it back on?

If the system protection got turned off then this is a serious issue.

Have you used DDU to delete the drivers?

can you try connecting to an external display?

15 Posts

August 10th, 2020 20:00

Turning the Laptop back on now(after attempting System Restore, but protection found turned off) is throwing BSOD with stopcode CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED.

How do I delete drivers with DDU (when unable to boot into Normal Windows or even Safe Boot) ?

Nothing shows on External display.

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 10th, 2020 21:00

You need a clean install as the CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED means something critical for the operating system has “died” or failed to start.

15 Posts

August 12th, 2020 04:00

Performed clean Windows 10 install.
Straightway I notice one issue - nothing shows on external display when I connect laptop using HDMI.
All other driver installation went fine until installing NVIDIA Driver.
Again, NVIDIA driver installation gets stuck in middle (even waited 15+ minutes).

Then laptop starts behaving strangely:
- It can no longer mount any USB pen drive.
- Neither I can shutdown laptop (stays on black screen with backlight and keyboard lighting on forever), nor the laptop boots back up after hard reset(again stays on black screen after Alienware logo).

So I did System Restore to go back to state before installing NVIDIA driver, and it boots fine.
Then again I noticed that using laptop for sometime like browsing netflix, installing few apps, it again goes into similar mode:
- It can no longer mount any USB pen drive.
- Neither I can shutdown laptop (stays on black screen with backlight and keyboard lighting on forever), nor the laptop boots back up after hard reset(again stays on black screen after Alienware logo).

What could this kind of behaviour be due to ?

 

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 12th, 2020 05:00

Those chipset drivers are installed right?

id update all of them and then check the results.

15 Posts

August 12th, 2020 21:00

 

Yes, All Chipset drivers (Intel) were the first ones I installed:

  • Intel Chipset Device Software
  • Intel Management Engine Components Installer
  • Intel Integrated Sensor Solution Driver
  • Intel Management Engine Interface Driver
  • Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework
  • Intel Serial IO Driver
  • Intel Thunderbolt Controller Driver
  • Intel HID Event Filter Driver


Then I installed, the following in the order:

  • Killer Wireless, WiFi and Bluetooth driver
  • Realtek Audio Driver
  • Intel UHD Graphics Driver


Then I try to install:
NVIDIA Graphics Driver

which never completes. Progress bar just stays stuck.

NVIDIA Driver install stuck.jpg

 

 

 

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 13th, 2020 04:00

Have you tried removing the old driver in apps and features? They maybe conflicting with each other.

15 Posts

August 13th, 2020 16:00

Which old driver ?
I only see the drivers which I installed under Apps (there is no old NVIDIA driver):

Chipset/Intel drivers
Killer drivers
Realtek drivers
Intel UHD Graphics driver

 

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 13th, 2020 16:00

Then it means you don’t have the driver installed.

Have you tried installing GEFORCE EXPERIENCE?

Then I’d uninstall the nividia from the system and then install the 446.x drivers for your system.

5 Practitioner

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3K Posts

August 13th, 2020 18:00

Well nuts.

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