13 R2, changed LCD, no video from iGPU

Hi @Chadribleu welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum. 

Please share Model and Revision number (example: x17 R2) and operating system (example: Windows 10 64-bit version 22H2). Thank you. 

Hi!

It's an Alienware 13 R2 from 2015. It has Windows 10 64 bits, 4GB ram, Intel Core i5 6200U with Intel HD 520 as iGPU, Nvidia GTX 960M as dedicated GPU. 

The display is from BOE has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels.

Although the iGPU seems to be detected by the BIOS and by the Alienware tool (the one you can boot by holding fn at boot), it doesn't work at all on Windows and only display a black screen (but the screen is powered). The display works as long as the iGPU's driver is not installed.

The BIOS version is the latest, 1.13.1 I think?

@Chadribleu  That's an odd one, haven't come across this exact issue before.

Did you replace the LCD with one with the same resolution? If you didn't then you may need to also replace the display cable. Usually having the wrong cable would mean that you get no display at all but you never know. 

That is curious. 

Is the replacement display one that was intended for that Alienware model? A motherboard is designed to work with only a small number of compatible displays. Other displays can give unpredictable results. I agree with mattyb3 that I would check into the display cable.

Did you install required chipset drivers and then install the iGPU driver before the Nvidia driver? On many systems, it's important to install the iGPU driver before the Nvidia driver. It's also possible that if you install the chipset drivers after installing Windows 10, then connect to Internet, that Windows Update may automatically install both video drivers. They were installed automatically on a few Dells on which I clean installed Windows.

You could try this:

1. From Dell support page, download both video drivers, but don't install.
2. In Device Manager, uninstall both video drivers. 
3. Download DDU Display Driver Uninstaller.
4. Disconnect Internet
5. Reboot in Safe Mode
6. Run DDU Display Driver Uninstaller there, choose to uninstall all video drivers
7. Reboot as a normal boot, not Safe Mode.
8. Install the iGPU driver, followed by the Nvidia driver.
9. Reconnect Internet and run Windows Update.

If that doesn't help, I would do steps 2-7 again, then run Windows Update to see if drivers are automatically installed.

Also, I realize that you didn't ask about this, but, 4 GB is inadequate for Windows 10 to run well. You should upgrade to at least 8 GB.

Good luck

Hi!

Actually, I don't think it's Windows' fault. I tried to install the drivers from the official Dell support page of Alienware 13 R2, but the same thing happened.

When trying to boot on Linux (it's always the first thing I try, as Windows is sometimes buggy with hardware), it can't even get to the Install screen. I'm not sure about that, but I think Linux uses the iGPU directly (opensource drivers by default, and proprietary ones for some distro such as Manjaro), contrary to windows which uses software rendering when no driver is available.

Although all of these things, the iGPU is detected by the bios (tried to clear cmos and downgrade/update bios, nothing changed) I'm not sure if it just assumes the iGPU is here or it's hardcoded to the bios since it normally can't be replaced, but it's here as "Skylake UL".

Yes, I agree with you: 4gb is not optimal. The PC is very old. It was bought in 2015 and came with Windows 10, but it was the cheapest model available (the other ones were the 8gb and 16gb) since I have my other main PC which is better but it's a huge tower, too big to bring with me

Don't worry about that, I indeed planned to replace my one 4gb stick to 2 8gb sticks. It was working before so I don't think it's related to the RAM stick, or could it be?

Thank you for your help!

The screen is so cracked that I'm unable to see anything on the screen. If the laptop is connected to an external monitor it switches to the nvidia GPU, and it's impossible to determine if the iGPU is actually working (the LCD could display a black screen while the nvidia not)

Maybe you right! I'm hesitating to just replace the motherboard, and maybe it will work.

If you changed the panel out for the same one then the cable should be good. The 768 display needs the 768 cable which you already had so you're good there. Did you ever try putting the old cracked screen in to see if the problem was still there? You can use an external monitor if it's hard to read the cracked display.

There could be an issue with the CPU, which is very rare. 

Yep, it's really weird.

The screen I bought was from the same manufacturer (BOE) and it's reference is 0F9RHP, the same number than the old screen.

You can try to check on Google if you need to know more informations, but it seems like this screen was also compatible with some other Dell laptops (Dell Latitude).

Its resolution is 1366x768 (same as the other).

I don't know if there's a sort specific cables for each screens, but this one didn't came with anything but the LCD. I opened the laptop and unscrewed the old screen, then installed the new with the cables that were already here.

It's really odd considering the display itself is fully functionnal, but the iGPU doesn't work at all. What make me think it's related to it is that the Nvidia GPU still work when the laptop is connected to an external monitor.

The other interesting thing is that is freezes on Plymouth screen when trying to boot a Linux flavour (which I think uses the iGPU by default instead of CPU rendering like windows when there's no drivers.)

Thank you, I will try to get more informations about the display cable!

Yes it would be an expensive way to check as boards aren't usually very cheap. You may just have to run it off the 960M and forget about the Intel graphics. 

I also have a bad 13 R2 board but that won't put any display out, not even the 960M, just a black screen.

I'm don't think I ever tested it with an external monitor. 

Just reading through some similar posts around the internet and you may want to try this one

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/black-screen-after-installing-intel-r-hd-graphics/644e00e3-4a41-4f1d-8416-2d139de08d54

I've also read that you can try installing the Intel graphics driver first, if you had previously done the 960M first. It may be a good idea to try installing the Dell version of the Intel graphics driver rather than the generic one the Windows will try to auto-install.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-au/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=3p8wf&oscode=wt64a&productcode=alienware-13-r2

You didn't say if you tried what I suggested.

I asked if you had installed iGPU driver before Nvidia driver, as I've found that to be important on many Dell systems.

And I gave a process to uninstall and clean all existing video drivers, then install the drivers from Dell Support site. And if that didn't help, then uninstall and clean again and try what Windows Update installs.

Hi, I will try in a few! there's a 2 hours delay before being able to connecting to the account, as the PC was restarted a lot of time.

Windows always install both drivers after the first setup (not sure about the order), so maybe it will do the job, will try in a few!

You should be able to disable the 960M in Device Manager which may stop Windows from Auto-updating the driver which will allow you to install the Dell Intel graphics driver. Or, download the iGFX driver from Dell and then uninstall both graphics drivers. Restart the system in Safe Mode and then install the Dell iGFX driver. When you restart back in normal mode, Windows will hopefully leave the iGFX driver alone and just install the 960M driver. If you don't get a black screen again, of course. 

Hi!

For some reasons, the chipset just can't communicate properly with anything. On the Windows Event Logger, it seems to try to call a function on the iGPU but fail at this point. I think I will try to refund the screen and then buy another one which I'm sure is compatible with the Alienware 13 R2. If it still doesn't work after that, I will buy a new motherboard, at least it's not a big deal since they're not so expensive and contains the CPU/iGPU and probably a better GPU than mine.

Thank you all for your response!