m17 R3, blank screen high GPU load plugged in

Question

There is no problem on battery. RTX 2070 Super

I have been facing problems in my brand new m17 R3 (under warranty) as soon as high gpu performance required videos/games.

Problem occurs in plugged only. No problem on battery.

What i have tried are:

Remove Graphic cards drivers and reinstall

Update all drivers including BIOS

Change room/sockets

Reinstall Windows many times from beginning via Windows USB.

Still problem.

The problem occurs a few seconds after high gpu demanded videos/games. Blank screen and system locks.

Power button blinking 2 red 7 blue. means display unit failure

Shutdown-reboot are not solutions. The only way to recover computer from blank screen and 2red 7 blue blinking light is to remove power plug. remove battery socket. push power button for 20 secs. plug power and boot without battery. Windows starts always. Shutdown. Plug Battery socket. Every time i face the problem i do these which is recommended by Dell Support.

However i try to solve this problem.

I tried Support Assist Diagnostic Test / Troubleshooting / Selected hardware part / Video Test / RTX 2070

On plugged all tests ended by blank screen.

On battery i complete all Video tests.

What i noticed during the test FPS between 200-250 . GPU Memory limited by %50. Gpu usage %90-100 Gpu Temperatures remained at 60C Degrees celsius.

I also tried passmark 2D/3D benchmark test.

On battery completed all 2D/3D benchmark tests.

In plugged only completed in 2D test. Locked in blank screen in the beginning of 3D benchmark test.

I personally believe problems are GPU Card (unable to get required power above a threshold temperature) or AC Adapter ( unable to maintain high power whenever required on high GPU Demanded jobs.

Possible solutions of course first of all send product to the Dell Support or underclock the GPU usage to %50 memory usage and 60 degrees celsius.

By the way there is no problem to use computer in plugged in low task jobs.

Anyone experienced this issue advices please ..

Thanks in advance

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Hayriyilmaz  when ac adapter plugged in, the battery provides supplementary power when ac adapter power is insufficient.  When on battery, screen is fully functional. When on ac adapter and power demands are high, screen is blank. Please check status of the diagnostic led at end of power cord, which is plugged into laptop DC-IN power socket. If there is no change under high power demand, the DC-IN power socket has a fault: poor electrical contact, foreign object, shorting fault, etc. If nothing obvious externally, remove rear panel and look for DC-IN power cable damage, black marks or smell of burning. Removing the rear panel does not invalidate the Dell warranty, but be careful not to damage any of the internal parts.

Hayriyilmaz · Answer

I monitored the led status throughout the system until screen is black. Power cord led remains blue during the operation and black screen. Sometimes OS system freezes at the same time sometimes OS remains ON when screen is black.

Coordinated with Dell Support tried everything . They offered me to replace motherboard and GPU card. Waiting for the replacing. I will write here back i solved the problem.

Thanks in advance

Hayriyilmaz · Answer

Thanks for your help.

as you can see at the end of video , not power cord led but power button led flashes 1 red 1 blue a few minutes after high gpu demand operations

https://youtu.be/oRvw_onCkN4

and this is when system crashes

https://youtu.be/PyAt8C8-Iyw

Hayriyilmaz · Answer

Hello @crimsom thank you for your interest.
View reliability monitor > livekernelevent 141 hardware problem.

ı have been searching the solution since purchasing this laptop. What i found is Faulty GPU card. Dell already ordered new motherboard and gpu card 3 days ago. But i personally believe that it will take couple of weeks for cards to arrive due to gpu card shortage.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Hayriyilmaz thank you for sharing update. Watched both videos, better than any text description.

Now that we know that the system diagnostic is saying it is unhappy about something, please visit Reliability Monitor which provides an error event timeline. Knowing the date and time and looking at same in Reliability Monitor, should reveal the root cause of this problem.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Hayriyilmaz thank you for sharing update. It is good to know that you are right to contact Dell warranty.

You might use this opportunity, if your original RAM was not the maximum, to try and get a system board with the maximum amount of soldered on RAM.

Alienware

m17 R3, blank screen high GPU load plugged in

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