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February 16th, 2015 14:00
Alienware 14 Screen Blinking When System Boots
I have an Alienware 14 (M14X) that I purchased new December 2013 from Dell and it is working fine except when I startup the system the screen blinks rapidly multiple times during the boot process. This slows down the boot process but the system works fine after boot is complete. I have this system connected to a larger monitor so I usually do not watch the laptop screen for all of the boot process. I was wondering if this is caused by the NVidia drivers because they update their drivers a lot. Should I be updating these drivers all the time or is there one driver version that Dell recommends? Thanks for your help
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beamermt79
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February 21st, 2015 16:00
That tends to happen when the drivers initialize during boot up. It shouldn't be causing your boot up time to increase though unless there is a problem. Have you seen any issues or warnings pop up? Updating your Nvidia drivers isn't a bad thing per se. There is an old adage that states if its not broke don't update it (or fix it). I've heard that with BIOS updates, basically meaning if you don't have any problems don't bother to update it as it could cause problems.
My two questions are, 1. Are you still under warranty? and 2. Has this always happened since you first turned on the laptop?
MW11
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February 23rd, 2015 08:00
Yes, it is under warranty until 2017. I do not remember this blinking on boot always happening. I have the laptop connected to a monitor so I do not always watch it boot up completely. It blinks approximately 50 or more times most of the time and it seems to slow down getting to start but I do not know exactly how long a normal start takes anymore. I have not seen any other issues or warnings pop up. Thanks for your help.
beamermt79
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February 23rd, 2015 10:00
If it blinks THAT much you should have it looked at under warranty. Its possible the GPU is faulty and the driver's are having an hard time initializing. Having your Laptop connected to a monitor doesn't matter and shouldn't effect boot up times or cause the screen to flash a billion times. I would give Dell Tech Support a call or chat with them online and get your laptop looked at.