UNSOLVED
Alienware M14x R2 Nvidia GPU not working
Hello, up front I must confess that I missed my warranty window with this by about 1 year, happy days alienware :-) Due to the nature of my job I bought this piece in a different country three years ago, and now on a vacation I finally had time to check it out. And I found out that the Nvidia stopped working over two years ago - I still remember the day - but had no time nor chance to deal with it back then. I play only world of tanks anyway, and the integrated graphics is good enough for that game.
Anyways - Now, after full two days of working on my alienware, I know the Nvidia GPU simply does not initialize. Looks like the very same problem that was discussed here:
Ok, I know that three years after the buy dell guys are just gonna laugh at me, but - is there a way to check if the card is blown or not? Is there a way to repair this laptops Nvidia GPU? GPU-Z diagnostics sees the card but says: BIOS version Unknown.
If the chip is blown can it be replaced? If not, then I guess my mother will get a "new" glorified super expensive skype terminal :-(
1188
0
Posted September 1st, 2015 09:00
Hello Rodrigo, Thank you for your reply. I think that i now tried everything I know. Flashing BIOS, updating drivers, I even reinstalled windows couple times to make sure its not the drivers. I took the thing apart just to clear cmos battery.
There is either something locked in or around the chip, or its blown. Unfortunatelly I have been unable to find any diagnostic tool whatsoever to check the Nvidia chip itself, which makes me a little uneasy as it appears to me from this forum that my particular model had a BIOS problem preventing it from running Nvidia.
I am now on the latest bios from your web. The card shows both in BIOS and in Device Manager, but every time I try to enable it the screen goes dark and I have to restart. Nvidia control panel does not open with an error. GPU-Z lists the Nvidia GPU including all the info EXCEPT Nvidia BIOS version (unknown) and GPU memory type (unknown)
Anyway - I see just two or three solutions to this problem:
1- you guys will have something in your pocket to make my laptop run Nvidia again
2- new motherboard
3- new laptop
Can you please advise me, thank you.
1188
0
Posted September 2nd, 2015 15:00
Hello,
I see you have tried the recommended troubleshooting procedures for this type of issue. There aren’t any other procedures that we can think of for troubleshooting this issue. Unfortunately, it does appear to be a motherboard or GPU failure. As you may already know, this system has a built-in GPU in the motherboard, so by replacing the motherboard you will be replacing the GPU as well.
1188
0
Posted September 3rd, 2015 00:00
Hello, can you please help me with the motherboard? I live in Europe, and all I could find were refurbished motherboards for like 350 dollars - which is too much for e-bay used product without warranty...
Does Dell support us - post warranty guys - with such issues or am I on my own?
best regards
1188
0
Posted September 3rd, 2015 12:00
Hi,
You could try contacting the Dell Sales department in your region so they confirm if we have repair services available for this unit.
Alienware - Rodrigo
9 Technologist
•
4398 Posts
1188
0
Posted August 31st, 2015 12:00
Hi,
Just to confirm, does it show up in Device Manager under Display Adapters? If it does, do you receive an error when trying to install the driver? Also, check in the Bios (to access the Bios tap the F2 key during boot) under the Main tap and confirm what it shows for the Discrete Graphics.