Yuval Vilensky Posted August 4, 2016 Share Posted August 4, 2016 (edited) Hello guys, as u can see from the title i have an alienware m18xr2 that had 2 gtx680m that as to the teck guy words are fried( one is easly fixable other i think needs more parts to fix). the price i was offered to fix the one card was so high that i can buy same card but new. i decided to order a card from ebay. i ordered the gtx 970m 6gb cuz it was cheap and good. i want to give ssome contex to what happen that led me to the gpu upgrade. i played overwatch and my alienware just shuted off completly( never happened to me) and didnt turn on. first i though the battery at fault but that tech guy that i payed to test the laptop said that the video cards are the problem and they doing electric surge on the system( i must have spelled the word wrong but i hope u get it), he said without cards laptop starts fine, he said i am lucky nothing else wasnt broken like motherboard. today i got the card and i have installed it myself(with a friend) . i never ever opened up a laptop and especially this kind, but i educated myelf and watch loads of teardowns( i have a backround with computers and such so i know what im doing), i want to add that i did an amazing job tearing it up and installing new one9 proud of myself). the thing is the windows nor the bios detect the card, i reflashed bios(stock i dont have unlocked) and it didnt help. im on win10 and i boot uifi and some legacy option tured on dont remember the name. i removed the secont fault card and heatsink cuz i only have 1 card now, i chose to install on the right side where there are 2 cooling fans cuz i think it is bettter slot to not overheat the card. i dont know what to do, the ebay listing says its tested card, should i ask refund? is there a possibility that the card is not good?(got it from china) is it possible that 1 pci express slot in the motherboard is also damaged? maybe i should teardown the laptop again and install it on the other slot? or maybe the whole motherboard is not good and then im fucked( too much money spent)? i didnt install any custom nvidia drivers maybe it can help but i doubt it. also i did run the diagnostics on the boot up it says video card passed and that it checked its vram aswell, i suspect it checked the integrated graphics and not the card, or maybe it was the card? please guys advise a lose soul that went too deep with all that alienware hardware. p.s i have a12 bios as far as i know. Edited August 4, 2016 by Yuval Vilensky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yuval Vilensky Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 UPDATE: i teared the the laptop 2 times since, tried on the other pci slot i got 8 peeps and system couldt post ( just cuz i put the card on that other slot where there is 1 fan) , so its turned out that 1 slot system doesnt detect the card at all, other dont let me post with 8 beeps. without the cards the laptop boots regularly. is it possible the motherboard is damaged?( my 2 sli 680m i think overheated and burned thats why i bought the 970m) if its a mother board it cant be all of it is damaged cuz i still can use the laptop, maybe the pci slots somehow damaged? or is there maybe some other explanation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brulio86 Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 I don't think the motherboard is damaged i had almost the same issue when I installed a 980m on mine, try to boot in the integrated graphics, and install windows 8.1, supposedly windows 10 is incompatible with this card if you aren't using a custom Bios, so i would recommend that, also try installing the custom drivers form Eurocom following their instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldarxt Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Yuval Vilensky I think the single card should be on the left where the single fan is and you need the proper heat sink. My alienware m18x r2 came with a single 660m and it was on the left. I hope this helps. Also the m18r2 is not supposed to have the a12 bios but the a11 is the last bios for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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