NomisGnos

After much research, it looks like I cannot get it to work.  It will most likely be hooked up via HDMI or a USB soundcard anyways.  Thanks Matty

@MattyB I apologize for mentioning you again but I think I got everything recognized (under device manager, no unknown devices), windows 10 installed, GPU drivers installed.  However how do I get the audio to work again.  If I turn it on BIOS (HD Audio), it will do that blank screen.  I tried to install those drivers (even though it says Windows 7) on Dell's website but it says "unrecognized hardware".

Thanks again!

I just did what I said before and did a FIND and REPLACE for those values and installed the drivers without any issues.  The drivers for the GPU looks like it was necessary because the Media Creation Tool kept closing at the 100% progress bar and then it would just do nothing.  Installing the drivers actually finished the install.  I am currently waiting for Windows 10 to be done 'updating' but it's definitely on Win 10. 

@MattyB Interesting. Just an update.  This is my third time trying to update Windows to 10  and it gives me no error. Just closes out the media Creation tool.  Did you mount it to a USB and boot it that way (or does it install windows 10)?

@MattyBAfter seeing the sticky thread.  My mind is fried.  Can I confirm with you.

1. I download the lastest drivers for this GPU.
2. Open via 7z
3. Edit nvdmi.inf
4. Display.Driver -> open nvdmi.inf (notepad) CTRL+H -> Find What: 05AE Replace With: 0490 -> 'Replace All' -> done (Windows all versions) 

Is that right?

Also what driver version you up to? anything I should know about?

I didn't install it yet. I am busy trying to get the drivers updated.  I did download the Media Creation Tool and it's starting the Windows 10 upgrade...but maybe I should update the nvidia drivers first?  I figured the drivers had to be updated again because the executable does not seem to be the same.

@MattyB Can I buy you a beer?  That was it.  Disabling HD Audio in the BIOS allowed me to move forward.  Makes perfect sense, too.  LOL.  I don't remember doing that when I upgraded my GPU to a 780M but then again it already had Win7.  Reinstalling Win7 probably never happened. 

Anyways, you are a life savior man.  I found my old Alienware install CD and I will upgrade it to the Win10 soon.  Thank you for the detailed instructions.  I seriously spent all last night trying to fix this up with Windows 7.

I have an Alienware M17x R3.  I was going to repurpose/revitalize the machine.  It had Manjaro installed on it, before that Ubuntu.  It collected dust and now I want to reinstall Windows 7 on it.  Windows 10 did not work.  Then I tried Windows 7.  It installed. Then the problem started.  It keeps saying "Starting Windows" but then it just shows a white screen, sometimes purple, but then it shows a black screen afterwards.

The bios was updated. A12 unlocked.

The GPU was updated a long time ago from 680M to a 780M.  I remember doing those modded .ini files on the nvidia drivers but since it came from Manjaro I didn't have to worry about it.

I tried to do integrated GPU but it doesnt work on mine because it's that 3D laptop that doesn't seem to have it.  

I tried SAFE MODE and it basically says I have to run it in NORMAL mode to finish installing. But I can't because of the issues stated above.

Any help is much appreciated!

Good luck!

I installed the A12 UNLOCKED BIOS first

uninstalled ALL nvidia drivers.

Shutdown

Removed old card

installed new card

Turn on machine

F2

Turn off IGD

PEG for primary display

advanced settings for video - always enable PEG and made sure this one setting that allowed more time for PEG to be detected was enabled

Save & Restart

Booted to Desktop

Downloaded the latest drivers

Stopped it from installing because i just want it to unpackage to my C:\ drive

Downloaded j95's modified .inf file and replaced it inside that C:\Nvidia\nVidia.driver

Installer recognizes my video card and continue installation.

Viola

I should note that my vBIos version is the same as yours. The only difference was the manufacturing date...mine was 7/13, yours said 6/13

All,

I have the Alienware M17x R3 3D 120hz.

I bought the 780M and So far my testing:

My new machine (for some odd reason it wont save it to my profile.) and for some odd reason 3DMark 11 is not recognizing the graphics card but you can see the driver name is correct.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Alienware M17xR3

My old machine

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor,Alienware M17xR3

I will post more and instructions on how i did it sometime today/tomorrow.

@veer - let us know if you flashed your video bios in the meantime.

So have you flashed your video BIOS yet?

Has anyone gotten a 780M to work on a 3D notebook? Apparently the listing on EBAY states that it won't work, but will flashing the BIOS fix it?

I think you may have misread the disclaimer from that ebay listing. That card doesn't seem to work AT ALL on a laptop that is 3D enabled. So I think this card isn't compatible at all even if you disable 3D somewhere. If you do indeed have an Alienware M17X R3 3D, then you just bought yourself a $900 paper weight (until Dell posts a fix of some sort.).

I have search around the forums and found a lot of issues related to the 8 Beeps but many of them were posts about with them not being able to fix it with just a power drain. So my issue is a little different.

I typically close my laptop lid and leave it to 'sleep'. Few hours later, i will come back to my laptop and open the lid and I expect to see something on the screen like I would normally do but not anymore. The screen is black and the keyboards is lit up. I would then proceed to my next instinct which is to restart the machine by pressing the ON button (alien head button) and force a reboot. After I try to reboot from the black screen after trying to wake it up from hibernate, I get the famous 8 Beeps (which means LCD failure). So at this point I do the suggested steps which is to do a power drain by removing the laptop battery and power cord and then plug just the power cord in and restart it. This somehow fixes it and it's booting up properly, it even asks me if I want to boot up normal because it failed the last time.

This has been happening for about a month.

So my questions are:

What does this mean? What is wrong here? Anyway to fix this besides me taking out the laptop battery every time or turning it off sleep when i close the lid (i liked that feature)?

You need to modify the .inf file in order to install the driver.

Can you elaborate on how he should modify the inf file? What exactly does he have to change?

Veer, did your order arrive? You should record your install for everyone to see.