Fry

Sorry for the delay in responding again. The issue is resolved. I went through dell support and they were able to get a tech out with some new parts. Given all the travelling i was doing it was within a reasonable time frame. First they replaced the screen; this unfortunately did not fix the issue. I then did a complete reinstall of the system to determine if it might have been some software somewhere that was causing the problem. During the install the screen backlight dropped out again from a complete format and reinstall so I knew it was not software and it was not the video cards due to the part of the install (was running off of the mother board graphics). I called dell back up and had a motherboard brought out and installed by a tech which fixed the issue (additionally they replaced one of the video cards). One note is if you need to replace a component of the computer make sure when you go through dell support that you ask for the part with all the wiring and processors in place. For example the video card had to be unassembled to get the gpu and heat sink added to the new card. It also meant that the tape for the wires was reused and there was no additional supplies in the package sent to the tech (ie no paste for processors)

Well after my last post the screen has gone unservicable again. The screen back light is not working. In other words the pixels are present but the white light does not come through. If I turn off the room light and use a flash light on the screen I can see what is there. This occurred while starting diablo it happened and when it happened I noticed the following error. "graphics error" "an error occurred resetting d3d. Click ok to retry" when using my flash light on the screen

Small update: Computer specs m18x (first release) Processor: Intel i7-2960XM CPU @ 2.7GHz (came with the factory overclock) Video: Inboard + 2x AMD Radeon HD 6990M in xfire Driver version 8.989.0.0 Crucial M4 SSD Western Digital hard Drive (standard from dell) 16 or 32 (Cant recall of the top of my head what i decided on) Gig of HyperX 1866MHz RAM Halfway through another trip away (note there is lots of flying involved, so vibrations might be a factor). Attempted to boot up the laptop and recieved 8 beeps. After previous searches (because I have had the same issue on another trip away I knew that it has to do with a problem with the video cards although it is noted that it is mainly an issue with Nvidia cards which my laptop is not using) I knew it the common fix would not work. Because it worked before I lightly dropped the laptop into my lap from a distance of 2 inches and rebooted. The computer restarted without any issues. This is why I initially thought it was a hardware issue. Half an hour later I lost screen power again. After a hard reset it came back and has been fine since. The previous fix was to reinstall the video card drivers, but apparently that is only a temporary fix. And the first two attempts to reinstall the video card drivers also resulted in blue screens. I am not convinced the drivers installed correctly because a few games now have staggered frozen images. For instance the tab menu of Skyrim now flickers and Deus Ex in story videos will have 2 images displayed at the same time. Niether of these were happening when I first played those games. My course of action is going to be a full reinstall to see if in the last year some sort of software glitch has corrupted the video and power of the laptop and to contact dell before hand within the warranty in case it only temporarily fixes the issue again. Can anyone think of anything else I can try? I won't be able to do the reinstal for a few weeks in any case.

Thanks Frank, but luckily not needed. The cable in question was the one I had already checked and there didn't appear to be any damage visible that I could see. It turns out that it was a software issue not a hardware one in the end. For feedback if anyone experiences similar issues don't jump on the hardware/screen issue conclusion too quickly. After reloading the video card drivers the issue has gone away. I am not sure how the drivers affected turning the screen power off under load, but so far the problem has been fixed. My laptop has been working well for the last week, although slower than I remember. When I get the chance I'll do a complete reinstall and it should clean any issues up.

Sorry for not responding. My last post appears to have been eaten by internet ghosts and the last couple of months have been crazy. I fixed the previous issue which in the end was a result to an auto brightness feature. Everything was fine outside not being able to change my brightness until the last trip I just came home from. There were a few bumps and I am 90% sure I have a cable slightly out or a cracked cable or card. ***CURRENT PROBLEM*** Under a graphic load I lose power to the screen. The alien light on the back of the screen goes out, the screen goes black. However the bold Alienware on the front of the screen stays on, as does the programs and sounds. The problem does not affect external screens. Under normal usage, web or word it rarely happens, but when it does pushing on either side of the power button and holding down keeps the screen on. I have reseated the video cable, but did not know which cable supplied power to the screen and the alien light. When trying to reinstall the new video card drivers the machine blue screened. Will try again after work. Query Which cable provides power to the screen and light under graphics load. At the stage of going to dell support, but with another trip in a week it's bad timing if I can fix it myself.

After my last trip away I noticed that any time I use full screen mode at all the screen will go black after a couple of minutes. I am not sure if it is an issue from a wire coming loose from the trip, from the video card drivers (haven't had issues with them till I went away), or being connected to an external screen. The fact that it only happens in full screen makes me think its the drivers (full screen for movies or games that is). The trip makes me wonder if it is a lose wire though. Has anyone had anything similar happen? Right now I can just play with games in windowed mode so it isnt a big deal at least.

I just checked on my R1 and I recieved the same 1920x1080 through hdmi. I am pretty sure hdmi is up to 1920x1200 so I believe it is just the resolution of the screen that is preventing the selection. Well it will actually depend on the TV/computer screen. Even if the screen does not have a display port available if, and I stress the if, the hdmi port on the screen is rated to a higher resolution you can use a hdmi cable rated to higher resolutions (the same cables required for 3d tv's) and a mini display port to hdmi adaptor (again with the hdmi port rated to a higher standard) to get the higher resolution. Now when I was looking at adaptors and cables very few listed to what resolutions they supported so it might be a little hit and miss especially if you need to go through ebay to find an adaptor. HDMI Cables explains the difference with hdmi and why it can be an issue. But in essence you need the high speed hdmi

Just incase it will help anyone in the future. The only way to recieve the resolution of 2550x1440 is to use the mini display port on the laptop. The HDMI port on the current version of the m18x is limited to 1920x1080 (It might be 1920x1200 but it wasnt an option with my screen) and the vga port is limited to 2048x1??? Took a few weeks to deliver, but the solution was as simple as waiting for the mini display port to pisplay port adaptor to arrive. Must I say though the wait was well worth it, the cards are more than able to support the higher resolution in games at full settings and nothing beats more pixels =p

I am having an issue getting the expected 2550x1440 resolution from my new Dell 27" screen. The easy option unfortunately isn't an option because alienware went with a vga adaptor over a DVI-D. VGA gets the resolution up to 2048x1120 (I believe). I have tried using HDMI to HDMI and am at a road block as to what is going wrong (being limited to a 1920x1080). I have a HDMI cable rated up to 4000x resolution (Belkin series 2000), the alienware website states it has the HDMI 1.2 port so it shouldnt be an issue there. I am running 6900 xfire on driver version 8.881.0.0 Any thoughts? Would it be worth looking for updated drivers? Also is there a way to verify what drivers I have for the HDMI port?

Around Adelaide at the moment Jimbo. Looking forward to atually having time to set it up tomorrow. Thanks for the warm welcome all, I'm sure I'll end up with some questions along the way

i7 2960xm factory overclocked 6990 Crossfire Installing my own sata3 SSD and 16gig 1866mhz hyperX memory Only thing I really missed out on that I was somewhat curious about was the wireless streaming HD, but it wasnt availible for Australia when I asked

Quite happy to have a new laptop show up today, as Dell emailed me yesterday to expect a week for delivery. Standad AUS build with the upgraded processor. Was sad to see the screen resolution was worse than my M17 R1 though. Guess I will learn to deal with only 1080 instead of 1200 /sigh Run the initial Benchmarks out of the box. 3D Mark 11: P6456, but with awful fps. Rates around 20 listed in the summary. It did mention that the display drivers were not standard or recognised so that might explain it. Should be fixd when I reinstall - Crosses fingers. Which makes sense after noticing it only has dx10 installed. Seems like an oversight on Dell's part. Windows Experience overall at 5.9 due to the raid HDs. 7.6 or 7.7 for everything else so happy with that. Time to swap out the HD and memory for the upgrades I got in preparation. Initial plan is to swap out the HD/memory, then do a reinstall and rebench. Is it worth changing the bios at this stage to the new A04 or see how it runs with the A03 considering I don't have Nvidia cards. Any other gotchas for new players I should take note of?