Solace21

I have surrendered.  I uninstalled the GTX 980M.  I reinstalled one of the original GTX 675M cards and it works properly in the slot.  Either the card I got out of China off of Ebay was bad, or there was a proprietary issue I was unaware of.  I don't feel comfortable trying to modify any of the pins on the card, and I feel it was seated properly even though it was not detected in the Bios.  In any event, I will get a refund for now and run my laptop as is.  If I can find "new" or American sourced parts, I may try this again.  Thanks for all your help!

One of the PCI slots is no longer working.  This prompted me to look for a single card.  The "new card" is an 8 gig GTX 980m.  Here's the old hardware configuration:

225-2944 : Alienware M18X R2 - Direct225-2944 : Alienware M18X R2 - Direct

Sorry if that's bulky...  did you need anything else??  You think the card is just bad?  Or a proprietary issue?

Negative success.  I tried changing it to PEG.  Just to cover my basis, I then tried changing it to PCI.  Is there a specific driver I should be trying?  I've tried the latest one, 390.7.7 and I've tried the old one, 360.0.0.  The GTX just does not show up in the BIOS, or in the control panel under hardware, and can not be detected by the GeForce experience software.  Any other thoughts?

Sorry, I've been on these crazy 16 hour days.  It happens more then I'd like since I'm in the medical field.  Let me try that when I get home next.  If that's all it takes I will literally wake up half the neighbor-hood with a victory cheer!

I tried both Legacy and UEFI for boot modes.  Neither seems to make a difference.  I have disabled driver signing and that does not help.  From what I understood, though maybe incorrectly?, is that I did not have to modify the INF file for the graphics card thanks to the latest Bios update.  Is that not the case? I've tried with the most recent drivers for the GTX 980M and I've also tried with an older 362.0.0.  The graphics card was a Clevo, that is allegedly compatible with Alienware devices.  I'm at a loss.  I read through page 6 of this forum and I don't think the pins are the issue as the card is seated properly.  Any thoughts on needing to mod the INF and if so, any idea where I might look for directions to do so?  Thanks!

I've downloaded and installed the new BIOS.  However, my M18xR2 alienware laptop still does not detect the Nvidia GTX 980m graphics card.  I have downloaded the proper driver from Nvidia, but I can not install the driver because the system does not detect it.  I thought once this new updated Bios was installed I would be able to install the new driver?  Please advise.