Urgent - Issue with Alienware m17xR3 and 6990M Windows 8

[Anthonycy]

Hi guys

I was on my computer and it just crashed, I am running windows 8.1 using a 2630qm, 6gb ram, hdd and a 6990m. I manually shut down my pc after the crash, after it booted when reaching the windows icon the screen goes blank. I have a custom bios and disable my integrated cpu gfx so i can run the latest AMD drivers. I formatted my pc with my integrated disabled and when it reaches getting devices ready it went blank again, so i tried formating with my integrated graphics card on and it worked

The issue is now i can't use my 6990M.... on device manager it says the device cannot start with a yellow exclamation mark. I tried disabling my integrated gpu, going into safe mode and trying to install drivers for the 6990m but it says detection device could not be started or something like that due to AMD not allowing you to install drivers in safe mode. I am currently stuck... I don't know what to do since when i disable my integrated and try login into windows normally the screen is blank, and i can't install drivers through safe mode.

I just need to find a way for windows to boot with my integrated disabled so i can install my 6990m drivers due to AMD drivers not being able to install in safe mode.

Tried the Dell official drivers, installed fine but won't read the card and I still have the same error in device manager.

I forgot to state the custom bios i use is - M17x R3 BIOS A12 - unlocked & 'SATA fix' : Modified BIOS for the Alienware M17x R3 – hidden menus unlocked – ‘SATA ‘fix’ -> brings back the SAT ... [more] (Unknown Size) - Found on this link, it allows me to overclock (Never used it) and disable my IGP - Alienware - Downloads - Tech|Inferno Forums

Can provide more information about my PC if needed. Please if some one knows how to help i would be very grateful, thanks.

I read that assigning the IRQ to VGA and the PNP may fix this issue involving Code 10 but i can't find this option in my Bios. Anyone know how to do this?

When i disable my integrated i can get into safe mode but not into windows, it just BSOD's me

[Anthonycy]

Update - Sorry If I am not allowed to double post.

Tried installing Windows 7, wouldn't let me claiming that " a required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, Cd, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert now. Note: If the windows installation media is in the Cd/DVD drive you can sefly remove it for this step". I downloaded Windows 7 and 8 using dream spark via my university account, When i press repaired using the windows 7 USB it showed me that bootmgr is damaged and needs repairing along with windows 8 recovery and system restore, obviously I didn't commence the repair due to me running windows 8 currently so I wouldn't repair via windows 7. I am thinking maybe my hard drive is corrupted and could be causing all these issues.

[angerthosenear]

@Anthonycy

Were you installing Win8 via UEFI / GPT install or legacy mode? That would explain why Win7 said everything was all messed up during install. I usually drop all partitions on the drive and then just click 'Next' in the installer without formatting any partitions. Then again, I've only downgraded from Win8 to Win7 once (and that was a while ago).

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As for disabling the iGPU, I can't help much there. I can't do it on my m14xR2 since the screen is attached to the iGPU and not the dGPU. Someone else would have to chime in on that one.

What error does it give you exactly on your 6990M (right-click -> properties)? No driver? Not enough resources?

[Anthonycy]

I've used the windows 7 official USB bootable tool.

Device Status for 6990m

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Operation Failed}

The requested operation was unsuccessful.

Resource Settings

This device isn't using any resources because it has a problem.

I deleted all partitions into one big partition and install Windows, that's how I always format. I only have one HDD, this also means I do not have the recovery partition in order to restore back to factory settings either.

[Anthonycy]

I purchased an SSD and tried to install windows 7 using Windows 7 via dream spark on a bootable DVD. Tested the USB on my friends PC worked fine, then i tested it on mine and i still get the same error as my previous HDD did. I press boot from any key, it loads windows 7 files then shows me this error "windows failed to start. a recent hardware or software change bla bla" results to files: \ windows\system32\boot\winload.exe then under it Status: 0xc0000001 with info stating the selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt. If i press enter to continue and then press launch windows or start windows ( don't remember what it says ) it leads to file: \boot\memtest.exe status: 0xc0000221 info stating file is possibly corrupt. its header checksum does not match the computed checksum. I am running Legacy Bios unable to format --> install windows 7, using wnidows 8 the installation works but my gfx still involves Device can't be started code 10.

When the problem first occured I had made a win 8 USB using rufus due to making it on a 32 bit computer with file system NTFS and partition scheme and target system type being "MBR partition scheme for BIOS or EUFI computers". Is there a chance that this altered my BIOS leading to all these problems? my bios states it's currently Legacy but i do not know if that was altered due to the first format, what is the default for the alienwarem17xr3 bios?

[Anthonycy]

Installed Win 7 Via DVD. Installed official dell drivers after framework 4.5 install ( didn't do windows updates ). Blank screen again on windows 7. For sure it's a hardware problem i guess since the same problems persist, question is how do I know it's a motherboard or GFX problem? I can see my GFX card in device manager