sebasdess Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Hi there! I have this really weird bug, I dont know exactly what is the problem. I have an Alienware m17x r4.Graphic card is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M. Device manager shows Intel HD Graphic 4000 as well. The screen is all fuzzy, with tiny blurried line. Like this: Here is a closeup: I though my screen was the problem... but if I do plug a HDMI cable from the HDMI out to the HDMI in and press Fn-F8 (HDMI In), I have a perfectly working screen. I did remove my dedicated videocard... still having the same problem. My theory is it could be related to the internal graphic card. Any other idea what it could be? If that is the internal graphic card, is this possible to do this with the unlocked bios to shutdown completely the internal graphic card and use only dedicated graphic card? Or any other troubleshooting I could do? (without having to play the "buy and replace a component until you find the faulty one" game?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebasdess Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 (edited) Warranty is over btw. I'm not tech-savvy, but not tech-dummy neither. I can follow some youtube tutorial on how to change some part of a laptop. But I'm far from an expert. So if anything is really technical, it may be over my capacity! Other troubleshotting I did so far: I did downgrade my bios from A13 to A12 as I saw the A13 wasnt supported (huh?). I then downgrade from A12 to A11 for trivial reason. I tried to put intel 4000 HD driver off. No luck. I tried to use an external monitor via HDMI: this is working perfectly. I tried to update videocard driver. No luck. I tried Dell Hardware Test. It found no problem. I do have access to some Sager parts (cable and stuff), no clue if they are compatible though. Edited March 31, 2016 by sebasdess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoldago Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 It looks a bit like 8bit Color depth. But have no idea where it comes from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umbrellacorp Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 (edited) Can you downgrade to a11 and flash the unlocked bios a11 mod then install the gpu again and disable the integrated card ? Try that. Remember you must flash the stock a11 bios before you flash the unlocked one. Lmw what happens. Also it wouldn't hurt first to try and reset the bios just incase, pull the CMOS battery with the laptop battery out and power cable unplugged hold the power button down for like 10 seconds to make sure it's drained and pop the battery back in and it will start up and shut back off just start it up again. Never know see what happens. Edited April 2, 2016 by umbrellacorp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebasdess Posted April 4, 2016 Author Share Posted April 4, 2016 Further troubleshotting: I did open the laptop, unconnect and re-connect everything. No luck. I tried resetting the bios as suggested by umbrellacorp. No luck. I tried the fn-F7 and reboot to disable internal graphic card. Intel HD doesnt show in device manager... But screen still acting weird. Fwiw: dunno what change/test I did, but the hdmi in and hdmi out trick doesnt work anymore (I get a black screen now). On 2 avril 2016 at 0:57 PM, umbrellacorp said: Can you downgrade to a11 and flash the unlocked bios a11 mod then install the gpu again and disable the integrated card ? Try that. Remember you must flash the stock a11 bios before you flash the unlocked one. Lmw what happens. This will be next step. I'll try to do this this week and I'll give you update! Thx for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebasdess Posted April 4, 2016 Author Share Posted April 4, 2016 Extra information: While connected via HDMI, I can disable my GTX660m from device manager. GPU-z software shows no activities from that card (660m) and screen is perfectly working. So now, I think the problem is exactly the opposite of my first hypothesis: GTX660m may be faulty, not the intel HD 4000. Weirdly enough, the problem was still there even though I physically disconnected the GTX600m. Maybe I have something else to do in Bios / windows as well? Any idea, anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umbrellacorp Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Have you tried the bios yet ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebasdess Posted April 4, 2016 Author Share Posted April 4, 2016 15 hours ago, umbrellacorp said: Have you tried the bios yet ? Not yet, i was waiting approval from moderators... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebasdess Posted April 14, 2016 Author Share Posted April 14, 2016 On 4/4/2016 at 2:45 AM, umbrellacorp said: Have you tried the bios yet ? I tried... No luck! I tried to use only discrete card, only dedicated card... and still having that problem! Could it be a screen connection which is "bypassed" when connected via HDMI? Not sure if this makes any sense... but that's the only theory that make sense to me at the moment. :| Cause clearly, the screen CAN work (it does when using HDMI). Dedicated video card is working correctly via HDMI. Removing discrete videocard doesnt change anything (neither trying to run solely on dedicated videocard)... So as using one or the other videocard doesnt solve the problem, I dont think it has anything to do with this. Anything I could check to troubleshoot this problem? I do have an old working screen (17.3"; 1920 x 1080 FHD LED AUO B173HW01 V.5 72% NTSC Matte Display) from a Clevo P170HM (same as Sager 8170). Can I connect this to test? I seriously dont have any clue about if it can be done or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umbrellacorp Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 so your integrated doesn't work at all ? I thought your gpu was the only problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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