Alienware 17 (and M18x) - 8 beeps -EVGA X Precision

Title says it all. Was hoping @Mr.Fox or @t456 would be able to assist in this situation.

As it stands at the moment I've utterly disassembled the entire rig to bare bones. CMOS taken out and replaced and all that. Nothing has worked, Ive been seeing all these replies about hotswapping a display panel and I have a couple of questions.

How exactly would I hotswap it? Are there seperate cords for power and display? I'm aware of the LVDS cable.

Is this safe to do while the affected system is still powered? Would anything short, or burn up as a result?

I realize many of the thread posts Ive been reading have been from last year, so Im hoping maybe there has been a breakthrough or some light shed on this, otherwise I'll be going to my pc repair joint to see if ,maybe I can work with them about hotswapping and flashing the EDID.

Im downloading @t456 's tool now. I doubt I'll be able to fully comprehend it but hopefully I can follow the directions.

Last question. I have an old Alienware m14x r2 I believe it was. Is it possible for me to disassemble it and use it's display to boot my 17?

Also symptoms are exactly as Mr.Fox stated in earlier threads. Turns on, screen may light up, may not. No POST just straight to 8 beeps. Appreciate the help!

 

No, power and data are integrated in the same cable ever since CCFL panels were discontinued.

You have to do this while it is powered, unfortunately. And it's safe as long as you remove and insert the cable both sides at once, so pull it straight and parallel to the connector.

If that has a 900p LVDS panel then yes. It'll look a bit awkward, but otherwise it'll be compatible with the LP173WF1-****. It would be good to know the panel nrs. before doing this; Dell hides the actual manufacturer's panel nr. in their custom edid, so with both Alienwares it is not perfectly certain which exact panel they have used. The only way to know is to check the sticker on the back of each panel; all tools will pull their information from the edid and with the Dells these are incomplete.

Good luck !

 

@t456 I have seen where others have used a toshiba display with 40 pins to boot up their m18x then hot swap back, I'm not sure if I'm missing something or what but the one I have is a 40 pin connector but is different than the one on the m18x. I have pictures to show but not able to post them. Would appreciate any help.

 

Upload them to tinypick or some-such, that should work. Only need to know the part nrs. of both the old panel and the intended substitute, so you could also scribble them down from the stickers. Both panels being a 40-pin does not automatically make them compatible, unfortunately.

 

I have not removed the display on the m18x yet hoping I could get it going by flashing it with a hot swap, so I don't have the model# as of now. If I knew which other displays where compatible I would order a cheap one on eBay or something to use. The Alienware r1's are scarce and pricey when you do find a usable one as you know. And thank you a million for quick response.

 

Well, you have to remove the lcd from the lid anyway since the lcd cable is not compatible on the motherboard side. The lcd end is more-or-less standardized, but that does not apply to the motherboard connector; even if it'd physically fit there's no telling whether the pins are hooked up identically (without having both mb schematics, that is). Hence for the hot-swap you need to have access to the back of the lcd and dis- and reconnect the lcd cable from there.

Once you know the M18x's model then it'll be easy to find a cheap compatible, in case the Toshiba's will not work. There's probably a few cracked or otherwisely damaged panels available for as little as $10-20, so yes, that would be a good alternative.

 

It is an LTN184HT05-T01. After I get booted to windows, I'm curious if just uninstalling evga destruction x and cleaning reg files of everything, that I would be good to go on the reflash without having to do complete os reinstall? Maybe just do several reboots before reassembling to test?

 

Yes, removing the software should be sufficient.

That panel is tricky; no information available, specification sheet or otherwise. No problem, but we have to know if it is actually a 30-pin and whether it has a CCFL backlight, rather than being a WLED. Most others in the HT series have this configuration, though not all. The mb side being 40-pin is no indication; voltage and ground pins are often combined and not all pins are populated (your first photo shows 6 'duds' on the right side of the connector). CCFL or WLED is easy; the first has one or two extra power connectors separate form the lcd cable (with 2-4 pins each). WLED panels do not require these, backlight power being delivered by the lcd cable itself.

 

The connector on the mx18 display end looked like a 30 pin. Not sure, but it is narrower than the toshiba connector

 

How much more difficult is it if any to use the programmer and lvds cable with separate computer? I've seen where mr. fox and some others have done it but haven't seen much info on it. Plus I've only found it on eBay from china slow boat.

 

I guess that is the right number I give you? The other tag is hid under the cover which I did not remove.

 

Wrong pic above sorry.

 

Also sorry for hacking in on 17 thread, but pretty much same problem. Ha

 

Count the pins on the lcd end and make certain it is 30 pins and there are no extra power cables connected to the panel. Noticed a few panels for as little as $10-15 inc. shipping that could work, but have to know whether they are compatible first.

Doesn't make much difference, really. The hard part on an AW system is getting access to the lcd connector and the programmer option doesn't allow you to skip that part. Think the substitute panel is actually easier (and cheaper). Swapping the assembly lock-stock-and-barrel with another M18x would be the least hassle of all, but most people tend to get nervous when you approach their laptop with a screwdriver, so ...

 

I agree about the tearing into a good working pc, kinda risky. It is a 30 pin and I'm counting 29 wires. The only other cables are the led logo board cables and antenna wires. I see no other power hookups.
Here's complete cable

 

Also is there a edid for this display? I see where you couldn't find any info on it so just curious.


P.s. I'm very happy that you have patience for this stuff. I enjoy tinkering with electronics and tearing into stuff but not real savvy on when it comes to in depth programming and the likes.

 

Ok, so it's a 30-pin WLED. This one should do: $2 panel + $8 shipping.

And sorry, don't have an edid for this panel. The SEC5448 (LTN184HT02-S01) is pretty close and its edid might be compatible even though it uses a (quite rare) RGB LED backlight. Better is to write a backup of the current, corrupt edid so we can hex-fix the original (see step 09 in the guide).

 

@t456. I got my spare display in and got it to boot and went ahead and uninstalled evga. But apparently my original display is dead cause I'm getting black screen when hot swapping. I can see some light and when I turn brightness up and down I can see it change. But nothing else. Am I missing something or do you think display is toast?

 

Doesn't sound good, but it's not dead-dead (otherwise no backlight). The lcd itself could be defective. However, do check out different resolutions; those of the substitute panel may not work on the original T01. Set it to 1280x720 and try the hot-swap again, that should be compatible with both displays.

We can also rule out edid bricking by running everything up to the part where you dump the current edid to a .txt and enter the same command again, but hot-swap just prior to hitting 'enter'. We should have the T01's edid then even though its lcd is not functioning.

 

Thank you for info. I will give that a try. I looked at resolution when substitute panel was connected but can't remember what it was set to. Every time I'd plug original panel in it would light up just a second with lines across it. Just a flash though.

 

Maybe it's not a paper weight just yet.

 

@t456 ok, I managed to get original panel to come on by hot swapping after post before windows. Everything works fine but still corrupted edid apparently cause still will not boot with original. Here is screen shot of raw data. Maybe it'll shed some light on something. I have no clue so your expertise will be a great help on what to do next.

 

That is very promising. With the hot-swap working we should be able fix it without too much trouble.

The SAM0390 is probably an external monitor and presumably the SEC5441 is your substitute panel? It's the SEC5448 that would have to be fixed from within a successful hot-swap boot into Linux. But can you make an export of all three edids first? Highlight one of the screens and use the ' File -> Save as ... -> .bin' option for each of them.

This copy may not actually be corrupt, considering it is a static copy from within Windows' registry, not a current readout from the panel's eeprom. Once in Linux we'll know for certain.

No problem, indeed the same thing. Also edited the title just now .

 

You are correct, the SEC5441 is my sub panel. This is the SEC5448

Not sure how to attach a bin file

 

Sorry but I'm pretty green when it gets in this deep. Please bare with me. Lol
But I enjoy learning this stuff

 

Yes, even in situations where repairing stuff isn't very cost-effective you still pick up a few tricks and, provided the effort pays off, a bit of confidence for future endeavours .

You can upload the bins to a filesharing thingy or zip them and use the ' Upload a File' option at the bottom of this forum's editor box. Might also rename them to .txt and upload them as-is (presuming it doesn't scan the content, that is).

From a cursory glance that SEC5448 edid is 100% identical to the LTN184HT02-S01's and it also appear to be non-corrupted. Yet, only a direct read-out from the panel's eeprom will confirm that. Did you try booting the live Linux stick yet? Could use a different system to get the hang of it and make certain it is properly bootable.

 

Yes I booted to Linux on a different system and looked through it some. I will try and boot it up on my m18x now, I'll just have to study it a bit more to get the live read out for panels eeprom. And then maybe we can determine which archive if any we can use to flash.

 

Curious if you've seen this error before? It popped up when trying to boot on my mx18, My other laptop booted fine several times but now it will not boot without error either. Kinda weird, I'm gonna format and reload it and give it another try.

 

I'm having no luck getting m18x to boot to linux, it just gives me the backlit with no display, tried hotswapping through different stages of boot an no luck. It will boot to windows everytime by hotswapping after post. has me puzzled now.
I even let it boot to linux fully and tried hotswap nothing, swap back to spare display and its fine. To bad there is no way to flash by using windows, or is there?

 

No, apart from some industry-specific tools (expensive). What you can do is work through the linux commands on the spare display up to and including the point where you dump the edid to a .txt, then use up-arrow (repeat same line) and change the name of the output .txt. Next hotswap the SEC5448 and hit enter. Since the backlight is working that means it is powered and we should be able to pull the edid regardless. Copy/paste the content of those txt's and please upload those earlier .bin's too (for my archive).

If blind-pulling the edid works then so too will flashing it. Of course, that is assuming the SEC5448 is indeed corrupt, because if it isn't then the screen has a non-backlight hardware defect.

 

I'm slowly figuring this stuff out. I didn't have much time tonight at work to mess with it but I got this info with the SPARE display hooked up, I didn't try to swap panels for edid on mx18 yet but I'll give that a try next, I hope it will work just by hot swapping and hitting enter. And then I'll get you all the bins of the other displays. Thanks again for you patience.