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    Black screen (again) on 17 R3, please help!

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by psouba, Nov 12, 2017.

  1. psouba

    psouba Newbie

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    Yesterday on my Alienware 17 R3 I went into alienFX and changed all the RGB lights on the case from blue to light blue. When I hit "apply" the lights changed color, then the system shut off. (no other programs were running and nothing crazy in the background, I was just sitting on the windows 10 desktop...)

    Now I have the dreaded "black screen" problem that many get when they have BIOS issues. When I hit power, all the case lights come on but the screen stays black (no backlight).

    Last time I fixed it by resetting the CMOS (via CLRP1 beneath the RAM chips), this time it didn't fix the issue. When I reset via CLRP1, the lights will all turn on, then off (as if the system restarted), then on again, but still no screen or error code lights the whole time.

    Tried a power drain by unplugging the battery and holding down the power button, no luck.

    Tried plugging in an HDMI cable to the HDMI output slot, never received a video on the other monitor (I double checked to make sure I was on the correct source and input type on the other monitor)

    Tried the guide here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/bios-update-failed.779259/ to do a bios recovery, however when I hold "END" and plug the power back in, nothing happens. Also tried this holding down "CTRL + ESC" instead of "END" per the instructions here: http://www.dell.com/support/article...on-a-dell-pc-or-tablet?lang=en#Recovery_Start but again nothing happened. Not sure which is supposed to be the correct method for a 17 R3...

    I don't get any beeps or anything when it turns on, but if I remove the RAM chips I'll get 2 or 4 beeps just like I'm supposed to.

    The activity lights are all off (the hard drive has one quick blink when the laptop first turns on, but then all the activity lights stay off)

    I'm stumped. The POST is still working (otherwise I wouldn't get those beeps when I remove the RAM) but I can't seem to get into the BIOS recovery (both END and CTRL+ESC do nothing). What am I missing?
     
    psouba, Nov 12, 2017
    #1
  2. Pete Light

    Pete Light Notebook Deity

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    Did you repaste with LM? :)

    Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
     
    Pete Light, Nov 13, 2017
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  3. VICKYGAMEBOY

    VICKYGAMEBOY Notebook Deity

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    Usually when u use CLRpin method, it takes 3 reboots, 2 without display being ON, and one reboot after POST LOGO, clear and wait for sometime..
     
    VICKYGAMEBOY, Nov 13, 2017
    #3
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