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    Another m18xR2 screen flickering

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by ourawomba, Dec 3, 2015.

  1. ourawomba

    ourawomba Newbie

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    Hello guys,

    When I came back from work on Monday and started a few games, I discovered that my external screen was flickering when the game was started. The screen behavior under Windows 7 was fine.

    My laptop is an Alienware m18xR2 with dual ATI 7970M. I am running Windows 7.

    I came on different forums to understand what could be the problem and made the following conclusions / tests:
    - Screen behavior on Windows in correct
    - No change has been made to computer, no GPU driver update, etc..
    - Screen flickering when in games and full screen
    - Screen not flickering when not in full mode
    - Screen not flickering when crossfire is disabled
    - Screen is flickering on the external and on the laptop display as well
    - Screen flickering is not red. It is just the image moving up and down or lines moving up and down

    So basically I started to thing that one GPU was overheating and followed the very good YouTube tutorial of MrFox to replace the thermal paste on GPUs and CPU. Unfortunately the issue was still here after this.

    Today when I connected the laptop's power supply I got the following error message:
    "Switch Graphic Card, The AC adapted currently connected is not supported. System will continue on battery."

    I can see that the battery indicator is not changing (always remain at 19%) with the power supply connected to the comp.

    So basically what could be my problem?
    1. Power supply dead => GPU unable to enter full performance mode?
    2. The crossfire cable my be damaged?
    3. One GPU is damaged and can not enter full performance mode?

    How could I know? What should I do?

    Thanks for your help
    Pascal
     
    ourawomba, Dec 3, 2015
    #1