Artifacts on screen

Recently, my laptop started having these weird artifacts on screen when I turn it on for the first time. It is also worth noticing that the screen itself seems to turn on the moment i hit the power button but the image remains black until it arrives at the windows login screen with artifacts on it. I have to close the lid and reopen it for them to be gone. After that i have absolutely no issues, both cards perform well under maximum load, no artifacts in games or anywhere else.

Has anyone had a similar issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

Do you have an external monitor to try? If it doesn't do it with external monitor then we might have a pinched wire on the LCD. If it still does it then possible gpu starting to flake out. My aw14 did that but weird thing it was a nvidia driver causing my issues.

 

If closing and opening the lid helps, there's a chance that the LCD is the culprit. Try an external monitor. Did you try reinstalling the video drivers?

 

Yeah, I did, gonna try to boot up via HDMI. Just need to find a monitor

 

Just use your TV...XD

 

I wish i had one haha

 

Finally got my hands on fixing my screen issue. When windows finished its loading process, external screen via HDMI showed no signs of malfunctioning, whereas the native screen had artifacts all over it. It also flickered between artifacts and black screen. Anything I could check before ordering a new screen? Any suggestion for a trustworthy AW18 LCD screens source?

 

Artifacts usually indicate a failing GPU. Maybe what you're seeing are not artifacts but a poor connection between the screen and the motherboard. Maybe inspect the cable for damage?

 

I will double-check it, but it seemed to be fine. To fix this issue, i always have to close and reopen the lid (only once) after my laptop booted up for the first after being turned off during night. If i use it for a few hours, turn off and then after one hour turn it on again - it's fine. Long periods of being turned off are causing screen issues.

 

Probably the cable then. Might wanna try replacing it before replacing the screen.

 

I did a few more tests. My laptop boots without artifacts when using integrated video. My screen shows the entire boot process, from the alienware logo up to windows. Now when i used external screen, it did not show any logo or post info, the image (without artifacts) appeared only when I have arrived to windows. When i use my laptop's screen, it's black until i hit windows and see the artifacts and screen blinking.

I thought it might be my main GPU. I then opened up my laptop and swapped my cards. The next morning i turn it on and still see the damn artifacts. It's not possible that the 2 cards are fried!

Now I never mentioned when this whole thing started.. i had an issue before, with cables, all in all, in order to turn on the laptop i had to use one of the buttons on the motherboard. So one day, i had it on my laps and the base of the laptop fell on the screen during boot . Not that it was a big hit, but still ... perhaps it has corrupted something on the software side since it was during boot? Gonna try to format my drive and put windows 10 now with UEFI boot.

I still use my laptop without any issues. I just have to close, wait 20 seconds and then reopen the damn lid..

 

If your able to try disassembling the laptop and then clean, swap the gpus and repaste them both. I had issues before where my m18x would cut out and restart and I thought the GPU was going until i took it apart and found some burnt thermal pads on it. Once I cleaned it out and repasted the gpus and fixed the thermal pads it worked fine again.

 

Hm, i did swap and repaste my GPUs, but i never looked at the thermal pads, haven't changed them for almost a year. Gonna take a look at them, thanks!

 

try to take out one gpu at all and test one and then exchange leaving one outside again.

 

Will try as well! Thanks, man!

 

Even My display is showing issues here (AW17),

Spoiler

I have these very faint horizontal lines with very under contrast black colors & some weird glitching (white in line patterns varying but continuous widths, like thick or thin lines, happens everytime when I switch on the machine and sometimes in OS) And this doesn't happen with the iGPU, safemode default win8.1 drivers no IntelHD, So I suspected the GPU but HDMI works 100% fine tried with internal display off and on & GPU temps are perfect 3DM Firestrike also as expected....

I was more worried about Mobo / cabling so took the machine apart to check whether any cable is damaged, the LVDS cable and the other cable (I guess that's the webcam one Idk much) that connects to Mobo is perfect but I guess the cable must have been worn out at the hinge position the LCD position doesn't affect at all though, I didn't check there disassembling the hinge but Internal damage cannot be noticed....

These issues are very hard to pinpoint the cause but since the dGPU only shows that my guess is LVDS cable & with the upgrades to my machine I'm all exhausted. For now It is doable since there are no issues while gaming / browsing / watching movies etc, just a few wallpapers with horizontal faint lines with less contrast....and occasional glitching, I can live with.

Here are the photos from my mobile phone- PEG mode (dGPU) Safe mode (iGPU)

So my conclusion is if the HDMI is fine the GPU(s) is fine. Either the display or the cable are faulty, replacing them both is expensive, So lets try one thing at once start with the cable which is easier to do. Don't know how the cabling is done on AW18 but since the SLI machine doesn't have a 120Hz screen there is also the same LVDS cable not eDP but try to have a look at the cable...

And there's a worst case as always that's very hard to believe - Might be the Mobo's LVDS displaying capabilities are showing signs of failure but from my knowledge that thing is not feasible, either the GPU / Cable / Display are at fault mobo's issues shouldn't be like this they are on a whole another level..

Hope that helps..

 

Thanks for sharing this info! I do have a spare working motherboard for my AW18, might as well try it first, before buying anything ... i'm just so tired of disassembling it

Hmm, i just wonder, why does iGPU work perfectly fine with the native screen and HDMI seems to be fine with dGPUs . There's one more piece to the puzzle: when i use dGPUs i don't see any picture on both native and external screens until i arrive into Windows. After that, my native screen is full of artifacts and external is OK. BUT with iGPU i see Alienware logo and all POST info.

Anyways, waiting for the next weekend and will try the aforementioned!

 

Well my theory is with 2x GPUs or the dGPU mode the machine only uses the mutiplexer to dGPU and if the cables (LVDS) are faulty that explains but since machine only must use the dGPUs till POST and after POST, some weird things are going on which is really un-explainable in your case, makes me wonder now about my machine if it's the mobo or the LVDS...Anyways good luck and post your results.

 

Maybe your EDID is partially corrupted. Is EVGA Precision X installed? The black screen until reaching Windows desktop is precisely the symptom EDID corruption caused on my Eurocom Panther. Flashing a good EDID fixed the problem. Removing Precision X is necessary to prevent the problem from reoccurring. You can use an older Afterburner-based version if you need to. There is some indication that Alienware machines that have been used primarily with an HDMI external display have slightly different behavior and may not have the 8-beep problem commonly associated with corrupted EDID on Alienware notebooks.

*** Windows 10 + NVIDIA WHQL Drivers are Killing Alienware and Clevo LCD Panels ***

***EVGA Precision X and Windows 7/8/8.1 and especially 10 bricking systems***

 

Hm, no, i never had Precision X installed on my laptop. But i'll try to check my EDID too, i think i saw a guide somewhere around these forums. Thanks!

 

Did a few tests today. The screen turns on from the moment I hit the power button, if the SLI cable is not attached. Gonna try to turn it off for the next night and see if it will be working the next morning, without the cable.

 

More tests:

MXM-1 GPU (A) - screen is off
12 hours later: MXM-2 GPU (B) - screen is on (never arrived to windows, all my SSDs were unplugged)
right after this, plugged GPU (A) back into MXM-1 and the screen was still on. (never arrived to windows, all my SSDs were unplugged)

When i finally reassembled my laptop with everything back on it's place and got into windows, i've noticed that the size of my icons was set to 125%, which is weird cause i always had 100%. I still saw Nvidia Control Panel upon right clicking at desktop but then my screen flickered and i saw an icon in the tray, intel HD 4600. I guess i was using it since i had one GPU in MXM-2? Anyways, looks like a fail, and a have to use MXM-1 to boot from a discrete GPU?

 

yes , you need to use MXM slot 1