M15x Won't boot past "Windows is starting up" - blank screen

So this morning I turned on my M15x and it would not boot past this point, the Alienhead comes up with options to enter the BIOS etc, the "Windows is Starting up" message comes up with the little animation, then there is what looks like some sort of artifacting which pops up for ~1 second and then the screen stays blank. The backlight stays turned on, and if I unplug/replug the power cable the mouse pops up. I can move it but it lags quite a lot (similar to moving a mouse when your HDD is being completely flogged) and it stays like this. Occasionally the HDD does something (I can hear it spinning an the alien eyes flash)

I tried booting into safe mode and this worked at first, no problems so I did a system restore to a day earlier. However this didn't work and now I cannot enter into safe mode at all, it hangs in the same way (minus the artifacting) the mouse appears and I can move it freely (no lag like when starting it not in safe mode)

edit: Narrowed down to it being an issue with the video drivers

Things I've tried
-Power drain
-System Restore
-Replacing the RAM
edit: -Startup repair via bootable disc
edit: Tried latest AMD drivers, also tried the Dell ones
edit: Fresh install of windows

I was thinking of trying a format and just clean install windows but figured I should check here before trashing all my data if there are any other ideas.

edit: now boots into safe mode, otherwise normally it is still the same.

Specs
8gb RAM
i7-740qm
5850
Win7 Pro

Artifacting which comes up for about a second before hanging

 

hey,

if you havent tried already, use install disc to do system repair. this usually fixes any system file problems

 

Hm good idea totally forgot about this, the windows install disc that came with my laptop just skips straight to the installation though, doesn't give me the option to repair. It may be a few days before I can get my hands on a repair disc (my laptop is the only computer with a DVD/CD drive that runs Win7)

Edit: Tried this off a Bootable USB. Startup repair yielded nothing. I tried to roll back to various restore points and also nothing. There is some good news however, it now booted into safe mode where it didn't previously. Any other ideas?

 

most hdd manufacturers provide hdd utilities program. you could try going to their site and downloading one for your hdd, then run it to see diagnostics and stuff

 

Just ran one of these, HDD Passed with no bad sectors.

 

when you are on the black screen/white cursor page, what happens when you press ctrl+alt+del for task manager?


also, have you tried messing around in bios? sometimes when you change hdd type from, lets say, ata to ide, it starts working

 

try starting up in safe mode again and select "enable low resolution video (640*480)" and see if that gets you in or "enable boot logging" to see if a driver is causing the issue. i used to have similar issues with ati drivers causing this problem years ago on a desktop.

 

I trashed the drivers and it boots normally now so that seems to have been the issue. I had the latest 8.982 drivers from AMD so I'm not sure what to do now, I thought of trying to use the dell drivers but they no longer seem to have it listed on their site

 

erm if you goto dell's site and put in your service tag it should bring up all drivers for your pc inc the ati driver, it how it is for me. otherwise im sure somebody will have the driver on theses forums and send you them. but im glad so far the issue is resolving in the right direction for you

 

wait a min, isnt latest ati drivers 12.something? or am i looking in wrong section in amd site?

 

i think hes talking about the driver package version, im using 8.961-120405a-137813C-ATI or (8.961 for short) and they came with 12.6 cats i think on my desktop pc

 

When I put in my service tag on the Dell site it gives me a list of nVidia drivers. Anyway I got a copy of their drivers, installed and still the same issue arises. I went ahead and did a clean install of windows so the only thing on that computer is literally windows and that driver, still the same issue

Any other ideas?

 

have you tried different drivers ? other than from dell

 

I have just tried the Dell ones and the one from AMD. Who else makes drivers for the 5850?

 

i just checked with driverheaven (ati/nvidia driver mod site) but they dont go as high as the 5850.. all i can suggest is download different drivers from ati site & or dell's site if they do more than the one driver and see how they go.

do you not have the original driver disk from dell with the driver on ?

 

I do have the original disc, but I thought the resource disc causes problems with the lighting

 

im unsure, mine came with the nvidia gtx260m not a ati card

only driver i can find on dell site for m15x is numbered R281216.exe (129MB)
i dont know if thats the one you have but its dated 2010 i think. there is also a bios update for the card to it seems.... on the dell site also.

Fixes & Enhancements

1. Fixes display corruption issues found on some 5850 video cards

 

The driver I downloaded off them is R254294 and this is also the driver that comes on the resource disc ( Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]) I cannot find the R281216 you are talking about.

And I could be wrong but arn't you supposed to update the vbios only after you install the driver?

 

i simply went onto dell site did not put in my service tag and under m15x i switch OS to windows 7 x64 and the driver i mentioned was there. as to the 2nd part i believe so yes.

bios = Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

driver = Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

my advice is download both, then uninstall old ati drivers and install new drivers and reboot and go straight into safe mode and select "enable low resolution video (640*480)" to see if that gets you straight into the desktop. you will need to set res up but once done update the vbios.

 

This does not work either, booting in low res video still has it hang at a blank screen after the starting windows bit pops up just like booting normally Since I formatted there is no artifacting that pops up for a second or so but the rest is still the same.

 

definitely a driver issue, just been and read the info on the vbios and it says nothing about requiring the actual gpu driver to be installed before updating the vbios, nor have i personally heard that its required doing.

you could always uninstall the driver use the windows generic driver and update the vbios, once done install the driver for the 5850 card.

 

Updated the vbios, installed the dell drivers and still same result unfortunately. Will try the other 2 sets of drivers I have but doesn't look like good at this point.

 

Hmm sorry to hear that. let us know how you get on please.

 

Tried all 3 drivers, as expected the problem still persists. Any other ideas?

 

have you uninstalled the drivers correctly before reinstalling the drivers ?

by the way, when you installed the driver and rebooted and you had the black screen, did you attempt to reboot into safe mode and enable low res ?

link to driver fusion to remove older driver correctly = |MG| Driver Fusion (Driver Sweeper) 1.2.0 Download

 

I've been uninstalling from device manager in safe mode, then running the uninstaller on normal boot and following this guide to remove most Guide: How To Completely Uninstall AMD Graphics Drivers - Bright Side Of News* Wanted to avoid using any other software but I'll give them all another shot with the drive sweeper you linked

 

when you get the time, can you run memtest please to see if your system ram is ok.

 

memtest passed with 0 errors

 

have sent you a private message DarthXX

 

DarthXX could you retry installing ati driver BUT do a custom install, only install the AMD Catalyst install manager, AMD display driver & Catalyst control centre please and nothing else