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    M15x no-boot troubleshooting what's next?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by sopolev, Oct 6, 2012.

  1. sopolev

    sopolev Newbie

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    My M15x quit about 5min after a boot off a full battery. Dead-black, no response to anything. Just before it happened, I had noticed the blue ring on the ac adapter was dark, and I figured it was just unplugged. After e incident, it appears that it was just detecting a short, because the only symptom was reconnecting the ac turns off the adapter until I unplug it.

    The Machine had zero response to power button, with or without ac. Battery is still 5-lights.

    So step one, power drain. No change..
    Again, to be sure. No change.

    Pulled coin battery. No change.

    Research says maybe bad gpu, so I removed it and tried to boot. A change! Now alien head lights up and ac adapter stays blue. After multipe drains, with or without ac, Nothing else. It does detect plugging in the ac vs battery, as I have the head set to change color on ac vs battery.

    1. **should** the box boot without the gpu? If so, I have another clue and maybe a bad mobo.

    2. If a typical M15x wouldn't boot without a gpu (nv 240m), I could use an upgrade anyway. Anything else I could try before buying a new gpu?

    Thanks in advance!

    M15x i7 740qm, gtx240m, 8gb a09 bios.
     
    sopolev, Oct 6, 2012
    #1
  2. Mexic00ls

    Mexic00ls Notebook Deity

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    i had the same problem a couple of months back, went thru the same steps you have with pretty much the same results. but my next step fixed it which was to re-seat the cpu, hope this helps you
     
    Mexic00ls, Oct 6, 2012
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  3. sopolev

    sopolev Newbie

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    Thanks for the idea. While getting the GPU out, I took the CPU cooler/fan out for cleaning, reseated the CPU and re-applied thermal paste as PM. It sounds like maybe reseating EVERYTHING might be a good idea before I go buying parts.

    Anybody have the answer about if the box should boot w/o a GPU installed?
     
    sopolev, Oct 8, 2012
    #3
  4. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    You won't see image because the m15x does not have and IGPU. No way to make it work without it. You need it to see what's happening. My guess is the GPU or the motherboard is causing a short. Even if you are out of warranty we can still offer you options. Please send us an e-mail to [email protected] and we'll take care of you, please remember to add your tag and phone number in it.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Oct 10, 2012
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  5. sopolev

    sopolev Newbie

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    Appreciate the info. I'll give it a try.

     
    sopolev, Oct 10, 2012
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  6. sopolev

    sopolev Newbie

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    Alienware-L_Porras: I did as you suggested and no reply. Any further suggestions?
     
    sopolev, Oct 12, 2012
    #6