hey guys

seems like my X51 is acting up (or maybe that's what I thought)

I woke up one day, fire up my X51 and noticed that the display doesn't detect any signal from my GPU. I tried to swap the connecting points between my display (a Dell S2240L) with my the one on my GPU, and it still refuse to detect. turned it off, pop up the side cover and I removed my GPU and tried the HDMI port onboard, hoping that in any case my GPU is dead at least I can use the onboard graphics for a temporary workaround.

unfortunately the problem still persists so I though maybe it's the cable. got myself a RM19 v1.4 HDMI cable from Viewnet yesterday, and tried it on once I got home from work. the moment I plug it in, I noticed that my display instantly showing a message saying "going to power save mode". shut down the machine, and tried to boot it up again and still the same thing happen. I even took out the GPU again and tried the onboard HDMI port and yet nothing changes.


so the summary was like;

1) with old cable
- plug into GPU, no signal detected
- took out GPU, plugged into onboard HDMI, still no signal detected

2) with new cable
- plug into GPU, display straight away gone to power save mode
- took out GPU, plugged into onboard HDMI, display straight away gone to power save mode

what puzzled me was with the new cable, the display still going to power save mode even my X51 is not even turned on, both on GPU & onboard HDMI ports

done a quick google and a few forums/message boards suggested that either my GPU has died, or something wrong with my mobo/display

my X51 specs:
- Dell S2240L 21.5" 1080p display (HDMI + VGA, no DVI)
- Core i5-4460
- Radeon R9 270
- 8GB DDR3 RAM

sorry for the wall of text

I don't have any spare monitor/TV with HDMI support laying around, so gonna get help from a friend to bring over his laptop

some progress update.

borrowed my sister's laptop that luckily have a HDMI port. the exact same symptoms happen like when I plugged it to both my X51's GPU port & onboard port. suspecting it's the monitor's fault. gonna bring to shop where I bought from and ask them to check

I think I came across some forums, saying that you can replace the mobo with an aftermarket one

the only issue would be finding the one with the perfect fit

and oh, the I/O ports too

have you tried downloading new drivers?

as for my X51, the only driver that I need to download once done with windows 10 upgrade is the graphics. I'm running Radeon R9 270 btw

oh my

not jumping to conclusions but I'm having similar issue (no display after Win10 upgrade) but my case is different;
- I have a X51, not Alienware laptops
- I'm running on Radeon R9 270, not GeForce
- My display is a Dell, not Samsung or LG
- it was running fine for a few days (not in a matter of hours) before the issue occurred

coincidence?

I've posted regarding the issue I'm having in the previous page of this thread and as far as my troubleshooting effort goes, I still couldn't figure out what's wrong. at first I thought my display gone kaput but recently I've plugged it to the HDMI port of a Astro decoder and it somehow works. now I'm left with the "my GPU is dead" option but due to current life schedule and very limited resource I couldn't do much to check

now I'm considering to test out the DVI port (in any case the HDMI port was faulty) or buy/borrow a cheap used PCIe graphics card to check out if my rig is still ok :'(

check/select display input: done countless times

when I tried it on the onboard HDMI, it didn't even display the boot screen. it just went remains blank, like there was no cable connected

but the OS itself booted ok (I guess) since I tried logging in even with no display and I can still hear sounds like the one when you plugged in USB drive, or error tone

moved the mouse, typed random things on the keyboard, connected my xbox360 controller.. heard the "ding" sound but nothing happened lol

it's ok man.. seems like gonna be PC-less for a while. in the meantime I'll look around for answers lah. thanks!

that's what I'm thinking right now, it's just that I'm on a limited resource for troubleshooting (and limited free time to test things out) but I'll figure something out

thank again for the reply

and yeah, I'd prefer my display to be busted rather than my GPU lol

finally a good news!

I happen to have a DVI to VGA adapter (almost forgot having one) and I just tried out my luck plugging it to my GPU to the display via a VGA cable and it works!

seems like everything is running fine, aside from it can only detect as far as 1600x1200 max resolution (need to use 1600x900 to keep 16:9 ratio) but at least now I know what has been causing the problem

I can happily send my Dell display back to the shop where I bought it for warranty claim now

with that (part of) mystery solved, now I'm wondering if the graphics driver might have been the cause of the problem need to be sure before sending off my LCD for repairs

there's only one available version of the Catalyst software in AMD website for Windows 10 though (only differs in 64/32-bit option) which was released in end of July and the beta ones are only for Win7 & Win8.1

will try to uninstall/reinstall the driver later this evening to find out. might as well check in the Radeon thread as well

actually I am currently running the same version as the one available on AMD website

just thinking maybe giving it a fresh install would reset all the settings

hahaha yeah

I've tried it out earlier, and it turns out to be the same

also "borrowed" HDMI to VGA adapter from my office (man my place sure got lots of display adapters lol), plugging the HDMI to the GPU and VGA to the monitor. not only it works, I can also fully utilize the 1080p resolution

so after all these troubleshooting hassle the conclusion would be:
- my Dell LCD have a faulty HDMI port
- my GPU is still alive and kickin'

now I can happily send my LCD off to the dealer

hai there.

fellow X51 owner here. mine is the R2 version, bought sometime in mid-2014

X51 CMOS battery looks like this:



it is sticking on the inside of the I/O ports (notice that yellow thingy in the pic below) and you should be able to reach it once you removed the CPU fan scoop:

if the same rule still applies, then you should unplug it, wait for like 10 secs and plug it in again

as for the availability, I'm not quite sure myself

been a while since the last time I posted here

I know the answer to this question is quite obvious, but is there any way I can claim warranty for the graphics card that came along with my X51 out-of-box?

the issues with my Radeon R9 270 have gone down south since I had problems with it after upgraded to Windows 10. later on it became worse after I updated to AMD's "latest" Crimson driver software (previously known as Catalyst) and now my GPU has died. last time I checked using the pre-boot built-in diagnostics tool it shows that it has something to do with my GPU's video memory. I'm relying solely on my onboard Intel graphics to continue using my X51 which has now become a word processor & internet browser lol

FYI my X51's warranty has ended on June 2015.

was aiming for the GTX970, but the price skyrocketed. even "used" nowadays being sold off at "brand new" price from like, half a year ago

and yeah, currently had my eyes on GTX960 as well. not much of big jump but still a better card than the R9 270

buuuuuuttt at least Imma trying to get something from my current dead card lol

hahaha

the R9 270 is really not bad but sadly our journey together doesn't last long

I'm an nVidiafag anyways

noticed that Alienware X-51 no longer in the line-up in their global/US website, replaced with Alpha

Malaysia site however still have the R3 in their catalogue, although no price/pre-config sets being listed

does it mean Alienware is killing off the X-51 line?

hi guys (especially X-51 owners)

do any of you happen to know how and where (if possible) to get one of those closed loop liquid cooler found in the R3 version of the X-51?

looking for options to upgrade my CPU cooler. current choice include swapping with an aftermarket low profile coolers (like the Noctua NH-L9x65 or NH-L9i) or just simply swapping the stock 80mm CPU fan with a better one

i do believe cost is one of the main concern here since the closed loop watercooler in the R3 X-51 is pretty much proprietary stuff, but I'm just wondering how hard can it be?


maybe we have fellow X-51 that already replaced their stock coolers? I'm looking for PnP solution, not planning to do any major modding