Alienware gaming problem

[Ssv8te]

Hi Everyone,

i received my m18x Alienware laptop today finally however i have already found a problem with it, i have loaded a heap of my games onto it, some in steam and some arnt but whenever i boot up any game i get pixelated rolling lines across the screen, they dont cover the whole screen as you can still see the picture underneath but does make the game unplayable. I have tried updating the graphics drivers, removing and reinstalling the graphics drivers and played around with the graphics settings of both the computer and the games and nothing has worked.

Can anyone help as to what the problem would be?

Cheers
Matt

 

[americanbrian]

A picture speaks a thousand words. A video even more so.

It's hard to tell the nature of the problem from your description alone. If you could either post a photo or vid it would help.

Cheers!

 

[Ssv8te]

heres a quick video

http://s718.photobucket.com/albums/ww190/per51c/?action=view&current=IMG_0546.mp4

 

[americanbrian]

DAMN! that really sucks. I think you need to send that back.

At a guess its your GPU RAM getting massive errors, but thats not for sure. Just send it back right away, perhaps with a strongly worded letter about how disappointing that what is billed as a "quality" manufacturer has such poor QA testing to ship a product with such an obvious defect.

 

[WR2]

So far it's only games that exhibit that effect?
You definitely want to talk to Dell before you send it back.
Having bought an Alienware you get higher level of support than for a standard Dell laptop.

Have you already dropped a topic into the Alienware support forum?

 

[Ssv8te]

yeah its only games, i havnt tried a movie yet though.
im currently on the phone with dell support so will see what happens

Cheers
Matt

 

[WR2]

Let us know how things work out. And give us your opinion on Alienware support.

 

[Ssv8te]

well after spending 2 hours on the phone with alienware support the problem hasnt been fixed, first with the software guys and we did all the software updates didnt fix it and then did hardware tests with the hardware guy and a system reset to factory and that still didnt fix it, support wise i think its excellent service although a little hard to understand what there saying sometimes lol.

HOWEVER, after getting up this morning and having another look i think i have found the problem.
I turned the computer on and started up a game without a problem, turned it off and restarted game and said problem had returned, i then turned the game off, disabled crossfire and restarted game with no problem, enabled crossfire and problem returned, disabled and problem gone.

So its either a crossfire problem or just one of the cards isnt working properly. So just finished another phone call with dell support and told them what i found and they are sending a technician around tomorrow to relace either or both cards and fingers crossed fixing the problem.

A+ for the dell support, makes it easier having an alienware premium product

Cheers
Matt

 

[WR2]

Looking good for the troubleshooting work.
Hopefully a GPU swap will sort things out.

 

[americanbrian]

I am glad that you are receiving useful support from dell. I still am of the opinion that they should never have shipped that to you in the first place. 2 hours on the phone and having to stay in for a technician to come over isn't what you paid them for.

I just get upset when someone sells me something that is broken to begin with, then expect me to waste my time dealing with it. Especially if that product costs more than a couple of benjamins.

 

[WR2]

It certainly would have passed the bench test prior to being shipped from the assembly point.
You never know what the UPS gorillas do with packages during shipment.

 

[americanbrian]

Fair point there WR2. I have seen various components jiggle loose on laptops in the past (mostly wifi cards for some reason). I suppose as it's a X-fire setup, it would have a slot mounted GPU that could potentially do the same.

 

[Ssv8te]

Well i had the technician come round today and of course i could not duplicate the problem lol. Im pretty sure it was a heat issue in the second card as everything was working when i tried to show him, didnt play long enough to get the heat up though.

Anyway he swapped out the motherboard and both GPU's and all the heatsinks and so far no problems after an hour of playing in crossfire. Spend some more time tonight and see what happens, looks good so far

Cheers
Matt

 

[americanbrian]

Nice one man! Glad you got it sorted out quickly.