SuperMG3 Posted Tuesday at 01:27 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:27 PM (edited) Hello. My M18X R2 laptop was working fine. I got back my MXM card from X-Vsion. It booted and was detected on the bios as NVIDIA GFX but I forgot to connect the storage cable in order to boot to windows and test. After inserting the cable. The pc did 5 beeps (CMOS?), I restarted it and it did 7 beeps. How is that even possible? I removed the MXM GPU, still the same thing. I reset the CMOS but I still have the same issue. I removed the RAM, still 7 beeps or... It powers then shutdowns 2 seconds later... I removed the CPU, same 7 beeps. I replaced the CPU, same 7 beeps. I flashed by old bios backup to the Winbond bios chip, still the same issue. I never got the 5 beeps ever again. I tried holding the D button to get to the screen diagnostic test but it never happened. I removed the cmos battery and power it on again, it just powers on and shutdowns 2 seconds later, I heard no "5 beeps" By the way all of the LEDs are working when I start the computer... Rarely tho, the LEDs are off when doing the 7 beeps... So you're telling me a SATA cable destroyed my laptop? Edited Tuesday at 04:04 PM by SuperMG3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Tuesday at 01:50 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 01:50 PM (edited) The laptop keeps shutting down 2 seconds after I power it. The LEDs light up. I "tested" the NVIDIA RTX 3080 MXM on my Clevo X7200. It was detected on the BIOS, I rebooted again, it was still detected and the laptop started to do the 2 beeps noise on the bios screen because I had 0 cooling on the GPU itself, it was a test to see if the GPU was in cause but no. I put back the Nvidia P5200 GPU and the X7200 still works... I maybe think the sata cable rekt the alienware's motherboard? Edited Tuesday at 02:18 PM by SuperMG3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rengsey R. H. Jr. Posted Tuesday at 05:14 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:14 PM That’s some weird stuff there. I have never heard that it would mess up the system. Most likely the mobo is fried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Tuesday at 05:46 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 05:46 PM 32 minutes ago, Rengsey R. H. Jr. said: That’s some weird stuff there. I have never heard that it would mess up the system. Most likely the mobo is fried. Hello you sure? I tried everything I did. No display, just 7 beeps or just shutdowns 2 seconds later after powering it up... There's no way a simple SATA cable that can power 3 HDD/SSD fried the northbridge or PCH... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Tuesday at 06:30 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 06:30 PM (edited) Hello, some updates. My SSD and HDD are working fine after the incident. I still have no idea how these got spared but the motherboard didn't. I also had a smart plug plugged in. Now the smart plug can't close its circuit. I click on the power button, won't shutdown... So did the PSU destroy my computer? The smart plug works but you can't shutdown it anymore, I don't hear the CLICK noise when it switches off/on. But the PSU was working fine. I shutdown the laptop, I remove the PSU cable then I plugged the sata cable, I plug back the power... and everything went bad. I tested the PSU on a Dell M6700 and it works, maybe from now... Laptop didn't commit suicide when I unplugged the PSU. Edited Tuesday at 06:49 PM by SuperMG3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rengsey R. H. Jr. Posted Tuesday at 07:10 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 07:10 PM The only option left is to “ blind flash “ the motherboard and hopefully it wakes up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Tuesday at 07:56 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 07:56 PM 46 minutes ago, Rengsey R. H. Jr. said: The only option left is to “ blind flash “ the motherboard and hopefully it wakes up. I already did that because I flashed my old working BIOS with CH341A and it didn't work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naberius Posted Wednesday at 02:40 AM Share Posted Wednesday at 02:40 AM It definitely _sounds_ like motherboard. I'm dealing with something similar on my m17x r4 where it powers up to 7 beeps. That said, if I press the power button again (prior to or during the 7 beeps) it dismisses whatever exception was preventing post and just... posts as normal... worth testing for the sake of it but they're very different laptops... AW M18 R1 | i9-13900HX | RTX4090 | 64GB DDR5 AW M17XR4 | i7-3940XM | GTX1070 | 32GB DDR3 AW M15X | i7-940XM | GTX970m | 16GB DDR3 Formerly Schurke of NBR and TechInferno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sliderfra Posted Wednesday at 07:56 AM Share Posted Wednesday at 07:56 AM Dreaded 7 beeps are mostly pch / chipset failure. Usually BIOS corruption is 1 beep and can be resolved by blind flash (or ch341). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Wednesday at 09:14 AM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 09:14 AM 6 hours ago, Naberius said: It definitely _sounds_ like motherboard. I'm dealing with something similar on my m17x r4 where it powers up to 7 beeps. That said, if I press the power button again (prior to or during the 7 beeps) it dismisses whatever exception was preventing post and just... posts as normal... worth testing for the sake of it but they're very different laptops... I don't have the 7 beeps now it's random. I now get the "shutdowns after 2-3 seconds of being powered on" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rengsey R. H. Jr. Posted Wednesday at 02:34 PM Share Posted Wednesday at 02:34 PM 5 hours ago, SuperMG3 said: I don't have the 7 beeps now it's random. I now get the "shutdowns after 2-3 seconds of being powered on" Have you tried to blind flash with original bios via USB method? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Wednesday at 02:40 PM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 02:40 PM (edited) 9 hours ago, Rengsey R. H. Jr. said: Have you tried to blind flash with original bios via USB method? Fans kicks in for 5 seconds then system powers off. When I put usb in another port (instead of eSATA) it doesn't shutdown, fans kick in but no beeps or restarts. It's not a bios problem because the laptop remembers the RGB theme I applied too (the flashed bios also had the green theme) Edited Wednesday at 11:46 PM by SuperMG3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted Wednesday at 05:44 PM Author Share Posted Wednesday at 05:44 PM (edited) I killed two Alienwares. One was a M17X R4 because of swapping MXM cards and I used a defective FirePro card that made the video controller die (no display on iGFX and MXM). So it's understandable. But for the M18X R2? A SATA cable? Really? The fact that my Wi-Fi card and the SSD and HDD are still working, it's insane. (Because they were all next to the sata connector). Yesterday before the PC dies, I was testing some dead AMD MXM cards. 3 of them, 2 are dead and 1 artifacts but the pc didn't die when testing them. Then the next day I try the RTX 3080 MXM I got from repair, card is detected. Then I plugged the sata cable and here we gooo... (By the way the PSU was off and no battery connected into the laptop) By the way all of theses cards I mentioned (expect the firepro) were tested into a Clevo X7200. The Clevo didn't die. So Alienware is low quality? Edited Wednesday at 05:45 PM by SuperMG3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxware79 Posted yesterday at 04:55 AM Share Posted yesterday at 04:55 AM The system will hold residual power in the capacitors after you unplug the power adapter so you really need to do a power drain before touching anything on the motherboard. It's possible you gave the system a small static shock. Also, I've had the dreaded 7 beep error which turned out to be a bad CMOS battery. I've had countless 5 beep errors from the CMOS battery but only once have I got a 7 beep from one. It was on the Alienware 18. I was going to do some repairs on it but it ended up being shelved for quite some time. When I finally got to it, I got the 7 beep error and it made no sense. I remove the RAM and got the RAM beep error and then I removed the CMOS battery and got the 5 beep error. To get past the 5 beep error you just need to do a hard shutdown and then power it on again straight away so I did this without the CMOS battery installed and it powered on perfectly. When I put the battery back in, I got the 7 beeps again. I replaced the CMOS battery and the system worked great. In 12-13 years messing with these systems, this is the first time I've ever come across it. Have you tried a brand new wired CMOS battery? There's a slim chance this could work. My guess is you gave the board a shock though. Alienware Aurora R15 - i9-13900KF - RTX 4090 - 32GB DDR5 Alienware M18x R2 - i7-3920XM - GTX 970M - 16GB 1866Mhz DDR3L - Samsung 970 Evo with MXM to NVMe Adapter - Custom Delft Blue Alienware X51 - i7-3770 - NO GPU - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Alienware M17x R3 - i7-2760QM - GTX 580M - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Alienware Area 51 ALX - i7-975 Extreme - GTX 980 - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Alienware Aurora R2 - i7-3770K - GTX 670FTW - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Alienware Aurora R4 ALX - i7-3930K - GTX 1060 - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Alienware Aurora R4 ALX - i7-3930K - GTX 670FTW - 16GB 1600Mhz DDR3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperMG3 Posted yesterday at 08:45 AM Author Share Posted yesterday at 08:45 AM 3 hours ago, Maxware79 said: The system will hold residual power in the capacitors after you unplug the power adapter so you really need to do a power drain before touching anything on the motherboard. It's possible you gave the system a small static shock. Also, I've had the dreaded 7 beep error which turned out to be a bad CMOS battery. I've had countless 5 beep errors from the CMOS battery but only once have I got a 7 beep from one. It was on the Alienware 18. I was going to do some repairs on it but it ended up being shelved for quite some time. When I finally got to it, I got the 7 beep error and it made no sense. I remove the RAM and got the RAM beep error and then I removed the CMOS battery and got the 5 beep error. To get past the 5 beep error you just need to do a hard shutdown and then power it on again straight away so I did this without the CMOS battery installed and it powered on perfectly. When I put the battery back in, I got the 7 beeps again. I replaced the CMOS battery and the system worked great. In 12-13 years messing with these systems, this is the first time I've ever come across it. Have you tried a brand new wired CMOS battery? There's a slim chance this could work. My guess is you gave the board a shock though. I removed the CMOS battery to get the 5 beeps but it didn't do the beeps. Same for the ram, I never got the 2 beeps. I bought a new motherboard for 188€. I'll resell the laptop. Do you guys know if Optimus works with only one GPU in slot 2? Because I don't have the first slot cooler. I didn't see any sparks when connecting the sata ribon cable. I actually had a rough time to install it tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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