Alienware Systems: General Video Troubleshooting

Table of Contents:

1. Systems
2. Screen, Icon, or Font size too small or too big
3. Blank Screen or No Video
4. Fuzzy, Blurry, or Color Problems
5. Brightness, Contrast, or Geometrical problems
6. Horizontal or Vertical Lines
7. ​Bright or Dead Pixels
8. Dual Monitor Setup

Systems

Alienware Desktops:

1. Remove any external devices attached to the system.
2. Ensure the monitor is plugged in the correct video card port and primary video card
   • For Area-51, Aurora (ALX, R1, R2, R3), the Primary Video Card is located at the Top GPU Ports on the back of the Chassis and Aurora R4 the Primary Video Card is located at the Bottom GPU ports on back of the Chassis
   • For the X51 the Primary Graphics is the Discrete GPU.
3. Swap the video card port to ensure there is not faulty port. Note: If you are using any kind of adapter, please try another cable or adapter.
4. Test if the keyboard "NumLock" or "Caps Lock" keys changed the LED status from ON to OFF when you pressed the key while the computer is turned on.
5. Test another monitor in All Available GPU ports.
6. Reseat the video card.
   • Aliewanre Aurora Series (ALX, R1 ,R2 ,R3 ,R4) Tear Down Video / Service Manual for Aurora ALX/R1, R2, R3, R4
   • Area-51 Tear Down Video
   • Alienware X51 Video card removal Video
7. If dual video cards are presented, try one video card at the time on each PCIE port.
8. Verify the Video Card Power Connector to be the correct ones.

Alienware Laptops:

• If the LCD OR MONITOR is not displaying video or the video is distorted, run the BIST utility.
• If the LCD OR MONITOR is not displaying any video, connect an external monitor. This will help to eliminate a possible software or video card problem.
• If the LCD OR MONITOR has extremely dim video, adjust the brightness or connect the Ac/adapter to eliminate power management conservation in the Bios.
• If the LCD has lines, pixels, color problems on the screen, check the system during POST as well as Windows to determine if the lines are present in all modes of operation. Run BIST too.
• Check if you can hear the Windows loading sound after a couple of minutes of turning on the computer.
• If no video is still not present, please check if your laptop is making beeps or the indicator lights have a LED behavior indicating a No Post situation instead of a No Video

• Common Troubleshooting Guide for Dell Monitors
• Common Troubleshooting Guide for Dell Laptop LCD Panel

General Video Issues

For any of the following issues we recommend visiting our Monitor and Video support page, where you will find Troubleshooting, How to and Video content to help with these video based problems.

Screen, Icon, or Font size too small or too big
Blank Screen or No Video
Fuzzy, Blurry, or Color Problems
Brightness, Contrast, or Geometrical problems
Horizontal or Vertical Lines
Bright or Dead Pixels

 

Dual Monitor Setup

Visit our knowledge base article How Do I Connect Multiple Monitors to a PC? for support setting this up and also for general troubleshooting we have this article Troubleshooting Guide for Multiple Monitor Problems on Dell PCs