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Alienware 17 R1/R5 (Mid-2013) 880M to 980M upgrade not POSTing, 4 beeps, black scree


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Please excuse me for creating a new thread but I just got more confused after scouring threads after threads. So I did smth stupid. Going in without proper research I know :'( but please help.

So finally I decided to upgrade to 980m from my current 880m on the Alienware 17 R1 (aka R5 if you like) with 120Hz 3D screen after months of contemplating. After seeing successful attempts I jumped on board and popped the card in (bought from Hidevolution).

Before installing the card I used Driver sweeper to clean all drivers. BIOS is latest A14 unmodified and in UEFI mode, everything else on default. And now the machine won't POST. I counted 4 beeps and the screen is black. Lights and fans are on. Putting the 880m back in, same result. Now I'm too chicken to strip down the machine to get to the CMOS battery based on the Owner's manual steps. Last night though I got to the point of removing the palm rest to get the last 2 RAM sticks out.

Please help if you can. Specs are in sigs. Thanks frown.png.pagespeed.ce.k7JIVwiiFa.png

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I ran into a similar unfortunate situation upgrading from a 780m to an Aftermarket Eurocom 980m, I forgot to turn optimus on and was stuck with the 7 beeps boot loop ( Alienware Computer Does Not Turn On or Go Into Windows | Dell US ) messing with the CMOS battery did nothing for me, what worked for me then was swapping back to the stock GPU letting the system boot and reset the BIOS to its detaults then enabling optimus from Windows. Re-installed the 980m this time with optimus enabled and everything work like a charm this time. I read somewhere that you need to find a way to create an error on the POST to get it to reset back to its original settings I would suggest to keep trying replacing the stock GPU back and forth.

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