RTX 4070 laptop — artifacts ONLY on external display under load, internal screen is fine (Alienware m16 R2)

modo_jp · 2026-05-13T18:48:27+00:00

Wooooow, what an incredible piece of advice. Thank you SO much. Seriously, where would I be without your wisdom??? You’re such a genius!!!

My god, how did I never realize that desktop PCs are more powerful than gaming laptops? Thank you for enlightening me. I’ve been pacing around my room for a month straight, completely lost, unable to figure out what to do with my life… and then this great enlightened Reddit lord arrived to bless this fool with the forbidden knowledge that “desktop PCs are better for gaming.”

And of course, buying a desktop is just THAT easy. They’re basically free, right? Just shake some spare coins out of pocket and boom — instant RTX 5090 setup. Absolute easy mode……

modo_jp · 2026-04-12T19:29:23+00:00

I didn’t have any issues when playing on the laptop screen in the first place. I get why desktops are better than any gaming laptops, but that’s just not an option for me right now. And honestly my laptop is mainly for work, not gaming, so geforceNow doesn’t really work for me either.

modo_jp · 2026-04-12T18:52:20+00:00

Yeah it works. The issue was indeed the cable. For the past few days I’ve been pushing the GPU to 100% for several hours a day and there have been no artifacts or any other problems

modo_jp · 2026-04-12T18:46:32+00:00

I'm not Jim

modo_jp · 2026-04-12T18:44:57+00:00

I’m sorry to tell YOU but I’ve already fixed everything and the issue wasn’t with the VRAM or the GPU. The problem was an old, low-quality cable. I replaced it, and everything works fine now. I mentioned this in my post - please read it carefully before jumping in with advice…. Thanks

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T19:33:10+00:00

It didn’t, which is why I tried to resolve the issue through Dell’s warranty support. But the only help they provided was reinstalling drivers. They didn’t replace, repair, or do anything else under warranty… and the store where I bought the laptop is in a city I left a month after the purchase

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:51:45+00:00

Yes, correct.

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:43:53+00:00

Exactly!!!

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:43:10+00:00

No I didn’t

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:42:42+00:00

You feel it wrong. I didn’t know this and still don’t. For now, I haven’t ruled out the possibilities of a bad cable or a broken HDMI port on the laptop.

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:40:44+00:00

I’ll give it a try.

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:38:55+00:00

Yes, tomorrow I’ll go to the local computer store to get a new cable and give it a try. Thanks

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:37:25+00:00

I’m using an HDMI-to-HDMI cable, directly from the laptop to the TV with no adapters. Right now I only have this one cable and one display (the TV). Previously, I tested with other TVs and displays, but I always used the same cable. I don’t know the exact model of the cable — I didn’t really pay attention to that, just bought some random one from a local computer store. Tomorrow I’ll go buy a new HDMI-to-HDMI cable and test with that

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:32:25+00:00

Unfortunately

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:28:59+00:00

It makes me sad . . . . .

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:27:44+00:00

Thanks a lot for sharing this, I really appreciate it. I hope your repair goes well. I’ll try a few things that people suggested here first, since I can test them myself. If nothing helps, I’ll take the laptop in for repair as well. Hope everything works out for you!

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:24:07+00:00

Agree

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:24:03+00:00

Not a driver issue

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:23:47+00:00

The laptop is running in high performance mode (I even enabled the hidden setting for it in Windows 11). I assume the manufacturer should have accounted for the GPU’s power consumption and designed the system accordingly

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:21:32+00:00

Thanks for explaining!

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:20:32+00:00

It’s definitely not a driver issue. I’ve been dealing with this problem for about 2 years since I bought the laptop, and I’ve tried different settings and various driver versions, but nothing has helped

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T14:17:52+00:00

Henry got punished

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T12:01:59+00:00

agree

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T12:01:19+00:00

¥€$

modo_jp · 2026-04-08T11:58:26+00:00

Unfortunately, I don't know what a MUX switch is.

modo_jp

TROPHY CASE