Uncommon display or adapter (intel HD 4000) problem

[ldaniel-jmz]

My situation is really strange. I installed Windows 8.1 and Mavericks in one hard disk drive with three partitions, one for each operating system and one just for storage purpose. Since my wireless network card (BCM943142HM) is not usable in OS X, I bought a USB Wifi Adapter (TP-LINK TL-WN725N) so that I could access internet. But when I use a lot of internet bandwidth (downloading torrents) the computer freezes completely. So I decided to work heavy internet use in Windows and just specific tasks on OS X. I’ve been using my computer in this way for almost 8 months without any additional issues.

But recently I found somewhere that in order to stop the random freezes caused by the high internet’s bandwidth use, I had to disable Spotlight. So I did it, but the freezes continued. However I noticed that I could use the computer for a longer period of time before it froze again.

So here is the problem. Yesterday, after some of this freezes I restarted the computer and now it beeps 8 times while booting indicating a display problem according to Dell, and the display shows up like this while booting and in Windows:

 

 

 

But inside OS X the screen turns off. When I perform the display test according to Dell (holding down the D key and then pressing the Power button to turn on the computer) it shows solid colours indicating that the display panel is working correctly. Right now I’m using an external monitor connected to the HDMI port which is working correctly in both operating systems.

Inside OS X it’s like there is no display panel connected to the graphics adapter, and in Windows it detects the display panel as a generic monitor.

I’m really concerned about this. I know this is not a common problem, so I would appreciate any help!

[ldaniel-jmz]

Someone told me that for some reason "dual link" is now enabled and that I would need to reflash the bios in order to correct the problem. I don´t know what dual link is but I´m going to investigate.

[artur-pt]

hello

http://Olarila.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3111

dual link is use for the resolution

if u have 1366x768 usually don't need it

if u have big then 1366x768 is to use the dual link feature

good hack

[ldaniel-jmz]

I upgraded (flashed) the bios using the installer provided by the Dell support website. And PROBLEM SOLVED! Now the display is working correctly throughout the boot process, bios and inside Windows. However inside OS X the screen keeps turned off but I think that´s another problem and doesn't have anything to do with the main concern.

Anyway now I'm worried because if in the future the problem (caused by a freeze) appears again I won't be able to solve it because in order to flash the bios it needs an update; but now is updated. Is there a way to reflash the bios using the same bios version (not upgrading)?

[ldaniel-jmz]

I found a way to reflash the bios without taking into account the version. But know the problem appeared again. And I have reflashed the bios and even downgraded to a previous version but no help. This problem is really strange. Does someone have any idea?