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AlienWare X51 performance issues - ATAPI errors
For the past ten days, my son's X51 desktop (early 2012 model) has been performing very slowly. Every item launched (Control Panel, Windows Explorer shell, browser, etc) takes minutes to load and return results.
I suspected malware or a virus but after repeated scans with Norton and MalwareBytes (in safe mode and otherwise), we've cleaned it up but the performance issues persist.
I can see in Event Viewer (easier via safe mode) that it has hundreds of Event ID 11 entries, with the source of ATAPI. The text of the error is: "The Driver detected a controller error on \Device\IDE\IDEPort1"
We've reseated the hard drive into its connector, but other than that we've done no further hardware troubleshooting.
It appears it could be a failing hard drive, cable, or system board, based on limited research.
Before we take this in to a PC repair shop, is there any at-home troubleshooting or repair we can do?
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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November 3rd, 2014 23:00
You can run (outside of Windows) PSA/ePSA Hardware Diags.
You can drop in a spare (known good) drive and clean-install Windows7-64 and drivers (chipset first). Skip Intel-RST completely.
mf9
27 Posts
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November 4th, 2014 08:00
By Googling that error there's a whole host of options it could be e.g
I'd try them in this order:
try another SATA socket
try another SATA cable
try another HDD
and if all else fails replace the mothetboard.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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November 9th, 2014 13:00
You can run Crystal DiskInfo to display HDD SMART data
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19530277
As I said, clean install
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19376654
If HDD is failing, Recovery Partition is often corrupt as well.
After clean install and full "build-up" Image Backup with reliable software.
Chester65
7 Posts
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November 9th, 2014 13:00
I've been able to run AlienAutopsy on the system, and it's showing that the drive is failing. So, it seems my obvious next step is to swap in a new drive.
However, I've been unsuccessful in running the steps to be able to 'respawn' the system - create a USB drive image of the system from the factory. I'm OK with re-installing everything after that, even though it will be time-consuming.
I tried to 'respawn' in Safe Mode but Alien Autopsy can't run in safe mode. I'm running out of options here. My next call may be to Dell to see what's next, but I wanted to check here first.
Suggestions?