Alienware Aurora R5 Randomly Shuts Down and Restarts

Question

Hello everybody! I recently purchased an Alienware Aurora R5 from dell about a month ago. I just received the PC in the mail about 4 days ago so it is completely brand new. The first day I was using it, the computer randomly shutdown and restarted itself and I didn't think much of it at first just that it was possibly an update finishing or something like that.

Fast-forward a few days to now, I tried to install my Star Wars: The Old Republic game and when I went into the game and changed the settings to my PC's correct resolution and overall settings, the PC will randomly shut off and restart once again. I tried a few times and the same result occurs every time. My PC is more than able to handle that game and yet it does it no matter the settings.

Then I tried to run the Diagnostics Tool on this site and when I did, it got about 2-3 minutes in and then once again, the PC randomly shutdown and restarted itself.

I am at a complete loss right now. I have absolutely no idea what is wrong with this PC and it has me worried since I just shelled out a decent amount of money to get it and it's not even a week old yet. The only things that have been downloaded to the computer is my Anti-virus software and a few driver updates. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I am at a complete loss right now on what may be causing this issue. I'm starting to feel something is wrong on the inside and was defective before it even got to me, but I really hope not. Thanks for any replies!

Here are some of my PC specs:

Intel(R) Core (TM) i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GHz

8.00 GB of installed memory (RAM)

Nvidia Geforce 960 with 2GB GDDR5

850W PSU Air Cooled Chassis

Edit: I tried playing the game again, and when I changed the resolution of the game, it switched fine. But as soon as I changed the setting of one little detail setting like draw distance or something like that, the PC instantly shut off and restarted. Still have no idea what's causing it.

Eimy_B · Answer

Hi,

Try running an ePSA/Diagnostic test on the system, click here to view a Dell article that explains how to run this test. Let me know if you receive any errors.

Update the video driver to the latest here.

Also, please run a video card stress test. Follow the steps below to do this.

Open Support Assist
Click on the Checkup option
Click Run Custom Scan
Click on the Nvidia/AMD card
Select the Stress Test option

If you do not have Support Assist installed, click here for the download link. Let me know how high the GPU temperature goes in the stress test.

Frank_18 · Answer

Thank you for the reply, I was running the stress test and as soon as it started to check the video card, the computer shut down on me. I tried checking the CPU and other items individually and they all passed. Did the video card by itself once again and instant crash.

I contacted Dell Support via phone and after they remote accessed my PC and assessed everythign themselves, they decided that the video card hardware must be faulty. They set me up with an on-site technician who will arrive in a few days to replace both the video card and the fan.

It's a shame to have to got through this with the computer being only a few days old, but my fingers are crossed that this will fix it!

Tesla1856 · Answer

Does boot-up ePSA Diagnostics reveal any problems?

Are you talking about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I or II ?

- Try disconnecting all joysticks.

See if it will make it through a full-run of something like Heaven Benchmark or a FutureMark free.

john-kimball44 · Answer

hello my friend, it could be faulty gpu/components because this happened to us too when we bought the alienware. we returned it and got a new one and it had no problems at all. if this still happens return it and order a new replacement.

Eimy_B · Answer

Ok, if you need something else please send me a PM.

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Alienware Aurora R5 Randomly Shuts Down and Restarts

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