Alienware M17x R4 Not Booting.. Suspect Bad Cache Drive.

Question

Having a problem booting my Alienware M17x R4. Running Windows 8. What happens is: Turn on computer, computer starts to boot. Gets to ALIENWARE screen with spinning dots. System stops booting. Sits there with dots spinning. I've let it sit for varying degrees of time (sometimes up to an hour) with no luck. Contacted Dell support yesterday. Was on there with a support tech for about an hour. Still couldn't get this to work. Requested that I do a system restore. Didn't have the disc available. Found it last night and restored. Still had the exact same issue. Called back to report findings. They told me that I had to do ANOTHER system restore with them on the phone to prove that I did it right. I've been working with/building computers since the early 90s so I do know how to reinstall an operating system. :o) I really don't have the time to spend /another/ hour or two on the phone just to show that it's still not going to work, so coming here with hopes that something can be done or that there's something that I can do to fix this. Another bit of background information: I've had this issue before with this laptop, but it's usually resolved itself within a boot or 3. The first time was within a week of when I got the computer, but I figured that it was just a small quirk of the computer. Since then it's happened once more. However, when I am using it (usually 1-3 times a day) I'll get messages in Windows that a hard drive was 'unplugged' and then one more-or-less immediately following stating that the drive was 'plugged in' again. I am pretty sure that the cache drive was the one that was was always showing as 'plugged' and 'unplugged'. Also, as an update, just now as a test, I pressed CTRI-I at boot time and disabled the cache drive acceleration. The computer booted up just fine. Suspecting that the cache drive had corrupt information on it. Does this sound reasonable? Should I look into having the drive or the HD controller checked? I've run the pre-boot analysis and it says that everything is fine, however the problem seems sporadic.

b4yp · Accepted Answer

Just to follow-up in case someone else sees this post. Finally convinced Dell to come and replace the cache/acceleration drive. I have had no issues since then. Ergo, hardware problem, not a software issue.

Milena M458 · Answer

Hello B4yp!

So just to clarify you did a clean installation of windows? Or just a system restore?

And have you try flashing the BIOS? Last month we lunch the version A12, that’s the one that you have?

b4yp · Answer

Hi Milena!

I performed a clean install of windows per requested by support. I do not have version A12. I have A11. Do you think this would fix the issue that I have with the cache drive disconnecting and reconnecting randomly? The more that I think about it, the more that I'm curious if the issue was caused by corruption on the cache drive by constant disconnecting and reconnecting. That's why shutting the cache drive down and booting worked.. also when I reactivated it, the cache area was probably recreated..

Anyhow, I'll try flashing A12 to see if that helps, though unless that has fixes for the HD controller (or the bad drive) I doubt it'll fix anything.

K

b4yp · Answer

OK, so I flashed the BIOS to A12 and that didn't make a difference. I turned off the cache drive (CTRI-I when booting) and it booted right up. Been using it for the past couple of days with the cache drive off and haven't had any issues.

I did try once turning it back on and it didn't boot once again. Tried wiping the cache drive and turning it on. Booted, worked fine for a little and then didn't work again. Thinking that the drive is what the problem is.

Milena M458 · Answer

What device are you using to reinstall windows, a cd or a flash drive?

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