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Alienware M18x R2 Support Help
Hello,
I have recently been experiencing problems with my Alienware laptop. Lately, when playing games, my laptop's screen will go black and will begin to repeat the sound it made in the last fraction of a second. After a nice chat with Alienware tech support, where the man did all he could to help me, the problem persists. After doing a system restore, doing a clean install of both Windows as well as my video drivers, I have come to the conclusion that the problem must be hardware related, specifically my video card. The bluescreenview shows that the crashes have all had the same error attached to them, due to DirectX. The code that goes along with it is 0x00000116. However, when testing the card using the tool provided under Alienware support, it showed no issues, except that the temperature was at 80 C, which I think may be a bit hotter than it is supposed to be. Does this sound like hardware failure to anyone else? Should I send in a request for the next business day support, or is there something else I should do to try and identify the problem further before calling in for support?
Thanks,
jgr41
DELL-Chris M
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February 14th, 2014 09:00
jgr41,
Our onsite technicians do not "troubleshoot", they simply replace the parts that we send them. So we will need to troubleshoot first.
What operating system?
What video card?
What video card driver version?
* Download GPUZ
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2340/techpowerup-gpu-z-v0-7-7/
* On the windows desktop, run GPUZ, click the Sensors tab
* What is the temperature?
jgr41
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February 14th, 2014 09:00
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Video Card: GeForce GTX 675M
Temp: 48 C, with the computer having been just started up.
DELL-Chris M
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February 14th, 2014 16:00
48° is fine on the windows desktop. What video card driver version? Our OEM driver or the retail driver? You should be running ours when troubleshooting. Do you have bios A11 loaded? What games are you testing? Is the system being overclocked? If yes, back it down and retest.
jgr41
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February 14th, 2014 18:00
So I'm guessing 80 C is okay when running a game is good as far as temperatures go?
The video card driver version is 3321.21 WHQL downloaded straight from the NVIDIA website. The one on the Alienware drivers page (307.17) was released in late 2012, which I had when the problems began. The tech support man that helped me previously suggested I update it from the NVIDIA page. Should I revert it back to this version?
As for the bios A11, I am unsure of what it means. My apologies.
I am testing games all across the graphical spectrum. Games such as Guild Wars 2, League of Legends, Binding of Isaac, Starcraft II, Cave Story, Battlefield 4, and Rogue Legacy to name the ones I'm sure my computer has crashed during play.
The system has never been overclocked.
Thanks again for your help.
Edit: It also crashed in a graphical benchmark program that the Alienware Tech Support recommended to see the temps.
DELL-Chris M
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February 15th, 2014 09:00
80° while gaming is fine. No, stay with the latest Nvidia driver.
* Disconnect all external peripherals from the M18x-R2 (mouse, speakers, drives, etc.)
* Restart the M18x-R2
* Press F2 when the alienhead appears to enter the bios
* What version is it?
* Press F10 and Yes to exit back to windows
jgr41
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February 15th, 2014 15:00
Aha, thank you. The version is A09, not A11.
DELL-Chris M
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February 16th, 2014 11:00
* Connect the AC adapter to the Laptop
* Disconnect all external devices connected to the Laptop (mouse, speakers, USB drives, etc.)
* Close any running applications
* Download/Save the Bios file to your windows desktop
* Once saved to the windows desktop, double-click the file
* Windows will automatically restart and allow the Bios update to load. Do not power off or restart manually during this process!
* After the Bios update is finished, the Laptop will automatically reboot to take effect
jgr41
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February 16th, 2014 14:00
I have now downloaded and updated the bios. I am testing out a few games and I've had Guild Wars 2 running for a solid 20 minutes now with no stuttering or crashes. I appreciate your help and hope this works out!
Edit: Did not work. A few short minutes after the post it crashed again. I dunno if this was even supposed to fix it or help troubleshoot, haha.
Anyway, on to the next step I suppose.