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June 22nd, 2015 13:00
Alienware X51 Black screen randomly
Hello,
A couple of weeks ago I started having trouble with my X51. Sometimes the video driver crashes and is restored, more often the screen just goes black and I'm forced to push the power button for a manual restart. It happens several times per day. It's hard to use the pc like that. I tried updating the video card drivers and the BIOS, I checked all possible settings and everything seems fine. Any suggestions? Thanks.
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Milena M458
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June 23rd, 2015 11:00
What are the video card temperatures when the system is idle and under stress?
db82
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June 24th, 2015 01:00
Max video card temperature in idle is 45 °C (113 °F).
Max video card temperature during SupportAssist stress test is 95 °C (203 °F).
I should mention that often my screen goes black just right after login, when no other apps are running, the first time I turn on the PC every day. But it did *not* crashed during stress test.
Thanks a lot for helping out.
Milena M458
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2.7K Posts
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June 26th, 2015 16:00
The video card is overheating, you can try to open the side panel and make sure the fan is clean and that there are not wires touching it.
If the issue persists if will be better to replace the video card.
db82
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June 27th, 2015 00:00
I opened up the case and there was no significant amount of dust on the video card.
So why all of a sudden it should start overheating?
When I bought an Alienware X51 from DELL I didn't expect that I had to replace the video card after 1 year and 8 months. I could imagine maybe after 4 years or so things could get somehow unstable but... after less than 2 years? And without any damage on the system? I don't understand that. The machine is not broken or damaged anyway. You realise how disappointing this is for a DELL customer, which I am.
I don't think that a Desktop PC from DELL, designed (and priced) for high performance, can provide this level of service.
Please, Milena, if possible suggest me alternative ways to proceed. I don't want to replace the video card, as this would mean for my company to admit the failure of X51 and stop buying DELL products from now onwards. I would really like to avoid this. Thanks a lot for your help.
danyun
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June 28th, 2015 15:00
i've had the same issue for a full year now... still haven't found a solution... for now i've had the side panel open and have an external fan blowing into it. but same thing, it seems to be random... it's not necessarily when it's under stress. i do believe it's related to the graphics card overheating though.
db82
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June 30th, 2015 11:00
I'm trying to limit my issue in the following ways (purely tentative and most likely useless):
1- reduce CPU power to 90% instead of 100%
2- Disable integrated graphic card, and only leave Nvidia card enabled, from control panel
3- Lower all settings in any video I watch or game I play.
This seems to alleviate the issue to some extent... but I can't guarantee it's actually helping.