Aurora R4 Freezing Up

Okay... SO. After the technician came out twice, the first time with a replacement HDD and not a SSD, things seem to be stable for the 24 hour +/- uptime so far.

They replace my 512GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive with a no name (I look into system info and let you all know the manufacture name shortly), so I can't say it has the same specs outside the 512GB SATA... AND.. it was blank - no system image at all. So, I was stuck installing Win 7 and all the drivers, etc... I still have not reinstalled all my software as I want to test a bit more before I commit to this as a fix.

Again, I will let you all know what the manufacture is for the SSD shortly ... or does anyone know what the specs would be - it had no branding (the last one said "Dell" on it and all the specs) this one was just blank aluminum casing with some specs on a label on the bottom with just some serial numbers, specs, etc... No name of manufacture... I would like to know so I can see if it has the same specs - 6Gb/s ... I wonder because the first time they came over they had a 2Tb HDD they were sent from Dell to replace the SSD ... er No.

Any ideas on manufacture would be great  

Okay.. Everything seemed to be good after the clean install and all that ... But NOW when I go into Command Center and click on Active Venting controls I get this error ... WHEN WILL THIS END!!! HELP? I don't want to change anything as my system has stopped freezing up... So I may live with this crap... 

My R4 does the same thing at least once per day. For no reason it just freezes with no BSOD. The only action I can do is hold the power button down to restart the system. This happens when doing simple things like browsing the web. I tried updating the flash player but that did not help. I will watch this thread also.

Skipper2002-I'll bet you have an Nvidia graphics card, correct?

Yes I do, however I also had BIOS A03 and just upgraded to A05 which is rummored to fix this issue? Do you have BIOS A05?

It has been 2 days since I updated my BIOS to A05 from A03 and I have not had a freeze yet. I do have the NVIDIA GTX555.

Yes-But I was having the same issue as you with my GTX555 and has tech support send me and AMD card-That fixed the problem. I only updated to A05 after running 2 weeks with the AMD card with no freeze ups. I still think all the BSOD and freeze ups are from some compatability issue with the Nvidia cards and the bios update is just a band-aid.

I've been having the exact same thing, freezes only it's in certain games. The games are as follows: Dota 2, Sid Meiers Civilization 5, Red Orchestra 2 Heroes of Stalingrad, Borderlands 2. All of which my computer can run on highest graphics no problem. Specs are: Nvidia GTX 660 Ti, 1450Watt Corsair Gold Edition PSU, 16GB of Corsair Dominator RAM, Two 1 TB HDDs. I'm really confused as to why it does this in certain games but not others. It won't crash on the desktop or anything like that. It only hard crashes in game so I have to power it down and back up. If anyone knows anything about this issue I would be greatly appreciative. I'd also like to add that I have updated to the A05 BIOS and have still had this issue which just makes it even more frusterating.

well, let me put my $0.02 in.  this is my third alienware, an aurora a4 this time.  my last two were great.  this one i think fell off the plane on the way to me.  i have dual amd radeon 7800 video cards.  the first time i turned on my computer, i got the bsod (way to start out, right)?  i updated the video drivers, and could at least get into windows.  i have an external hard drive connected to a usb port - when i reboot the computer, about 75% of the time the computer fails to load windows - IT CAN'T FIND THE HARD DRIVE IN THE MACHINE.  i have to hit f12 and click the hard drive option to actually get it to load - otherwise, it shows the windows start screen for 2 seconds then reboots.

randomly, the computer will do 1 of 2 things: 1) stutter (ok for 5 seconds, then nothing, then ok for 5 seconds, then nothing, and so on), or 2 just freeze and hear a "BUZZ" through the speakers.  hold power to turn off and turn back on.  it can happen while playing games (normally WOW), or just browsing the internet.  i have updated every driver known to man, i have run scandisk, i have run the alienware dx, and all came up fine.  i updated to the a5 bios, no change.  the system is not overheating.  the entire computer is 3 months old, and has done this since the beginning.  i replaced the ram, same problem.  i'm running out of things to replace, and just maybe it is the hard drive failing as it would make sense that it would crash when the system was trying to read something off the hard drive and it acts like the drive is not there.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, time to put in my two cents also.  First, you're not alone!  

My R4 is unable to play games without crashing.  In the first couple of weeks I had to go inside the computer because of repeated 116 BSOD's, at the instruction of a useless dell support guy via email, switch the card to the bottom slot and switch cables.  No more BSOD's, but still have a LOT of issues.

Recently, I made a complaint via a survey and was told to once again contact said useless techincal support agent, which I did.  Replacement card sent for "testing" which I was then required to test over night and return the "faulty" graphics card - dispite the fact that there was no evidence of it actually being faulty and also dispite the fact that NO OTHER TROUBLE SHOOTING methods were used. Also, I needed a lot longer than one night to "test" or troubleshoot!  Suffice to say, have been fobbed off by tech support - have a faulty R4, BIOS A05 has stopped the blue screens but the 116 error persists with card in top slot, games still crash and they refuse to compensate me or send a support agent to my home to assist, even though I am entitled to hardware and software support in my home on a next business day basis!

My advise to you, if you are in the UK, is to contact trading standards - provide them with a full rundown of all the issues you have had so far, tell them how many other people have had or are having the same issue and allow them to intervene on your behalf.  I have an appointment with them in a weeks time.

Basically - the alienware name no longer holds any credibility and the aurora R4 systems are defective.  Tech support is useless and customer service is near impossible to contact. Write a review on the main alienware page to warn others!

well i feel better - the main problem for me is the system doesn't go to a bsod anymore, to at least get something from windows about what went wrong - it just completely freezes.  as i write this, from my last post it froze once, and has been up for a few hours w/o problems now.  normally starts to lag as it comes out of sleep mode.

maybe it is the hard drive failing as it would make sense that it would crash when the system was trying to read something off the hard drive and it acts like the drive is not there.

Possibly. Easy enough to find out ... Just put a good drive in there, clean install Windows, and install drivers in proper order. Stress test and use.

To fix your problem, you should call Dell and use your warranty.

To fix it yourself:

Return machine to factory original hardware (RAM etc.)
Pull anything extra out of the machine (down to one video card, etc.).
Connect to good UPS battery (like APC)
Only connect USB mouse and KB in back. Only one monitor via DVI.
Clean install Windows
Install drivers in proper order (chipset first)
AMD.com driver ... try something like 12.6 WHQL . If it works leave it.

Slowly (after days of being stable) change one thing at a time (add other cards, etc.) Keep records.
If it goes un-stable again ... it's likely the last thing you added. Remove to verify.

It has been a month and 3 days since I updated my BIOS to A05 from A03 and I have not had a freeze yet. I do have the NVIDIA GTX555. It used to freeze up multiple times per day and I had no choice but to hold the power button down for 10 seconds to reset. After the BIOS update everything is fine.

Yeah, well... Its been a month or two since tech-care put in a new SSD (HD) and a fresh install of Windows 7 (that they failed to tell me I would have to register with the old key... a whole other story)... And just the other day it froze up again and failed to see the SSD until the third time I hard booted.

From what I see from my post here is that this is something baked into the R4 and not something wrong with our configurations or graphic cards... It must be the BIOS and/or the motherboard ... but the parts alone are top notch, which means the controller is what seems to be failing... And giving us some song and dance while they put out A06... A07 ... etc, we are stuck with systems that we can't rely on. Heck, I haven't really installed all my software back on the system because I'm sure at some point they are going to have no other fix but to suggest I "reinstall Windows 7 fresh...".

I only wish Dell to acknowledge there is an issue (even if they don't tell us) and offer a real fix - or replace the effected systems with comparable one.