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Aurora R4 Freezing at windows starting screen. PLEASE HELP
Hi everyone, I'm Dustin. I am having some problems with my Alienware Aurora R4, it has a dual geforce GTX 555 cards. Just so everyone has a better idea of what could be the problem, I'll start from the beginning. It started yesterday sat 1/13/16 at about 11p.m. I was playing video games, Company of Heroes 2, and my screen turned/froze to multiple color pixilation for a second then went black. I believe the computer was still running because I heard music still playing and my fx lighting was still changing colors. I couldn't pull up any screens like cntl, alt, delete, so I did a hard shut down. Turned the computer back on. Everything started like usual. Thinking everything was alright I tried to play a different game, Smite, and it did the same thing. Multiple color pixilation for a second then went black. So, I hard shut down and turn it back on. I start to think well is it my video cards. I open nvidia geforce to see if my driver needs an update, which it did, so I update it. Watch some x-files on hulu for a while and waiting for the update. Everything works out fine, so I think the problem is solved and start up Fallout 4 this time. Same thing happens. I'm tired at this point, so I hard shut down again and go to bed. The fallowing morning I wake up and open my computer and clean it, check my water pump, video cards, everything looks like it's in order. So, I close it and start it up and it freezes on the Starting Windows screen with their logo on it. The iconic music plays as if it were going to the desktop screen, but remains the Starting Windows screen. So I hard shut down and start it in safe mode, which it will start in safe mode but not regular mode, and run system recovery. It recovers and tries to start normal mode, same thing happens freezes on the Starting Windows screen. I'm fed up at this point so shut it off and now I'm here. I tried to call alienware tech support but refuse to help because my warranty is out. I bought my computer back in 2012. First time this has happened to me. Any suggestions or ideas of what it could be?
I've tried the bios mode changes suggested by Chris, that did not work as well.
Thanks for the help,
Dustin
Alienware - Rodrigo
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February 8th, 2016 14:00
Hello Dustin,
Try running an ePSA/Diagnostic test on the system to check the main hardware components, click here to view a Dell article that explains how to run this test. Let us know if you receive any errors.
DiamondFOX
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February 8th, 2016 18:00
I forgot to say, it rebooted afterwards and did the same thing. Froze on the Starting Windows screen.
DiamondFOX
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February 8th, 2016 18:00
Hi, Thank you for the reply Rodrigo. I ran the test you recommended. ePSA test resulted with no problems. It then recommended a Memory Test. So I accepted that and it passed all tests as well.
Alienware - Rodrigo
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February 9th, 2016 12:00
Hi,
Thank you for confirming this. There may be a problem with the Windows boot files, are you able to access the recovery options? It depends of which Windows operating system you're running. If you have Windows 7, try tapping the F8 button during boot, if it pulls up the recovery options, you may be able to do a System Restore.
DiamondFOX
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February 9th, 2016 17:00
I ran the System Recovery a couple of times with no result. It froze on the starting Windows screen again. I set it to recover to the 1/26/16. This is well before I had any problems, so I don't know why that wouldn't fix it. I have the Windows 7 Home premium SP1 64bit edition. I haven't done a factory reset/recovery yet. I don't know if that would fix it or not.
Alienware - Rodrigo
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February 10th, 2016 11:00
Hi,
It may be best to reinstall the operating system. If you show an option called Alien Respawn on the recovery options menu, try doing that first. This will restore the system to factory settings using the recovery partition on your hard drive. If you do not have the option available, try doing a clean installation of Windows 7. Click here to view a video that explains how to do this step by step.
DiamondFOX
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February 10th, 2016 13:00
Where will this alien respawn be exactly in the recovery options? Can I get to it in safe mode? I've never done this before.
DiamondFOX
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February 10th, 2016 16:00
I tried to do the alienrespawn but when I got to the part to select my image. I got a pop up window that said the it was corrupt/missing. So what do I do from here?
Alienware - Rodrigo
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February 11th, 2016 13:00
Hi,
The system factory image may have been deleted or corrupted, so you wont be able to use the Alien Respawn option. You could try reinstalling Windows using the recovery media. The video that I posted on my previous reply has the instructions for installing Windows.
DiamondFOX
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February 12th, 2016 19:00
Well I was able to install Windows again. But now all of my Alienware stuff is gone, it's just the regular blue windows with their logo and green vines. I also can't get on the web because Windows can't find a driver??? How am I suppose to get my drivers back and all my Alienware programs? I have the Aurora -R4 Resource DVD, but some people have said not to use it because it will mess up your motherboard or something like that. Did I do something wrong?
DiamondFOX
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February 15th, 2016 16:00
Um hello!!! WHAT DO I DO NOW!?!?!?!
Alienware - Rodrigo
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February 17th, 2016 10:00
Hi,
You can install the network drivers from the Resource DVD. For the other drivers, it would be best to download them from the Dell support site since they may be more up to date. Click here to view Dell Drivers and Downloads page, enter your Service Tag to view the drivers for your system. There is a driver installation order that you can follow on the page, to view it, click on the Installation order option on the View by: section. Let us know if you require further assistance.