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I've been experiencing m15x random shut down while playing games
I bought m15x around last year and I generally had good experience with it, and problems it threw at me weren't impossible ones.
However, I started having problems with m15x shutting off for no reason while playing skyrim. It doesn't happen when I'm doing other things (i.e web surfing, coding [thank god], writing etc). It didn't happen when I played various other games like LoL or Civ 5 or Deus ex. Just skyrim have this affect on my pc and it's driving me nuts because I've losing bits and pieces of my progress everywhere. (I've become obsessive saver after the first shut down took 3 hours from me)
so, some symptoms
1. When it shuts down it makes that pop noise (same as the sound that if you plug your power code out without having your battery mounted makes)
2. I can't turn it on for a few minutes.
3. during the booting process it asks me if I want to boot it in safe mode, but when I actually get to the windows screen it doesn't say the usual "windows have recovered from blah blah".
4. sometimes it doesn't happen for a whole day, and sometimes it happens like 2 minutes into the game.
It only happens when I play skyrim, but from the stories I hear it seems like some of the other new games might be causing this too.
I know there are bazillion reason why this could be caused but please help me I want to have the experience that I paid for
morblore
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December 3rd, 2011 18:00
If you had a desktop i would say it could be a power issue. Could be heat related too. Go DL a benchmark and stress it to see if it shuts off on you.
CJ95D
3 Posts
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December 4th, 2011 01:00
I'm pretty sure it's not the heat issue since I had cases where it shut off pretty much 5 seconds after I turn the game on. I understand that cpu should be stressed i.e running for a while for it to be shutting down? but I'll try benchmarking since you suggested...
CJ95D
3 Posts
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December 12th, 2011 07:00
am I the only one with this issue? no more replies in 8 days...
exozero
1 Message
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December 16th, 2011 18:00
You ARE NOT the only one with this issue, I have an almost identical problem. I have the M15 gaming labtop as well and recently started playing Star Wars the Old Republic on my labtop and it's done the same thing yours has, random shut offs. It's strange I have too tried it on other games, but only seems to shut off with Star Wars. I called Dell and now they think its my graphics/video card so their sending a tech out to replace some parts in a day or two. It's frustrating I paid a lot for this labtop...
indragan
1 Message
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December 20th, 2011 20:00
I have been having same issues playing TOR, had no problems with WoW. Unfortunately my warranty is up, has anyone been able to isolate the issue causing this? I would like to fix current laptop and try to avoid purchasing a new one.
th3kin4
1 Message
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January 2nd, 2012 11:00
ok can someone tell me what should i do?
i got the same proble as <ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy>
what should i do now?
my M15x only shut downs when i played skyrim, but it doest happen when im playing another game.
someone please tell me!
what should i do?!
KieranEvans
1 Message
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April 18th, 2012 16:00
Hello, ive been having the same issue with my Alienware m15x, playing on World of Warcraft and it crashes about an hour in and when playing battle field 3 it takes about 20 minutes! It shut downs completely and i am unable to turn it back on for a few minutes! After paying £1500+ for the laptop I dont believe this should be occuring please help
SvaJonny
1 Message
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May 16th, 2012 18:00
Same thing happens to me, shuts off and dont start back up.
DELL-Chris M
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54.2K Posts
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May 17th, 2012 09:00
It sounds like some hardware component is reaching a thermal limit and shutting down. When gaming, the AC adapter must be plugged in. Have the latest Bios loaded. Turn Stealth Mode off using the soft button on the top right above the keyboard. This forces the PC to use the discrete video card rather than the onboard video card. There are several 3rd party software (GPU-Z, HWINFO64, etc.) that will show your system and video card temperatures while gaming. I would download these and do some testing. Also, you should be using our Dell OEM video card drivers, not the retail ones while testing.
Back4Breakfast
10 Posts
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May 22nd, 2012 06:00
Hi Chris
I have the same problem - SWTOR is fine but Diablo 3 has done it twice to me. It is overheating but there me something Dell can do to resolve the issue? Any help would be appreciated. I will run GPU-Z on my laptop next time I play Diablo 3 and see what temps we are getting to. Last time I tried RealTemp whilst running and I was hitting 53oC which I didn't think was that bad but clearly the laptop has a lower threshold than the tower PC!
Cheers
Rowan
Back4Breakfast
10 Posts
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May 22nd, 2012 08:00
Hi Chris
I wouldn't even dream of comparing the two - I was merely stating a fact that, as you so rightly put it, towers can cool better than laptops! I wasn't trying to cause offence but clearly I have - I have been doing this job for quite some time so wouldn't make any sort of comparison on that level. I love my Alienware and it's much more convenient than a tower!
Anyway back to the issue - on that site it states that both minimum and recommended are met so all good. I believe it may just be that, with this one being two years old, things have progressed a fair amount. I am sure when it's in a cool room it will run quite happily as it was but to avoid that I might have to just turn things down a bit...
DELL-Chris M
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May 22nd, 2012 08:00
Rowan,
You cannot compare mid range laptop performance to a tower computer. A tower computer will have much better cooling due to the case size and bigger fans. From your M15x, go to this site. On the second drop down choose Diablo III. Click "Can you run it?". What are the results?
Back4Breakfast
10 Posts
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May 22nd, 2012 08:00
Just ran some tests with GPU-Z and with everything bar one setting on high the GPU is reaching 90oC!!!!!!!!!!
I am using the latest Dell driver for the GC and check their were no bios updates that I needed to install. If I turn it down to low on everything except one option which is Clutter textures then it sits at around 80oC which I think it will probably be happier at but the game doesn't look as good. It's two years old now my one with an HD5850 in it so I am guessing an upgrade is the only option.
Just bought my first house so don't think that will be happening :)
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.2K Posts
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May 22nd, 2012 09:00
Check this and the blue post here. Lots of stuff here. Let me know what works for you.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.2K Posts
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May 22nd, 2012 09:00
I wonder if there are some in game settings we can tweak. Let me do some searching.