M18X intermittent boot issue.

It can either be an issue with the OS itself or the Hard Drive.

Is it possible to enter Safe Mode?
If so, are you able to download HDTune to check and run all the tests?
While you're at it: open up the Command Prompt as an Administrator and type in:
/sfc scannow

If the problem still persists after the scan, I'd suggest you try running an Alienrespawn.

If the HDTune finds issues with the Hard drive, it means it will need to be replaced.

Thanks Jose!

I did not try sfc yet, but I'll do that as soon as he gets back so I can log on.

When my friend 1st told me about the original issue, the laptop wouldn't even boot to the Windows logo. I sent him a Hirem's CD and was able to get him to boot with network, then I ran virus checks, and HDTune (among others). He does have (2) 500GB hybrid drives in RAID, but no issues came back on the HD test. I thought the OS hive/MBR was corrupt at that point, and walked him through running Alienrespawn.

After the reinstall, the only hiccup he had for the first few days, was a unrequested reboot, which happened while he was sitting idle, while reinstalling a game. It was fine for about 2 weeks, and the issue with the picture (posted in my OP) started happening. I wish I hadn't turned "auto-update" on, due to the fact one of the programs might have overwritten a driver, and started this over. Throughout the troubleshooting, I've checked event viewer multiple times, but nothing jumped out as being critical or serious.

I thought there may be a CPU/GPU fan issue (heat), but they seem to be spinning up alright.. so I am sort of stumped at this point, and not being near the laptop makes troubleshooting harder. He said no one has been on the computer but him, so I'm leaning away from malware/virus issues. I was going to roll back to a previous (2013 or so) Radeon driver, just in case that might be causing the boot up issue.. but it's a head scratcher for sure.

I'll repost if/when I find anything. Thanks again

No worries, I await your reply!

Today I was remote into the laptop (Teamviewer), and while checking the system out, it locked up on his end.. reverting to the screenshot in my original post. There was NOTHING in the event log to point to a hardware/software issue. So either Windows doesn't have a chance to save what is happening (hardware?), or we are lost. Upon reboot, after I logged in.. his screen split in half (pic). The left side was on the right, and vice versa. It wasn't just the desktop, it was all screens. The crazy thing is, what I saw on the remote end was correct. Immediately after that happened, I started getting Windows Explorer errors.

I was able to uninstall the AMD Catalyst software (all), reboot into Safe Mode and uninstall the video cards, and what I hope was all the possible drivers leftover. I rebooted and installed the AMD drivers from Dell's driver Alienware M18X list (there was only 1 possible driver). 

I ran sfc with no errors.. so that was good.

As I sit here right now, I'm 80% confident the problem was a AMD Catalyst driver mismatch, but of course, time will tell.

I have been testing the laptop now for a few days, and have ruled out the memory and the hard drives. The other night, it crashed on me, and I copied the bulk of the dump file. If you need me to post the entire dump file, just let me know:

Description
A problem with your video hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name:    LiveKernelEvent
OS Version:    6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID:    1033

Files that help describe the problem
WD-20150426-1833.dmp
sysdata.xml
WERInternalMetadata.xml

Extra information about the problem
BCCode:    117
BCP1:    FFFFFA80155DF4E0
BCP2:    FFFFF88004D8744C
BCP3:    0000000000000000
BCP4:    0000000000000000
OS Version:    6_1_7601
Service Pack:    1_0
Product:    256_1

This update, if not answered will be reopened under a new ticket:

Last week I completely wiped/reinstalled from the recovery partition. I ran the laptop through basic stuff (updates, driver installs etc etc). On day 2, I got 1 BSOD and 1 time where thejscreen went blue lines. Another time it went to an all gray screen. Each time, I had to hold the power button down to reboot. I ran HWinfo64, and saw that both video cards were running within 5-6 degrees of each other, with the hotter video card swapping off to the other. I have included the dmp files via bluescreenview. I flashed the BIOS to A05, and also updated the Intel chipset driver in Device Manager.

==================================================
Dump File         : 061115-15646-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 6/11/2015 6:16:08 PM
Bug Check String  :
Bug Check Code    : 0xa0000001
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000005
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : 00000000`00000000
Caused By Driver  : Wdf01000.sys
Caused By Address : Wdf01000.sys+ab2b
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+748c0
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\061115-15646-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 276,720
Dump File Time    : 6/11/2015 6:17:01 PM
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 060915-26036-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 6/9/2015 8:06:58 PM
Bug Check String  :
Bug Check Code    : 0x00000116
Parameter 1       : fffffa80`0deec010
Parameter 2       : fffff880`0426edb8
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : 00000000`00000002
Caused By Driver  : dxgkrnl.sys
Caused By Address : dxgkrnl.sys+5d134
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+748c0
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\060915-26036-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 859,616
Dump File Time    : 6/9/2015 8:07:58 PM
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 060915-29406-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 6/9/2015 6:18:11 PM
Bug Check String  :
Bug Check Code    : 0x00000116
Parameter 1       : fffffa80`154bd010
Parameter 2       : fffff880`04911db8
Parameter 3       : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4       : 00000000`00000002
Caused By Driver  : dxgkrnl.sys
Caused By Address : dxgkrnl.sys+5d134
File Description  :
Product Name      :
Company           :
File Version      :
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+72a40
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\060915-29406-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 642,456
Dump File Time    : 6/9/2015 6:19:22 PM
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 060915-58500-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 6/9/2015 4:54:41 PM
Bug Check String  : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code    : 0x1000009f
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000004
Parameter 2       : 00000000`00000258
Parameter 3       : fffffa80`0d388b60
Parameter 4       : fffff800`00b9c3d0
Caused By Driver  : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+824da
File Description  : NT Kernel & System
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 6.1.7601.18869 (win7sp1_gdr.150525-0603)
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+824da
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\Windows\Minidump\060915-58500-01.dmp
Processors Count  : 8
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 7601
Dump File Size    : 486,888
Dump File Time    : 6/9/2015 4:56:50 PM
==================================================

As far as I know, these are the default video drivers. I did not allow the latest AMD drivers to load with Windows Updates, but I'm not 100% sure which drivers WOULD be the default at this time.

Is there a DELL recommended driver version for the M18X R1?