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PCI Bridge - PCI Express Status Test - Failed
Heya,
Recently my Alienware M17xR3 (early 2011) started to freeze pretty often with unpleasant background sound. It lasts anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds, and sometimes it even crashes the system.
First I thought those are software conflicts and tried to reinstall drivers, but it didn't help.
So I've ran Dell Hardware Test on this site and all the tests were ok, except this one
PCI Bridge - 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor family PCI Express Controller - 0101 - PCI Express Status Test - Failed
My guess the problem is there.
So I have some questions
1) What is this bridge used for? Could it cause the problems I've described?
2) What should I do about it?
3) Is it slot problem or bridge problem? In case this is a slot problem, are there any extra slots in there which I can use instead? Or is this problem critical and will require complete change of motherboard(?)?
4) How critical this problem can be? The comp is operational right now, but will the problem get worse with time?
5) Where can I find the list of authorised Dell support centers in Kiev, Ukraine?
6) In general, your advices on that problem.
Thank you very much for your time. Cheers.
Alienware-Joe
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September 24th, 2014 11:00
Hello Nightreaver,
To answer your questions:
1) The bridge is a communication channel between the Motherboard and the hardware components. It could be part of the issue that you described. However it is not closely corellated.
2) Probably one of the best ways to resolve this is by Power Draining the unit (Take out battery and AC Adapter and hold in the power button for 10-15 seconds). A more aggressive approach would be doing the same but in addition taking out the Coin Cell Battery in the system.
3) There's only two "Slots" North and South. The North one is connected directly to the CPU, whilst the South is connected to the other components (South usually takes care of mundane tasks).
4) So far it isn't critical - The motherboard is still working despite that one failure. Go ahead and perform those steps above and hopefully they will go away.
5) I can only direct you to the support line from your country. http://tinyurl.com/ly363cc
6) Did you try updating the BIOS?
Nightreaver
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September 24th, 2014 13:00
Thanks a lot for detailed answer.
About point 2, is there any instruction online on how to take out the Coin Cell Battery at home?
About point 6, the BIOS can be updated in accordance to this instruction, right?
http://www.dell.com/support/Article/us/en/19/439097/en
Alienware-Joe
671 Posts
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September 25th, 2014 08:00
Yes, that would be the adequate procedure to update your BIOS.
And as far as Taking out the Coin Cell Battery we have a video in YouTube.
You need to take out the battery and the lower cage. That will leave the Coin Cell Battery exposed
You can use this link to reach it:
[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j20wn96uac0:400:0]