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February 14th, 2016 16:00

Resetting Alienware 15 R2 to Factory Settings

Hey guys I purchased the alienware 15 r2 with i7-6820hk, 16gb ram, gtx 980m and 256gb ssd w/ 1tb hdd in november and have been having a couple issues. My CPU usage will randomly spike to 100% without even running any demanding applications, also the laptop will sometimes drain charge even when plugged into the charger. I have tried to format it using the Dell Recovery Drive i had made when I first purchased the laptop, but it seems to be unable to detect anything on the memory card. So my question is am I able to just format the computer to factory settings or will this delete all the alienware programs and drivers for the LEDs, etc. And also how would I go about getting the 240W power supply? I have contacted technical support via phone twice now and it seems like the people have no idea what they are doing and had just wasted 2 hours of my time getting me to do pointless things like run the diagnostic test on the dell website which doesnt even function correctly. I have also talked to someone in sales who said they would refer me to the manager about the issues ive been having and said I would receive a phone call within 24 hours regarding the matter, which never came through. Overall I am pretty <ADMIN NOTE: Profanity removed as per TOU> seeing as I spent over 2500 on the laptop and customer support seems to be a complete waste of my time and no one seems to be making any effort to try and help me resolve the issue, they either just hang up on me or say they will refer me to management which never happens. Hopefully someone here will be able to help me, thanks in advance. 

17 Posts

February 14th, 2016 19:00

I've Factory Reset my 17R3 a couple of times already.  It should be the same for the 15R2. As long as you haven't deleted the recovery partition from your C drive, this should work.

One small note-- there is probably a faster way of finding this option, so my apologies in advance. Also to restate the obvious this will reset  your PC to factory state!. All of your data will be deleted!

Anyway, to factory reset...

Windows 10 Pro. Disconnect all accessories from your laptop, leave your AC adapter plugged in.

Start-->Settings-->Update and Security-->Recovery-->Advanced Startup.

This will reboot your PC, then:

Troubleshoot-->Advanced Options-->System Image Recovery.

This will reboot your PC again into System Image Recovery, then you will be asked to log into your account. After you log in, Windows will look for a system image and not be successful.  Then hit Cancel twice back into the root menu. Then:

Troubleshoot-->Factory Image Restore. 

Factory Image Restore is the option you're looking for. Unfortunately the convoluted process above is the only way I've found to reliably get to the option.

Hope this helps.

3 Posts

February 21st, 2016 15:00

Did you mean the reset your PC option? And click remove all files? Im just scared that his will remove all the alienware fx programs and my nvidia geforce experience etc. I have no option for factory image restore. Just the reset PC option with either the option to keep or remove files.

17 Posts

February 21st, 2016 17:00

Hi, no I definitely don't mean the Reset PC option, that is completely different.  The option I see says very specifically Factory Image Restore. If you don't have this option then you're basically starting with a fresh copy of Windows. 

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