Area-51m R1, HDD failure and constant freezing

Question

So, I ran a diagnostic test in the BIOS and received this error code:

Error Code: 2000-0142
Validation Code: 76290

Hard Drive 2 - S/N ZKP07TFY, Long Self Test unsuccessful.

I speculate that my 1TB Hybrid drive is dying and I want to replace it myself, but I have a couple of questions:

1. Does this computer support m.2 solid state hard drives?

2. How many does it support?

3. How many sata drives does it support?

4. If I bought an m.2 drive, would there be any incompatibility issues if I threw a third party m.2 drive like the Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB?

5. My computer came with preloaded software. How would I get that recovery media if I wanted to replace my hard drive myself? Is there a website?

I think my hard drive might be the reason why my computer keeps freezing, but I'm going to be testing to see if that's true by taking out the 1TB Hybrid drive. By freezing, I mean that everything on my computer is frozen and comes to a complete stop for a few seconds and then resumes. Audio and music that is playing sometimes goes on or also stops when everything else stops. I'm not able to click on anything or move my mouse sometimes. The main thing I notice when this does happen is that my CPU temps spike to 100 degrees Celsius, which I don't think is supposed to happen.

If anyone has answers to my questions, I'd greatly appreciate it!

JOcean · Accepted Answer

1. Yes it does

2. 2 x M.2 2280 NVMe SSD or SATA SSD (it supports both formats)

3. If you count the single 2.5" SATA drive and use 2 x M.2 SATA SSD then the total is 3. Otherwise 1 SATA 2.5" drive and 2 x M.2 NVMe SSD.

4. The Samsung SSD should work fine. There had been some incompatibilities in the past but judging from the lack of complaints in the forum I suspect those were corrected with BIOS updates

5. I would suggest Macrium Reflect Free software available here. And their web site plus many tutorials on YouTube should give you volumes of tutorials and information about imaging or cloning. You can start at this YouTube page for starters. They have a ton of information.

And yes drive problems can cause freezing, inability to load Windows, BSOD and many more problems.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @DaisieDoodle03 welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.

Support for Alienware Area-51m (R1) Storage says fast NVMe and slow SATA drives can be installed.

Please download and run CrystalDiskInfo to look at status of all your drives. Download - Crystal Dew World [en] (crystalmark.info) It will give simple summary and full diagnostic information. See following example:

The OS(C:) boot drive should be NVMe with GPT partition format, to enable BIOS UEFI boot list option.

Clone (copy) OS(C:) boot drive 1TB Hybrid drive to Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB. Advocate use Macrium Reflect Free. Macrium Software | Reflect Free Edition

ejn63 · Answer

Added note:  the hard drive is listed as drive 2, so you already have a Drive 1 (which is almost certainly M.2 NVMe, and on which the OS  will be installed).

crimsom · Answer

@DaisieDoodle03 asks 1. Does this computer support m.2 solid state hard drives? and 4. If I bought an m.2 drive, would there be any incompatibility issues if I threw a third party m.2 drive like the Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB?

The OP does not say anything about OS(C:) boot drive.

Alienware

Area-51m R1, HDD failure and constant freezing

Was this post helpful?