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May 29th, 2016 02:00

Alienware M17x, 3 Problems, 1 Major

Hey! Website was recommended by a friend, so I'm sorry if there's some protocol I must follow that I didn't; I'm new.

I own an Alienware M17x laptop. Bought it off a pawnshop about 8 months ago. That's all I know about my laptop's internals(sorry).

I've had a couple of problems with this thing, and I was hoping this website's wonderful community could help me out.

1.) This Alienware laptop comes with a small physical "control panel" for volume control, mute, skipping or rewinding/pausing video, ejecting discs, toggling wireless signals, and most importantly, accessing the Alienware Control Panel  shortcut, which opens the Alienware Control panel. These buttons are located on the top right of the keyboard, above the number pad(look at pictures on the internet if still confused). This is where the first problem persists. About two weeks after I got this computer, the Alienware Control Panel shortcut button stopped working. I could still go to the FxEditor, but only by clicking on the icon. I know I didn't break the button, so what could've happened? After it broke, I also couldn't change the backlights on the keyboard without first disabling them entirely. I used to be able to switch them without having to disable the lights, but around the time the button on the computer stopped opening up the program, I had to start shutting off the lights to switch the colors.



2.) After I switched to Windows 10, the speakers stopped working. Headphones work, and as well as HDMI connections to other monitors. So, I tried deleting and re-installing the sound driver, but to no avail. After asking a forum(Dell I think), they said this computer simply doesn't work for Windows 10 when it comes to speakers. I don't like this answer, as it seems they just gave up, so hopefully someone can help me out in finding a solution. Willing to try almost anything that makes sense, and some things that don't(but not deleting windows32, thanks).

Now, the big problem.

3.) About 4 days ago, my computer randomly got the Blue Screen of Death. I didn't pay too much attention to when I should have(I know), and now it got worse. The next day, I tried turning on my computer, and it stayed in the loading screen, with the Alienware Logo staring at me for about 15 minutes before I noticed something's wrong. I hit F2, ran it in Debug more(I had no idea what that was so someone please explain it seemed like the right thing to do), and then it loaded up to the password start-up screen. Typing the password was incredibly slow, and I knew something was wrong. The computer shut down again, and I turned it on again. I let it stay on the loading screen, force-shut it down, and did this process for around 2 times. On the 3rd time, it loaded the password login screen, and after slowly putting in my password, it logged me in. The desktop was all black, and only the Windows 10 bottom tab showed up. I couldn't type anything into the search bar. After a while, the computer gave me the BSOD again, and it showed an error message similar to "0xffffffff"(I could be wrong) or something. From my research I discovered this error was the cause mainly to a program installing incorrectly.   On the 4th time, I let it stay in the loading screen. It then began "scanning and repairing drive xxxxxxxx"(I didn't take or record the address of whatever it was repairing, sorry). It fixed overnight, and my OS worked. I didn't run any hardware-intensive programs,  so I wasn't sure if it was completely fixed, but I left it alone.

Fast forward to today. Once I turned on my computer, I was greeted with a "Repairing C:// Drive" message. Once that fixed, I logged on. I got a major error message from the Microsoft .NET Framework about 7 times, along with a major error message inside that Framework message which I will hopefully link if I can figure out how. If I can't link them for any reason, I will DM/post in the thread the complete error messages. My Alienware AlienFX system (the backlight system) isn't working, and keeps crashing, along by showing another error message, which I will also link. I tried to give whatever information I could, and I will try to update as more things will hopefully not screw up. Thank you for reading this lengthy message(I tried to give whatever information I could), and I hope you can help me.

EDIT: As I was writing this, got the BSOD again, with the error message: UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION. I’m also trying to run a Steam game, and it is INCREDIBLY slow to load.

NO TEAMVIEWER.

Skype upon request.

Links:

Microsoft .Net Framework Error

docs.google.com/.../edit

Alienware AlienFX Editor Crash Error docs.google.com/.../edit

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87.5K Posts

May 29th, 2016 04:00

The underlying problem to all of these issues is very likely a dying hard drive.  To run a drive diagnostic, press F12 at powerup and boot to the Dell diagnostics.  Run the quick tests, and then boot to the full diagnostic at the end and run an extended hard drive scan.

Any errors -- replace the hard drive.

May 29th, 2016 19:00

Ran the diagnostics test, and I got a 2000-0142 Dell error. Research showed that was the hard drive, so I guess I have to get a new one. Before I purchase one, would an SSD be better in the long run? I'm a little short on cash so I want to make the write decision before I buy it.

1 Rookie

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87.5K Posts

May 30th, 2016 05:00

For performance purposes, yes -- an SSD is the way to go, unless you need a large volume of storage space (large capacity SSDs are still quite expensive relative to the cost of mechanical hard drives or hybrid drives, though a hybrid might prove a reasonable compromise).

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