http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19582192

I started a thread for similar problems that were fixed back in June on my Alienware. They've since resurfaced. The fan is often inoperative unless set through a programme like HWiNFO64. Overheating seems pretty likely a lot of the time, especially when playing games. Automatic hard shutdown is increasingly frequent, as is a persisting problem in up-starting, where the power button will be pressed, an audible whir and click is heard, and either the screen will light grey before going into POST or it won't in which case a new click is heard and it auto-shuts down. On top of that, the "H" key has lost a small segment that allows it to reconnect to its proper place and the overall performance of the computer suffers greatly and regularly if unplugged and re-plugged. The latter problem is due to a failure to recognise the power cord (the one that came with the unit) as the one that came with the unit. It will hold power levels steady but won't charge and performance suffers. I've tried unplugging, uninstalling the drivers for the cord, re-plugging, and re-installing the drivers, but this is only rarely effective.