Alienware Aurora R7 - Black Screeen after using, lasts until restart

Re: monitor will suddenly seem to lose connection to the PC and go blank.
When this happens, the computer also seems to freeze

do you recall when event this occurred, were you actively using the pc on some tasks, or was the pc left alone?  If later, it may be due to an inappropriate power management during sleep/hibernate, that the pc dozes off too readily and refuses to wake up and resume video output to monitor.  On the other hand if pc suddenly cuts off video and freezes while you are in the middle of some active task, it would be a completely different issue and perhaps worrisome of system instability.

Try uninstall video card and connect monitor to on board video out.  If video issue doesn’t reoccur , it would seem to suggest discrete graphics card not working properly.  On the other hand if you still lose video sporadically, may try a fresh clean install of Windows 10 on hdd and do not install AWCC to see if issue resolves (if you have another hdd, use it to temporarily replace current hdd, or wipe the current drive).  For this test, may be good idea to uninstall intel octane memory too to narrow down the list of suspects.  is it OS, video card driver, vs video card firmware issue etc.

I have never had it happen while I'm running a PC game or playing a video or using a Microsoft Office application etc. - as far as I can tell it always seems to happen when I'm just browsing the internet or doing something otherwise unimportant on the PC.
It happened just today while I was just reading the news online.
It happens pretty frequently when I'm waiting for my various applications to boot up and just on the desktop, though actively moving the mouse etc.

I haven't had it happen while I was away from the PC.

"he monitor will suddenly seem to lose connection to the PC and go blank.  When this happens, the computer also seems to freeze -  I found another workaround where I was able to switch to my motherboard GPU and then switch back, which also solved the problem"

The presence of the discrete GPU is supposed to disable onboard graphics in the R7.  The fact that it is switching over during the freeze indicates a possible issue with the GPU.  Try running the built in diagnostics, F12 on boot. 

Also, what PSU and GPU do you have? Are they stock? 

@r72019 As stated, the PC is in the same state as when it shipped. No modifications have been made.

@redxps630I'm going to be completely honest with you - I'm probably not going to try any of those things.

I've performed clean re-installs on this PC before, I have had the drivers completely re-installed before.
It has never really solved the issue in the past.

I do not own a secondary drive, so I can't test anything like that, and I don't really know enough about the optane to mess with it - when I last looked into disabling it, I found out that it wasn't as easy as I thought.

I am hoping, primarily, to hear from someone else who may have had the same issue and has a more concrete suggestion as to what the issue could be. No offense, but if I wanted to invest hours into fault-finding, I'd have just skipped posting here in the first place - I still appreciate the advice though.

@r72019 
Re: Using the board GPU:

Well, I was able to do that IN THE PAST.
Nothing happens when I switch the cable over anymore, but when I initially got the PC, I was certainly able to plug in either port and it would run.

If you're saying I wasn't supposed to be able to do that, then I don't really know what to say, but it doesn't seem to be the case anymore anyway.

To be clear - it didn't do anything. I switched it myself.
I have already run diagnostics on the PC and found no issues. My PC is pretending to be in perfect working order.

"I am somewhat convinced that many of my issues tie in to the intel optane device that came with the PC"

You can disable the optane acceleration in the Intel Rapud Storage Technology app, it's basically just a matter of flipping a switch and restarting the pc.