15 R2, both fans spin up, locks up

Hi @ace bannon welcome to this free user-to-user Alienware laptop discussion forum. 

Please have a look at this similar thread, Solved: 15 R2, freezing, fans go full speed - Dell Community.

See also Solved: 15 R4, Constant Freezing - Dell Community.  

Hey Crimsom

Sorry for the delay but I went through all the posts and did what was suggested. Here's what I did but I still have the same problem:

- I installed all 3 of the drivers from Dell, including 11 BIOS updates.

- I ran the support assist hardware checkup. No issues

- I ran the ePSA Preboot Assessment. No issues.

- I ran CHKDSK GUI version. No errors.

- I ran the Windows Reliability Monitor. It showed 3 errors which I don't understand. How do I attach the report.

- I couldn't find the Windows File Checker (SFC) program.

- I couldn't find the Windows Deployment Image Servicing + Mgmt (DISM).

I use this laptop to exclusivity run my DMX lighting sofware for bands and this problem where the laptop freezes, throws off the software, of course, and when the laptop is not sending signal to the DMX lights, they can blink which drives me crazy unless it's in sync with the music, which it isn't. I'd love to get this fixed. Appreciate your time.

@ace bannon If you have Dell Support Assist installed then remove it completely. This has been known to cause similar issues to what you are having. Worth a shot if you've tried everything else. Also worth pulling off the heatsink to do a repaste and cleanout, if you've never done it. 

Removed SupportAssist but the problem persists.

@ace bannon sometimes just removing SA will fix the problem but sometimes you have to disable some other Dell Service (Like Dell Vault services).

Have a read through this and see if it helps. Hopefully it's just a software issue

https://notebooktalk.net/topic/551-fix-for-freezing-fans-at-full-blast-issue-with-older-aw-laptops-post-june-23/#comment-13825

Hi @ace bannon there is a similar thread Here which says the PC Freeze is intentional from Alienware BIOS programmers to ensure proper fan operation and only happens once per boot. Download and reinstall your current or update BIOS version. 

I was really hoping that would fix it but alas, no. 

I feel as though it's some sort of diagnostic process running every so often. It runs the left fan, then the right fan and every time locks up the system every time during that phase.

Ahh that's a shame. It really sounds very similar to what some other people were dealing with.

When all else fails, a full clean Windows installation could help. If you do this, do not install SA or any Dell diagnostic tools. 

Mine cycles thru this process about every 5 minutes. I wish it was only once. The system does not get hot at all. The laptop could just be sitting there and the fans alternately turn on. Also does it when I’m doing anything. Almost feels like is scheduled to execute about every 5 minutes. I’ll have to see if I can time it. 

I’ll have to try that. I’m about ready to disconnect the fans to see if that works! Just kidding… I think. Lol

FYI, I have had this issue and the first thing I tried was removing the Killer software.  This did not seem to solve it, so I tried the NV Clean Install program and had it remove the NVidia stuff and do a clean install of the NVidia driver.  This seems to have solved it for me as I've gone more than a day without a repeat of the spin up and lock up that I was seeing many times a day.  NVCleanstall - NVIDIA Driver Customizer (techpowerup.com)  (Also available in the Chris Titus tool)