15 R3, shuts down randomly during games

Question

Hello,

I have a 5-6 years old Alienware 15 R3 (properties at the bottom). The laptop shuts down randomly while I am gaming. It can happen in 2 minutes or sometimes never. I have checked the temperatures during the shut downs but sometimes it happens even before the game properly starts to heat the GPU. There are no warnings of the shut downs and they are always hard shutdowns. Also, windows logs show only that my "username" demanded a shutdown.

I have been having some heat issues (laptop was heating and slowing down) so I have cleaned and reapplied the thermal paste. Now even when I use MSI Kombuster and push my laptop, nothing happens. It only happens when I am gaming.

Intel i7-7700HQ, GTX 1070, Windows 10, 1 HDD and 2 SSD (Windows on the original SSD), 32GB Ram (installed 2-3 years ago).

crimsom · Answer

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

Please run windows Reliability Monitor and wait for creation of event timeline. How to use Windows Reliability Monitor to identify software issues | Dell US. Look for date and time event that coincides with the game hard shutdown. As this is predictable, recreate game hard shutdown and open most recent event to see and share root cause and Microsoft error code.

Which game is causing hard shutdown, have the game drivers been updated within Device Manager?

Is GeForce Experience installed and are the most recent drivers installed? Download GeForce Experience | NVIDIA.

Minci · Answer

Hello Crimsom,

First of all, thank you for the helping hand.

I have checked and the error is always the same text:

Problem: Windows was not properly shut down

Description: The previous system shutdown at "time" on ‎"date" was unexpected.

2 of latest 20 shutdowns coincide with Microsoft GameInput update but update happened right after I started the laptop again.

Description: Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Microsoft GameInput. Product Version: 10.1.22621.3036. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation. Reconfiguration success or error status: 0.

The latest games I have been playing since the problem started (it happens with both):
Installed GOG and purchased/installed played Solasta
Playing Dying Light 2 on EPIC

All drivers are updated including the BIOS and latest windows updates.

GeForce Experience is installed and have the most recent driver.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @Minci thank you for sharing update.

Microsoft GameInput update is usually silently installed during the installation of games and apps which require support for gaming input devices. Current version has a bug and is not installed correctly within the windows operating system.

Renaming both Microsoft.GamingServices to x.Microsoft.GamingServices seems to be the best fix, see user creese5's fix within the following Microsoft Community link.

Microsoft GameInput Application Reconfiguration Crashes Win 11 PC - Microsoft Community.

Microsoft GameInput crashing PC (thewindowsclub.com).

Minci · Answer

Hello,

I have checked and it has nothing to do with the Microsoft GameInput.

I have taken the logs of my components like usage, temp etc. and the last log is exactly at the moment or 1 second before the shutdown. Perhaps these logs can tell you something that I cannot see. I cannot attach a file here, is there a way I can send this excel?

I do not know what is the CPU shutdown temperature or HDD if any, but I can see that the CPU sometimes make load and temperature spikes. Max CPU temp around shutdown was 93 degC.

04/02/2023	CPU load 1	CPU load 2	CPU load 3	CPU load 4	CPU load 0	CPU Temp 0	CPU Temp 1	CPU Temp 2	CPU Temp 3	CPU Temp 4
Time	CPU Core #1	CPU Core #2	CPU Core #3	CPU Core #4	CPU Total	CPU Core #1	CPU Core #2	CPU Core #3	CPU Core #4	CPU Package
11:43:12	58,14	53,91	55,47	59,38	56,72	89	85	84	85	89
11:43:13	70,31	68,75	63,28	71,09	68,36	84	85	81	84	85
11:43:14	80,47	82,03	80,47	78,91	80,47	93	90	89	89	93
11:43:15	88,28	90,63	80,47	89,84	87,30	88	85	85	85	88
11:43:16	92,19	92,97	86,72	93,75	91,41	84	82	82	83	85

Minci · Answer

Hello,

I think that I have found the problem. The Toshiba SSD which came with the laptop was overheating. It was my windows drive and reached 80degC. I made a heatsink out of copper cables and reduced its heat to 71degC which let me run the games.

Thanks for the help.

Alienware

15 R3, shuts down randomly during games

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