Yet another update: I have said up front that I am within my 30 day window. That is based on the fact I received my system on August 12th. Apparently, though, Dell's 30 day return policy is based on the invoice date. My particular system was shipped from China and was held up in Customs on both ends (over a week on the US side) and thus it took THREE WEEKS for my system to arrive after it was shipped. The invoice/shipping date is July 20th, which with my return request I am several days outside the 30 day window. Personally, I feel this is unacceptable because my real return window was exactly 7 days after receiving (Aug 12 - 19). It was during that time I was spending setting up the system and trying some of the other software conflict resolution issues on top of the schedule of real life. When making the return request by phone, the Dell automated system announced that I was outside the window and that no exceptions could be made. To me, this is pure (censored).
To make matters worse, Dell's return department is closed on weekends (this thread took place on a Saturday and Sunday, August 21 & 22). I have responded to all service requests (including my tech support call) to make clear I wish to have the 30 day return policy honored by replacing my system with one that is not defective. I also initiated a new service request with that same message. I also plan on calling Dell directly on Monday as soon as I am able.
I appreciate the help crimsom and JOcean have provided, but at this point my challenge will be dealing with Customer Care to have this defective m15 R4 replaced.
August 21 = Everything is now taken care of - the old (defective) system has been shipped back for a week, and my replacement system is running just as expected.
Hi @soubuckeye welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
All these crashes should be creating Critical Events that say Alienware m15 R4 laptop has a problem. Please run Reliability Monitor and wait for all events to load to give fault timeline. No need to go looking for these Critical Events, because you can trigger their occurrence. If its a common mode fault, there will be many events with same title descriptor. Click to open event and look for Microsoft error code which is usually obscure. Search on internet for similar fault with same error code, their solution may be your fix.
You did not mention that there are POST diagnostic lights/beeps, it does not test all hardware. Please run F12 ePSA Diagnostics which will test more hardware, but not everything.
Please visit Device Manager to see if any drivers have a yellow triangle that usually means an update is required.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
I appreciate the response. I did run the ePSA the other night (Aug 16) and found no errors (well... didn't have the power supply plugged in at first). Just finished running it again and everything was perfectly fine.
Reliability monitor gave me a pretty good rundown of crashes, and I can at least confirm its graphics card related. Seems it may be a driver issue: everything is coming up error code 117 (Copy-Paste of one of the errors):
Source Windows
Summary Hardware error
Date 8/21/2021 8:27 AM
Status Report sent
Description A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent Code: 117 Parameter 1: ffffbc0f3bdf3460 Parameter 2: fffff80769617894 Parameter 3: 0 Parameter 4: 0 OS version: 10_0_19042 Service Pack: 0_0 Product: 768_1 OS Version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101 Locale ID: 1033
Extra information about the problem Bucket ID: LKD_0x117_Tdr:A_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Ampere Server information: 0e8ed687-dc9c-4aaa-afc0-981b130f831a
I also have a couple error code 141's and 142's in there as well:
Source Windows
Summary Hardware error
Date 8/20/2021 9:52 PM
Status Report sent
Description A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent Code: 142 Parameter 1: ffffd206a619f460 Parameter 2: fffff8038b357894 Parameter 3: 0 Parameter 4: 2d48 OS version: 10_0_19042 Service Pack: 0_0 Product: 768_1 OS Version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101 Locale ID: 1033
Extra information about the problem Bucket ID: LKD_0x142_Tdr:6_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Ampere Server information: edd914e5-78f8-40cf-b69a-f9e849a09f56
And:
Source Windows
Summary Hardware error
Date 8/20/2021 4:16 PM
Status Report sent
Description A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent Code: 141 Parameter 1: ffffaa884f386010 Parameter 2: fffff80484c47894 Parameter 3: 0 Parameter 4: e74 OS version: 10_0_19042 Service Pack: 0_0 Product: 768_1 OS Version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101 Locale ID: 1033
Extra information about the problem Bucket ID: LKD_0x141_Tdr:6_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Ampere_3D Server information: 4f56d54c-3192-4d9d-a632-ac729cb02ff5
The fact that its nvlddmkm.sys causing the headache does make it seem like a driver issue. I'll see if I can roll back the driver, since I was the dutiful person who ran full updates on everything (including BIOS) when I first took it out of the box back on Aug 12. Any other insight would be most appreciated as well and I'll update this as "solved" if we're happy after that.
The nvlddmkm.sys error is usually a NVIDIA GPU driver problem. There are many articles on the internet providing guidance on ways to fix the nvlddmkm.sys error in Windows 10.
Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
I removed the driver then re-installed to GeForce driver version 466.11 (its a couple months old as opposed to the latest).
No love. Civ VI and Splitgate (a good testbed since it uses the Unreal engine) both crashed as before. Reliability Monitor gave me a triple "Hardware Error" at the same timestamp with error codes 141, 142, and 117 when I attempted to run one of those. In regards to the link you sent me about fixing that particular error, I've tried most of those except underclocking - and if that's what fixes my issue that just drives home its a hardware issue and thus a bad GPU. And being in my 30 day window..... yeah.
Going to look to see if there's other options out there for the nvlddmkm.sys errors, or if I didn't get the old/new driver unstalled completely although I used DDU to do the job after I booted into safe mode.
Just finished up with Dell, and they had me run the stress test on the card.
Made it through the lighting, wire frame, and rendering tests just fine. The moment the DXR test tried to start, it popped up and said "failed." No error code, no nothing. Think it even caught the tech off guard who immediately was like "yeah, that's a bad graphics card."
So since I'm in the 30 day window, I'll be getting with Dell Customer Care and getting them to swap out the system.
Started getting some Watchdog BSOD's tonight. Gonna contact Dell Techincal Support. I'm becoming more and more convinced I have a bad lemon out of the box.
Having established that new m15 R4 has GPU fault, Dell Support needs to officially know that you are requesting to Reject within 30 day Approval timescale, and your remedy is either to get new replacement system or full refund. Dell Refund policy, New vs Refurbished
Please visit your online Dell account Service Requests to check if Reject request has already been created for you. If not, do not delay, please ask Dell Support to create a Service Request for you, so that Dell officially knows that the new m15 R4 has GPU fault. Include that Dell Technical Support has already determined that there is a GPU fault. Clearly state your Reject remedy, new replacement system or full refund. Request escalation of Service Request to Dell tier that has authority to authorise your Reject request and your chosen remedy.
Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
Dell tracking will confirm these dates and timescale of your delivery.
The Dell Reject within 30 days varies, depending if it was (1) held in local storage and then sent to you by local delivery, or (2) is imported, has to wait for customs clearance, and only then, your 30 days Approval starts when local delivery starts. There should be no difficulty with Dell's acknowledgement of when the 30 days Approval timescale actually started.
Please click on @DELL-Cares to send Private Message and request their assistance/intervention. Thanks.
soubuckeye
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
August 22nd, 2021 06:00
Yet another update:
I have said up front that I am within my 30 day window. That is based on the fact I received my system on August 12th. Apparently, though, Dell's 30 day return policy is based on the invoice date. My particular system was shipped from China and was held up in Customs on both ends (over a week on the US side) and thus it took THREE WEEKS for my system to arrive after it was shipped. The invoice/shipping date is July 20th, which with my return request I am several days outside the 30 day window. Personally, I feel this is unacceptable because my real return window was exactly 7 days after receiving (Aug 12 - 19). It was during that time I was spending setting up the system and trying some of the other software conflict resolution issues on top of the schedule of real life. When making the return request by phone, the Dell automated system announced that I was outside the window and that no exceptions could be made. To me, this is pure (censored).
To make matters worse, Dell's return department is closed on weekends (this thread took place on a Saturday and Sunday, August 21 & 22). I have responded to all service requests (including my tech support call) to make clear I wish to have the 30 day return policy honored by replacing my system with one that is not defective. I also initiated a new service request with that same message. I also plan on calling Dell directly on Monday as soon as I am able.
I appreciate the help crimsom and JOcean have provided, but at this point my challenge will be dealing with Customer Care to have this defective m15 R4 replaced.
August 21 = Everything is now taken care of - the old (defective) system has been shipped back for a week, and my replacement system is running just as expected.
JOcean
9 Legend
•
12.6K Posts
1
August 21st, 2021 06:00
You can have a look at this web page but you may have GPU issues. I would call Dell tech support and have them assist you to determine the problem.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
1
August 21st, 2021 09:00
Hi @soubuckeye welcome to this user to user discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
All these crashes should be creating Critical Events that say Alienware m15 R4 laptop has a problem. Please run Reliability Monitor and wait for all events to load to give fault timeline. No need to go looking for these Critical Events, because you can trigger their occurrence. If its a common mode fault, there will be many events with same title descriptor. Click to open event and look for Microsoft error code which is usually obscure. Search on internet for similar fault with same error code, their solution may be your fix.
You did not mention that there are POST diagnostic lights/beeps, it does not test all hardware. Please run F12 ePSA Diagnostics which will test more hardware, but not everything.
Please run Intel Driver & Support Assistant to identify your products and get driver and software updates.
Please visit Device Manager to see if any drivers have a yellow triangle that usually means an update is required.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
soubuckeye
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
August 21st, 2021 11:00
I appreciate the response. I did run the ePSA the other night (Aug 16) and found no errors (well... didn't have the power supply plugged in at first). Just finished running it again and everything was perfectly fine.
Reliability monitor gave me a pretty good rundown of crashes, and I can at least confirm its graphics card related. Seems it may be a driver issue: everything is coming up error code 117 (Copy-Paste of one of the errors):
Source
Windows
Summary
Hardware error
Date
8/21/2021 8:27 AM
Status
Report sent
Description
A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Code: 117
Parameter 1: ffffbc0f3bdf3460
Parameter 2: fffff80769617894
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: 0
OS version: 10_0_19042
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS Version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 1033
Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: LKD_0x117_Tdr:A_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Ampere
Server information: 0e8ed687-dc9c-4aaa-afc0-981b130f831a
I also have a couple error code 141's and 142's in there as well:
Source
Windows
Summary
Hardware error
Date
8/20/2021 9:52 PM
Status
Report sent
Description
A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Code: 142
Parameter 1: ffffd206a619f460
Parameter 2: fffff8038b357894
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: 2d48
OS version: 10_0_19042
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS Version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 1033
Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: LKD_0x142_Tdr:6_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Ampere
Server information: edd914e5-78f8-40cf-b69a-f9e849a09f56
And:
Source
Windows
Summary
Hardware error
Date
8/20/2021 4:16 PM
Status
Report sent
Description
A problem with your hardware caused Windows to stop working correctly.
Problem signature
Problem Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Code: 141
Parameter 1: ffffaa884f386010
Parameter 2: fffff80484c47894
Parameter 3: 0
Parameter 4: e74
OS version: 10_0_19042
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS Version: 10.0.19042.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 1033
Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: LKD_0x141_Tdr:6_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys_Ampere_3D
Server information: 4f56d54c-3192-4d9d-a632-ac729cb02ff5
The fact that its nvlddmkm.sys causing the headache does make it seem like a driver issue. I'll see if I can roll back the driver, since I was the dutiful person who ran full updates on everything (including BIOS) when I first took it out of the box back on Aug 12. Any other insight would be most appreciated as well and I'll update this as "solved" if we're happy after that.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
1
August 21st, 2021 13:00
Hi @soubuckeye thank you for sharing update.
The nvlddmkm.sys error is usually a NVIDIA GPU driver problem. There are many articles on the internet providing guidance on ways to fix the nvlddmkm.sys error in Windows 10.
Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
soubuckeye
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
August 21st, 2021 14:00
I removed the driver then re-installed to GeForce driver version 466.11 (its a couple months old as opposed to the latest).
No love. Civ VI and Splitgate (a good testbed since it uses the Unreal engine) both crashed as before. Reliability Monitor gave me a triple "Hardware Error" at the same timestamp with error codes 141, 142, and 117 when I attempted to run one of those. In regards to the link you sent me about fixing that particular error, I've tried most of those except underclocking - and if that's what fixes my issue that just drives home its a hardware issue and thus a bad GPU. And being in my 30 day window..... yeah.
Going to look to see if there's other options out there for the nvlddmkm.sys errors, or if I didn't get the old/new driver unstalled completely although I used DDU to do the job after I booted into safe mode.
soubuckeye
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
August 21st, 2021 20:00
Just finished up with Dell, and they had me run the stress test on the card.
Made it through the lighting, wire frame, and rendering tests just fine. The moment the DXR test tried to start, it popped up and said "failed." No error code, no nothing. Think it even caught the tech off guard who immediately was like "yeah, that's a bad graphics card."
So since I'm in the 30 day window, I'll be getting with Dell Customer Care and getting them to swap out the system.
soubuckeye
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
August 21st, 2021 20:00
Started getting some Watchdog BSOD's tonight. Gonna contact Dell Techincal Support. I'm becoming more and more convinced I have a bad lemon out of the box.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
1
August 22nd, 2021 00:00
Hi @soubuckeye thank you for sharing update.
Having established that new m15 R4 has GPU fault, Dell Support needs to officially know that you are requesting to Reject within 30 day Approval timescale, and your remedy is either to get new replacement system or full refund. Dell Refund policy, New vs Refurbished
Please visit your online Dell account Service Requests to check if Reject request has already been created for you. If not, do not delay, please ask Dell Support to create a Service Request for you, so that Dell officially knows that the new m15 R4 has GPU fault. Include that Dell Technical Support has already determined that there is a GPU fault. Clearly state your Reject remedy, new replacement system or full refund. Request escalation of Service Request to Dell tier that has authority to authorise your Reject request and your chosen remedy.
Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
August 22nd, 2021 07:00
Hi @soubuckeye thank you for sharing update.
Dell tracking will confirm these dates and timescale of your delivery.
The Dell Reject within 30 days varies, depending if it was (1) held in local storage and then sent to you by local delivery, or (2) is imported, has to wait for customs clearance, and only then, your 30 days Approval starts when local delivery starts. There should be no difficulty with Dell's acknowledgement of when the 30 days Approval timescale actually started.
Please click on @DELL-Cares to send Private Message and request their assistance/intervention. Thanks.