Hi @Zirilian  thank you for sharing your troubleshooting. Seems the m17 R2 POST that looks for and checks that hardware is found and working, does not complete. This problem was intermittent and it is occurring more frequently.

When this problem reoccurs and the system is then up and running in local admin account, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > System Tools > Event Viewer, wait for logs to load and open summary, event type, critical (red text). As the problem has just occurred, the critical event problem should be at the top of this list. Please share an image so that the Dell Community user to user forum can see this start-up problem. Thank you. 

Hi @crimsom,

Thanks very much for your advice. I'd like to clarify: when you say I should follow the steps you mention "when this problem reoccurs and the system is then up and running in local admin account," do you mean after the system has failed to boot once but then has later booted successfully? (It does still start up, every once in a blue moon.) Will the incident still appear in the logs? (For reference, I'm the only user on the computer and have the administrator privileges.)

If you want a quick and easy way to recover the computer it’s going to cost you your data if you don’t care about it.

Just download the media creation tool and install on USB to click F12 boot options to install.

Hi @Zirilian  the local admin account will retain all the Event logs. You can look at and search all the critical event logs. If you know the time and date, look at these critical event logs. As your system is now only booting once in a blue moon, the critical event logs will have many reports of the same problem at the top of the list. 

When the m17 R2 is up and running, you should use this opportunity to copy all important information to an external storage drive. 

Do an ePSA and verify hardware stability. F12 boot options and then let me know. 

Hi @Zirilian  that is an excellent diagnostic share, thank you for investing your time. Agree that it did not reveal the source of this problem. Something is clearly corrupted and Windows Event Viewer is not providing this information.

Please select a time of more than one hour to run check disk. This is a very powerful tool that frequently gets overlooked. In local admin account, go to This PC, right click on the OS (C:) drive, open Properties, Tools and run error checking to check the drive for file system errors. If errors found, follow the prompts and it will automatically fix these errors. Then Restart to save this fix. Please share the result. Thank you. 

Also I'd check using SFC /scannow first then the chk dsk command

Hi @crimsom,

Thanks for your further suggestion. First I ran the ePSA suggested by @Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 , but it returned no errors. The system then booted successfully and I did the disc scan you recommended. The scan only took less than a minute, and said it had found no errors.

However, after this, I walked away from the computer for a few minutes to do something else and the screen dimmed, as it's set to do. Normally, however, it brightens again when I return (I have the Tobii eye tracking feature that can tell when I'm in front of the computer). This time it didn't. I was able to increase the screen brightness by using the function key, but the brightness level indicator didn't appear on the screen as normal. I tried to go to the search bar on the start menu, but it never came up, and in fact I found that none of my applications would open successfully. I even tried alt-ctrl-del, but nothing happened. I eventually had to hard shut down the PC, and haven't had a successful boot since then. Unfortunately, this means I haven't been able to run the scannow or chkdsk functions.

I think that having a fresh start could fix the issue.

Hi @Zirilian   your actions are professional and thank you for another excellent diagnostic share. You have confirmed that after successful start-up POST and thereafter Windows has not detected / reported any faults. You have confirmed that POST is having difficulty to complete and that when the system is running, something is causing it to freeze and become unresponsive. As it is possible to boot the m17 R2, once in a blue moon, it is unlikely that a part has failed. 

This information points to intermittent hardware connection (loose cable, etc.) and/or intermittent hardware function problem.  Please remove the rear cover and have a very good look around using a bright light. Start with focus on delivery of power, which has reduced, causing system to freeze and become unresponsive. Sorry not to be more specific, we are limited by this Dell Community user to user interaction. 

The reason why we can't really help much is because we're not you so we can't see issues that you would see.

Let us Know if you find anything.

@Zirilian 

Hi @crimsom,

Thanks as always for your advice, it sounds on-target to me. It may take me a day or two to find the time to open up the computer and check everything, but I’ll definitely come back here and report what I find.

@Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 To the contrary, I think everyone here has been remarkably helpful. Lots of good ideas, and I especially appreciate people’s following up with me as I report the outcome of each test.

Hi @Zirilian  if the visual inspection has not revealed the problem, Please have another attempt to run check disk by clicking on Scan drive. Thank you.