m17 R4, not booting up

Question

Hello, I recently encountered a problem. My Pc turns on but will not continue booting. The rainbow keyboard lights continue to Illuminate in a wave pattern. The alien head logo on the back of the screen is Illuminated. The fans turn on and stay on. But nothing on the screen. The lights never stop. I left overnight and the entire 8 hours no change. Never booted up. It has been two weeks since I Iast used the pc. When i turned it on everything was fine. Then i opened my picture folder and the pc froze after 10 minutes of running. Absolutely no response. Control alt delete, nothing responded. I waited. And still frozen. I hard power off. And waited. When i turned it on. This problem started. Not booting up. Only lights and fans on. I followed the self help of removing the main battery and reconnected after one hour of everything powering off. The problem remains.

Thank you for your insight and help.

AdmiralTio · Answer

My Pc is an Alienware M17 R4. 17.3' FHD Intel i7 10870H. 16GBRam. RTX3070, Windows 11 Model number AWM17R4-7832WHT-PUS

crimsom · Answer

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

The screen display requires RAM memory to be installed and detected. POST (Power-On Self-Test) should give Diagnostic Light Codes (Red, Blue). When screen display works and Alienware logo splash screen appears, press and hold down the F12 key to enter boot menu. Use Up and Down keys to move cursor and select Diagnostics, then press Enter key to run ePSA. How to Run a Preboot Diagnostic Test on a Dell Computer | Dell US.

When boot into Windows operating system is successful, please visit Diagnostics and run the Full Test (40 minutes). The Full Test will thoroughly analyse your PC and can detect hardware problems.

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 event that reports operating system failed to boot (or similar). Please open and share this event's Root cause and Microsoft error code within next post, so that Dell Community can see what you see. Copy and Paste event text is encouraged.

AdmiralTio · Answer

Hello @crimsom

Thank you for a reply. I followed your instructions. When I performed a No POST test. My computer powers on and the my rgb keybord continues changing colors in a wave pattern fom left to right. The keybord does not respond to caps lock or num lock. I don't hear beeps. I do not see a boot up picture on the screen. My alien logo on the rear of my display is Illuminated.

I held the power off button for 30 seconds. The power button flashed twice when i continued to hold it down. When i let go after the 2 red flashing the power button then flashed red 4 times. I did not see any blue on the power button.

Other than this i have no response from my computer. No beeps. No response.

crimsom · Answer

Hi @AdmiralTio thank you for sharing update that the screen is reluctant to work.

Your Hard Reset (drain residual flea power) might have restored the laptop function. This is a good troubleshooting activity. Please note that the full Hard Reset option includes careful Battery disconnection and removal.

Please use most recent version of HMDI cable to connect laptop to external TV or monitor. Does the external screen display what would have been seen on the laptop's screen. If yes, the GPU is working, but the laptop screen may have a fault or no electrical connection. Shine flashlight at angle to laptop screen, if there is a faint image, the screen's backlight has failed and a replacement screen panel assembly is required. If there is no laptop image, it seems that the electrical cable should be replaced.

If not confident about working inside the laptop, there is the $100 Dell Laptop Repair | Dell Repair | Laptop Repair | Notebook Service Center (parts-people.com).

AdmiralTio · Answer

I performed a Full Hard Rest. (Powered off computer. Removed undercover of laprop. Carefully remove battery cable. Pressed power button and held for 30 seconds to remove residual power. Reconnected battery cable reinstalled undercover panel. Plugged n AC cable to pc. And pressed the power button)

The PC turned on with no display. Only rgb keyboard with a rolling rainbow wave visual effect pattern from left towards right.

I connected a external display via HDMI. No image on laptop and no image on the external display.

AdmiralTio · Answer

Any suggestions on why my laptop is doing this? I have power. But NO POST.

RonRK · Answer

Have you fixed your laptop? I have the same model Alienware M17 R4 but mine has the RTX 3080 video card.

I recently bought this laptop and noticed that it has boot up issues. Sometimes it will boot straight, most of the time it won't.

Once the laptop boots, I can use it with no issues at all. Any benchmark and diagnostic are working fine, it can't detect any issues.

I have tried removing the battery, different chargers and still have this intermittent boot up issue. Very frustrating for a laptop with this spec.

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m17 R4, not booting up

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