M17x R4, BIOS locked, no password set, BSOD

I forgot to add, that when I boot into Start-up Repair it doesnt come up with AlienRespawn, just the normal windows 7 one.

Hi @brownys  welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell support. 

Your Alienware M17x R4 Drivers & Downloads says the most recent BIOS version A15 is available. Drivers & Downloads also say Older BIOS versions are available. Never try to install BIOS updates over the internet, and read the Installation instructions. 

The Blue Screen should include more information about what triggered its appearance. Is it possible to share this additional information? 

Internet search found Alienware M17x R4 Specification.pdf which says OS(C:) boot drive could be installed on one of two SATA HDD, or installed on one of two SATA SSD. 

Press and hold F8 key gives access to the operating system - so that is good news. Please run Check Disk to find and automatically fix any file errors on the OS(C:) boot drive. Using the Chkdsk Utility | Dell US Then Restart (not Shut Down) so that changes are saved. 

Does the Alienware logo splash screen appear, so that press and hold F12 key will open boot menu window? If yes, use up and down keys to find Diagnostics and press enter key to run. ePSA Pre Boot System Assessment Dell Overview (Official Dell Tech Support) - YouTube 

Please share update. Thank you. 

[This user does not work for Dell and volunteers their free time. Please remember to say thank you by clicking on Kudos as this user's only reward.] 

Thanks for the reply, yes I can get into the splash screen and run diagnostics it all runs smoothly no problems except the battery. Check disk pending, however I have ran this before and it came back with no errors but said it cannot compile or something with error code 50. I will update with further correspondence. The blue screen comes on for a second and then instantly kills the computer back to alienware screen.

The BSOD could be from a hardware failure rather than a driver. We'd really need the BSOD code to help pinpoint it. Sometimes installing the driver on a bad piece of hardware is what sets it off. 

If the BIOS is locked then there are people on ebay who can unlock it for you but it's strange that it doesn't give you the option to enter the password. If you had a bad BIOS flash then you can try a blind flash to a previous version. This can often fix a corrupted BIOS or a 1-Beep error. Flash at your own risk though. 

https://www.alienowners.com/threads/alienware-m17x-r4-1-beep-error-code-solved.8519/

Personally, I'd first remove things like the GPU (if you have the 60hz panel) and all but 1 memory stick and see if the problem persists. Then I would do a clean Windows installation. 

Hi @brownys thank you for sharing update. Something is stopping CHKDSK completion. Please power down. Wait 10 minutes and then boot back into operating system. Please run Reliability Monitor and wait for it to create timeline of events. The blue screen creates red critical events and there should be many critical events reporting the same error. 

Blue Screen Error Code 50 usually occurs after the installation of faulty hardware or in the event of failure of installed hardware (usually related to defective RAM). Blue Screen Error Code 50 - Microsoft Community

However, your Blue Screen Error Code 50 says "cannot compile or something", "The blue screen comes on for a second and then instantly kills the computer back to Alienware screen." BIOS requires RAM to work. Please try and capture the brief blue screen text using camera in movie mode, and share this image. Thank you. 

Hello, thanks for replying. I will try what you suggested and will reply with extra information. Is there any way to get the log of a BSoD or anything because I was also wondering what it displays. Thanks again for the reply wasn’t sure if anyone was going to reply. Also I’m sure I’d be able to find a way to unlock it, however InsydeFlash has their BIOS files protected by an installer and in multiple dependencies so there’s no way to edit for flash. If there are other ways to remove the password in the BIOS that might work to get access to the installed version. If it is not a hardware error, my guess is that it is corrupted and for some reason some error is making it think it’s locked by a password but it’s actually not, the actual gui text is says “Password?”. I’m not too sure but I ran diagnostics from and checked the ‘thorough scan’ and scanned everything and it all passed perfectly lmao, however I am running a CHKDSK right now and it has been running for hours 45% and still 0 bad file records and 2 EA records . By the way chkdsk has never helped me  with anything icl haha. Thanks again for replying Matty been stuck with this for days!

Hello. Thanks for the reply crimsom. This is what the BSoD displays for a brief second. 

STOP: c000021a the initial session process or system process terminated with a status of 0x00000000 (0xc0000428 0x00100998). The system has been shut down.

Hi @brownys  thanks for sharing image. However, there is considerable image pixilation, cannot access the error message despite having used picture enhancement application. 

Any chance of sharing the text? 

Hi @brownys  thank you for sharing blue screen text.

STOP code c000021a, status 0x00000000 (0xc0000428 0x00100998) is usually created in response to Windows Update. 

Blue screen logs are listed in event viewer, and Reliability Monitor will create timeline of events. Please look/search for STOP code c000021a, and its event should reveal the root cause of this Fatal System Error. Please share the text in this critical event. Thank you. 

Hello, I ran the event viewer like you said, there are quite alot of bugs and warnings and errors in relation to windows update (wusa) in the dropdown 'Windows Logs> Setup' however, no code c000021a, however there are 2 bug check errors,

Basically if you are unable to read general description due to compression, the first states that The bugcheck was: 0xc000021a (0xfffff8a00844c780, 0x0000000000000000, 0xffffffffc0000428, 0x0000000000100810) A dump was saved in C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP

The next picture and error of bugcheck happened simultaneously and that states "Unable to produce a minidump file from the full dump file.".

If there is anything else I can look for just let me know,

Thanks again crimsom!

I feel like if i updated to a more stable version of windows like 8.1 and reinstall my driver software and update windows updates etc it would work, however i am unable to update or anything.

Man, there are SO many errors ive never seen anything like it

Where do I find the fatal system error of the STOP code, I am unsure where to look as there are many and there are many STOP codes also

When was the last time you reinstalled Windows from scratch? My suggestion would be to buy a nice new 2.5" SSD and do a clean Windows installation.