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624
September 23rd, 2022 16:00
x17 R2, Strange (overheating?) shutdown issue
I just had this month-old x17 R2 laptop repaired by a technician (new motherboard installed) due to a faulty adapter frying the old motherboard - it now operates without almost any issue, except a very strange shutdown problem. It can run low-resource operations just fine, but within minutes to seconds of running anything that requires medium-high resource costs (such as running the menu screen of a steam game) it shuts down. The shutdown is the normal black screen with the words "shutting down", and it's able to be turned right back on afterwards with all processes closed.
What's strange is that, not only has it never had overheating issues before, but running both SpeedFan and the Alienware Command Center to monitor internal temperatures shows nothing overheating at all; the highest temperature when it shutdown was the graphics card at 68C°. The fans spin up just fine with relation to the amount of heat everything is generating, and audibly turn on before it shuts down. All 4 fans passed all tests I tried, and they spit out a lot of heat.
As a side note, the Alienware Command Center is unable to control the fan speed at all with its thermal settings. I don't think this is too relevant as the fans operate just fine anyway, and it seems like this is a common problem based on a simple google search.
Edit: As another small side note, I've occasionally been getting the BSOD "RERENCE_BY_POINTER" error. It occurs randomly and infrequently, but it's done it multiple times now.


crimsom
9 Technologist
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6.1K Posts
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September 23rd, 2022 19:00
Hi @Arkos welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum.
Dell assigns a local contractor to install parts and then run diagnostics to ensure that repaired laptop works with no faults, and their work is 100% guaranteed under Dell warranty. Users should report a bad repair so that it can be fixed.
The Blue Screen Stop code: RERENCE_BY_POINTER and What failed: ??????, requests this information be given to support. Sharing a Blue Screen photograph with English text would have been good so that the What failed information was revealed.
Please run windows Reliability Monitor and wait for event timeline to be created. Please look at date and time for the reports of Blue Screen. Open event to see root cause of this issue. How to use Windows Reliability Monitor to identify software issues | Dell US
Arkos
1 Rookie
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5 Posts
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September 23rd, 2022 20:00
*Small typo. I meant "Reference_by_pointer". I'll take a photo next time the error occurs.
Thus far, no diagnostics run by the technician or myself seem to find anything wrong with the system. I've run all SupportAssist diagnostics and reinstalled Windows to no avail.
On the note of the BSOD in Window's Event Viewer - it doesn't supply a description, it just gives its problem signature which I'll post below.
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
Code: 18
Parameter 1: 0
Parameter 2: ffffd68ceaaa2050
Parameter 3: 10
Parameter 4: 1
OS version: 10_0_22000
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 768_1
OS Version: 10.0.22000.2.0.0.768.101
Locale ID: 1033