Alienware 17 R3 - need help

http://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/en/cadhs1/product-support/product/alienware-17-r3/diagnose

I am not even experienced user, but have you tried using Dell support at the above link. It says it will diagnose the problem.

I have used Dell support. Most of the time my computer would freeze during the scan without letting it finish. The one time it got through it completely it suggested I run Windows defender for a possible virus. Last few times I ran it it had encountered some difficulty which prevented results from being uploaded.

I've been working on the laptop all day today and things seem to get only worse. It's back to freezing randomly where hard reset is the only thing I can do. Also I think the slowing down is because when I did factory reset it rebooted in on my HDD drive instead of SSD. Although my SSD is picked up by bios, it's not appearing at all on my disk management.

Had high expectation for Alienware instead got a pile of frustration and disappointment.

Had my AW15R2 in early January 2016. Uninstalling the Dell Support Assist software seemed to fix it for me.

Test it for a couple of days. You most likely have the installer anyway, so nothing lost. Also, the DSA is only used by Dell technicians to get into your AW, so if you haven't contacted them yet, the DSA is pretty much useless.

Hope it helps. ^_^

that sounds terrifying as mine is on its way. I have read somewhere about free fall censor, something that should be turned off? I think? There are too many articles about installing OS on SSD and it now showing up on disk management. search free fall censor along with ssd os. see if it comes up with a solution.

Update#2: After the computer started freezing randomly after the last factory reset - I again did a factory reset from the USB. I have downloaded the suggested drivers from the dell website, but deferred Windows Updates. It seemed like the laptop started freezing after I ran Windows updates after previous reset. I did download dell support assist - but have had no issues from it so far. 

I was able to transfer my OS from my HDD to SSD using AOEMI Partition Assistant. That improved boot times from restart.

So far I'm about 18 hours since the last factory reset and have had no freezes or BSOD. I've started downloading games and hopeful I've got all these issues behind me. We'll see. 

Update #3: sigh after a day of no issues, the computer is back to randomly feeling every 15-30 minutes. Support assist just says computer unexpectedly shut down.

when the computer isn't crashing, the wifi disconnects after 10 minutes of WoW or other games. I have all the latest drivers/bios available installed.

First and last time I buy anything from dell.

The one thing Dell has over all its competitors is the support. Call them and they'll either fix it or replace your system promptly man.

Forums are for annoyancies and questions, sounds to me like your system is flawed so just get them onto it.

I didn't understand it either - and I still don't - but I've faced your issues with my AW15, and it all got fixed by uninstalling Dell Support Assist.

I'd leave it in the morning to render some movie or 3D stuff, and then I come back home in the evening to find that it had rebooted at some point in the day, with a message about some unexpected shut down.

I'd be playing a game, and it'd BSOD. I'd be surfing the web, and it'd BSOD. I'd be typing in Word, and it'd BSOD. I'd leave it idling, not connected to the Internet, and it'd still BSOD.

I'm not guaranteeing that uninstalling Dell Support Assist will solve all of your problems, but I still don't see how it'd hurt to try, at least for a couple of days. Like you've mentioned, you have the DSA installer anyway, so if your rig still acts up without the DSA, then you can simply install it back and ring Dell up again.