Alienware Aurora randomly crashes while playing games?!

Question

So recently my Aurora started crashing while playing games for more then 15-20 minutes. It did it very often for a while, so I opened it up and cleaned the massive amount of dust that was inside it. It came up with an error message when I turned it on saying something like 'Overclocking failed' and asked me if I wanted to ignore the changes (which I did). This fixed it for a while, but now it's starting to do it again. I'm not sure whether it is just dusty again (although the first time I cleaned it, it had over a years’ worth of dust!)  When it crashes, the screen just goes black and the sound loops. It crashes on games I know it can handle (Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2) Games that my far less powerful laptop can play with no problems.  I had a suspicion that it could be down to my version of Direct X (11) not being compatible with the games/my graphics card/the games.. But I don't really think this is the case.  If all else fails I'll just clean it out again (probably when I get access to a decent vacuum cleaner!)  Thanks for your time  Charlie

joeyalc · Answer

Hey Charlie,

I've had the same problem while playing Mafia 2. Have you installed GPU-Z and check the graphics card temps? My solution was that a Dell technician on service call found that the cable clips (near the video cards) were loose and not secured. A cable running from the PSU up into the motherboard passing the lowest graphics card was obstructing the fan in the video card causing it not to spin, and made it overheat . My PC, while playing games, would be fine for 10-15 mins then crash to a black screen with static in the speakers then shut down/restart. Hope this helps.

p.s for the overclock message you could download CPU-Z and CPU Burn and run them simultaneously. Check the speed of your CPU at idle, during CPU burn and after (only run CPU burn for 1 minute) to see the effects. This will confirm whether your CPU hasn't been or has had the overclock fail. In that case, time to call Dell tech support and overclock that for you.

CharlieSalter · Answer

Thanks for the feedback!

Where can I download "CPU-Z" from?

Given that I'm not on warranty, would you say it's worth paying to renew my warranty and then getting tech support to fix it? Or is this a problem I could fix myself?

MettwurstJunkie · Answer

... Where can I download 'CPU-Z' from? ......      http://www.cpuid.com/

CharlieSalter · Answer

Oh and I pressed F8 during boot and ran all the tests to detect a problem, and it all came back fine. It's still crashing while playing any game, every time I play for more than 15-20 minutes. Installing the new Bois has made it quieter and it now boots up faster however!

CharlieSalter · Answer

I installed the latest BOIS and made sure that my graphics card driver is up to date, thoroughly cleaned the inside of the PC and the problem is still persisting!

I just downloaded CPU-Z, and I'm not sure how I know if it is broken or not... What should it look like?!

I really want to get this problem fixed without giving loads of money to Dell to solve a issue that is probably very simple! Please help!

CharlieSalter · Answer

I'm still having this stupid problem. It is very frustrating, I didn't expect a computer of this power and price to behave like this.

patnpet · Answer

Hi Charlie - have you had any luck with this problem???? If not, can you please post your system specs....

Locked Topics – Alienware General

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