PhasersOnStun

updated

8 years ago

P

PhasersOnStun

1 Rookie

•

3 Posts

1

2508

December 26th, 2018 20:00

Alienware 18 CPU Crashes During Stress Test

I've got two Alienware 18 computers (both now out of warranty) that crash after about 30 seconds into Dell Support Assist's CPU stress test.  One computer has an Intel i7-4930MX @ 3.00 GHz 3.10GHz processor, the other has an Intel i7-4940MX @ 3.10GHz 3.10GHz processor.  Support Assist shows all other components, including the GPUs, check out okay and that only the CPUs cause the computers to crash.  According to Support Assist, there are no out of date drivers on these systems, although I note when I put in the service tag number in for both machines on the Dell Support website, Dell only provides chipset drivers for the 32 bit version of Windows 10, even though I'm using the 64 bit version of the OS.  I'm therefore left wondering if this might have something to do with the CPUs crashing these computers.  I also note that the chipset drivers are quite old, circa 2015, and were designed to work on Windows 8.1.  These computers were purchased with Windows 8.1 installed, but I subsequently upgraded the OS to Windows 10.  I can't find any chipset drivers for my Alianware 18s specifically to run on Windows 10.

When the computers crash I have to press the power button to restart them and no record of exactly what is causing the CPUs to crash is listed in the Support Assist app (which isn't surprising since the app never gets a chance to finish testing the CPUs before the computers crash - the app only gets as far as analysing the CPUs and preparing the test when the crashes occur).  I've tried reinstalling the chipset drivers for both machines using the drivers from the Dell Support website but that hasn't helped.  I also tried uninstalling the CPU drivers using Windows 10 Device Manager but after the OS reinstalls them the problem still remains.  I've tried using Intel's own diagnostic program to stress test the CPUs but that also causes the computers to crash.  Any advice to help me pintpoint the problem and find a solution would be very appreciated.  Both computers are running on Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit.  Thanks.

  • PhasersOnStun

    1 Rookie

    •

    3 Posts

    2279

    1

    Posted December 27th, 2018 02:00

    Just spoke to Dell tech support on the phone and the upshot is: the reason for both computers crashing is because the CPU is overheating (one gets to about 97 deg C and the other to about 93 deg C) during the stress test and both computers are shutting down (crashing, as I put it) as a safety response.  So I need to replace the thermal paste on the CPUs, which is going to be fun because I've never done that before on these machines, but these computers are built with user serviceability of parts in mind, right, so how hard can it be?  At least I know now what to do - that's the thing: as long as you know a) what the problem is and b) how to fix it then you can relax (sort of).

     

    The tech support guy at Dell was really helpful, btw :) 10/10

  • shokuhenoor

    1 Message

    2251

    0

    Posted December 28th, 2018 14:00

    A new cooling system like water fan cooler will help you, maybe.