Alienware M14x won't boot after BSOD!

Well for starters the title kinda says it all. My laptop stopped booting after I Uninstalled my graphics card from device manager. I got a blue-screen when I was about to restart and afterwards it would never boot again. I tried getting to safe mode but it gives me "no bootable device found". But my hard drive is detected in the bios. So I took the hard drive out and it works on another computer which had me confused. Now I'm lost and don't know what to do... So any suggestions or answer to help would be helpful and I would be truly grateful.

PS: I'm new to the forums and I just thought to post in the alienware section. So if I'm in wrong forum or section I'm sorry.

 

If you can get into the BIOS, try changing from "Secure Boot" to "Legacy Option ROM" and that may help if it is not already set that way.

Which graphics card did you uninstall in Device Manager? I don't know why this would cause a no bootable device error, unless a sudden shutdown/reboot corrupted something. Did you other computer actually boot your Windows installation from this drive, or it was merely visible when connected to the other system?

Do you have Windows 7 or Windows 8? You need to try to get Windows into repair mode and run the Startup Repair. Try pressing F12 at POST and see if you have that option available. If you do, run it. If not and you are running Windows 7 you can easily download an ISO from the web to create a bootable repair DVD or USB stick, unless Alienware provided you with Windows 7 Installation media. If they did, you can use that. You may end up needing to use it if a Windows Startup Repair fails.

If you are running Windows 8, it might end up being more complicated if you do not have an installation media. Did you create AlienRespawn media? If you have Windows 8, you may end up needing to Respawn.

 

It was already set to legacy boot so that didn't work. And I Uninstalled the Nvidia graphics card then got a bluescreen a couple seconds later. When I put my hard drive in the other computer it worked and booted to Windows 7. I'm not sure how I would do a startup repair because after the loading screen it tells me no bootatble image found then I have to press a button to restart(endless loop). And I do have a AlienRespawn media but the thing is it doesn't detect the hard drive when I start it (same with Windows 7 Installation CD).

PS: Nice play of words at the end "may end up needing to respawn". Sounded pretty awesome together

 

Is the BIOS set to RAID or AHCI, and does that setting match the protocol that was used when Windows was installed? I has to be something simple that got changed if the Windows installation on that drive boots properly when that drive installed in another computer. The fact that the drive is visible in the BIOS confirms the SATA connection, so that is good. What you did certainly would not cause any kind of physical damage, so it almost has to be a setting of some sort. Does your system have only one internal drive? If more than one, have you looked at boot priority to confirm everything is as it should be there?

 

It was set to RAID at the time of installation and it's been set to that all the time. I only have one HDD. But the boot is Hard Drive, CD drive, network.

 

Try putting Intel RST F6 drivers on a USB thumb drive. Run Windows Setup and choose the option to add drivers. Point it to the USB thumb drive to load the RST F6 drivers. See if Windows recognizes your HDD after loading the RST F6 drivers. If it still does not, then I don't know what is causing the problem and without handling the machine to investigate I don't know what else to suggest at the moment.

 

Thanks for that suggestion but sadly, it didn't work. When trying to do that I get a warning or error saying that I need 32bit or 64bit singed drivers for it to install right.

 

You should not be getting that error message. Something is goofed up with your BIOS. If you have Secure Boot disabled signed hardware and drivers are not required. It seems like Secure Boot is enabled and that might explain your drive not being seen by Windows, yet booting fine in another machine.

Do you have an M14x or a new Alienware 14? I don't have either one to do any testing with. See if you can set your BIOS like the top section in this image. Then see if your system will boot correctly, or allow you to install Windows. Windows 7 does not support Secure Boot.

 

I have a M14x and my boot is set just like that. So the issue is unknown to me but someone recommended that I do a full format on the hard drive and I'm going to try that to see where I get.Will update you if it works but as far as MY BIOS... How would one get to fixing it?

 

Your BIOS may be OK, just asking questions to try to understand what I can't see or touch. I should have said "maybe something is goofed with your BIOS" and left out the "maybe" part of the comment by accident.

You have something odd taking place. If you can delete all of the partitions in Windows setup to where the drive is showing as 100% unallocated disk space, (meaning no partitions left,) try installing Windows to the unallocated disk space as shown in the fifth image in the album below. If Windows setup still does not work, then I am stumped and suspicious about the integrity of the HDD.

<iframe class='imgur-album' width='100%' height="550" frameborder='0' src="http://imgur.com/a/KrelN/embed"></iframe>

 

Sorry about the issues that you have been having with the machine. It should not act like that. It seems to me that the Windows Installation has been corrupted and it would be a good idea to start from scratch. Let us know how that goes, hopefully it'll fix everything.
If you turn on the machine and press F12 several times and then select "Repair your Computer" you can return the machine to factory settings using AlienRespawn.

 

If what Luis suggested does not work, try running the Dell PSA test at boot. Press F12 and choose the diagnostic option and see if any errors show up. Your drive(s) do not need to be bootable for this procedure, as the ePSA diagnostic is incorporated in the BIOS. If your hard drive is failing, this test may reveal that problem. If anything fails, you will be given a code at the end of the test and you can save a log file to capture a full report. If you are still under warranty, have this information handy when you call 1-800-ALIENWARE for hardware support. If the tests all pass, use the information from my last post and delete all partitions so the volume is entirely unallocated disk space and try installing Windows. Let Windows setup create and format the partitions it needs using the unallocated disk space.

 

Now I have the hugest smile on my face cause my computer is back to the way it use to be and hard drive working exactly how it should. Thanks Mr. Fox and Luis for your responses and help on my crisis. Glad to have my M14x back and ready to game once again.

PS: For anyone else with this weird problem or issue, a full format worked for me and hopefully it does for anyone else with this problem.

 

That's awesome! I'm glad everything is working fine now! Here is a thread that will help you recover most of the cool Alienware features.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...re-look-feel-after-clean-install-windows.html