Computer Shutting Down Randomly, While Plugged In

Been enjoying my new Alienware M14x, but lately, it has started to freeze and shut down randomly.

I was starting to play Rift the other day, and it just turned off, now when I say I was playing it, I was on the log in pop up. As soon as I hit enter, the entire machine went black. It took 5 minutes before it would turn back on.

I have had numerous freezes on boot ( I have the SSD from Dell, its a LiteOn, not samsung like I was led to believe when I paid extra for it ).

I have had the machine just freeze up randomly.

However the most disturbing are the random power offs, everything just turns off and it takes a few minutes before I can turn back on. Now I am not running the computer under heavy stress, or running any overclocking programs.

Most of the random shut down issues have been since I installed the new bios.

There doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason, it will just go down, even opening it after having it shut for awhile will 3 out 10 times cause the machine to just turn off randomly upon opening.

I dont know if its an issue with the ssd, or the power, or what. Any clues what might be going on? Anyone else experience the same thing? Oh and my laptop is always plugged in, so its not the off the cord issue that it seems others are having as I am on a power outlet, even changed power strips, and outlets and still get the same thing.

Alienware M14x 2720qm 8gb 1600 ram 256 gb SSD 3gb 555

 

I say call Dell, don't give yourself a headache, let them worry about it

 

What my good friend Take said. We go way back. I'd do what he says.

 

If you don't want to wait for a Dell support call, you may want to try removing the intel management and intel rapid storage technology stuff.

Is it shutting down, or is it locking up?

 

Its completely powering itself off AND freezing.

The Power Off thing is newish, and is getting more and more common. Just trying to get on to check this thread, the machine turned off three times in a space of a few minutes.

 

Comrade,

When the unit shuts off, are you typing on the keyboard or using the touch pad by chance?

If so, mine was doing this and I requested that they send me to a new unit...

 

Why yes, its weird I didnt think about it before, but most times I am in the middle of typing or mousing over something....

Any idea what is causing it?

I talked to tech support last night and he did a remote call and did the usual checks and thought he fixed it, but as we were finishing the machine died. He said he will talk to a level 3 tech about getting a replacement battery. I dont know if the battery is the issue since it is when I am plugged in, so I dont know what could be the issue.

 

hi folks,

i encountered the same here. seems to me like its since Bios A03. Before i had no Problems.
tho my machine behaves a bit different, it shuts down but reboots after a few secs. no bluescreen or entries in the windows logs.

i tested it out to the point that it only appears when:

1. energy setting is on high performance
2. machine is not on heavy load (surfing, music,...)

right now i changed the minimum cpu throttle on max performance profile. it doenst happen on the balanced energy profile and not on high energy profile with good load (heavy programms or games).


it all seems like a energy/acpi/cpu bug since Bios A03 which only occurs under specific situations (see above).

 

soo right now i happened again. i forgot to change the powerplan from Maximum Power to Balanced after Gaming. so setting cpu min. power doenst help it.

I´d like to downgrade the Bios to A01 to see if it behaves the same, but need to find it first.

any confirmations on this yet?

 

tried it out with A01. Happened again. So nothing to the BIOS.
Further it happened to me again while Balanced Profile while running on Battery.

Next thing will be open it machine, check all connections.
If that doenst help ill get re-replace a 4GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM against the original 2GB 1600 to see if the memory has a problem.

 

i think i found the solution:

after i downgraded NVidia Driver to the original Dell Version, same with Intel Video and Sound Drivers, opened the Unit and checked all Connections it seems to run again fine.

didnt get any problems now for a few days.
most propably its faulty due the nvidia driver.

 

I confuse, I thought the topic was "While Plugged In" so if it is plugged in, then the machine still shutting down randomly? As I remember someone reply me on the "random shut down while on battery after update to BIOS A03(?)" topic said If plugged in then I would be fine, so that why I buy the laptop because I intend to use it for desktop replacement.

And now if u guys were saying that it will random shut down while plugged in, then what the point of ordering it? or what the point of being a Gaming laptop if it shut down when the CPU/GPU try to climb.

 

Relax dude, what he's telling is that he updated the drivers on his graphics card and that may cause the problem. After reverting to the default drivers all is good. Problems with bios A03 is different kind. Check your bios when you receive your M14x..

 

thats correct alex, thanks for clearing.

this topic is not about the battery gaming issue. its about shutdowns in idle while plugged on line.

 

just a small update:

it wasnt the nvidia driver. reboots occured again.

i switched the RAM and noticed that error get less, but are not gone. now i reverted from 2GB 1600MHz(orig.) and 4GB Kingston 1333MHz to 2x4GB 1600MHz that came with the M14x.

For now i didnt get any problems. The 4GB Kingston runs fine in my Thinkpad R400 (but at 1066). So maybe its a timing/incompatibility with this Kingston RAM or the unsymetric (2+4GB) usage.

 

Okay, thanks for the clearing too, but as I have fear and because of I order the laptop after the BIOS update, now I got the latest one A03, Is there any way to revert back to A01? And Is it safe to do so?

 

Wrong Topic but anyway:

i successfully reverted vom A03 to A01 to get closer in error searching. despite that i wouldnt know why you would want to downgrade.
yes im aware of the perfomance drop on battery since A03, but still better then killing your machine or having to perform a surgery on it while on the road, because A01 let you draw too much power outta the battery.