M14x issue

Hi guys, new here. Having quite the issue with my M14x, hoping to get some insight to the problem. It all started with windows logging that it was down clocking my CPU randomly a few days ago. I went into alienware chat(all of a sudden no longer available) and the tech had me install latest bios and chipset drivers. Okay, nothing changed. Last night, I closed the lid(didn't turn off laptop) and went to sleep. Woke up this morning, popped open the lid, and windows took about 7 minutes to wake up and load. I thought nothing of it and restarted laptop. It took approximately 15 minutes from windows loading screen to finished loading. I used alienrespawn to restore factory image next, and upon a long windows load(still), Every single thing I opened took anywhere from 45 seconds to 3 minutes to load. Even Firefox would hang for 15 seconds between page loads. Loaded up resource manager and noticed 3 things:

1) CPU draw was never over 3% - cooling fan never even had to spin up
2) While looking at the active processes under the CPU tab, random processes would become red and show 'not responding' for a while and then return to normal. None of the processes were related(explorer.exe, the .exe for command center, iTunes.exe to name a few).
3) The HDD never read/wrote above about 2MB/sec.

I proceeded to begin installing system mechanic. Half way through install, I got a C0000006 error. Clicked okay, and was greeted with a BSOD and a system restart. Upon restart, I was met with an error saying no bootable device could be found. HDD shows in bios, and passed the short self test.

I'm very sorry for the long post. The laptop has the 1.5gb gt555, the 2.0 i7, and 6gb ram with 500gb HDD

 

My guess would be that it is a HDD issue.

 

Try the PSA, if it comes up with any errors please let us know.