The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Alienware M17x R4 - wont boot .. what next? Upgrade/repair?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Warlox, Feb 24, 2017.

  1. Warlox

    Warlox Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I got an alienware M17x R4 donated to me since it's not working anymore. When it turns on it displays a black screen and beeps continously (1 beep repeated with a 2 second delay). This indicates a motherboard failure. If I turn it off (hold power for 5 sec) and turn it on again like 100 times, it sometimes boots. I've purged the static, tried running the diagnostics (it wont since it wont boot), reseated the ram and hard drives, and more with no luck. I updated the BIOS drivers to A12 when I got it running once (reboot shut it down again and I havent gotten it started again yet). Odds are I need to replace the motherboard.

    Questions:
    1. is it definitely the motherboard that needs replacement? It seems to run fine if it ever boots...
    2. if I have to replace the motherboard, should I (could I) upgrade it?
    3. best place to buy the motherboard? I've seen a couple places for ~$320 USD. I'm in Canada though...would be nice to get a canadian seller.
    4. Other simple (i.e. cheap) but effective upgrades to do since I'm in there?

    I'd like to spend less than $500 on this thing...maybe a little more. But it doesnt seem worth it to drop over a grand on it when I could likely find a newer model used for less.

    Thoughts?
     
    Warlox, Feb 24, 2017
    #1
  2. woodzstack

    woodzstack Alezka Computers , Official Clevo reseller.

    Reputations:
    1,201
    Messages:
    3,495
    Likes Received:
    2,593
    Trophy Points:
    231
    I love that laptop....

    Reset the CPU.
    Try without the battery and just the PSU to the wall...
    shake the laptop to see if anything might be lodged inside somewhere.
    Check the Keyboard and mouse cables are plugged in properly.

    These are things that come to mind if the laptop is still good, yet has some random symptom.
    Better then nothing.
     
    woodzstack, Feb 28, 2017
    #2