Alienware m17xR3 freezes up when being plugged or unplugged!

Received my replacement Alienware m17xR3 with GTX560m in March of 2012 and everything was fine until these past 6 months, when my laptop started giving me the "Plugged in, Not Charging" notification every once in a while. Usually I would just disconnect and reconnect the charger a few times and eventually it would start charging.


As of these past two weeks, whenever I plug or unplug the charger from the laptop, my laptop just freezes up. The only way to restart is to Hard restart by holding the power button in for 5 seconds, and pretty much lose whatever I was working on.

I really need some help on this as I paid $2000 and my warranty expired like 6 months ago. The laptop is in perfect condition and never been dropped or anything like that.


Any help is appreciated.

 

This could be anything from a bad battery/PSU to a faulty motherboard. I'd extend your warranty. It will cost you money either way - how much is up to you. I believe the warranty extension is approximately $299 for a year of basic hardware warranty. The battery and the power supply is approximately $200 themselves. It may be worth just buying the warranty and being covered for anything else it may be.

I'm not sure if the Alienware representatives on this forum will assist members who do not have warranty. Hopefully they do, but I don't think they can. It may conflict with their policy.

Maybe other members who have experienced similar issues can provide you with a solution. Hopefully it's a simple fix.

 

Thanks man, I know Alienware Reps kept calling non-stop before my warranty expired, and wanted me to renew for like $500, and I passed.

Just hope someone reads this and can provide a fix. I have a soldering station and have no problem taking my laptop apart if and replacing whatever needs to be replace as need be. Just this is really puzzling me, as I have no clue what is doing this

On a side not, my CPU has been also getting limited power it seems. I been run CPU-Z lately as my computer seems laggy, and noticed my CPU is being limited, and only runs on 8x (797mhz) multiplier, and other times it will go on 16x. I usually have to restart the computer to fix this, and this has all been happening these past two weeks.

I took out my battery and ran straight from the power plug, and my computer was only running at an 8x multiplier and would not go over 798mhz. Maybe this is telling me exactly what I fear, which is possibly the power plug pin on my motherboard has become defective. I'm not really sure.

If anybody has any ideas on what I can do to pinpoint this problem, that would help tremendously. I have no problem running whatever diagnostic or test you want me to.

Also, I ran Alien Autopsy and its showing everything is running good, says my battery capacity is at 60% it full capacity, but still good.

Any help or advice from the NBR community would be appreciated!

 

Hi there, you are in a bind there! Without a warranty it could turn expensive to find out just which component is causing the problem. I know that some countries allow a 'grace' period in which you can renew the warranty, here in the UK it is not an option. You have to renew within the existing warranty period.

You can simply take the GPU out of the equation by removing it. I do know that the NV card changes power state when the cord is disconnected down to a very slow speed, making gaming almost impossible. It could be this state change causing the lock up? A long shot but easy enough to test.

With the strange CPU behaviour it could be that as well having a similar issue, or it is a MB/PSU issue as stated by J.Dre.

Tricky one

 

PROBLEM SOLVED with New AC Adapter!!!

I figured since I had no way to figure out what was the problem, I would start off by trying the cheapest method, then slowly going up until my problem was solved, basically the deductive reasoning method.

Ordered a refurbed AC adapter off fleabay for $24 and it just came in to. Plugged it in and out of my laptop 20x and no "Plugged in, not charging notification" at all...

My computer has returned to becoming the beast it once was, or a shadow of it's mere self at the very least!!!

Thanks for your guys help. I hope this helps whoever else has this problem.

Hasta la vista, baby!

 

Power issues tend to give you funky issues, glad it was a cheap fix and not a motherboard/battery (much more expensive). This is why I have a spare 240W Flextronics AC adapter, in case of funky issues like what you are experiencing.

 

That's great to hear. I'm glad it was only the PSU... If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask, we're only a post away.

 

Cool, success stories are always nice to hear