BSOD, Lockup, Restarts

Hey Fellas, I have an m17X r2. i7 920xm, 8gb ddr3, samsung 256gb SSD, 5870's in crossfire.

My problem is I've been having these errors. Tech support sucks major and after hours on the phone with them running completely useless tests based off the fact that the implicated problem is in USBHUB.sys and another USB .sys file I can't remember.

I save two of the errors in text after my last talk with tech support because he said after all the tests he'd ran that the last thing to do was reinstall windows. Well my laptop locked up that night while installing cataclysm after going to a midnight open. So that night I did a fresh install of win 7 ultimate 64. I previously downloaded all the latest drivers from dells driver site instead of using my outdated recovery DVD's. I did them in the order I found in threads on this site.

BIOS is A09 and VBIOS is A01. These problems happened before and after updating to these version. I thought perhaps it was me foolishly not changing windows update to install optional drivers because some broadcom USB controller was installed. Since I have reinstalled windows and not those other drivers that can't be the case.

Now I get a different story from tech support every time I call them. As of writing this I'm on hold because the guy has to verify the flag on the account is lifted because I bought this laptop, never opened, from someone on ebay and the warranty is good until 2012. I did the change of ownership form the day I got it and they told me the flag (probably for non-payment) would be released when the change was processed. I spoke with 2 people and had them remotely helping me for hours and now this guy says he needs to check before he can help me.

The last guy said if a fresh install didn't fix it they'd take it in for repairs. The woman this morning wanted me to try a different mouse. Can a mouse even cause BSODs? I'm using the alienware tactx mouse and have never encountered crashes from a mouse.

Here is the error info.. i know it sucks but my dump files were deleted and this mornings crash for some reason didn't get saved.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: fe
BCP1: 0000000000000008
BCP2: 0000000000000006
BCP3: 000000000000000B
BCP4: FFFFFA800B064000
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\120410-13525-01.dmp
C:\Users\Adam\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-20966-0.sysdata.xml


If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1000007e
BCP1: FFFFFFFFC0000005
BCP2: FFFFF880085AF332
BCP3: FFFFF88008E3A658
BCP4: FFFFF88008E39EC0
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\120710-13759-01.dmp
C:\Users\Adam\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-24445-0.sysdata.xml


If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

So again the codes were 0x000000fe and it implicated USBHUB.SYS and in one circumstance another USB .sys.

So do you guys think it's hardware related? I am aware of the hibernate/sleep issue but have hibernate and sleep disabled on the laptop anyways. It happens randomly with no particular reason at all. This morning I was typing a paper for one of my classes and it happened then and I lost a page.

So is it hardware related? Also, how do I go about getting better support than the default morons that I'm guessing are reading off flip cards or some . They don't even have documentation of my errors even though I viewed them both times with the guys I spoke with Monday so I assumed the detailed dump logs were documented and now I don't have them.

Please! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I would love to talk on ventrilo, aim, the phone... whatever! There seem to be a ton of smart people on here with these machines and I'm completely lost. I've built my own desktops and desktops for friends for over a decade and have never had these problems and no nothing of laptops.

My aim is AntiRetardation. Just send a message if it appears I'm offline. If you are down with helping via the phone send me a PM. I really want to fix this and avoid sending it back to them if at all possible.

 

need more information. go to your system properties and from the startup/recovery tab, change to a full kernel dump. Next time the BSOD happens, upload the dump and we can explore.

if you want to view and check it yourself, use this tool:

Download and Install Debugging Tools for Windows
Driver Developer Resources: Debugging Tools for Windows

Download details: Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4

 

The problem is the lockup that happened this morning didn't leave anything but this. That is my problem too, almost half of these events don't get logged and I have no clue why.

Here is the info I saved before reinstalling.

Windows_NT6_BSOD_jcgriff2.zip - Windows Live

This is a link to the info from the sys logs. I'm not sure how to use it unfortunately but some of you may.

The tech support guy just told me that the computer randomly restarting after my install, and not having an error report to look at was not good enough even though they saw my other error logs. So I told him I wanted to speak to his supervisor and now he's got me on hold after saying I have the OK to send it in to them. What the hell will they even do? These things happen at such random intervals that I doubt they're going to have someone sitting there with it on staring at it, right?

This entire time these people act like it isn't a big deal with a $5k laptop. Starting to regret this purchase...

 

First, you have to realize that tech support instructing you to either perform a clean install of W7 or Respawn the system to an out of box state will correct a high number of 'unknown' windows errors. Also, unless your warranty supports software, they will not troubleshoot OS issues. At least this is my understanding from a couple of years ago.

For your specifc issue, answer the following please:

1. What external devices do you have attached to the system via USB? Mouse? HDD?
2. Have you tried disconnecting each USB device 1 by 1 to rule out a conflict?
3. Have you tried a 'respawn' yet?
4. Think back to before this error started - do you remember making any changes (driver, config, etc.)?

Windows crashes can be time consuming to troubleshoot and frustrating. Hang in there and reference the link I posted above - all the tools you need to track this down are there. You just have to become familiar with them first.

 

Prior to my fresh install, which by the way cleared up a lot of space on my SSD, I only used the alienware tactx mouse and that is/was the only USB device connected. I realized that may somehow be the problem so switched to my G5 week ago and still have the problem. Otherwise, nothing else is plugged in except my flash drive which was used only before reinstalling windows to save my downloads/documents.

I don't have respawn.

The only change I made was the driver update from windows update, it was a broadcom usb controller. There were a few more so that was why I decided to just format and start fresh. However, by only installing windows and the newest drivers from dell the laptop shouldn't be doing all this crap still.

Anyways, it's going back which sucks because I have a whopping 2 weeks off in between semesters and I wanted to finally play the WoW xpac and now who knows how long it'll take to get this thing back.

Might just put it back on ebay after I get it repaired. The people at tech support alone are enough to run as far away from this thing as I possibly can.

Thanks for your help though BatBoy. I went through the error log and looked at the events before the restart and nothing stood out to me except windows antimalware changing configuration or something like that.

 

I did a clean OS install and driver rebuild, and before mine was online for Windows updates (which did actually include some driver software, like Bluetooth and I think something related to the infrared driver) it did throw one sudden error that forced a shutdown. With all installs finished and all updates from Microsoft, the problem seemed to stop. But I was all updated to the latest drivers on a clean install, for whatever that's worth.

 

Well I have until tomorrow to get my box to send it to the depot and have yet another mouse plugged into the machine and see if I can get a decent kernel dump this time with some real info, or better yet maybe nothing will happen.

How do you guys deal with tech support though? I've run almost every diagnostic I can think of and nothing is showing me useful data. This crap just happens at the weirdest times. I want a new motherboard, but when I call tech support it is like talking in circles. I should just record one of my calls with them and just play it the next time I call because it seriously seemed like the person on the phone didn't take any time to look at what has previously been done and/or the person I worked with before didn't write anything down. It's so bizarre to get a different story from the tech support person every time you call... ??

 

Ah, that's 21st century "tech support" unfortunately. I know exactly what you're talking about. They will never give the kind of support you are looking for because the kind of workers Dell is willing to hire are not anywhere near the level of qualification it requires to truly understand and diagnose these problems. But on the bright side, if you need parts and are under warranty, they will probably give them to you, because that's the cheapest thing for them to do. To hire people with education, English skills, and serious technical computer experience? Don't bet on that one.

 

Yea, I called about the advanced care warranty because the Indian tech support sucks, shipping it off to get fixed sucks, and it sucks (did I mention that?). Pretty shady you have to pay more to speak to Americans. To upgrade my warranty to advanced it is almost $300 which I can't afford until after the Holidays.

So have any of you guys shipped things to the repair depot? How do they treat your property? The email I received about the box, which I said I didn't need but simply a printable label since I have a box, said it would be shipped same day if the order was placed before 5 and it was placed at like 11. When the box is shipped the email stated I would be notified via email and I wasn't so I'm assuming no box was sent and now it is Saturday so I don't think I'll get it or be able to reship until Monday.

I don't understand how their is a problem with virtually every single step of this process? I think I may just contact customer service, because while these people at tech support speak good English it's as if they don't listen to what I'm saying at all and don't bother to look at what has been done already. I might just wait to ship this back until I can afford the warranty upgrade. I'd rather have someone at my house because I'm going to freak out if I ship this thing and it comes back with one scratch on it.

 

Update, I was just browsing the web and my mouse stopped working. I unplugged it and the touchpad did not start. I opened the perfmon and it showed an error but without a mouse I couldn't save it (ctrl+s, tab, etc) because nothing opened the file menu. When I restarted and went into event view there was nothing out of the ordinary.

How is it that my USB has been causing blue screen, lockups, and just plain craps out. The last restart and this recent usb device failure (mouse/touchpad not working) aren't causing anything to be logged like windows isn't even aware of it.

Is that indicative of a hardware problem?
Symptom: A service is reported as having an unexpected error code
Cause: One or more services has failed. The service did not stop gracefully, suggesting the service may have crashed or one of its components stopped in an unsupported way.
Details: Service exited with code not equal to 0 or 1077
Resolution: Restart the service
Related: Performance Diagnosis

Test Groups Tests Failed Description
Abnormally Terminated Services Check 1 1 Failed

wth

 

Ended up buying the NA tech. This whole time my original warranty covered in home service so why in the HECK did they ask me to send it back?!?!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS TECH SUPPORT. Within 10 minutes of talking to an American I have a new motherboard ordered and will be having a tech out early next week. Wow, this is astonishing how terribad this service is. Spend thousands on a laptop to then pay hundreds for a warranty to fix this POS.

How many of you have m17x that doesn't screw up? Because in the days I've been searching the web I've seen countless threads with nothing but bad news.

 

Well I can't play Crysis. The game craps out right after it loads. Did multiple things to try and fix the problem but still nothing. Battery wasn't charging...And now my computer has locked up 3 times in the last day...all within 3 days of getting the system!

Very frustrating indeed and discouraging due to the fact that you should be EXCITED with a new computer, not frustrated.

But im dedicated to fixing it without Dell right now. If the problems still persist a week later, then I guess I will have to make that call..

 

Be prepared for some serious time commitment and frustration if you don't have the North American Tech Support. I couldn't believe the crap that outsourced Indian tech made me do after 4 calls. They didn't even act courteous or listen to me at all. As soon as I talked to the American rep and explained the problems and what I did to try and fix it and my past experiences with similar problems on desktops he agreed it seemed like the motherboard probably had something wrong with it and bam... got a new one ordered and I hope I'll have a call from the tech coming to my house by Mon/Tues.

 

I had a serious issue with my R2 refusing to boot after installing the latest bios and video driver. The tech sounded like he had a French accent and mumbled so much I could hardly understand him. My laptop has had only occasional BSOD, but recently since A09, I can't shut off my computer completely without having to hold the power switch. Shut Down doesn't work. At least the rest of my issues seem to have been fixed by format/reinstall of Windows 7. Still had a lock-up last night though, so I'm not optimistic.

Anyone know of a good DIRECT phone number to call, so I'll get North America tech support?

 

So I still have random lockups and loss of my pointing device which when I unplug my mouse I don't get my touchpad active either.

The motherboard was replaced with a brand new one and sadly the problem still persists. Did a reinstall of windows last night just to be sure and came home today to it locked up.

I'm not getting any crash dumps or anything and event view is showing nada, and while I did the diagnostic from the boot menu no errors showed up. Pretty frustrating considering the tech guy who came out scratched the hell out of my laptop and chipped the paint off by the control panel above the keyboard. He also scratched my monitor when removing the keyboard.

The lady I just got off the phone with was incredibly helpful so I'm going to stick with her I think but she has a new SSD and 8 new gigs of ram coming out to me tomorrow. Memory is all I can think of but the diagnostic caught nothing and neither did memtest... then again the laptop has been on for 2-3 days with no problems whereas it will lock up twice in a day sometimes.

I don't get it. When I had problems like this with a couple desktops I've built it was always RAM but I could catch the problem in memtest. These errors now aren't leaving any logs, basically catching the laptop and erroring before any problem can be recorded so I'm betting it is the RAM but just don't get how memtest didn't catch it.

Any ideas? It originally was BSODs before my reinstall and now it simply locks up requiring me to hold the power button.

 

You have to pay extra money for NA tech support... it's complete BS imo.

The only advantage is if you keep calling back until you get what you want, since a lot the NA ppl are clueless and unhelpful, you can keep using that person with the My Tech Team warranty upgrade.

I have a woman now who is very nice and basically agrees that me sending back my laptop during the holiday season for some locking up is stupid when they haven't sent me new ram or ssd after replacing the motherboard.

If replacing these two doesn't work I'll probably send it back in. This POS cost me $4800 before tax. Can't believe this happens right after the 30 days is up. :X

 

Remind me: You say you have completely wiped the system, reinstalled Win-7 clean, all updated drivers from the Dell support site (NOT the resource disk included with the system!), and BIOS updates? If you have done all of that and still have problems, it might actually be that there are some driver bugs and such that nothing will perfectly fix. It sounds bad, I know, but if a driver was buggy enough to need an update, then it could still have some bugs that cause occasional problems. In a way, I kind of doubt it's hardware; Dell is somewhat easy on hardware replacements because that's politically correct for them to do, but notice how often in this forum people say "I got new (item X) and I still have problems"?

 

Yea clean win 7 ultimate install and all new drivers from my flash drive. The bios is A09 and my vbios for my dual 5870's is A01. Everything is up to date.

Intel i7 920xm
5870's Crossfire
8gb DDR3
256gb SSD

The weird thing is that before the install it was the USBHUB.SYS that was always causing the BSOD (while lockups and restarts happened too). After the install I just get loss of my USB devices and then the system locks up or the system will just lockup. Again, I get no crash dump at all which is frustrating. Perfmon ran while I can use the computer without pointing device just says a service has stopped but I can't save it because there are no control keys to open File I don't think.

New motherboard, twice Win 7 reinstall, different mice, different ports, and sleep/hibernate have always been off. Nothing shows up on diagnostics.

I really am at a loss and about 3 years ago had a similar problem with memtest showing no faults but when I replaced the OCZ ram the desktop ran fine. It seems to me the RAM is probably the culprit but I'll know by this weekend since I'll get the replacement parts tomorrow.

It can't be a driver because as of right now this thing only has windows 7 and microsoft security essentials installed (oh and Firefox). The rest of the drivers are all for my computer hardware. I had the blue screens with the factory drivers from Sept. and I'm getting lockups now with the most recent drivers from the website. Besides that, losing USB functionality isn't a driver you update as it is native to Win 7. I've tried the driver for the tactx mouse and without and no change.

 

The BSOD will have a problem description, search on that error/post here.
Try pulling a memory stick out and running with just the first stick, then swap see if there is a change. Memtest doesnt always hit the error.

 

Funny, as I was typing my last message my system blue screened. I think mine is memory, but since I cant get an error i dont know. It just started since my last os load.
*edit, actually it just started with updating my vid drivers, hmmm.

 

Yea I used to get the BSOD crash dumps that described the error but since reinstalling windows I simply get system lockup/freeze that doesn't register anything to the event log or crash dump.

Kinda why I'm thinking memory...

 

You know, I think I've experienced something similar, where disconnecting a wired mouse (in my case) cause some freezing of certain controls (and even the enabled touchpad wouldn't help), but then use of those controls resumed once I reconnected the mouse. I didn't end up needing to do a hard-dump (I REALLY hate those, so I try every trick I know to avoid) but this is why I am thinking we are in the same slightly-leaky boat, and it may be a very subtle bug. Just bring a bailing bucket and you won't ever actually sink.

 

When R2 showed up I was getting BOSD like crazy. Ran mem test, had bad mem. Rather than send it back I just purchased two Corsairs from newegg and no more problems

 

I swear to GOD this company is the worst company I've ever dealt with in my ENTIRE LIFE. Since the product replacement is next day according to my warranty, wouldn't a problem with the dispatch warrant a call to the customer?

NO

So instead they cancel my dispatch number without even notifying me. I just got off the phone to call them because I never received tracking info and the woman tells me they had it scheduled to be sent today. So, knowing how completely IGNORANT these people are I asked for the specific rundown of the dispatch and..... *drumroll* they scheduled it with a technician when it's simply ram and an SSD which the original dispatch didn't have.

So now it will get sent out today. Will I get this tomorrow? Probably not since I doubt this POS company pays for Saturday delivery after they completely customers on system cost and warranty fees.

I am so fed up with this. If this RAM and SSD are refurbished and/or don't fix my problem I'm contacting escalations. Hell, I'll call my lawyer if I have to because this is seriously the most retarded thing I've ever had to deal with. I should have stuck to my gut and just got a regular run of the mill laptop to handle simple tasks instead of thinking I could get a high performance machine to game on when I'm away from home.

I wish there were some way I could tell people how horrifying this company is and I wish I knew before buying. It's a shame because I bought two Dell laptops in 2000 and in 2001 and both worked perfectly and when I had a problem with one customer service was great. So maybe I'm very unlucky or this is just how Dell does things now but I will never buy another machine from them. Once this thing is fixed it's going on ebay.

Has anyone on this forum even had an m17x that hasn't had any issues over a 6-12 month time period?

 

I asked this before (last week) -

1. What external devices do you have attached to the system via USB? Mouse? HDD?
2. Have you tried disconnecting each USB device 1 by 1 to rule out a conflict?

 

I posted what I had connected and what I've done. The only thing attached is the alienware tactx mouse. I tried my logitech G5 as well and that caused the same problem. I tried different USB ports and that changed nothing.

More than anything now I don't lose USB controls, but the computer freezes.

So the USB device/connection has been completely ruled out.

 

check your PM. I think that is the best route considering the damage you mentioned.

 

So even though my exchange has been in the works since last Friday, today I received my replacement SSD and RAM (which I was going to try before the on-site tech damaged my laptop all over the place).

This is the one service request that took me 3 calls to get "correct." They ended up messing it up anyways by sending it w/ on-site tech support which I declined.

Long story short the guy dropped the stuff off today and I just now got ready to pop on the RAM to see if that perhaps was the problem and they only sent me one 4 gb stick. /facepalm

lol... I have to laugh about it at this point because I seriously have the worst luck ever with this situation. I mean they have your specifications RIGHT IN FRONT of their faces and somehow the dispatch is still fubar.

If anyone has a My Tech Team person they know is good please send me their name and team in a PM so I can stop dealing with the rest of them.

 

So I don't know how or why this would be the case but after looking around in the alienware software, to familiarize myself with it, I looked at the alienfusion and noticed that my power settings were on balanced... I'm guilty of not spending enough time reading about all of this mfg software but I've been building my own desktops for years and really didn't think about it.

I noticed that USB suspend was enabled so I disabled that, because most of the time I get problems is when I don't use the mouse for a long period of time.... well sort of a long period I don't exactly know how long it will suspend something or what would cause that to error?

So far I haven't had a crash. Still getting that replacement but when looking this up online there are a lot of similar problems and no solutions to crashes involving usbhub.sys and usbhci.sys.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed!

 

Well you manned up and said some of it might be user error. Good job... Memory is always a good place to start for the blue screens

 

Something I have noticed about these Aliens that I think fits with what you just said about being on "balanced" is that in a strange way they are actually hard to use. In attempts to have a mode for everything, they end up having this byzantine feel to them, and they get strange ghosts hiding in the nooks and crannies of their gaudy control software. It isn't so much that they are bad, but they seem like they have too many loose ends that should be better tied-off. That stealth mode, for one, is driving me crazy. I can't seem to find any easy way to know whether it's activated or not, and I really don't notice a big difference using it. The controls in the command center are obtuse and poorly orchestrated. Your experiences (and mine too, to a lesser extent) make me wonder how many of these strange problems people report are actually just bad settings that no one would ordinarily have left that way, but it isn't always clear what your settings are at a given moment...?

 

Yea, I didn't look at most of the stuff but I'm assuming I must have maybe hit stealth accidentally at some point to get my power setting below maximum performance. I don't get any indicator when I hit the stealth button. =/

I just adjusted all of the power settings so the USB never suspends. It very well could be a defective input/output board too. I've had so many system failures that I can't remember if one happened on the left side USB ports but I believe they did. At any rate I still have had zero problems since changing that one setting. There is a page on Microsoft's website explaining this problem for laptop users. It isn't just limited to the m17x but I read about some Asus and Sony laptops that had the exact same problem and disabling the suspend fixed it.

 

When i bought this laptop, i expected things to run smoothly, and thought that i will spend hours and hours enjoying playing games and such ... haha boy was i wrong.

Almost all the games i have played crash / freezes on me after 20, 30, or 60 mins. i have spent days looking for a solution with nothing.

although not all people reported the same problem, some people have, and i am wondering, what are the chances that a brand new GAMING system have a problem like this, should be very small, but till now i have found atleast three experiencing the same problem on this very forum.

after trying all the software fixes possible, i gave dell a call, which of course had to disregard allll my testing methods and make me do many many more tests for around 3 hours

long story short, a replacement is on its way (two weeks that it, cuz local dell dont have the parts, they have to import it) if the same problem happened with the new cards, than i do not know what I will do, i have spent more time trying to make this laptop run properly with games than to actually run it and enjoy it.


I have had many laptops before (not as expensive as this one) and they had zero problems with the hardware. in fact, my previous HP Pavilion is 5 years old and it is still running without a problem and without any failing/ freezes or crashes.

this is going to be my first and last "gaming" laptop. and also my first and last alienware.

P.S. sorry for going offtopic, i just wanted to free up some frustration since i saw some frustrations in this thread, I wish that your problems go away

 

Yeah, I don't think I would do it again either. For what I really need, a good Sager would have been entirely adequate. I like the Alien, but I think I paid too much, and I could have had more RAM and more hard drive space for less money with a Sager, and still had the best i7 Extreme processor as I currently do. Aliens better get a whole lot less buggy and better designed or I'll be done for good.

 

You can easily upgrade RAM and a crappy HDD to an SSD for the cost of the 256gb Samsung SSD that Dell puts in these m17x's. I won't ever buy another Dell either because the tech support is horrible. System problems don't bother me too much but tech support ignorance does. They've done more bad to my computer than good.

 

24 hours now and no system freeze! It sat idle all night long which normally would cause a freeze and nothing happened today!

Now I'm worried because while the laptop is cosmetically damaged from the on-site tech, what if the replacement is messed up?

Does anyone know how long you have to send back the other machine before they charge you or get on your case? It would be nice to have a system to swap out defective parts for a bit if a problem arises.

 

Well, Dell never ceases to amaze me and they canceled my exchange. After hours of battling on the phone today I finally was able to get things resolved and my m17x is going back and I already have my refund.

Holy crap I will never buy another Dell again.