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    Driver power state failure Windows 8

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Lundon44, Oct 26, 2012.

  1. Lundon44

    Lundon44 Notebook Consultant

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    Was getting blue screen "Driver Power State Failures" on my Mx17x R3 only when I run on battery, runs perfect on A/C though.. I was hoping upgrading to Windows 8 might fix the issue but seems it's still present. Laptop crashes within minutes on battery, doesn't matter what I'm doing. I have no idea why only on battery this happens though. I bought a new battery thinking it could be related but apparently not since it happens on both batteries.

    Any suggestions? Should I just re-install all the stock drivers?
     
  2. bigtonyman

    bigtonyman Desktop Powa!!!

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    is windows 7 fully up to date? I always had the same problem with windows 7 before I installed SP1. After I got SP1 installed it never happened again. Might be worth looking at. :)
     
  3. Lundon44

    Lundon44 Notebook Consultant

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    All windows updates were done previously before the upgrade. Something is corrupt, I assume a specific driver but I feel it's just a guessing game since I've gone through one by one re-installing Dell drivers with no changes. I do know that I had a blue screen ages ago when installing the driver for my wireless card. But after the blue screen the wireless card and everything appeared to work perfect. Could be unrelated.
     
  4. Hookerlips

    Hookerlips Notebook Evangelist

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    Have you updated your bios? I was having the same problem- not on battery but specifically after closing the lid. I went through the registry desperately trying to figure out which driver was causing the bsod's. Bios update seems to have taken care of it for me.
     
  5. Lundon44

    Lundon44 Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah.. I've updated my bios actually a bunch of times. A04, A07, A08, A10 I think is where I'm at now. I called Dell one day and sat on the phone with support for 3 HOURS attempting to fix it. Just when we thought we'd fixed it I got another blue screen so changed by bios back to default settings. Guess you got lucky.

    I also notice a lot of battery drain when the laptop is off with the battery fully charged. I can have it at 100% charged, turn it off. Then I'll go to use it in maybe 2 days and it will be down to like 80% or less. Wouldn't expect that if I'm not using it. But why would this only happen on battery and not on a/c power?
     
  6. Hookerlips

    Hookerlips Notebook Evangelist

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    I couldn't figure it out either but by disabling sleep and hibernate I got rid of most of the problems, then the bios update seems to have completely resolved it. Good luck man that's no fun at all.