Help appreciated from experienced users - Alienware M17R3 - I am really no expert....

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Hello

I was wondering if any of the more seasoned alienware enthusiasts could help me out...

I bought Alienware M17R3 with GeForce 580M in Aug 2011. At first it was a very fine experience, then, after a year or so I started to have some problems. Due to some private reasons, I practically stopped using the laptop after that and did not really fix anything.

I came back to it about 3 months ago and problems still remained and even got worse = my laptop practically became unusable.

Here are the most annoying ones:

1. I get blue screen quite often, a DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE- no pattern to it, sometimes its ok for 2-3 days, sometimes i get 2 in a row in 20 min. I read this might be a motherboard issue or some graphic drvers

2. Whats more annoying, sometimes the laptop just freezes completely, I get no BSOD, just buzzing sound and I need to press power button. When I left it like that for 2 minutes or so, it got very hot.

3. I get a lot of fps decreases occasionally when playing some games, even on lowest graphic details, and it gets really hot. I tried to clean air vents from the outside, but did not help

4. Sometimes my charger stops charging - I get notification that my charger is "plugged but not charging" -- my laptop slows down then considerably

5. Last (happened only 2 days ago) I got a big black dot in the middle of the screen - it looks like a black pixel, only (when I looked at some web examples) its seems larger.

I am no computer expert, I tried to google for all those problems and found some answers, that sometimes were overlapping or even contradictory. Do you think all of the problems might be related to the same cause?


But, the funniest part is that I still have a warranty on this, do you think Dell can fix those issues? Or they would say that I should fix them myself (cause the reason is some software..).

Thanks a lot for your help
Kris

 

A no brainer IMHO: call them if you have warranty!!! Seems like a mainboard issue (and maybe GPU too)

 

Yeah call them up .

Sure sounds like at least one piece of hardware has failed and maybe a cascade effect?

 

I will call them then... i wanted to prepare myself in case they would refuse to help

 

You should be fine, AW support is one of the best around. They do differ by country and sales volume but the basics of getting it fixed seem consistent.

Let us know how it goes

 

Sorry for the hijack but concerning warranty, is it possible to renew it? Reading all about the problems with these models, the warranty of my second hand R3 apparently stopped in 2012 and I want some more security


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPad met behulp van Tapatalk

 

Hi,
If you are under warranty, you are very lucky.
I know one person, here in spain who had an alienware m17 r3 with 580m, and he had throttling issues, and after phonig dell, dell swap his laptop for an amazing alienware m17 r5 with i7 4930mx+880m.
I couldn´t believe it, specially after konwing he it had been bought it on second hand for 1100€.
Cheers and good luck.

 

I used to have the same problem with my 460m,

I found a solution on dell site and had it bookmarked for a while, but I deleted it once and now I can no longer find it.

It had something to do with going into your BIOS and adjust some settings so it no longer switches between the IGPU and the 460m/580m. It worked for me so might give it a try.

Alright I found the article, my god this dell site is bad
http://www.dell.com/support/trouble...sArticles/ArticleView?c=us&cs=04&docid=429191

This actually fixed my problem but yours might be different

 

Hello back


I just got Motherboard, GPU, AC adapter replaced... I must say I was very impressed with the quality of service, all this took less than 1h and technician was very pleasant to talk to... Well done Dell


I had multiple problems before, cannot judge on some of them if they remain or not

--- however, my FPS drop problem stays ---- performance drops dramatically as before, once GPU temp reaches 78C... Now, with new and repasted (I learnt what it means GPU + cleaned vents it takes longer than before, but still it does happen...

Can I turn off this throttling somehow? I heard that 90C is pretty normal for GPUs, why is it capped at 77C then?

Or is that the general problem of too old graphic card? When I bought this laptop maybe games were not so demanding, but now I tested this on Witcher 2, Age of Wonders III and Might and Magic X --- all new games that they seem to push my GPU too hard it seems..

thanks for your time

 

If your problems persists after getting motherboard gpu and ac adapter replaced, and you have still have support. I would start pushing for a replacement. I had my laptop replaced twice for the same purchase ( well 3 times but third was a shipping issue). Each time they replaced it was a total upgrade to the latest and greatest. Note I was just extremely unlucky with my computers since they normally have a good track record.

if u reached second lvl support and they could not solve the issue. It's just easier and cheaper for everyone, for u to get a new computer aka the R4 with comparable components aka the 780m or 880m since that's what they selling at moment.