M17x R1 hard freezes

The laptop is locking up every so often with hard freezes.
The laptop will typically run anywhere from .5 to 3hrs at a time before freezing and requireing a hard reboot.

Ive been having this problem for about the last 5 or 6 months. I have reinstalled w7 using dell recommended drivers several times. System running at stock cpu speed. Latest bios version installed.

Started calling dell tech, 10/26/10 to present.
System temperatures are withing normals according to techsupport.
I leave it running in a window so i can see the temps when system freezes.
I have removed the ram, tested each seperatly, no change.
Disabled Raid 0 and installed W7 on each drive at a time between fromats.
Dell tech has replaced motherboard.
Dell tech is now requesting to have laptop shipped to them so they can fix it.

I have CompleteCare Accidental. Are they supposed to be requesting the laptop?
I sent email back asking about my warrenty and also remarking that im going on vacation soon and would like a stable system before then. No reply yet.

This is what the system does when freezes:
It does not generate a error event other than "unexpected shutdown" nor bluescreen message.
Mouse is frozen
Sound stops, emitting a repetive short buzz for a min or 2 then stops.
Pressing caps lock or numlock does not respond.
Ocassionally the screen will flicker. Most time the screen is just frozen.
Recently it will now freeze while loading windows 7 startup screen (where the lights move to form the windows logo)

Laptop freezes when:
Playing WOW.
Using internet explorer
Copying files
Letting laptop sit idle
Booting up the computer


Anyone been having problems like this with thier laptops?

 

It sounds like your display driver to me try 197.16 driver. I did that and have no freezes or other problems any more! All the other drivers i have tested i got freezes and had to hard reebot all the time.

 

I had similar issues when I picked up my R1 in April as a refurb. Dell techs would only replace parts or install a combination of their drivers to no avail.

After lots of poking around here, the following combination has kept me stable for the past 6 months:

1. Install Dell BIOS A03. Tried 04 but had battery issues. Never tried 05.

2. Install Nvidia chipset drivers from Dell. Then uninstall the Sata portion using Phyxion's driver sweeper. When system reboots (a few times) it will install default windows drivers for your Sata (Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller) + 6 ATA channels (ATA Channel 0 thru ATA Channel 5)

3. Install the Nvidia graphics driver 197.84 (P06) beta driver from Dell.

This combination doesn't crash for me. I can game (BF:BC2) for hours on end at full res & high graphics. Admittedly, I have a pretty low-end R1 (Core2duo + sli 260's + no overclock) with lower power requirements than others who just couldn't seem to keep their R1's stable.

Only issue I have is that any cd/dvd/bluray takes 10 minutes to load the disk and I can't burn any CD's or DVD's reliably. (This is a minor issue for me but could be a major hassle for others.)

Good luck!

 

I used to have this hard freeze problem, and believe it or not, it turned out to be caused by Microsoft Security Essentials. Are you using MSE? If so, check this out...

Windows 7 64bit Random Freeze

 

@Mr. Fox: If only you appeared earlier and gave this recommendation, I have been seriously frustrated with the constant hangs and freezes for the past 2 months!! Even after a clean install it still happened because I installed MSE.

Thank you so much for your help +rep.

 

Probably casued by dell's unstable graphics card driver. I too had the same sort of issues as yourself, and at present I am using A05 bios & dell's P06 beta driver (still!!) with A05 bios and is very stable:

Drivers and Downloads

Or you could try batboy's modified driver:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/535696-modified-nv-197-52-driver-m17xr1-only.html

 

Thanks for all the replies

Ive checked my system, I dont have Microsoft Security Essentials installed.
The computer froze again this morning, followed by 5 freezes in a row while displaying the animated windows 7 logo during boot reqireing reboots.

Called LV2 Techsupport and now they are sending replacement hard drives and memory.

Hope this fixes it. If not I will try the older drivers.

 

If you are using the Verde release driver from NV's site, then this is most likely the cause - certainly sounds like it. I would try the drivers wacdag linked to first - before replacing the HDDs.

 

Downloading the 197.84, P06 driver now, will try it out.

 

It helps I believe to do a clean install of the graphics driver:

Uninstall old driver and restart in safe mode;
Run ccleaner to get rid of traces of old driver;
Restart again and install new driver;
Restart when prompted and fingers crossed all should be well.

 

I was having the same exact problems with the screen lockup, but once I tried BatBoy's modded driver and got rid of the Verde 260.99, it's been working AWESOMELY all day, hope it stays that way!
+rep

In COD Black Ops though, how do I enable SLI. I've never messed with those settings. and was jw if there was an easy, etep by step way to get both my babies running!
Thanks so much!

 

If the driver did not resolve this for you, below is link to a Knowledge Base article about Microsoft Hotfix (KB2265716) designed to address random freezing in Windows 7. You can request the file from this page. I hope this helps you or someone else correct this problem.

A computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 stops responding randomly

 

The P06 seemed to run stable,but didnt run too well with starcraft 2.
I didnt get a chance to run it for too long before the dell tech arrived the next day and replaced the memory and hard drives.

They system was stable for a few weeks using the 257 drivers from dell, it only froze twice. It was better than freezing every .5 to 2 hrs.

It froze yesterday while i was trying to copy some files for presentation i needed in a hurry. The system was only on for 10min that day. That was it for me.

Called dell today and explained that ive had problems for more than a 6months and 3 of those monthes dell tech support has swapped out almost all the computer parts except cpu and vid cards.

After 2hrs on phone, they approved a system exchange to R2.

Thanks for everyones help

 

Sweet deal. Good luck, hope that R2 works out for you.

 

Got the email yesterday on the exchange. They put me down for a 740qm instead of the 940xm.
Called and he said i have two options:

Cancel and rebuild with correct part, starting over.
Or let the laptop ship and they swap out with correct cpu.

If i let it stand I may recieve the laptop sometime next week and possibly recieve a refurbished cpu replacement.
Not to sure about getting a used cpu, can never tell how hard it was pushed in its previous "life".

That do you guys think? Im kinda leaning toward a new rebuild order.

Also are the new R2's shipping with bluray burners? Id hate to lose my burner.

 

Mine has a BD burner, but they were not available when it shipped. AW dispatched the installation about a month later.
I would go with the new order and get it right the first time, with both CPU and BD burner, rather than cracking open a new machine.

 

I installed P06 last week, and have no issues at all with lockups. I have left my machine running for at least 24 striaght.

 

duplicate post

 

Got my R2 last thursday. Its been working fine till today when they installed the 940xm and bluray burner. (They still shipped it even after they said it was canceled and was waiting to restart an new order)

He coudnt get the palm rest off , then for some reason he started to bend some thing in the laptop trying to remove it, i didnt say anything at the time cause i was on the phone with a client at work.

He was muttering that he should have had passed on this job and let someone who know how do this have it.
He almost put on the heat sink with out thermal till i reminded him and then didnt put it on right. After he secured the heat sink he wanted to remove it and clean it with the chem wipe. I told him no since there was no more thermal paste.

He left 4 screws in the laptop, couldnt get the palm rest back on and hoped i woldnt notice. He also gouged the montior screen in 2 places when he decided to close the lid while he was working. The parts are not flush anymore and the media bar is warped.

After he left saying sorry asking if i wanted the number schedule another visit from a tech. I told him no, i will contact dell directly to get this new 6 day old laptop repaired.

I fished out all the screws i could hear moving around in the laptop. No telling if how many are missing inside.

The computer is running but slower than when i had the 740 in it.

This is running on stock speeds. When i play Sc2 the cpu speed drops to under 1ghz?

Im going to chew out dell, this why i wanted the order corrected at the factory.

Hopefully this post is coherent, i am pissed...






http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/digitaldragon754/game.jpg

 

Updated the bios to latest version. FPS went back to normal.

 

I am using P06 driver and A05. Solved my lockups. Have not had a single one since doing this. Before using this config, I would lockup 3-4 times a day.

 

i'm sorry, but what is p06 driver?

 

the P06 driver is a Dell beta driver for the nVidia cards in the m17x R1. HERE

 

Dell called me yesterday afternoon, they are shipping a replacement laptop. They upped the hard drive space a little bit and its going to be a red r2.

 

hi!, i had at past lots of freezes, black screens and i never find the solution, i tried all the nvidia graphics drivers for my dual gtx 260 and try all the nvidia motherboard drivers and the freezes still appears...

yesterday, i try a new copy of w7 ultimate, and now all the issues dissapeared, the system works perfect and the only driver i need to install is the lastest nvidia drivers...

i think the problem was the w7 premium version who gives me microsoft...

regards

 

That's quite interesting. I will say, though, that perhaps you're speaking too soon as it's only been a day. Let us know if any freezing/lockups occur, please.

In either case, my only other idea is online video games. To be honest, I don't ever recall my laptop freezing while playing Fallout: NV, Amnesia, or anything like that. This leads me to believe that *possibly* the errors occur when you're using both the high end GPU's (not the 9400 because I use that for D2), and an online connection in congruence with a game. Any thoughts on this? Anyone?


Edit: I'm stating this because even with the drivers that Katalin links (which are quite good in comparison to others), or Batboy's modified drivers, my laptop still freezes daily if I play enough (maybe around 3-4 hours).

 

It shouldn't freeze if you remove ANY remainders of the old driver before installing the P06 or the modified ones.
As for Win 7 Ultimate I've been using it since it got available and the Verde drivers(stock) have the same impact sooner or later.

@Roah27: please try again uninstalling the drivers you currently have reboot in Safe Mode run CCleaner to clean your registry reboot and install the P06 again.

 

i'm sure this windows works well, with the w7 premium gives me microsoft, the freezes and problems appears ever at the firsts minutes when i power on the laptop, now, i use the laptop more than 10 hours and no problems yet... and i started more than 10 times the O.S

i will post at next week i haven't problems with this new windows, at least i hope this...

regards!

 

Just try youtube videos,games(for a few hours),HQ movies(even .avi .mpeg actually) see how they act.
They are "better" then the previous Verde releases but not "the ones" they still make your system freeze sadly when you're least expected.

people usually say that they have issues with the P06 ones because of 2 main reasons:

1) they didn't properly cleaned the previous ones.
2) freezes have other origin.

 

In all honesty, and with no exaggeration whatsoever, I'm guestimating that I've done exactly those steps at *least* 20+ times in the past month. I gotta' say: sadly, that just isn't the case...

I had hoped it was, some time ago.

 

I used to have a system which had sudden freezes. Sometimes after 5 minutes and sometimes after 3 hours.
These symptoms can basically mean anything. Literally.

In my case, after 5 months of replacing parts, fiddling trying and testing, it ended up to be a USB device, installed in port A, and when moving the system from downstairs to upstairs i put the same defvice in port B (i mean come on, who cares, first empty usb slot in sight gets it ) which caused the freezes.
My old m1710 had freezes also, which became bsod's after a while, which turned out to be a faulty gpu.

My point is, there is quite alot it could be ^^

 

That's true but i wanted to rule out the most frequent problems m17x users have.

 

I had hard freezes on mine, and sometimes the screen would go a complete shade of blue. This could happen any time.

I also got many many hard freezes when waking the computer up from sleep.

the first issue was fixed with a new 260m video card installed under warranty.

The second issue was fixed by reinstalling windows. As a side note, I started with Vista and upgraded to 7 when I had the issues, whereas now I do not have issues and it was a fresh install of 7.

 

zero problems found at today 11th, i use youtbe, msn, navigate a lot, play online and all the things in past freezes my m17x, works prefectly now.

 

Unfortunately, my system's not under warranty anymore as I've had it more than a year. I'm kinda just up sh- creek...

 

problems are still missing, it seems that was the OS on my case

regards

 

Thanks for coming back to let us know! I am really happy that it fixed your system. I'm sure you are also. I hope you enjoy what is left of your weekend.

 

If it is not a hardware defect, you do not need a warranty. It's just as likely to be a software or driver issue.

Have you tried getting rid of your current antivirus and any malware removal software currently installed. I had hell with my system the first month and it was the antivirus software causing my hard freezes. I switched to another product and I have never experienced a hard freeze since. The product causing the hard freeze works fine on the other computers in my household, just not my M17x.

If you already tried a clean OS and reinstalled all of the same apps and utilities, you may simply be replicating the exact same problem causing the hard freeze.

 

Yes, thanks for comming back to use with the results, Marc. This is much appreciated!

Mr. Fox, yeah I already tried removing my Norton Antivirus and still some up with the same results. I am now using Avast, and nothing thus far has changed. I just now began using an ethernet connection for the internet as opposed to wireless, and although it's a speedier connection, I'm still plagued with these nasty, quite frequent-daily crashes. I am now subconsciously deciding to simply use the lowgrade onboard card playing Diablo 2 as opposed to anything else. As far as fixes, I've tried everything under the sun EXCEPT reloading my entire OS. I was hoping to avoid this, but apparently this must be done.

I'm real good at setting up video games and anything video card-related, but as far as reinstalling OS's and whatnot, I'm quite inept as I've only done it once before, and it was hell. I am not looking forward to this...

Thanks again for the advice, and any more would be immensely appreciated.

 

Roah27, the OS reinstall can be intimidating for the uninitiated, but it's not difficult and it gets easier every time you do it. Start by downloading all of the driver's from Dell Support and have them handy on an external drive or DVD. (I do not recommend using the driver disc that comes from the OEM. Some of the files are old and sometimes cause problems. The latest drivers from Dell/Alienware are designed to correct problems.)

Here is a thread that will help take the bumps out of the road for you:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...d-your-m17x-r2-full-detailed-description.html

If you run into trouble, post on that thread and I know you will get lots of good advice from your friends here a NBR forum. You can also send me a PM if you get stuck on something. I am on this forum usually every day.

 

Thanks much for the link, I'll check that out. I'm going to attempt this as soon as I get my hands on a flash drive (soon). I'm still quite skeptical about this working, though. One of the reasons is that Marc had used a new copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, and all I have is Windows 7 Home Premium, and this whole thing could simply be the result of *this* particular OS. All of this formatting and reinstalling could be for naught, and that would really, really suck.

 

I do not think it is because of the OS you are using. There are a few extra features in Ultimate that are not present in Home Premium, but there should be no difference in functionality of the OS. The extra features are primarily some tools designed for system admins and enterprise environments, drive encryption, etc. Those things do not make Windows 7 perform differently. In Marc's case, it would be the clean install fixing something that was broken or corrupted, and it would be very unlikely that switching from Home Premium to Ultimate would have make any difference in how his system behaved.