The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    M17x R4 won't boot into Windows

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by cuse, May 27, 2014.

  1. cuse

    cuse Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    64
    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    I'm stumped on this issue so I'm asking if anyone has any answers.

    I have a circa 2012 Alienware M17x R4 that just up and went kaput. I was playing Diablo 3 and the laptop shut down without warning after about an hour of playing Diablo 3. Screen went blank, then it rebooted itself. I still don't know what caused that.

    Everything goes fine until the Windows logo starts to emerge, then...it stops. It won't go any further. Won't go into the desktop. It just stops there infinitely. Hard disk activity stops. It becomes inactive until I reboot then it's back to that.

    Thinking some Windows files had gone corrupt, I used Windows repair. No go. I reformatted the hard disk drive. No go.

    Is this a hardware or software problem or something else?

    TIA
     
    cuse, May 27, 2014
    #1
  2. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

    Reputations:
    3,658
    Messages:
    6,874
    Likes Received:
    969
    Trophy Points:
    281
    It could be the video card, have you tried booting it without the discrete GFX?
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, May 28, 2014
    #2
  3. cuse

    cuse Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    64
    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    How do I do that? Boot settings?
     
    cuse, Jun 7, 2014
    #3
  4. Xanius

    Xanius Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    224
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    41
    I am actually dealing with the same issue right now on my r3 where it stops responding after the windows logo. If you want to at least use your computer start it up then keep hitting F8 for the windows startup menu. Choose safe mode then once you get into windows go to control panel then device manager then click video adapters. Select your you 7970m then under the the drivers tab select disable then reboot the computer.
     
    Xanius, Jun 7, 2014
    #4
  5. paradigm

    paradigm Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    202
    Messages:
    1,127
    Likes Received:
    54
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Yeah but for bios level control of gpu you would need an unlocked bios

    SMART on the drive ok
    Checked the RAM?

    To rule out other potential issues
     
    paradigm, Jun 9, 2014
    #5
  6. cuse

    cuse Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    64
    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    6
    Trophy Points:
    16
    I can only change the time/date so it seems to be locked. How do I unlock it?

    I also tried the safe mode method Xanius mentioned, no go. While under safe mode, it automatically restarts as opposed as not responding.

    I also went into its own diagnostic mode, and everything passed. I also did the extended tests.

    The memory is the 6GB it came with. I think I'll upgrade it and eliminate the possibility of memory malfunction.
     
    cuse, Jun 14, 2014
    #6
  7. V3curonium

    V3curonium Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    84
    Likes Received:
    10
    Trophy Points:
    16
    You need to flash an unlocked bios


    Verzonden vanaf mijn iPad met behulp van Tapatalk
     
    V3curonium, Jun 14, 2014
    #7