Neew Alienware 17 - Press power twice at boot

Hi guys i have an issue with my 6 months old Alienware 17. From time to time, especially after a bios upgrade (and since i've bought the laptotp there have been something like 4-5 updates) i have to press power twice to cold boot.
First time the 17 lights up, logo on screen, keyboard etc. and it shut off after a couple seconds. In this time i don't see the spinning circle (meaning the hd is loading).
Second time everything works fine. I can play/use it for hours with no problems at all but this issue is annoying.
A month ago i've been in telephone contact with Del service: they made me upgrade the bios over and over to the latest version, reboot, press F2 load defaults etc.After some try the issue was gone. New bios, here's the issue gain.
I'm asking for someone with a similar experience and how they fixed it.
Of course i've run all diagnostics fors hours and everything is reported fine. I've also disconnected the main battary (not the cmos) and cycled power with no results.
Please, advice.
Thanks,

Luigi

 

I have experienced this problem as well in the past. Sometimes it would not even boot, it will just stay with Alienware word without loading windows.

Go in bios, press F9 to restore to default; Press F10 to Save and restart and then press F2, go back to bios and adjust the things the way you had them before, F10 save. It should solve your problem.

Best of luck!

 

After a bios flash it's normal since it has to set the settings after the power goes to it. Also does it do the same on mains and battery?

 

Yes it is the same on mains or battery. When the issue is gone it seems gone for good (i can shut down\power on many times with no problems). But when it comes back (as it does after the A14 bios upgrade) i can' t find a way to get rid of it. I mean: flashing the bios over and over again could not be a good thing, isn'it?
I suspect is related to the SSD or bluray drive and the way they load into bios at cold boot.

 

The only similar issue I have seen is from time to time ( only 2 or three times in the last few months ) is that I will turn the machine on and nothing seems to happen. When this happens I simply press the power button , it shuts off immediately and then power it back up and it works as normal, I have never had it do it more then once before it goes back to normal operation.

 

I just would like to understand what is causing it. The Dell guy at the phone told me is something that has to be adjusted in the bios, not an hardware issue. But i really can`t understand what. I mean: i have the very same settings on bios before and after upgrade and all at once it would not boot on cold, for no reason. If i lose a day tingling with bios, F2/F10/exit save reload reflash etc. etc. it may go away for good but i can`t be afraid to update a new bios because of this issue! Well ... i`ll let you know if i find something. Thanks for your help.

 

An update: finally i've get tired of the issue, called the assistance and after a few hit and miss try they decided to change the Alienware 17 motherboard. New (or reconditioned mobo, don't know) but the issue is still there, maybe even worse.
I'm convinced that this is related to some sort of incompatibility with the mSata ssd hd (Liteonit) but there's no new firmware to update. Anyone has a thought please advise,
Thanks.

 

Hi guys, i've finally troubleshooted the issue. Changing the motherboard was useless, so i look deep into it as a software/configuration problem. I've finally found that, especially if if you use RAM disk (as i do) but even if you don't, you have to disable the Windows 8.1 feature "quick start boot" (you can find it in power configuration). That's it, the issue is gone and the start times are not reduced not even of a millisecond (assuming you have ssd).
I wonder why the guys at Dell didn't think about it.

 

Why do you use a RAMdisk.. How does it help??

 

Thanks for sharing what finally worked out for you. If I see this behavior in the future I'll refer them to this thread.