Troubleshoot Help Request: Error and system crash

Hello,
I recently for the past few days have been getting a error on my system. It only happens when i am gone and has never happened when i am using the system. I am not sure where to begin to troubleshoot, so i will really appreciate it if someone can help me get to the bottom of this issue.
Thank You.

 

Time to make sure you have a backup of your data. The boot drive is failing and the machine has restarted. It's trying to boot off the network (all PC bios do this) because it cannot see the drive.

It can be a loose connection but it's more likely to be the HD itself.

What machine do you have and drive?

 

It's a M17x-R4 with a 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB) 7200RPM HDD
Do you think the warranty would cover it? I have the one with all the frills.
I will look into the connection and update sometime tonight.
It's been a while since i been here, are the new alienwares not that good anymore? The graphic amplifier looks pretty useful.

 

If you have warranty then they should replace both drives, that picture will help when calling. You should also run the hardware diags. That is on a hot key when the machine is booting. I can't remember what the key is but it might be on the F12 boot menu. Then you can run the diags. If a disk fails you get a unique code to use when calling, makes that call much faster.

Matter of opinion on the new models. My opinion is they are a sad reflection on what AW built their reputation on. I ordered one and the GA since it interests me in having the opportunity to use a DT card later on, but there were a lot of problems with the first deliveries. The machines (980m) were throttling when gaming. The problem was the 180w PSU as anyone with the older 240w had no problems.

Instead of just supplying that PSU they re-wrote the BIOS to use the battery to supplement the PSU. Probably because the machine meets some power limitation spec they were aiming for and the 240w PSU messed that up (and maybe the certifications, UL,CE, etc.).

I cancelled my order at that point since I want an uncompromising gaming machine not an eco hybrid - different market!

You should get an engineer to bring the disk(s) and re-install for you with the on-site warranty. Avoid getting talked into sending it in, they seem to be doing that lately but is very country dependent.

It is F12. Check out this page: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/alienware-m17x-r4/manuals

Good luck.

 

Yes indeed, the regular warranty covers this as a Hardware issue. As MickyD1234 suggested, try running a Diagnostic in the F12 sub-menu. It will most likely indicate if you have a problem with the hard drives.
Should the show everything as: "All passed".
Then try checking the BIOS F2 - for the mSATA ports and ensure the Hard Drives are listed there. (If they aren't then it is time to get those replaced).
Should they appear within the BIOS screen, try using the Boot tab within the BIOS to adjust the AHCI/RAID and UEFI/Legacy options.
(I usually just hit F9 in that screen to have the Optimized Defaults kick in).
Let us know how it goes.

 

Guess it's time to get the HDD replaced.

 

Yeah, you can enter the codes at the link I gave above (lower down page) or call it in. Should be quick to resolve .

 

So will they call me or send the part, I entered the code and it stated that they will send the part originally, then it stated that there is a technician required, Which one would it be most likely?
Also would it be possible to say pay extra and get a different type of Hard Drive? Also what is your view on mSATA, should I get one to use as the boot?

 

mSata on R4 is using SATA2 (3Gb/s max) interface, so you would be better off getting normal SATA SSD. SATA ports in R4 are SATA3 (6Gb/s) and since most SSD can achieve the speeds of over 500MB/s, only SATA3 port can support that kind of speeds. Sata2 3Gb/s interface translates to the max transfer speeds of around 300MB/s. So even you get the fast mSata SSD, which could achieve 500MBs+, it will only run at around 300MB/s.

 

Would it be space to cost effective to get a 500 gb SATA SSD>

 

That's what I recently got

Here is a quick test showing my mSata SSD hitting SATA2 limits. And then SATA SSD speed for comparison. I do agree that it is not really fair as Samsung 850 Pro is a lot better SSD than what I am using in mSata, but this is just to show that pretty much any current SSD in SATA will perform better than mSATA at least in R4. 512GB SSD has about 443GB space left with 7% overprovisioning. I like having my OS, programs and some games on SSD and all the pictures, music, documents in HDD, so that if anything ever goes wrong with my OS or I just want to start fresh, I could wipe the SSD and not worry about loosing any important data I require.

 

You need to call them now. Once they get your asset tag all the details will come up and they can arrange the engineer with the part. They usually will just send the part if you ask but unless you are familiar with re-installing the OS and setting up the RAID then I'd go for the engineer.

Try to find your local Alienware support number. it's quicker than going through the main Dell line - although that will work.

They will do an upgrade for a charge but usually Dell charges are way above what you would pay after-market. .

I recommend that you get a small MSATA drive 64gb-80gb and use it as a cache for the HD array. Easy to set up, you simply put it in and go into the IRST software, that is already installed. Will be cheap as well. Then you just turn on caching using the new drive. In tests I found that win load times were almost as fast as a dedicated SSD and everything else (up to 64gb rotated on recent access) is cached as well so the whole machine will be faster.

The only fly-in-the-ointment is the MSATA port. It's under the keyboard so requires a little more work than just removing the lower cover. My engineer had my keyboard out in around 5 mins so it's a case of knowing where the screws are and where you have to lever slightly.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

Error Code 0142 indicates most likely they will just ship the hard drive on it's own, but if you request a tech, they will surely send it to your house, no additional fees.
It pretty much depends on your best convenience.

 

In regards to calling them, is there any way I can communicate to a Alienware support representative via email?

 

Yes you can but it's dumb to do so.. Call them up otherwise you can forget your NBD support.. Companies are always slow when responding by email!

 

Just wanted to update that i got the hard drive changed and it has stopped crashing. However an additional problem has arisen. In one of my least finest hours i decided it would be a good idea to create the backup using windows system image, and now when i go to restore it I get a error saying the following

"The system image restore failed.
Error details: The disk that is set as active in BIOS is too small to recover the original system disk. Replace the disk with a larger one and retry the restore operation. (0x80042407)"

I had a RAID 0 setup before and it's still set in RAID 0. Both running windows 8.1. I have been trying to fix this issue for a little over 12 hours now to no avail. I would appreciate any help

Also would just replacing the raid 0 2 x 500 array with a 1 TB SSD or HDD help?

 

*Bump for visibility*

 

Probably won't work.. Factory resintall your OS... this is the only way..

 

I ended up having to having to just do a complete reinstall and just saving the data back by hand.

 

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