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    Yet another freeze. Should I call tech support?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by ShimmerArc, Feb 12, 2011.

  1. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    A few months ago, my laptop started crashing and in the end, everything was dead except for a solitary blinking underscore when I boot up my system. Tech support recommended that the HDD be replaced and so I did, with the help of their technician.

    Admittedly though, he doesn't really seem to know what he is doing, and kept making phone calls to his superior as to which HDD should be replaced.

    After that, all was well. Until a few weeks ago when the crashes started again. Just a few minutes ago the system froze (was on WoW). I pressed alt-ctrl-del but instead of the usual options I was greeted by a 'loading security options' screen.

    Waited for 5min and rebooted it via the power button. While it was booting, I saw one of the HDDs labeled with a red 'Error Occurred' tag.

    Could this be another HDD failure? That's two in a row now. This is driving me nuts. I ran out of space on my external HDD so I have quite a huge amount of vital stuff stored on my lappy.

    Any advice would be welcome.
    Here's the link to my last thread outlining the crashes I've been having. Of particular interest (imo) would be the second last post.

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/547991-baffling-restarts-help.html

    Thanks again.
     
    ShimmerArc, Feb 12, 2011
    #1
  2. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    Another crash this morning when I was browsing Facebook. I wrote down whatever relevant information in the BSOD.

    Ntfs.sys
    PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

    00X00000050 (0XFFFFF8A102FC811E, 0X000000000000000, 0XFFFFF8800122423D, 0X000000000000005)

    Ntfs.sys - Address FFFFF881002242BD base at F5880012H000, DateStamp 4a5bc14f
     
    ShimmerArc, Feb 12, 2011
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  3. usshellfire

    usshellfire Notebook Consultant

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    call dell support, either request for both hdd to be replaced, or for a new system to be built.
     
    usshellfire, Feb 12, 2011
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  4. deltawing

    deltawing Notebook Evangelist

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    This same problem happened to me, took me a month or so to get a new system, and that was because of the Unresolved Issues approach I took after a few weeks of no answers and multiple technician dispatches.

    My advice? Give it a week or two MAX before going Unresolved Issues and ultimately probably getting a much better system for free like I did, presuming you have a decent enough warranty.
     
    deltawing, Feb 12, 2011
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  5. ShimmerArc

    ShimmerArc Notebook Consultant

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    Will do. Thanks. =)
     
    ShimmerArc, Feb 12, 2011
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