Alienware 18 shutdown while using GFX card

So 2 months ago after playing heavily Destiny 2 for many days, i started to have shutdowns with my Alienware 18 only when gaming tho, i just didnt pay attention to it and i would just re-power on the laptop and play again for another 10min/5min/ before it would competely shutdown again.

Now im also starting to get them while just being in windows. so i disabled the gtx 980m and now everything is fine.

Also when it all started my power cable near the DC jack would become so hot you couldnt even touch it. i have no artifacts nor do i have bad fps in game !

could it maybe be my DC jack is bad and it doesnt give enough voltage to run the gpu ?

i need to deliver this laptop to a friend next week as he bought it from me cause i have bought the Area51m.

what can i do guys ?

 

Congrats, the MOSFETS near the DC jack are dying and will blow up soon. I went through 3 system boards in my Alienware 18 before I pulled the CPU, RAM, SSD, and GPUs and tossed the rest in the trash. It’s a known problem, many Alienware 18 die this way. I think @Rengsey R. H. Jr. had his do the same thing. Absolutely garbage platform

 

Yup , I think it got shorted somewhere lol or it’s an unknown mystery. I really hated that model ... hahah

 

Just let your friend know that it would die from an I know cause in the near future. That’s really all you can say. It’s true.

When mine died , I scratched my head and said to myself “ whadafa “ ....

 

Mine went up in a puff of smoke, literally. Very lucky it did not fry my 980M or 4940MX

 

@Raidriar so its the motherboard ? But why does it only give me shutdowns when 980m is enabled ?

 

Motherboard is on its way out, expect failure at some point if you continue to use the 980M.

Think of it this way. Intel GPU draws very little power compared to 980M, mosfets are not being worked very hard. 980M enables, mosfet must work harder and is not able to handle the job because of internal failures, starts making erratic behavior like random shutdown or worse, exploding like in my case. Motherboard will probably survive only if you never use a dGPU like 980M ever again, turning the Alienware 18 into a fat facebook machine.

 

Power draw, the MOSFETs are your main power conditioner. When you lessen the current requirements (disabling GFX card) the MOSFETs are under less constrain.

FYI, My M18 VIKING is dead! My 2 MOSFETs blew out, system was stock, no overclocks. What a piece of Fing Garbage. So pissed. Sent it in for repairs as I have warranty till October this year.

Latter I will create a post with my screen shots. I am waiting to see what Dell does for me. It has been a crap shoot when it comes to their warranty repairs...


-imest

 

Congratulations, join the club of dead Alienware 18 owners. Meanwhile M17x R1, M17x R2, M18x R2 continue to perform overclocked without problems. Apparently Area 51M may also have this problem like Alienware 18, somebody on reddit just blew up their motherboard.

 

Yeah, I am not on the road as much these days (being stuck in the office is becoming the norm). After my 18's warranty is up I am moving to desktop. I'll miss the portability of the laptop, but will not miss the headaches the 18 has given me.


-imest

 

I am waiting for icelake to come out and then will also likely be going the desktop route

 

@Raidriar so same problem i had in 2016 when they blew up

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/my-motherboard-couldnt-take-heat-of-my-980ms.793008/

 

Correct, you are headed in that direction. Sad you are also like me, had the problem more than once....

 

Does anyone know if replacing the MOSFETs with a higher quality version keep this from happening? I can not believe Dell has had multiple cases of this happening and are unwilling to fix it. SMH...

 

@Khenglish would know, but Dell never issued a new revision motherboard that addressed the problem, so many will continue to die like this.

 

The 980m MOSFETs are good FETs, three is just too few. When you replace the blown one also fill in the 3 empty FET pads and the card will be very robust.

 

You misunderstood friend, I’m referring to the MOSFETs on the Alienware 18 motherboard that love to blow up

 

Ah ok. Link me the part number of what they are. These are the p-channel FETs for overall AC power right?

 

I don't have a picture, I chucked my computer intro the trash after replacing the board 3 times and having the same failure time and time again. Moved the parts into my M18x R1 that I converted into an R2

 

Here is a picture from my old board when the mofsets exploded in 2016 i still have it

Since i sold this laptop to him for 1000 € im going to buy a new motherboard and replace it.
they are damn cheap at ebay right now.

 

Funny how mine blew 3 motherboards in the same exact spot as yours, and I always ran mine undervolted!

 

Yeah mine was stock when they went, so yeah...

 

I remember reading online about a guy who had just bought one new then took to his job at a police department only for the machine to black smoke and catch fire because of those faulty mosfets. Those with healthy or nos boards can band aid the issue with a cooling mod to the mosfets but that will never fix the issue short of replacing them by hand with higher quality mosfets. Just don't let it burn that 980m and good luck.