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    Steam downloading lockup

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by deadboy90, Dec 27, 2011.

  1. deadboy90

    deadboy90 Notebook Evangelist

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    While downloading my steam games onto my new Hard Drive if I leave my computer sit and do this for about an hour the laptop will freeze during download and become completely unresponsive. For example, last night I set Total war: Shogun 2 to download at about 3AM. I woke up this morning with my laptop frozen and the time saying 4:32 AM, thats just 1 example its happened numerous times. Anyone have a similar issue and know a fix? I tried setting the harddrive to never sleep but it didnt help.
     
  2. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Mine would do this, but only if I had 5-6 games downloading at the same time.
     
  3. mario64

    mario64 Notebook Evangelist

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    I had that problem with my R1 until I replaced the stock Dell 1520 wifi card with an Intel 6200. Hasn't happened since
     
  4. un4tural

    un4tural Notebook Evangelist

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    well another possibility is that HDD causes this.

    Try doing it using cable instead of wifi.

    Run HDD diagnostics to see if theres any bad sectors/errors.

    Scan registry cleaner (good one not some from internet AD that says it is best thing happened after the CPU) plus virus scan... It could also happen due registry/file errors in windows, making it freeze...

    Theres really a whole load of things that can cause this, hdd failure is mostly common from my personal experience with laptops, as i carry them with me mostly, so mechanical ones get busted fairly quickly... got an SSD now so im bullet proof now :)
     
  5. deadboy90

    deadboy90 Notebook Evangelist

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    I doubt its the HDD, It's happened with my previous 2 mechanical drives and is happening now with my new SSD in my sig (It's a samsung and i have had no other problems with it) The cable idea is pretty good ill give that a try tonight. thx!
     
  6. first_leviathan

    first_leviathan Notebook Consultant

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    Happened to me before, I think I fixed it by minimizing Steam to the toolbar during downloads. I dunno, it seems like Steam's more likely to crash when the window is up while downloading...
     
  7. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

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    There are quite a few issues for 6200 users as well. In my case the 1520 was fine but it got damaged and the 6200 I put in locks up the system multiple times per day. Summary: research carefully if planning to buy another card.