Totally random lockups? :/

I left it idle all night, and it did not lock up at all. So my idle lockups are very random. As it is, they only happen probably once a week. Unless anyone has some tips, it's something I think I can live with, since this computer has yet to ever lock up on me when I am performing any tasks.

All in all, I love this computer. It outperforms my past 15" notebooks, smaller lighter, and 5 hours battery life. I don't use it for gaming though.

 

Anyone here with intel wi-fi card who have lockups?

 

My guess would be, pretty much all of us.

 

Haven't had any lockups since installing my 6200.

 

Sorry? You mean all intel wi-fi have lockups? Here in thread i see only dell wi-fi owners have lockups...

 

Isnt the wifi card in the dell from intel? or maybe its not actually.. hmmm all im saying is it seems all (most) r2 users have the lockups

 

Vorob, I don't think there have been any reports from people who have installed the intel card having the problems they were having with the stock Dell card.

 

What are you basing that on? There have been perhaps a few dozen reports here on these forums of lockups that are tied to the Dell 1520. Some of those people have gone on to purchase an intel card and the problem goes away.

I can copy ISOs, download Steam games and huge torrents across my stock 1520 without issue. Either some of the 1520's are defective or there's something else going on. Either way I don't see any evidence that it's effecting a large percentage of R2 owners.

 

The Dell 1520 wifi card is not an Intel card.

 

The DW1520 is made by Broadcomm. I have always had much better luck with Broadcomm adapters than Intel, Realtek, or others.


As for my screen lockup issues, I think I have finally determined why it is happening. My kids often use my computer to go to their Nick Jr websites and play games. These are mostly composed using Adobe Flash. Each of the last few times my computer has locked up, I rebooted, and when I go back into Firefox, now that it loads whatever website was loaded when it was forcefully closed, I see that each time I reboot and go back into Firefox, one of their websites comes up with some flash game playing.

So it appears my lockups are not random at all, and are because the kids walk away from the computer and leave the flash website running, which eventually locks up. I am guessing due to Flash's notorious memory leak issue.

I realize it is not the problem most of you are having, but it is something to think about for others who find this thread and maybe having the same problem I am.

 

One other thing, how do I know if I have an R1 or R2?

 

R1 = Core2 Duo processor
R2 = Core i processor

 

I have a pentium.

 

^No you don't, as there aren't any M11x models with a Pentium. I assume you mean "Intel", but every model uses Intel processors. The post you're responding to lists the models of Intel processors available in each M11x version.

To see which processor you have, go to the Start menu, click on Computer, at the top go to System Properties, and then see what's listed for Processor.

 

Ah I remember when that was cutting edge *sigh

I even had a twin P60 CPU rig, NT, Quake and NTL's broadband trial (2Mb/s)... must have been 1995/7.

 

Hello,

It's been a while since I posted in this section and I usually come for problems lol. I'm back, and it's for this specific problem.

I got my r2 about a month ago and I have only 2 issues; freezing on boot from hibernation, and random lockouts.

My r2 has the 258.xx nvidia driver and the A02 Bios. I have had a total of 4 lockouts and all of which were very vital points, I was running a music program called serato with the wifi on (although i don't need it and havn't tested without) and at the begining of the night it will generally take 3-7 miuntes after running the program to lockup. After that sometimes I will just restart or turn the wifi off and it won't come back for the rest of the night, but I am not exactly sure what it is that is causing it.

Also I am an i5 overclocked at 146 I believe.

1 more point is that I just remember it had also locked up on me once while playing global agenda, I had wireless on and an ethernet cable directly plugged in at this time, no way to tell.

Any advice on what I can do to help?

 

Pentium is a family of Intel processors, and the SU4100 in the R1 is a Pentium chip

 

Sorry its been awhile since I reply.

Updates:
After dell swapped a new R2 for me.. its been goin all well till it locked up yesterday. (During an msn conversation & skyping @ the same time -.-)

- Totally stock config. (no OC)
- Wasnt using wireless at tt point of time (however,i did test a few days ago by transfering 20gb++ worth of files to and fro.. and it didnt lockup.
- Oddly, it doesnt lockup during intensive gaming and loading.

I guess tts why its called totally random =(((

 

Whoops, my mistake. Thanks for the info

 

No Problem, i used to work for Intel up until 2 weeks ago

 

I found that reinstalling the hard drive drivers fixes the data transfer lockups, i also have the same issue when surfing the net though, it just randomly locks up, it has only really started doing it since i moved to the new bios though, so hopefully it will be corrected soon

 

I have gone through this thread and I'm finally posting. My M11x r2 will lock up while I'm playing wow for about 2 hours. I do sit in front of this thing alot and it gets rather anoying having to hold the power button down and restart every couple hours. While I'm playing the screen goes black and then funny looking symbols come up on the screen. here is a link to the youtube video I have uploaded with the the symbols on the screen. Any advice on how to go about fixing this would be appreciated. Also I have updated the video drivers from the dell website and it did not fix anything. My laptop stays really cool because I have a nice cooling pad under it.

YouTube - Alienware M11x lockup screen

 

GPU Crash? is it OCed?

 

which hard drive drivers are you referring to ?

1. intel rapid storage technology
2. Pm800 256GB 2.5 SATA SSD
3. DE351DL Free fall sensor

 

I'd call Dell on that. I've never seen a crash like that before.

Does it matter what game you're playing? Are you overclocked? What video driver are you using? Have you run the Dell diagnostic suite yet? Tried re-seating your ram?

 

My lockups are back. Went through a period of no issues but having said that I wasn't transferring much data.

i7 (stock)
4GB
W7 HP 64bit
500GB HDD
Dell 1520

The lock up has occurred 90% of the time whilst I've been downloading more than one game in Steam.

I have had one lock up whilst installing an application through ninite.

Both through using wifi connectivity, not had a lock up on cabled connection yet.

It definitely seems to occur when downloading large files.

Anyone had any joy resolving this? Do not feel like I should have to replace the wifi card on an expensive device.

 

I've read this whole thread but my situation is different. While playing a video on VLC or on youtube the notebook will crash. The screen is frozen and the fan suddenly turns on then it will power itself off. There is no BSOD.

And this crashing/lockup is very repeatable, all I have to do is play a youtube video. Alienware support is closed for the night so I'm going to give them a call tomorrow but does anyone here have any idea what could be causing this? I just received the laptop today so this is really frustrating.

 

The latest drivers have better video and flash support, so make sure you're updated.

 

When I had my m11x, flash videos would play fine, but if I left the computer idle with a browser window open, it would lockup after a while. I wiped the HD and reinstalled, but with the latest drivers and flash, this would still happen. I just figured flash did not like the GT335. Flash is a buggy and poorly written program anyway.

 

So after 4 calls to Alienware tech support and almost 8 hours on the phone with no solution they said the best they could do was for me to send the laptop in for repairs. They want to test all the hardware on it and be sure everything is working.

It'll take 10 business days to get back to me after I ship it in the box they provide.

Such a bad experience with Alienware. I got the laptop two days ago... why did they ship me a defective system in the first place? So from the time I actually ordered it, its going to be more than a month before I can actually use the computer.

 

I recently had a lock up too on a new m11xr1 while backing up my hard drive to a external one, completely random, and when i restarted it i was able to back it up again, no idea why it happened though.

 

Update: got the laptop back from the depot. They replaced the motherboard and now it works perfectly. Guess they just shipped me a defective one.

 

Damn, did they even give you anything for your time?

Shoulda asked for a free name plate or something

 

Extracting 20gb+ files to an external hdd. The thing locked up 4 times in 4 hours. I was eventually able to complete the extraction...
:/
My m11x R1:
hinge replaced in november
battery replaced in december
1 year warranty expires in: 39 days
-----new issues:
hinge is snapping again
random lockups
gpu fan is INCREDIBLY loud and sounds awful all of the sudden

I hate to say it, but I'm never buying from Dell or Alienware EVER again.
I had a BILLION problems with an XPS Gen 2 prior to this. Had a 4 year warranty that consisted of GPU replacement (3 times) motherboard replacement, etc. Only to have the GPU fail post-warranty.
The same thing is going to happen again, I know it.
By the time I ship my m11x to get these new issues fixed and get it back the warranty will be expired.
I want out. I wish i could get a refund, or a completely new m11x r2.(or 3?)

 

I have had the same random freezing problem just randomly when I am either doing nothing or browsing the web as I don't even game on my M11x I have the SU7100 so I guess its a R1. I am going to have to say this cant possibly be RAM or any kind of software hard drive issue and I think it has to be faulty motherboards in some of these M11xs

 

How many people returned their M11x for a new one because of this or had a motherboard replaced?