M17X: Every other restart is a No-Go, But why?

I've tried to hold off on making another thread to address this issue but haven't had any luck coming up with a viable solution. I know another forum member is having the same problem and we've been tring to address it. I recently installed the 640GB HDD for storage, and after doing that I started having a problem where my laptop would start up, but as windows 7 was starting (the colored balls appeared and began to move) it would immediately reset back to the Press F10 for AlienRespawn screen. Then it would start up into Windows. I was looking around and the only thing I found was a possible bad driver. It was a I believe it was a Windows Plug and Play driver. I got the error 0x490 in one of the lists. Well I removed my 2nd HDD and respawned off the partition. Now instead of having the problem I had, my computer will not start up on every other start up. I have this problem when I start the laptop from a shutdown. When it doesn work, it starts up gets past the F2 Bios screen and goes to a blank screen with a cursor flashing. I then have to hit the power button and it shuts off immediately. Then when I start it up it works. Currently I have the 2nd HDD removed. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Any experience with it? I thought by reformatting I'd be eliminating my last problem, not it's just differant. Any guidence is appreciated guys. Thanks

 

If you are keeping the 640GB hard drive in the laptop, its firmware may be incompatible with the BIOS. Therefore the system is having trouble resolving the issue.
If you are keeping the old hard drive in the laptop, then either the hard drive or the motherboard might be going bad (or maybe there is just a bad connection).
Cold boots and warm/reset boots are different. So on the warm boot the system might have enough information in place to compensate for the incompatibility with the hard drive.
My advice would be to try to restore the system to the way it was before all this started. If you still are having problems then you know where to look next (namely the laptop and getting support involved).

 

Well I wouldn't think it would be a firmware issue, especially since it's the same WD 640GB that alienware offers in the computer. But I did reimage the computer to factory settings and that just made the problem differant. Now instead of resetting and restarting everytime, it restarts and and hangs with the cursor till I shut it down. Can't really get tech support out here since I'm in Iraq. I should also mention the I got the laptop5 days ago

 

had the same issue...this is how i fixed it.....i reflashed the bios....then it was 100 percent perfect...i dont honestly know how it fixed it but perfect...make sure if u have raid or anything like that you put it back to where it should be...good luck

 

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. What BIOS version are you using? I'm using A02.

 

benthedogtrainer, Thanks for the suggestion, I tried it on my lunch break. Fixed the hanging on the cursor problem. Now I just need to install the 2nd HDD and see if it still works. +1 Rep for you

 

Well, I put in the 2nd HDD and I'm back to getting the error message and then it restarts. It starts the colored balls moving as it begins to load windows and then restarts after a quick blue error screen. I don't want to disable the automatic restart because last time I did that I couldn't get into windows at all. Had to pull the HDD and respawn the machine. Anyone got another suggestion?

 

Have you tried switching the drives? See if there is a slave/master configuration issue? I know this is an old skool way of thinking about the hard drive issue, but I know some drives have compatibility issues when on a secondary IDE/SATA connection.

 

Hmm, good suggestion. How would I go about checking that? Also do the drives have individual drivers?

 

This is what I'd do in your shoes (stop at whatever step resolves the issue):

1. Reflash the BIOS.
2. Update chipset drivers in your current Windows Build.
3. Reseat the drives.
4. Install only the primary drive then switch to the alternate drive by itself. Then install both. Switch drive connections.
5. Call tech support for warranty repair.

 

I've reflashed the BIOS a few times, I'll check for new drivers, but tech support will have to wait another year. I'm in Iraq. I'll think of something...hopefully