Need help diagnosing what I think might be hardware problem M17x

Hi,

I have a month old M17x and it started giving me trouble.

The problem seemed to be slight at first and seems to have gotten worse and worse.

I would boot up my machine and it would occasionally go for long periods (5 to 10 minutes) where the harddrive light would be lit solid and the machine was unresponsive. I thought it was this backup software I had installed so I removed it and the computer seemed fine for a few hours. I then copied all the data files off the hard drive to my NAS manually just for safe keeping.

Then the problem got worse and more frequent. Since I had a good backup and have not really had the machine that long, I decided to restore from backup. The problem did not go away. I then completely respawned back to original factory image and I can barely login to Windows Vista 64. When the home screen comes up, the hard drive just runs constantly and the machine is so unresponsive, I can't even bring up task mgr with ctl-alt-del and I get some message about it not being able to create the security window or something.

So at this point, I'm pretty convinced that it's a hardware issue since going back to factory image did not resolve it.

Any idea what component could be failing that would cause a symptom like this?

Thanks,
Frank

 

Is it seeing all of your memory?

 

Yes, all 4 Gig recognized in Vista 64

 

I thought it could be the hard drive failing but I was able to re image it and copy all my data off of it.

 

you can boot from the M17x resource DVD and run Alienware Diagnostics, that will check your hardware. (i think it takes more than an hour)

 

I think this is synonyms with laptops in general. Hanging can be caused by a number of differnet things, i first thought of memory when i read your post but I would assume it would have to be something to do with your hdds. Untill something drastic happens like not being able to turn it on at all, or something you just cant live with Id attempt to solve the problem with out sending it in or guting it.

 

I'm going to try the diagnostic on the dvd that was suggested and see if it identifies anything. The computer is already to the point of being unusable so I have to do something. I would just like to try to figure out what it might be.

 

you can do a fresh install to make sure.

 

I have had this issue with my work laptop (M4300). I was able to narrow it down to Vista constantly checking the HDD for file locations to use for the Windows Search. Mine was specifically related to the size of my pst file but it is a known part of vista that can choke out an HDD.

I would assume it isn't the exact same issue for you but if you can manage to get into task manager the next time it happens and view your resource monitor it might let you know if it is your HDD or not.

 

OK I got home and ran the diagnostic disk.

Here is the result:

 

Now I'm on the phone with tech support and the guy is going through the troubleshooting script. Before this problem got as bad as it is today, I was able to run the respawn disk and revert back to factory setup so I know it's not something I installed that's causing the problem.

I'm pretty sure after running the diag disk that the hard drive is conking out.

This tech support guy can't even give me an email address so I can send him this output. What a joke. It would literally be cheaper time wise for me to just buy a new hard drive and stick it in than to go through this tech support crapola.

 

Might just be that simple. If you have a bad disk, you can see see the same issues as a memory problem if it happens to be where your swap file is setup.

 

That is a bad disk. Read them the error code telling them you ran the diagnostic disk they will ship you an new drive. Same exact error appeared for me when my drive crapped out.