Suggestions on how to approach crashing problems with my m17x

Hey Notebookreview forum people,

I could use a 2nd opinion on how to approach my current situation. So here's the low down:

I have been using a decked out Alienware m17x for about 6 months or so, and unfortunately it has not been a painfree experience. Issues I have encountered in order of severity are:

- Reset (blue screen) while compiling in Visual Studio 2008
- Frequent crashing in numerous games (Wow, Warcraft 3, Team Fortress 2)
- Left mouse button on touch pad no longer responsive
- Left most LED area on keyboard acting wonky

Now the last two issues are in my opinion ignorable. The first two are not. The reset occurs spontaniously. I'll be coding along, compiling, coding some more, and suddenly the machine will display some wierd on-screen gfx corruption and then reset. As for gaming, well, it also seems to occur spontainously, but usually within an hour or two. Crashes directly to desktop with various errors.

From this info alone I am almost convinced it is hardware related. Running the DELL diagnostic tool turned up the following notable error codes:

- 2300:0124 - Incorrect interrupt count (firewire related i think)
- 5E00:021F - Something about a USB Device not responding
- 1B63:0268 - Audio Codec failed to generate interrupts

Now it is of course disconcerning that any errors at all do occur, but I have no idea if others run the tests with 0 errors.

As I said, I am almost convinced given the random crashing that it is hardware related, although the diagnostic itself seems to point some odd off hardware. I was expecting more serious things.

Come to think of it, I did not do the memory test - i am not sure if it was included in the express and exhaustive diagnostic.

So what do you think? And have you tried running the diagnostic?

Regards,

Gazoo

 

what devices do you have plugged in usb ports?

 

You mean while running vista or diagnostic? I had a mouse connected which I disconnected before starting a diagnostic...

As for in windows, usually only a usb mouse and usb keyboard. Occasionally a gamepad or other type of game controller.

Regards,

Gazoo

 

do u have plugged in all the time? i mean the sleep mode of mouse could make this nonrespond error which freez the system. well i got some freezes when i used my adsl modem with broadcomm wi-fif card installed. it seems they conflicted. so i uninstalled wi-fi and all backed to normal. so try to plug in another device as mouse and try to use built-in keyboard and look what happens

 

Have you tried running memtest? If not, give it a go:

memtest.org

Also, it might be that your motherboard is faulty since the LED keyboard isnt working 100%. This may happen with a faulty Motherboard

 

Thanks for all your responses. Apologies for my late reply. Christmas and new years eve has gotten in the way...

I've reinstalled my system completely to windows 7 x64 using all the latest DELL drivers. I had video issues until I disabled the intergrated and hybrid options from the bios.

I had not had any crashes until I played batman arkham asylum. I have gotten the impression that the m17x seems to crash when the graphics are pushed to the utmost limit. The sound skipped heavily at that point. I wonder if the new bios update will alleviate my troubles or if it really is a hardware issue. I'll have a go at running memtest... The DELL memtest did not turn up any errors.

-Gazoo

 

I just finished running the memtest program on my m17x with 0 errors. Does anyone else have any ideas as how to alleviate the crashing problems or perhaps narrowing it down to what the cause could be?

- Gazoo