Alienware laptop won't boot. Shuts down pretty quickly.

Booshanky

Member
Dec 17, 2001
124
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Hi everyone,

I have this alienware m15x-r1 laptop here. Recently it started shutting down randomly and now it's at the point where I can't even keep it going for more than 13 seconds.

It's nothing to do with windows, because it'll crash in the BIOS. I'm assuming it's some sort of hardware issue, so I removed the memory and hard drive, but it still happens. The heatsinks for both the CPU and GPU are both on tight and don't feel excessively hot.

Any ideas what might be going on?

-Mark
 

Gunbuster

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,852
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Shutting down or screen blanking out? One of the defective GeForce chips? Seems like that machine is from around the right time.
 

Booshanky

Member
Dec 17, 2001
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No, like completely shutting down. Literally the exact same thing that happens if you yank the power cord without a battery in.

At first I thought it might be a driver issue with windows or something, but then I noticed that it started doing it even more often, and I can just leave the BIOS screen open and it'll shut down on that.

Maybe it's defective, not sure. It looks like this laptop has a replacable video card which I would assume is nice (can't say without looking at the price). I'm on hold for their chat support, but it seems pretty worthless.
 

Booshanky

Member
Dec 17, 2001
124
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Alright, I was able to take a photo of the BIOS screen before it crashed and noticed these blue dots all over the screen. I don't know if that's normal or not because I've never looked at this particular bios before.

IMAG0652.jpg


Anyway, if that's not normal, I'd guess that's a pretty good indicator that the GPU is the culprit. Anyone know where to pick one of these up used? And if I'm wrong, by all means lemme know.
 

Booshanky

Member
Dec 17, 2001
124
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0
Er, yep. GPU is shot.

I didn't realize it's got a secondary if you yank it. I yanked it and now I'm running off the other display adapter.

Anyone know a cheap place to get a replacement? I got ztronics.com from the alienware people but they're out of a direct replacement for this one (geforce 9800gt) and their replacement is over FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS! (BUM BUM BUMMMM!!!!)

Thanks fellas and ladies.