Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

[johnboy1313]

I'm hoping you guys can help me. I recently traded a TV for this laptop. It is running Windows 7 but frequently shuts down to a blue screen of death. I'm not a laptop guy at all. I've searched the net, but can't find anything that works, and I only know enough to be dangerous. I've received a ton of help from the TV gurus over in the TV forum, so I'm hoping one or more of you can help me out.

It crashes almost every time I use Google Chrome. The screen gets a bunch of lines and then BSOD.

It crashes less frequently with Internet Explorer, but when it does, it seems to happen most of the time when trying to stream video.

It doesn't seem to crash at all, or at least not very often, with Firefox.

I've read that it could be a driver issue or a hardware issue, or a combination of both, but like I said, I'm not a computer guy so I don't really know how to determine what's good and what's bad.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

Do this: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...-windows-7.htm then tell us the numbers that appear on the BSOD, or snap a pic of the screen.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

It'll run ubuntu all day without crashing, but I can't stream from the Dish TV Sling Player with ubuntu. If I could figure out how to do that, I might not even use Windows anymore.

[alihomee]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

if your laptop using a gpu then that one should be the cause of problem and if u want to conform that its a driver problem then download the latest driver from dell website and install it

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

Do this: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/window...-windows-7.htm then tell us the numbers that appear on the BSOD, or snap a pic of the screen.

OK, if I can get it to crash, I'll post a pic. It'll take a second. Thanks.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

OK, so now it's making a liar out of me. I'll post a pic as soon as I can get one.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

if your laptop using a gpu then that one should be the cause of problem and if u want to conform that its a driver problem then download the latest driver from dell website and install it

This is a pre-Dell laptop. They claim they don't support the older Alienware. It's ran all day with no issue

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

It finally crashed on me.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

That's typically a memory error. Run bootable memtest and see if it reports any trouble.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

Is that the Windows memory test or a program by another supplier? Windows' memory test doesn't show any errors.

[vinceroger69]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

Is that the Windows memory test or a program by another supplier? Windows' memory test doesn't show any errors.

i use the free version of this not sure what the others use
http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

This. You can also find it packaged with most Linux distros and on Hiren's Boot CD.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

I ran the test and went up to get ready to go out tonight. When I came back windows was booted. I expected there to be a message of some kind telling whether the memory was good or not. I'm running it again but I don't know if the test will be done before I go out. Here's a pic. Would running 1 gig and 2 gigs of memory side by side be a problem? I've always thought you had to use matched sticks.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

That means it crashed and rebooted during memtest. 100% sure there's nothing overheating? Bad memory can also cause rebooting before it has a chance to display the errors.

It's usually not a problem to run unmatched sticks, but depending on speeds and timings, they may cause issues with certain configurations.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

I'm hoping you guys can help me. I recently traded a TV for this laptop. It is running Windows 7 but frequently shuts down to a blue screen of death. I'm not a laptop guy at all. I've searched the net, but can't find anything that works, and I only know enough to be dangerous. I've received a ton of help from the TV gurus over in the TV forum, so I'm hoping one or more of you can help me out.

It crashes almost every time I use Google Chrome. The screen gets a bunch of lines and then BSOD.

It crashes less frequently with Internet Explorer, but when it does, it seems to happen most of the time when trying to stream video.

It doesn't seem to crash at all, or at least not very often, with Firefox.

I've read that it could be a driver issue or a hardware issue, or a combination of both, but like I said, I'm not a computer guy so I don't really know how to determine what's good and what's bad.

Thanks in advance for the help.

A BSOD sounds like overheating, especially AMD CPU-based laptops.

-> Strangely, Windows gave a BSOD on a laptop that didn't have an overclocked CPU!
Despite that even 100C shouldn't cause an error when not overclocked!

-> OS errors are not typical with stock CPU core clocks!

And combined with lines, sounds like a PSU failure, bad caps or bad solder joints.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

That's an intel CPU there.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

That's an intel CPU there.

It looks more like a power issue.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

It looks more like a power issue.

No memory errors found with Memtest86. RJARRRPCGP, can you give a little more detail on checking the PSU?

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

No memory errors found with Memtest86. RJARRRPCGP, can you give a little more detail on checking the PSU?

It's either the power adapter or on the board.

[spleenharvester]

Re: Alienware M17-R1, Windows 7, BSOD

Look at the artifacting on the BSOD screenshot. That looks like a GPU fault to me.