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Have an alienware 7700 duel amd processor that i've installed vista on several months ago. I've had an increasing problem where the comp doesn't like to boot up. It's like power goes on, then off, and repeats until i manually shutdown and try again. But lately i can't boot it up at all, and once in a while the screen goes white, where as before it was black. Neideas? i tried testing each ram stick individually and still had same issue. Tried with battery and w/o battery. Let me know, thanks.
Can you:
1. Boot into safe mode?
2. Boot from the CD?
Is there anything in the logs? any BIOS beeps?
This link might help:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...8b3551033.mspx
It doesnt boot really at all, sometimes the screen doesn't turn on, but the cd drive light flickers, then it tries again. It doesn't quite turn all the way off after each attempt tho, there's a digital clock on the front of the notebook that remains on unless I manually turn it off. Sometimes the screen does turn on but it behaves the same as before.
Hmmmmm,
1. The fact that it won't boot makes troubleshooting rather difficult.
2. I would say that it is almost certainly a hardware problem, given that it deteriorated over time. I say that because you are not getting to the software, and if it were a BIOS problem I would expect it to fail pretty much instantaneously rather than gradually.
3. It shouldn't be the HDDs as you don't get that far into the boot sequence.
4. It could be the video card, but I doubt that, as you should get some BIOS beeps and the rest of the machine should boot.
5. It certainly could be the motherboard, or some component/peripheral.
6. My suspicion at this point is that it is a power supply/distribution problem.
1. Have you tried it on battery power alone?Quote:
Tried with battery and w/o battery. Let me know,thanks.
2. Have you checked to see if the battery is charging, and is charged?
I would also give it a thorough clean, reseat all the connections and check that the fans are working.
Sounds like the power supply bugging out. Happened to me when I added additional components to my rig. The computer would think about starting and the power supply was blowing hot air like a furnace when CPU was IDLE. I replaced the power supply with a 600watt version. System now is actually running a little faster.
I tried it with w/o battery and with and w/o power supply. Reset all connections and checked fans, no luck. If it is the power supply how would I go about replacing that. And is there neway to tell for sure if that's the problem.
Well, I am not familiar with that model, but I believe that it has an external power supply?
I would guess that it transforms your mains AC supply to 12v DC or whatever?
If you have a multimeter you can check if it is delivering the power it should be. Whilst you are at it, check that the battery is charging.
If both of those check out you have a more serious problem. Probably the motherboard or power distribution system?
Other than the power supply, have you checked to see if you or someone attempted to overclock the cpu? What happens when you connect the machine via a surge protector? Has anyone else experienced this issues on the Alien support boards?
There's nothing on alienware I can find, and they won't even talk to me on the phone because they want me to fork over another 200 bucks just to get phone support so they can tell me I'm screwed. 5500$ I spent on the system several years ago when it was top of the line too.
Well, the general concensus on the net seems to be that Alienware support sucks, so don't bother.
I don't rate their product very highly either. A tarted up and badged Clevo? :rolleyes:
Best I can suggest is to take it to a small local shop and find out what exactly is wrong with it. They will have the equipment to test the power supply at least, and probably most of the other components.
That is a problem with laptops, it isn't easy to get reasonably priced generic or third party parts, and most of them are a pig to work on, which shoves the labour charges up. Go to the manufacturer and you will pay through the nose.
I replaced a Mac G4 HDD the other day........... it took me 90 minutes (and I do know what I am doing) whereas an ordinary desktop would take no more than 10 minutes for an awkward one!
Have you checked for bad caps? (here is an example of what to look for: http://www.badcaps.net/)
I have seen this more times than not when a capacitor goes bad you can get some really strange issues...
What about overheating? Does this happen if the PC sits turned off for a while then you power it on? Or does it not matter the environment prior? Could be a bad cooling fan/setup. What about thermal paste on the processor?
That's a thought. Remember there are capacitors in the PSU as well, but you might not be able to get into it.
Is there a warranty on this box by any chance? Stupid question but you should always check that first..
I agree that it sounds like a PS or heat issue but I ran across this and thought it might be worth looking at - hard to tell from posts if the notebook will boot to CD. http://www.winxpfix.com/page18.htm.
Hi XC,
That solution requires the machine to boot as far as the Windows logon and to read the CD/DVD drive.
From the symptoms described, what we seem to have here is a hardware problem not an operating system one? The real issue is that we cannot get far enough into the boot to get to a CD and run diagnostics.
That suggests a PSU or MoBo problem to me.
1. It isn't the hard drives because we don't get that far, and we would be able to boot from a CD.
2. I don't think it is the video card, as when they progressively deteriorate you would see weird display problems, not boot-up ones. What should happen is the machine would still go through the boot sequence but give a black display at the end. I would also expect to get BIOS beeps if the video card or RAM were faulty.
3. My approach would be to test the PSU then fully charge the battery and try it on battery power only. If the PSU is OK and it won't run off the battery, then it is almost certainly the MoBo.