Area 51m 5500 - Keeps shutting Down

Try cleaning out the fan covers, then get a lot of stuff in them over time.

Dude, perhaps its not hardware problem. Just last night a huge worm has got out - see CNN - and it does exactly what you describe. Shuts down machines, constantly.

Clean your heatsinks and fans first. I'd also check the connections that you can, like the hd cables, lcd cable, etc...

Have you reloaded windows lately? Windows registry gets loaded with crap after lots of software loads and unloads, and the system can slow and lock up due to this. I reload windows about every six months on my main rig.

I'm sure AW will tell you to reload the drivers, and do a clean install of windows, so you might want to do that ahead of time and see if it works.

If you do end up sending your machine back to AW for repairs, make sure you back up your drives as AW reformats and reinstalls windows in the depot. They do that because the vast majority of issues disappear with a fresh load.

I'm in the same boat as you, my friend only you would not believe what I have been through. I am a 7 years veteran graphic designer using standard Flash MX and Photoshop every day - I bought the machine for performance and reliability.

My issue is very similar to yours in that it worked fine for about 5 months and then started to crash. Here is a quick summary of the past 6 months and what Alienware has put me through to date:

+ Windows re-install 3 times
+ new video card
+ new motherboard
+ new memory (2)

It's been to the depot 2 times with no luck finding the issue - they cannot replicate the crash running their standard diagnostic tests. The problem is that the system only crashes when using the said software and occasionally when I'm browsing. It's not my software that's the problem because I've been using the same installation CD's for two years on other computers and they work fine.

I just got it back for the second time last week and it has crashed Flash once and the entire system once. I have worked with both personal and corporate CS for months but they insist it's now my problem. They are washing their hands of the issue and will NOT replace the system nor give back even a partial refund. This is a dead end situation for me. $3,200 later and countless hours of tech support and they have left me with a broken machine. I am in the process of picking up the pieces and need to sink another chunk of change to get another computer.

Good luck to your issue - I have no recommendations for you since you can tell that my experience ended up for the worst. You will be hearing more from me on this forum once I get the formal letter written expressing the situation and the unbelievable state in which they left a payed customer with a broken computer still under warranty

: jason :

Put you through? Sounds like they've replaced any hardware in your system that could be causing issues.

Does the computer crash while using any other software? Do you have licensed versions of flash and photoshop?

Personally, I've used flash and photoshop extensively, and it's not uncommon for those programs to cause problems. Not so much photoshop, but macromedia blows donkey IMO. Everything macromedia screws up my systems, and crashes and malfunctions are common.

These are both very complex programs with tons of known issues, and flash especially has crashed several of my pc's.

It did teach me to save my work constantly though...

hammerhead,

I just posted a more comprehensive thread. To answer your question, yes, Flash can crash at times, but not at the frequency like this - not twice a day. I've beena Flash developer for 6 years and have never seen any software, let alone a computer crash like this. I've used the same software on multiple computers with no issues - No cracks, to answer your question.

Thanks and please respond to my other post if you have any input. I'm seriously at an end with this situation and need to move on or find a solution.

FYI...

We have specific Tech Support forums in the AW boards...please try to keep things organized by posting HELP topics in them...thanks.

-Moved

Shutdown fix

Hey there guys, I had the same problem and it turns out its due to over heating, for some reason Alienware decided to put a useless and problem causing peice of metal between the procesor and the heat sync.

Anyways a simple fix is to just open up your lappy and remove the processor heat sync and take out the small peice of aluminum on the processor, I then cleaned up my processor and the heat sync, then placed a nice thin layer of thermal paste on the heat sync and slapped it all back together and have not had a problem synce, also I noticed that the laptop was running faster and alot cooler over all.

i have been experiencing the same thing... i know its caused by overheating... dunno why alienware would sell the comp with such poor heating

did anyone try the method that I listed above? it worked great for me.