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mALX BIG PROBLEM...HELLLLPPPPP!!!

post #1 of 15
12/11/07 at 7:45pm
Thread Starter 
I cannot boot up my system. On another thread I wrote about how this had been a small problem at times since I purchased the mALX in June-07. However it was rare and I just attributed it to a Vista flaw.

Last week the problem became severe as it took 12 boot ups for it finally to go into Windows. I called Alienware supportand Alan helped me. He had me uninstall the vid driver I had and install the most up to date one on their site. That seemed to fix the problem. The system worked beautifully all weekend.

Last night I installed a demversion of Norton's antivirus, because I didnt have one on my system. Later on when the computer restarted I got that familiar blue screen of death! Uh oh.

This morning the mALX would not boot, until like the 10th try. I called Alienware and a guy named Alex told me to restore the system to the previous day before the antivirus add. No help. Still the problem persists.

I then spoke with Adrian (alienware support) and since I am at work he told me that we probably will need to reinstall Vista.

As I sit here I have tried to boot up the machine 20 times with no luck This is dang frustrating . Anyone have any ideas?
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post #2 of 15
12/11/07 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 
It finally booted up after about 50-75 times of trying!! I am definitely going to call Alienware when I get home and they had better get this fixed!!
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post #3 of 15
12/11/07 at 9:03pm
It sounds like it's likely a software issue, but it could be lots of things from memory to the hd's, to the motherboard, to even a worn out cmos battery.

First thing you should do is back up your data you want to save, then do a respawn or reinstall of the OS.

If the problem persists, test the memory one stick at a time with memtest.
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post #4 of 15
12/12/07 at 11:58am
Thread Starter 
So last night when I got home I booted up my mALX and it worked fine. I later on turned it off before bed time and thought "lets try it again". It worked just fine, no problem!

Could it possibly be something at my office (work)? The only time I have had problems has been at my office. Odd huh?
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post #5 of 15
12/12/07 at 12:17pm
I suppose it could be the voltage at the office. Old wiring can cause issues with electronics but it's not likely.

Could be that a stick of memory got dislodged slightly, or some other connection is loose. Moving the system could have shaken it back into contact.

Who knows. Computers have their own agenda sometimes...

Hopefully it was a hiccup and it's solved itself. If not, I'm sure AW can get it resolved.
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post #6 of 15
12/12/07 at 12:28pm
What programs are you running and are they in your start up? Sounds like your work programs may have some proprietary boot that is looking for your work server which might be dening access.

Sometimes the rocket scientists down at IT forget to reset the access to remote machines that are not company owned. I go through it quite frequently when ever they upgrade.
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post #7 of 15
12/13/07 at 10:50am
My best guess some tiny portion of Windows is on a failing sector of the hard drive. When you boot the read/write head goes to that sector and either reads or fails. Re-installing Windows may help but I would delete the primary hard drive partition, re-partition, and then reformat the drive. Next install Windows. During the previous steps if "DOS" finds an unusable (sector/cluster/etc.) it will mark it and not use it. If Windows hangs during reboot after this you've pretty much eliminated the hard drive as the culprit.
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post #8 of 15
12/13/07 at 9:23pm
When is the last time you ran chkdsk? It's a beautiful program that seems to work miracles at times. For XP, it usually fixes the infamous "boot circle" when the pc keeps restarting during the Windows splash screen. I'm not sure if that's what your pc is doing, or if it works as well with Vista, but it worth a shot.
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post #9 of 15
12/13/07 at 11:02pm
Quote:
During the previous steps if "DOS" finds an unusable (sector/cluster/etc.) it will mark it and not use it.
This is what CHKDSK does....
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post #10 of 15
12/14/07 at 1:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mjdart View Post
This is what CHKDSK does....
That it does, but with the same result as a full format, I'd say it has firsties before someone reinstalls windows.
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post #11 of 15
12/14/07 at 6:51pm
It shouldnt be a hardware problem, the machine is brand new well 6 months but still. Have you made any major updates or done an overhaul with something? Does sound like a software, but like HH sais, sometimes PC's do as they please
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post #12 of 15
12/14/07 at 6:52pm
cute kid btw, your son?
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post #13 of 15
12/19/07 at 7:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghazgull013 View Post
cute kid btw, your son?
Thanks for the compliment, but no that is my grand-daughter .

You should see how cute she is now! She is 15 months and a doll!!

Oh and regarding my startup/crash problems. It has only happened once since this thread started, and that was the BSOD! It told me that the NVidia driver needed to be updated! Though I have the most current drivers from AW site! Should I go to NVidia's site and use their most recent 7950GTX drivers?

I have yet to try and use the mALX at work again, for fear of smashing somehting if I run inot the same issue, lol.
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post #14 of 15
12/19/07 at 7:59pm
If you only got the BSOD once I wouldnt worry 2 much. But if it persists you can try and number of drivers and/or tweaked drivers which u can find here on the forums
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post #15 of 15
12/20/07 at 12:00am
blazertrek, I don't believe stock nvidia drivers will load on your system (they don't on mine). I use stock AW drivers, but there are modded versions available at various websites.
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