Bob from California - Alienware M14 R2 - 256GB mSATA SSD (CRUCIAL M4) Installed... - Page 3

Edited by Bob-California - 10/23/12 at 11:54am

Edited by Bob-California - 10/23/12 at 11:53am

Yes, identitycrisis

You described exactly what happened to my Dell Alienware M14 R2.

Right after I read your post I called the AW repair facility (depot) and had a note passed onto the person repairing my laptop informing him that I received information from another person with the identical problem and it was a faulty RAM Stick (my laptop has two sticks)

My laptop has been at the depot for over a week and they have no clue as to cause of the failure to boot so the repair guy replaced the motherboard, Harddrive, and they appear to have the same problem. -- its got to be the RAM like you said.

I do have the one year in-home repair warranty but they recommended that I ship it to them as the in-home service tech does not carry the components necessary to fully repair my laptop.

Also, my 8GB x 2 ( 16GB @ 1600 MHz ) RAM Modules don't have heat dissipators and are stacked extremely close together all while being cooled my Alienwares notoriously bad cooling system.

The massive Windows update files cooked the RAM !

I going to admititley turn off Windows automatic updates and just download / install one item at a time as not to overwork the RAM modules thus overheating and damaging a module.

This is unacceptable -- a better designed RAM module(s) should be installed in all dell laptops (RECALL)

This will undoubtedly happen again as software / programs over time become more and more demanding.

I edit HD Video content and I'm sure ill cook the RAM modules in no time.

Thanks again identitycrisis

Bob

Yeah,

I know, I hesitated to send them my laptop because if their service tech's are anything like the dopes that answer the phone I know I'm going to get screwed.

I keep getting this visual of monkeys tossing my brand new laptop back and forth and up into the air.

I have yet to find a Dell employee that can speak English clearly - I have to struggle to understand what they are saying.

I keep waiting for someone to tell me its a demented joke then start speaking clear / understandable English.

Bob

(UPDATE: M14 R2 BACK FROM DELL REPAIR DEPOT)


Well,

I just got my Alienware M14 R2 back from the depot.

It took them (Dell / Alienware) over a week to identify, remove and install one stick of RAM that had failed.

I received the laptop in better physical condition than I thought - only one major scratch on the speaker grill (scratched off black paint revieling shiny silver metal) - easily repaired with a black paint touchup pen.

They re-installed Windows, hardware drivers, and re-configured all hardware to operate correctly (so they thought)

I'm getting error messages and crashing while viewing still images and playing videos using the windows player(s).

Windows Experience Index will no longer run - getting error message at the end of the test. Something to do with video settings?

There appears to be a conflict with the Intel 4000 graphics and nVidia m650 GPU.

I guess now I can have Dell inhome service tech fix the numerous errors I'm getting. I'm not going to spend countless hours of my time with that remote online service tech. I'd gladly pay a service tech to arrive as fix this dam thing once and for all so I can get back to work. So dam frustrating.

You would think it would work correctely after returning from the depot.

Bob

The first thing I did when it returned is press F12 at startup and run a full diagnosis of the entire computer.

Everything passed.

The software is crashing not the hardware. (Driver issues now)

I has the same error messages as the first time I powered up the laptop when it was brand new out of the box.

I fixed all the error messages by formating the HDD then reinstalling Windows and the drivers from Dell's website.

I noticed dell had installed multiple copies of the same driver for an individual item; for example (this time around) the fan had five (5) copied of the same exact driver installed. After I re installed all drivers (one copy per item) the laptop had no problems untill the next day windows did an automatic update and the laptop froze (would not boot) apparently a RAM module had failed.

Good call on the mSATA SSD !

I emidelity removed it because I knew it would be toast if I sent it to the depot - dam little thing cost over $200 (not much bigger than a postage stamp)

The computer won't display any of the hardware installed in the Devices and Printers menu of the control panel. Just shows a monitor and a printer (strange because I don't have a printer installed)

I swear, this is like a twilight-zone episode.

Right now my eight year old Dell D630 laptop kicks this Alienware's ass because it is fully functional. It's like this Alienware Laptop is on crack.

Getting both HDD and SSD to both operate took days. As one would work and the other did not even show as being installed. The only way I got them both to work is to install windows on both drives then format the HDD and use it for storage. Alienware wins the most incredible pain in the ass award. When I finely get this thing working and stable I'm creating a fresh restore point, creating a system image disc (which a I could sell to dell for $1000 thus making their AW laptops usable) and restore disks. I never want to go thru this nightmare ever again.

I would like to know the best procedure for adding a secound drive to a M14 R2 because when its installed it does not show up as being installed.
I'm thinking windows needs to first download many updates when its first installed and thoes precocious bits of information is what's causing my laptop not to see the secound drive. So I'm just going to install the SSD and leave the HDD out untill the SSD has all of the necessary Windows patches, drivers, ect , then ill reinstall the HDD (formated of course) and at that point it should detect it - (Right?)

Bob