Alienware m17xR3 power loss during gaming

[Voodoo16]

All,
Hoping you can help out. I recently conducted my bi-weekly Windows update and am now experiencing problems while gaming on my Alienware m17xR3 laptop. The system completely drops power and dies intermittently while gaming. There is no BSOD or stop code associated. One moment the laptop is on and the next moment it is off. Consequently, I have no dump files to help.

Initially evidence suggests this occurs mostly under heavy load such as gaming. If I turn down the graphic settings, I seem to be able to play longer without a crash.

Could this be heat related? I am not oveclocking either the GPU or CPU. It seems weird to me that I have been running this laptop for 18+ months without any issues and then all of a sudden over-heating would be an issue.

Associated with each crash is the following diagnosis in Event Viewer is "The DNS proxy agent was unable to allocate 0 bytes of memory. This may indicate that the system is low on virtual memory, or that the memory manager has encountered an internal error." I am not sure if this is the cause or the symptom from sudden power loss.

Could this be related to my Windows update? Has age decided to catch up to me and this is over-heating? Or something else?

Alienware m17xR3
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Intel Core i7-2760QM
16 Gb RAM
nVidia 580m GPU

I ordered a laptop cooler (Coolermaster U3) and will test this out when it arrives.

This laptop is my baby so I would appreciate your help. Thank you!

Voodoo16

 

[thiismachine]

I have the same exact problems. Normal use on my laptop is fine but once i start using the GPU intensively my PC crashes within a few minutes and its frustrating. I also have the same specs as you - gtx 580m, i7 2760qm 2.4-3.2ghz, 16gb ram, 1080p display. I've never had a problem with this PC so far and its frustrating to see it go down like this, i too have owned mine for about 18 months. Still looking for a solution myself.

 

[Voodoo16]

I have the same exact problems. Normal use on my laptop is fine but once i start using the GPU intensively my PC crashes within a few minutes and its frustrating. I also have the same specs as you - gtx 580m, i7 2760qm 2.4-3.2ghz, 16gb ram, 1080p display. I've never had a problem with this PC so far and its frustrating to see it go down like this, i too have owned mine for about 18 months. Still looking for a solution myself.

About 4 days after my post, the laptop halted on POST due to an lcd error (9 beeps). I was effectively dead at this point, so I gave in and brought the laptop to a repair shop. We went a few rounds as I tried to convince them it was not the monitor. Turns out, the likely culpritt was either the motherboard or the gpu. I had them both replaced and now the system works great (knock on wood). The loser was my wallet at a cost of $1000. I suspect either the motherboard or gpu fried and which could create the 9 beep error on POST.

Anyway, I have bought a Coolermaster NotePal U3 to prevent any overheating that could fry parts. If the sudden powerloss becomes unbearable, you'll be facing a $1000 repair. Or, Alienware just came out with a new version of the m17X.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[thiismachine]

I have the same exact problems. Normal use on my laptop is fine but once i start using the GPU intensively my PC crashes within a few minutes and its frustrating. I also have the same specs as you - gtx 580m, i7 2760qm 2.4-3.2ghz, 16gb ram, 1080p display. I've never had a problem with this PC so far and its frustrating to see it go down like this, i too have owned mine for about 18 months. Still looking for a solution myself.

About 4 days after my post, the laptop halted on POST due to an lcd error (9 beeps). I was effectively dead at this point, so I gave in and brought the laptop to a repair shop. We went a few rounds as I tried to convince them it was not the monitor. Turns out, the likely culpritt was either the motherboard or the gpu. I had them both replaced and now the system works great (knock on wood). The loser was my wallet at a cost of $1000. I suspect either the motherboard or gpu fried and which could create the 9 beep error on POST.

Anyway, I have bought a Coolermaster NotePal U3 to prevent any overheating that could fry parts. If the sudden powerloss becomes unbearable, you'll be facing a $1000 repair. Or, Alienware just came out with a new version of the m17X.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Yeah, i dropped mine off at a repair shop after speaking to dell for a short while. Still awaiting the diagnoses, but thanks a bunch for the update. I want to get rid of mine soon and just build a gaming PC myself. Thanks again.