Please can some one help me <3

FraserPike

FraserPike

FraserPike

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Joined
5 Mar 2015
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47
Hey all!!
I have such a problem with my laptop, and no one can figure it out (including manufacturer). If any one has any idea, i beg you please help.

I have had my laptop for a while. Quite expensive. I mainly use it for gaming. Recently i have run into a issue. Every time i stick on a game, the game will crash within 2 minuets. Not the computer, just the game. (This is ALL games).

I thought it may be a heating issue, as my laptop kept throttling, and getting to 90-95c. (even on idle), however i spoke to Dell (alienware), who made me reinstall windows 10, and lots of weird things. Still didnt help. So i took it to a repair shop. They did tests on every thing (all fine), they updated a few things (Bios and stuff), opened up the computer and cleaned fans, and heat sink and put thermal stuff on every thing.

Still, the games crash within 2 minuets. Temps seem to hold at 70c now.
Sent the laptop to Dell, they ran a tone of tests, (the same as the computer store pretty much), and still laptop is being poop.

A month or so before ALL games crashed within 2 minuets, i had a bad screen tearing problem with ALL my games. I had never seen it before. I had to turn V-sync on, on every game in order to get rid of this weird tearing. And now a month later games just wont run.

(SIDE NOTE) - My laptop battery is dead. My laptop will instantly turn off if i unplug it. The battery died roughly 6 months ago. Both the store and Dell have told me that would not affect games. And the battery is not the problem.

If i turn on steam, and go into any game, my laptop does sound like it is about to take off. The fans speed up insanely.

Laptop specs.

System Model - Alienware 17 R2
System Type - x64-based PC
System SKU - Alienware 15
Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4980HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Pr
Installed Physical Memory - (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory - 7.89 GB
Also have a Nvidia gforce 980M
And the power adapter thing is 180W (?)

(Side question) - I know the dead battery cant cause the problem. But could having a dead battery with a bad PSU cause this problem? I read some where that i should have a 240W PSU, not a 180W.

Please, if any one might have a idea, i beg you help me. 2 months without gaming is killing me. I mean, what do people do when they are not gaming?
Thank you for reading!! <3
 
My first thought was overheating. But since that issue seems to be fixed with new thermal paste then that's less likely.

It could be a faulty GPU.

Or, and this is a long shot, it could be that the laptop needs more than 180w to run when under stress. It may well then need the power from both the power supply and the battery together. If the battery is faulty then it may not be getting enough power and the game crashes. Can you ask the repair shop to test it running a game with a 240w PSU?
 
Thank you for the replies so quick!!!

wouldnt Dell and the laptop repair shop see if the Drivers or GPU were faulty? I mean they did tests on them. And they both were apparently fine.
I doubt the repair shop will have a 240w battery for the laptop, but i will give them a call and ask them.
However both Dell and the repair shop seem to think that power would not be a issue. But i dunno. All of this is driving me crazy.
 
FraserPike said:
How can Drivers affect games crashing within a minuet or two? Is there any thing i can do to sort it?
So sorry for the stupid questions, i am just a idiot with computers.
Click to expand...


You'd be surprised what crap drivers can do.

Also, I suspect the computer repair place is telling porkies. I'll bet they didn't touch the thermal paste.

If they did, could be a faulty fan causing things to overheat and go nuts.

//sadly this kind of fault is hard to diagnose over the internet.
 
Thanks Diddums,

Well the temps have gone down drastically. They have done some thing. Because it does feel and seem cooler. And i can see the temps are about 70c, appose to the 90c.
But i will take it back to them on monday. However no one seems to know what the problem is. :(
 
FraserPike said:
Thank you for the replies so quick!!!

wouldnt Dell and the laptop repair shop see if the Drivers or GPU were faulty? I mean they did tests on them. And they both were apparently fine.
I doubt the repair shop will have a 240w battery for the laptop, but i will give them a call and ask them.
However both Dell and the repair shop seem to think that power would not be a issue. But i dunno. All of this is driving me crazy.
Click to expand...
No I meant a more powerful 240w power supply so that you can rule out power drain being the issue. I agree they are unlikely to have a spare battery. But they will probably have a generic power supply to test it on.
 
Hades said:
No I meant a more powerful 240w power supply so that you can rule out power drain being the issue. I agree they are unlikely to have a spare battery. But they will probably have a generic power supply to test it on.
Click to expand...

ahhh i see.
On monday i will take the laptop back into them and ask them to test it out. And hope for the best. I do apologise, i actually made this post in two different area's, and the other thread also seems to suggest PSU supply. Thank you for the help!! <3
 
Tbh the first thing I'd be doing at this point is testing all the fans thoroughly. As in disconnect them and connect them to a standalone PSU and run them for a while. It's very possible that one of your fans is just giving up after a few mins and causing the shutdowns.
 
Diddums said:
Tbh the first thing I'd be doing at this point is testing all the fans thoroughly. As in disconnect them and connect them to a standalone PSU and run them for a while. It's very possible that one of your fans is just giving up after a few mins and causing the shutdowns.
Click to expand...

This was my first diagnostic. And this was my explanation to Dell and the independent repair company. This was the first thing they looked at. And the fans are fine. I am sure Dell would love to drain more money out of me. So i am sure they looked, and if they think the fans are ok, then i am sure they must be fine.
 
Also do you still get crashes if you disable Speedstep in the BIOS? Disabling it will prevent the laptop automatically over locking. It will run games more slowly but it would be interesting to see whether it helps.

Has anyone run memtest or other stress tools to see if there are any failing components?
 
Also do you still get crashes if you disable Speedstep in the BIOS? Disabling it will prevent the laptop automatically over locking. It will run games more slowly but it would be interesting to see whether it helps.

Has anyone run memtest or other stress tools to see if there are any failing components?
 
Hades said:
Also do you still get crashes if you disable Speedstep in the BIOS? Disabling it will prevent the laptop automatically over locking. It will run games more slowly but it would be interesting to see whether it helps.

Has anyone run memtest or other stress tools to see if there are any failing components?
Click to expand...

I have never disabled any thing on the laptop. I am a idiot, and i would have no clue where to start :D
Though i will google now how to disable speedstep.
Yes, Dell, independent repair store, and my self have all run stress tests, and apparently all of them have been fine.
 
Have you removed the battery completely?

Faulty batteries can cause all sorts of issues, I've had to remove them to get laptops to power up before so it wouldn't surprise me if it causes crashes.

Also as said I wouldn't trust the PC shop has refreshed the thermal paste either.
 
Maundie said:
Have you removed the battery completely?

Faulty batteries can cause all sorts of issues, I've had to remove them to get laptops to power up before so it wouldn't surprise me if it causes crashes.

Also as said I wouldn't trust the PC shop has refreshed the thermal paste either.
Click to expand...

Cant remove the battery. Its like fixed in the computer. Will need some one more intelligent than i am to remove it.

BDEE said:
Are the games online or just playing locally on the machine?
Click to expand...

They are games from steam. All my games are on steam. However not all the steam games are online games. For example, Frostpunk, not online, and i have the same issue with any online game like Dayz.
 
Just run constant memtwst and something like a Pi calculator or something that stresses th CPU, this should at least rule out overheating on those components.

Then seperately loop 3d markor something for testing the GPU?

The above if it works fine should at least rule out temp issues, which could point to driver issues I guess.

You've tried windows 10, do you have windows 8 to handle even 7 to test?
 
Delvis said:
Just run constant memtwst and something like a Pi calculator or something that stresses th CPU, this should at least rule out overheating on those components.

Then seperately loop 3d markor something for testing the GPU?

The above if it works fine should at least rule out temp issues, which could point to driver issues I guess.

You've tried windows 10, do you have windows 8 to handle even 7 to test?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I'm confused?
 
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