Alienware m17 r1 shuts down and reboots

[Bruce Schechter]

I just bought a used Alienware M17 R1 for my son. The guy who sold it to me didn't have a password, but id did boot to the password screen, so I assumed that once I cracked the password it would work fine. I did crack the password but now, when I tried to boot the system I couldn't get as far as the login screen. After the windows flags assembled themselves the laptop shut down. The light on the power adapter went out. Unplugging and replugging the adapter seemed to reset it, but the same thing happened again. I took a wild guess that the adapter was defective and was shutting down when the system drew to much current and to reduce the load I opened up the CD drive door. This probably seems stupid to you folks who know more, but it worked. The laptop booted into windows and seemed to work fine. I streamed videos on netflix, surfed the web and all was fine. But then I tried to load a heavy-duty game and right after the splash screen the system once again shut down, the power adapter died. I found that I had to wait a while for it to cool down or whatever before I could restart it.

I figured that the problem could be a power adapter so I bought a replacement. The new adapter did not die. Instead the laptop got as far as the introductory windows screen and rebooted. Over and over. I haven't been able to get the system to boot at all with the new adapter. I can still sometimes boot it with the old one.

I fear the worst--a motherboard problem. Before I give up and try to convince the seller to accept a return I want to try everything I can. What would you folks try next?

I posted more, possibly useful, information below.

 

[Sharru Nada]

Hi Bruce,

Not a big expert but I would try 2 things :
1- contact Alienware Support, they should be best in helping you.
2- a wild guess, try to re-install windows .

Best Regards,

Zaza.

 

[Bruce Schechter]

I'll try calling Alienware, though I'm not at all sure they'd support this old machine. As to reinstalling windows--the computer did not come with the original disks and I don't have another copy of windows... but thanks for your reply.

 

[Bruce Schechter]

One more thing: As I said, if I wait for a long while and reset the ac adapter it will boot up and I can use it for low stress applications. I downloaded a temperature monitor and saw that the computer was running pretty cool--around 40C. I decided to try to restart and once again the adapter died and I can't immediately reboot after resetting it.

As I said, the replacement charger I bought does not die. The computer enters a boot loop. I've never been able to boot successfully with this charger. The output of the original charger is 19.5V 4.62A. The new charger is 19.5V 3.34-4.62A. Should this be a problem? Why do they report the lower number?

It just occurred to me to try starting in safe mode (I'm not too bright, I guess). It starts up fine with the original charger, the one that often dies when I boot normally. It doesn't work with the new charger. I created a boot log but I don't know what to do next. Here it is if anyone cares to have a look: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4k72eynkklwg4jm/ntbtlog.txt?dl=0

 

[Bruce Schechter]

RECAP

Maybe my explanation of my problem was so unclear and verbose that you folks have passed on it. So here it is, as briefly and clearly as I can manage.

I bought a used Alienware M17 R1. Sometimes it boots into Windows 7 (usually after it has been off for an hour or so) and sometimes it begins to boot into Windows then it dies after the flag displays for a few moments. When it dies theres a soft ping from the computer and the power adapter light goes off. I reset the adapter and the same thing happens again. After waiting a long while (not sure how long) it sometimes will boot into Windows.

When it is in Windows if I try to use some heavy graphics programs, or even run the Windows Experience Index, it dies. It runs things like Chrome just fine.

I can always boot into safe mode.