Alienware x51 R2 crashing/freezing

[joyee9]

Hello all, I've been experiencing very frequent crashes on my 4 year-old X51 R2 and would like to discover the problem with my system. It usually goes like this:

1) Boot up computer, everything goes smoothly

2) After using it under low or even no load (browsing the web/watching youtube videos/idling) for about 15-20 minutes, the display will just crash and turn off. It will often come with a single 'ping' sound (seems like a common sound from windows bit can't remember which). BUT it seems like I can still interact the PC. I can still pause and play videos, skip music, close pages even while the screen is black.

3) Funny thing is, the audio does not disconnect and I'm still able to listen to any video/music I was currently enjoying. I can even continue talking to my friends on VOIP programs.

4) This forces me to hard reset it by holding the power button

5) Afterwards, the computer often does not boot up to show the Alienware logo. I do hear a single beep everytime I try to power the system on though (I've read around that this means it boots up fine, just that it does not connect to the display?)

6) Even if it does boot up, it often does not make it past the "Starting Windows" stage, often crashing there, yet again forcing a hard reset

7) At the end of all these issues, granted that I manage to get to the desktop, the problems generally do not occur and the x51 r2 runs completely fine for extended periods of time (10 hours)

Can't get to my computer now so specs (off the top of my head) :

i7-4770
GTX 760ti oem
Stock motherboard
330W Power Brick
1TB Seagate HDD
1 x 4gb Kingston value memory RAM
1 x 4gb Hynix RAM

 

[joyee9]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from joyee9 : "Computer freezing/crashing behaviour"

Hello all, I've been experiencing very frequent crashes on my 4 year-old X51 R2 and would like to discover the problem with my system. It usually goes like this:

1) Boot up computer, everything goes smoothly

2) After using it under low or even no load (browsing the web/watching youtube videos/idling) for about 15-20 minutes, the display will just crash and turn off. It will often come with a single 'ping' sound (seems like a common sound from windows bit can't remember which). BUT it seems like I can still interact the PC. I can still pause and play videos, skip music, close pages even while the screen is black.

3) Funny thing is, the audio does not disconnect and I'm still able to listen to any video/music I was currently enjoying. I can even continue talking to my friends on VOIP programs.

4) This forces me to hard reset it by holding the power button

5) Afterwards, the computer often does not boot up to show the Alienware logo. I do hear a single beep everytime I try to power the system on though (I've read around that this means it boots up fine, just that it does not connect to the display?)

6) Even if it does boot up, it often does not make it past the "Starting Windows" stage, often crashing there, yet again forcing a hard reset

7) At the end of all these issues, granted that I manage to get to the desktop, the problems generally do not occur and the x51 r2 runs completely fine for extended periods of time (10 hours)

Can't get to my computer now so specs (off the top of my head) :

i7-4770
GTX 760ti oem
Stock motherboard
330W Power Brick
1TB Seagate HDD
1 x 4gb Kingston value memory RAM
1 x 4gb Hynix RAM

 

[Bladekill3r]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from joyee9 : "Computer freezing/crashing behaviour"

Hello all, I've been experiencing very frequent crashes on my 4 year-old X51 R2 and would like to discover the problem with my system. It usually goes like this:

1) Boot up computer, everything goes smoothly

2) After using it under low or even no load (browsing the web/watching youtube videos/idling) for about 15-20 minutes, the display will just crash and turn off. It will often come with a single 'ping' sound (seems like a common sound from windows bit can't remember which). BUT it seems like I can still interact the PC. I can still pause and play videos, skip music, close pages even while the screen is black.

3) Funny thing is, the audio does not disconnect and I'm still able to listen to any video/music I was currently enjoying. I can even continue talking to my friends on VOIP programs.

4) This forces me to hard reset it by holding the power button

5) Afterwards, the computer often does not boot up to show the Alienware logo. I do hear a single beep everytime I try to power the system on though (I've read around that this means it boots up fine, just that it does not connect to the display?)

6) Even if it does boot up, it often does not make it past the "Starting Windows" stage, often crashing there, yet again forcing a hard reset

7) At the end of all these issues, granted that I manage to get to the desktop, the problems generally do not occur and the x51 r2 runs completely fine for extended periods of time (10 hours)

Can't get to my computer now so specs (off the top of my head) :

i7-4770
GTX 760ti oem
Stock motherboard
330W Power Brick
1TB Seagate HDD
1 x 4gb Kingston value memory RAM
1 x 4gb Hynix RAM

This is a common problem that I have found with these machines (also from me owning one myself). I have had this issue, along with many others; including BSOD, freezing, and of course crashing. I have been successful at fixing each problem, for now that is. With the issue at hand, what I did was get onto the computer if at all possible and wipe it, Windows and all. I know it is a very tedious thing to do but it usually will help with this situation. Assuming you haven't upgraded it at all, make sure you have up to date drivers on everything after reinstalling windows. Reboot after the drivers are updated, and play a game, watch a video, try to push the computer with a vigorous game to see if the problem is fixed. If that still doesn't work, try simply re-seating the RAM inside of the machine. If that still doesn't work then go ahead and do a Memtest and see if maybe it is your RAM. Be sure to re-seat the RAM correctly and gently before the memtest and let it run as long as you can, could take 10 hours+. It sucks, but will give you the absolute best results in terms of passing or not. Assuming that doesn't work, it could be your power supply, components of your PC may not be getting enough power to support the tasks it is going through, there is various amounts of ways you can reduce the power usage of your PC. MSI afterburner worked really well for me, but you can also go into the Windows settings and turn on power saving mode as well. MSI afterburner is what I recommend first, because you can control fan speed, and if it seems to be an overheating problem then you can keep it moderately cool in the tiny casing. Let me know if any of this was helpful, if you're still having the issue I can troubleshoot some more as well. I have managed to throw a GTX 1050 in my x51 R2 and have had no problems yet, so it would be kind of rare for your issue to be power related considering I didn't upgrade PSU when doing so. There is obviously a lot of factors, and I have given a lot of info regarding this, try these things out first and definitely let me know if they helped you.

Best of luck!