Question BSOD happening on laptop only when power cord is unplugged

[jenvander]

Hello! While I am a software engineer, this is definitely not my area, so any help you can give is much appreciated! I'm going to give as much detail as I can here, but if you need more details, let me know. I'm not sure how much of this is related or separate problems.

Laptop: Alienware m17 R5 AMD
OS: Windows 11 Home Edition (checked for updates, it is fully up-to-date)

For some time now (and Dell support has been no help, despite this still being under warranty), the laptop has been booting up directly into the Alienware hardware check utility. It does this because it suspects a hardware issue, but the tests always pass. Windows loads fine after the check. I haven't been able to troubleshoot this as much as I've wanted to, due to some very difficult recent life events.

I finally had some time to do a little debugging and discovered that this only happened when the wireless mouse fob was plugged in, though so far I've only been using the one port I always plug that into. I could reliably reproduce the boot-up hardware check or lack thereof by plugging in or unplugging that fob. I thought, okay, I'll plug other things into the port and test, but before I was able to do that, I had a Zoom meeting. I had a webcam plugged into that port, intending to test the reboot after the Zoom. But, during the Zoom, the webcam sizzled and dimmed. I immediately pulled out the plug from the USB. The webcam is fried, it doesn't work anymore.

This is when the BSODs started. After a little bit of debugging on that, I realized that it only happens when the laptop is unplugged. Again, I can reliably reproduce this; within minutes of unplugging the computer, the BSOD happens. I've had four of them so far. WinDbg analysis gives the same bugcheck code each time, 20001, hypervisor. Dell told me to turn off Hyper-V, but this is Windows 11 Home; there is no Hyper-V on it. They told me to reinstall Chrome and turn off hardware acceleration in the settings. I tried first turning off hardware acceleration, but it didn't help. I haven't reinstalled it yet. I am skeptical that Chrome is the issue, since only one of the BSODs referenced Chrome as the process name. The others are System (twice) and AWCC.Backgroun.

Dell doesn't think this is a hardware issue, so, they are refusing to send a technician out at all. I bought a USB multimeter. Readings so far are between 5.18v and 5.21v from all three USB-A ports, while the laptop is plugged in. No power is coming from the USB-C port at all, but again, I'm not a hardware person, so maybe that's normal. Next, I will try to get MM readings after unplugging the laptop's power cord, see if anything changes there after it is unplugged. Since that will cause a BSOD, I'll come back here and update this with those results.

I've also downloaded and run USBTreeView, a great tool for looking at the USB hierarchy. If there is any data desired from that, let me know and I'll add it here.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Have you checked to see if the BIOS on your laptop is pending an update? You could also try and reinstall your chipset drivers in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

If the laptop is yet under warranty, why not see if you can send it off for an RMA, because this seems to me like the motherboard/power input might be at fault here.

 

[jenvander]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Have you checked to see if the BIOS on your laptop is pending an update? You could also try and reinstall your chipset drivers in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

If the laptop is yet under warranty, why not see if you can send it off for an RMA, because this seems to me like the motherboard/power input might be at fault here.

Dell support updated firmware to the latest yesterday and confirmed it. Bear with me, I have never installed chipset drivers Is there a good how-to guide for that? Also, thank you for the welcome and for the reponse!

I also suspect a hardware issue. It's getting the onsite support from Dell that is proving difficult. If I can gather enough evidence of the hardware issue, maybe I could get them to honor the onsite support warranty that I paid extra for. I can keep working as long as I don't let that power cord come out

They did offer to send it off to a center somewhere instead of onsite, but this is my only computer and it's how I earn my living. I can't wait for the weeks it will take to fix. I guess I could get another computer, though I'd rather not have the extra cost right at this juncture, and I don't know if I can install more than one copy of my software (IntelliJ etc...) without deleting the others or paying more licensing fees, and the setup would take a while to replicate before I could get back to working. It's a rough situation.

 

[stonecarver]

I finally had some time to do a little debugging and discovered that this only happened when the wireless mouse fob was plugged in, though so far I've only been using the one port I always plug that into.

Again, I can reliably reproduce this; within minutes of unplugging the computer, the BSOD happens. I've had four of them so far

I had a webcam plugged into that port, intending to test the reboot after the Zoom. But, during the Zoom, the webcam sizzled and dimmed. I immediately pulled out the plug from the USB. The webcam is fried, it doesn't work anymore.

Okay a couple of questions.

With nothing plugged into ANY USB ports when it's on battery power does it BSOD on you?

Just to get it out of the way can you take a bright flash light and look into that problematic USB port. Is there any debris, bent or missing pins.

Why it does not do it while plugged in could be its grounding through the power supply or just better regulated power delivery.

 

[Lutfij]

You can download the latest drivers listed under Windows 11 from AMD's support site, here;
https://www.amd.com/en/support/down...sets/amd-ryzen-and-athlon-mobile-chipset.html
Once you've downloaded the driver, then Right click the installer>Run as Administrator

 

[jenvander]

Okay a couple of questions.

With nothing plugged into ANY USB ports when it's on battery power does it BSOD on you?

Just to get it out of the way can you take a bright flash light and look into that problematic USB port. Is there any debris, bent or missing pins.

Why it does not do it while plugged in could be its grounding through the power supply or just better regulated power delivery.

Yes, with nothing plugged into any USB ports on battery power, it does the BSOD.

I looked inside with a bright flash light, there is no debris, no bent or missing pins.

The battery was replaced on this a few months ago, could it be the problem?

Dell wants me to reinstall the entire OS. It seems they believe this is solely caused by the operating system. But I don't understand how an OS can fry a webcam and then start blue-screening only on battery power. Is that possible?

 

[jenvander]

Yes, with nothing plugged into any USB ports on battery power, it does the BSOD.

I looked inside with a bright flash light, there is no debris, no bent or missing pins.

The battery was replaced on this a few months ago, could it be the problem?

Dell wants me to reinstall the entire OS. It seems they believe this is solely caused by the operating system. But I don't understand how an OS can fry a webcam and then start blue-screening only on battery power. Is that possible?

Okay a couple of questions.

With nothing plugged into ANY USB ports when it's on battery power does it BSOD on you?

Just to get it out of the way can you take a bright flash light and look into that problematic USB port. Is there any debris, bent or missing pins.

Why it does not do it while plugged in could be its grounding through the power supply or just better regulated power delivery.

Something else occurred to me! Alienware has this Alienware Command Center application that is capable of modifying hardware settings, including pushing them beyond normal operating parameters, such as overclocking. I wonder, could software like that, if it had issues, possibly cause symptoms like this? I can uninstall it easily and test, I only ever use it to change the keyboard and mouse light colors anyway. Dell even has an instruction page on how to completely uninstall it, including directory cleanup, because apparently it is common to need to do that and reinstall clean.

 

[stonecarver]

The battery was replaced on this a few months ago, could it be the problem?

At the very least power down unplug the power brick and remove the battery and clean the contacts on the battery and where it mates to the contacts on the laptop.

Reinstall and see if that helps.

 

[stonecarver]

Your BSOD bothers me less than why your USB burned out your camera.

And the typical first answer from Dell lets hose your whole OS to stream line there hopefully quick fix to your issue. Most of the time the forum here can help out issues without going to extremes.

 

[jenvander]

You can download the latest drivers listed under Windows 11 from AMD's support site, here;
https://www.amd.com/en/support/down...sets/amd-ryzen-and-athlon-mobile-chipset.html
Once you've downloaded the driver, then Right click the installer>Run as Administrator

Easier than I thought, thanks! It's been a looooooong time since I did much with hardware or OS/device driver level stuff. So much has changed. My career sent me further up the stack with every passing year.

 

[jenvander]

Your BSOD bothers me less than why your USB burned out your camera.

And the typical first answer from Dell lets hose your whole OS to stream line there hopefully quick fix to your issue. Most of the time the forum here can help out issues without going to extremes.

Same! I've never had a USB port do that before. It was surprising and unsettling. I'm worried that it is intermittent. Don't want to fry any more things, especially things like my Blue Yeti mic...

 

[stonecarver]

I bet if you told Dell that the camera caught fire or at least started to smoke with a extreme odor with sparks you would get a house call.

If you go that route and you do get them to come out PRE SAVE ALL YOUR STUFF.

The first thing they will do is wipe your OS.

But like you said your a one PC person. You really need a back up as what I see happening is Dell coming out and you will get a service ticket and service guy will ship you laptop in for repair.



.

 

[stonecarver]

noticed though, like Jens machine, if I installed everything and left the power cable in, I have no issues. If I shut it down and let it power off, take out the power cable, wait overnight, put in the power cable again, it starts with a bsod.

In your case two things come to mind. Replace the motherboard coin size battery and second go and turn off fast boot in bios.

It sounds like when you put a desktop PC in hibernate and you loose wall power. It takes a few power cycles for computer to cough through the now dysfunctional hibernate state that got bonked with power loss.

Sleep mode at least in my personal experience if a PC is in that state loosing power is no big deal.

Give a try though with fast boot turned off and let us know battery optional if you need to dig deeper to fix.

 

[stonecarver]

Off google.

To turn off fast boot in BIOS, you can try these steps:

1. Access BIOS settings: Depending on your computer model and manufacturer, you might need to press a specific key during the boot screen, such as F2, F10, or Del.
2. Find the option: Look for Fast Boot, Quick Boot, or something similar, usually under the Boot or Advanced tab.
3. Change the setting: Use the arrow keys and Enter to toggle the option off.
4. Save and exit: Save your changes and exit the BIOS menu.
   
   
   
   If you don't see the option, your BIOS might not support fast boot, or it might be hidden or locked. You can try updating your BIOS or checking your manufacturer's website for more instructions.

 

[stonecarver]

First, for alienwares is the coin size battery something easily replaceable? I know enough to be dangerous with a laptop.

Laptops are a pain but sometime you get a winner meaning not a complete tear down but that's rare. Youtube your model and there is always some guy who has a video out there to see if it's something you can do.

 

[ubuysa]

Whoa....we have two users on this same thread seeking help. Even though it appears to be for similar problem we can't reliably help two people in the same thread. @dsalienissue I respectfully suggest that you start your own thread and leave this one so we can help the original poster. It's real bad manners to hijack someone else's thread like this.

I have some suggestions but for @jenvander, the topic starter, but I'm going to wait until @dsalienissue has left this thread and started their own.