Computer won't boot ... screen goes black and computer makes a whining noise

Wow, you took it to a computer shop and they told you that......

Try another shop, the X51 is a basic desktop with a few lights, a lot of computer shops baulk at the alienware brand and even seem scared to work on them in my experience.

To me is sounds like a faulty HDD or HDD connection - Possibly a faulty video card.

If your've done any updates recently they could be causing it to.

If you have all the disks try, and your confident enough, try to re-install the OS.

It's a good place to start, especially if you have had the computer for over a year, windows needs a regular re-install to keep it running well.

Hi,

If you look at the back of your X51 system you will see the on-board HDMI port at the upper part of the system and the discrete video card ports at the lower part. Try connecting your monitor to the upper HDMI port (assuming your monitor has an HDMI port, you could also try your TV) and confirm if it boots properly. 

Thank Andrew, I was thinking an update caused the issue because it happened all of a sudden. One day it worked .. the next day it didn't. I will look for the dics.

Hi, We have done this and NO the computer WILL NOT boot at my house or my sisters house no matter how we hook it up. We have tried just about every outlet in the house, several monitors and several TVs.

We took our monitor with the computer back to the shop. He kept it all weekend running test, going through the BIOS and he CAN NOT find anything wrong with our computer, monitor or power supply.

My husband saw the computer working and booting properly at the shop with our monitor and our power supply.

I was thinking an update caused the problem or the power supply needed replaced. There was a conflict with updates with Microsoft and Alienware updating the same things because it did not work at the shop until he fixed the computer to let Alienware update certain programs and not Microsoft.

How can the computer, monitor and power supply work at the shop and not work when I bring it home and hook it up at 2 different houses? 

Thanks for any help, ML

Intermittent fault or loose connection???

Did the computer shop use different ports than you are using?

Have you tried to bootup with the hard drive removed, that will at least eliminate windows/HDD as a cause?

Sorry for the delay in responding, working a lot of hours.

We have checked connections, no, we used the same ports and no we haven't tried booting without hard drive.

I am thinking it is not the computer but that the problem is in our electrical lines. My sister is on the same line as I am and it doesn't work at her house either. I am going to take the computer and monitor to a friends house that are on a separate electrical line and test this theory. Maybe several days or a week before I will have time to do this.

We are having WOW, Diablo, Atlantica, Heroes of the Storm, Dragon Nest, Rift and Minecraft withdraws at me house! LOL  A lot of gamers live here.

Thanks for confirming this. Let us know how it goes.