Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
17 Posts
0
54241
July 19th, 2014 18:00
Dell System Detect not working in Safe Mode
My Alienware X51 has recently started freezing up for no apparent reason and shutting itself off. I have started it in Safe Mode and am trying to update all my drivers and make sure everything is current, but when I try to run Dell System Detect to do the System Analysis, I get an error saying "The Dell System Detect application can only detect Service Tags on Dell systems running a full version of Windows." Can I not run this while I'm in Safe Mode?
Alienware-Naomi
1.8K Posts
0
July 21st, 2014 15:00
Hi,
Some applications such as these don't run on Safe Mode. Boot Windows normally to update theBIOS and clean install the video drivers using the latest version as explained here. Then try the troubleshooting steps in this article.
Let me know the results.
SavvyEd
17 Posts
0
July 22nd, 2014 09:00
I was able to update the BIOS and the drivers. I am still having this problem. I looked at the article you linked to, but this is not an overheating problem. The CPU doesn't feel hot at all. It just crashed and shut itself off after it had been on only about 5 minutes. Definitely not overheating. It restarted itself and then got hung halfway through boot. I had to do a hard restart to get it to come back on. I have run my Webroot antivirus and Malware Bytes and my system has come up clean. I did the Dell system diagnostic and the Alien Autopsy and both came up with no errors.
I supposed my next step is a system restore, unless you can tell me how to avoid that.
Alienware-Naomi
1.8K Posts
0
July 22nd, 2014 09:00
Overheating is a common cause of shutdowns like the ones you're describing. I would like to know the temperatures registered in HWmonitor and AlienAutopsy so we can completely rule that out.
A System Restore or factory reset with AlienRespawn will help us rule out the software part.
SavvyEd
17 Posts
0
July 22nd, 2014 10:00
Here is the HW monitor: http://screencast.com/t/sxM3bgvlJ87F
The Alien Autoposy says that the crash today was caused by the NVIDIA driver so I will try to reinstall that again. http://screencast.com/t/4BxzJlLm
I DO NOT have time for a factory reset right now. I have too much software that is essential for work that would all have to be reinstalled, and I just don't have the time to do that. So I want to avoid that if at all possible.
SavvyEd
17 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2014 09:00
Yesterday I removed all the NVIDIA drivers and software and installed the latest drivers and my computer ran fine the rest of the day. But when I started up this morning, it crashed within minutes of booting and the Alien Autopsy says it was the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 555 driver that caused the system crash. What is the next step? When I removed those drivers all together, the user experience of my machine was terrible, so I don't want to just remove them. What can I do?
Alienware-Naomi
1.8K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2014 13:00
The image from AlienAutopsy you posted above says you're getting a BSOD when the system crashes. The BSOD error code 0x00000116 is a video card failure. If after re-installing the drivers the issue persists, the video card will need to be replaced.
Send me a private message with your Service Tag and contact information so I can assist you further.
cruser12
353 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2014 21:00
Are you using dell drivers for your video card? if so go here at get these. http://www.geforce.com/drivers i had the same issue with my gtx 555 and was using dell drivers. do a manual search for them as nvidia will not detect your card at first. the link i provided should go right to the d-load page for the 500 series cards.
SavvyEd
17 Posts
0
July 24th, 2014 12:00
Thanks for the tip! I will try it before I have the card replaced. What drivers do I download, specifically, from that site?
SavvyEd
17 Posts
0
July 24th, 2014 13:00
I downloaded the drivers directly from the NVIDIA site and installed them and I couldn't start my computer at all. It would start to boot and then go to a black screen and I would have to hard restart. So, back to square one. I guess I will set up the tech appt to replace my video card.