Random problems in New Alienware 15 R2 Laptop

Hello, 

Try using the latest NVidia driver from their website instead. The issue with the AlienFX could be software related so I recommend you reinstall the Command Center application, click here for the download link. Also, run an ePSA/Diagnostics test to check the hardware, click here to view an article that explains how to run this test. Let us know if you get an errors.

Hi Rodrigo,
Thanks for replying.

I reinstalled Nvidia Drivers after downloading the latest ones from Nvidia's site. Still within 30 minutes I've faced one crash. This is really irritating.

I also did a ePSA test and the test did not find any errors.

I've reinstalled Command Center and I'm hoping I do not see the problem again. ALso during re installation I noticed that Alienware theme got deleted automatically. Would there be any place I am able to get the theme again from?

I can confirm these issues. Intel Drivers "crashing" and instantly recovering. No huge deal with that one really. Synaptics controller software crashing and explorer refreshing when this happens.

Amongst all of these however, the problem that bugs me the most is a wake from sleep bug I seem to sporadically encounter. This is not a hardware issue as I have run extended diagnostics and everything passed with flying colours, particularly the RAM. Not to mention if any of those things were corrupt it would affect more than sleep. Hybernation works just fine. I had contacted support about this issue but as everything was golden with the hybernation workaround I chose not take take things further after the extended memory tests as after waiting so long to receive my device last thing I wanted was to lose it for months if I was gonna have to send it off.

The issue that has truly annoyed and upset me however is after briefly installing Windows 8.1 to troubleshoot the above issue (issue still occured) I restored from the flash drive which I had backed up the recovery to as the SupportAssist software directs and during it's reconstruction of the partition scheme it wiped over the recovery image partition and didn't replace the factory image after it had done so meaning I have lost the original factory image!!!

Yes, I can easily restore using said flash drive but I can never do a "true" factory restore bringing me back to the OEM setup I encountered when I first received the item. What is the point in restoring the partition scheme if it's gonna wipe the restore image?!! Meaning unless a rep gets back to me on here I have to be contacting support AGAIN in order to resolve this issue! Frustrating isn't the word.

However, I shall leave it at that for now as I have hijacked this thread for long enough and am steering it slightly off topic.

I should note that when these issues aren't manifesting the system is an absolute DREAM.

An update specifically for Intel Display Drivers should be available. It isn't just the NVidia drivers/software that need to be updated. The Intel Display Drivers are the real issue and constantly crash.

I had the same issue after upgrading to Windows 10 but I recently updated the Intel drivers and haven't had the issue since.

I don't know why you are having issues ith the Alien FX software.

With regards to your RAM showing up as less then it is installed.  The Ram module may be loose or defective. I would keep an eye on it and see if it happens again. If it doesn't then it was a software related more then likely.

Thanks everyone for confirming this!

I found a fix for Intel Drivers. Looks like they weren't crashing but it was a false positive. I searched around and found a fix and it's working till now and I haven't had a single crash till now.

Please see this link on how to fix this: support.microsoft.com/.../2665946

Regarding waking from sleep thingy and a really long startup sometimes, I am having this issue as well. I do not understand why sometimes it takes too long to start up.


Also Command Center seems to be working fine now.
And regarding RAM, I thought that as well after every check came out to be okay. If it happens again, I might go ahead and reinstall RAM.

I found a solution for the long booting times issue, it worked quite well for me,

www.youtube.com/watch

hope this helps, I have a problem with the display drivers crashing too, will try this solution when I get home, hopefully it will work.

Thank you

Hi santiagofb,

I tried the solution you shared and what I get from the "Update drivers" option from the Kionix sensor is the pop up message that according to windows the machine has the last up-to-date version of the Kionix sensor drivers. The long booting time is still happening, any ideas?

About the display drivers, I just followed the microsoft link solution from 2 posts above, I will be checking is this is solve during the following days.

Lastly, do you experience a suddenly fast acceleration of both fans, the CPU first and the GPU's afterwards, usually just after booting up? While this sort of automatic check up process happens (1 or 2 seconds long) Windows will just freeze and there is no warning or error message displayed?

Thanks in advance!

Hi santiagofb,   I tried the solution you shared and what I get from the "Update drivers" option from the Kionix sensor is the pop up message that according to windows the machine has the last up-to-date version of the Kionix sensor drivers. The long booting time is still happening, any ideas?

Try updating the kionix driver from the Dell website, for some things the Windows driver update is hopeless.

Alternatively, if you aren't throwing your laptop around much, you could disable the kionix sensor completely. If that doesn't fix boot times (it did for me) then something else is delaying startup.

Thanks this worked. :)

Also regarding fast acceleration of both fans, yes it happens to me too and I've not been able to find any solution to it.

Also, FYI, The trick I posted for graphic drivers worked but now sometimes it still shows up as the drivers stopped responding and sometimes even shows that "Firefox" has been blocked from accessing hardware acceleration.

I'm pretty sure this has something to do with Windows 10. If anyone finds any fix, do let me know. I hope someone fixes these stupid issues.

Also, FYI, The trick I posted for graphic drivers worked but now sometimes it still shows up as the drivers stopped responding and sometimes even shows that "Firefox" has been blocked from accessing hardware acceleration.   I'm pretty sure this has something to do with Windows 10. If anyone finds any fix, do let me know. I hope someone fixes these stupid issues.

No fix here, but after making the registry change, I now get this - which isn't really an improvement :-(

Before making the registry change, the error message was this, otherwise the behaviour is exactly the same:

Not idea what is going on, but disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox seems to fix it. Not happy with that, at all.

Resizing the window restores the view of Firefox and gets everything working again.

This has been an on-going problem with different hardware, drivers, OS and applications, for several years - much discussion and very few solutions.

there are new intel video and freefall sensor drivers... I'll give them a try and see if there is some improvement...

Lastly, do you experience a suddenly fast acceleration of both fans, the CPU first and the GPU's afterwards, usually just after booting up? While this sort of automatic check up process happens (1 or 2 seconds long) Windows will just freeze and there is no warning or error message displayed?

I also can confirm this issue. So far my impression is that current software (drivers, Dell apps.) is just ***, for example see en.community.dell.com/.../19670599

That's why I have reset my notebook to factory setting and now trying to avoid unnecessary updates. The above BSOD is still the issue but hopefully the fans issue seems to be gone 

Did your upgrade of the freefall sensor work?  I got the Win 10 error that I shouldn't change the driver.  Did you just go ahead and install?  tks.

I've also had the spin up of the fans and the Intel video driver crashing not long after startup.  

I tried to install the Intel video driver from their website.  It advised me that Dell was using a special version and that I might lose some capabilities by using theirs.  Anyone know what we would lose?? 

I've rebuilt my system many times due to multiple BSOD's.  The Intel Drivers (iaStorA.sys) has been a killer.