X51 wont sleep

no, bios is up to date A12...any other ideas ?

Hi colnie,

The latest BIOS is of the version A13. Please click on the link in the post above to download it and install it. Also make sure your video drivers are up to date.

Hope this helps

ok i updated to A13, it didnt fix it.

oh sweet....ill go do that now...i updated it not long ago so i may have 13...im not sure...if not ill get it and if it still happens ill let you know... watch this space.. lol

Hi colnie,

This usually happens if the BIOS is not up to date. I would recommend updating the BIOS of the computer to the latest version. To download the BIOS for your Alienware X51, click here.

To update the BIOS, boot into Windows and then:

1. Close all the applications running in the background
2. Unplug all the external peripherals connected to the computer
3. Double-Click to run the BIOS update file
4. Wait and Watch BIOS getting updated!

Note : Do not unplug the adapter or shut the computer down manually. The computer might restart couple of times and then boot into windows automatically.

Check and see now if you are facing the same issue with the computer or not.

Hi colnie,

Have you updated the video drivers of your computer? Which video card are you using? Please also mention the operating system that you are using on the computer.

i have the current video driver, i have a nvidia GTX 660 card and running win 7

Hi coline,

Let's try a couple of things.

First lets load the defaults of the sleep settings. This is how:

• Open Power Options from the control panel
• Click on 'Change when the computer sleeps'

• Then Click on 'Restore default settings for this plan'

• Now click Yes.
• Also uninstall the NVIDIA driver completely and then restart the computer. After that, re-install the NVIDIA driver because at times there can also be some problem ion the driver due to which this issue arises.

Let me know the results after performing the above troubleshooting steps. 

hi mate...that didnt work either :-(

Hi colnie,

This is definitely a software issue and not a hardware issue, so don't worry about that.

Did you happen to order NVIDIA 660 graphic card along with the system? If yes then did you update the driver of the video card from the Dell's website? If not then please click here to download it. The reason is OEM drivers are different than that of manufacturer's.

Once the driver is downloaded, again uninstall the driver completely and install the one downloaded from Dell website.

Reply with your findings.

yeah i was getting the drivers straight from nvidia, i done as you said, uninstalled and got the one of the dell site, installed it, but the computer is still not going to sleep, and is still having to be force shut down holding the power button.

Hi colnie,

In that case, it seems some of the system files related to the sleep function in windows have gone corrupt. Either you can try and do a system resotre to an earlier date when the computer had been working fine or you would have to restore the computer back to factory settings. Restoring the computer to an earlier date will not hamper your data in anyway but any games or programs if you had installed between the time period of the selected date would be removed. However, performing a factory restore on the computer will fix the issue but the data loss would be there. So I would recommend to get the data backed up before performing a factory restore on the computer.

Please let me know if you need any further help.