Alienware m14x Making Insane Beeping noise that won't stop (won't boot)

So my alienware m14x that I purchased my 1year ago, just started making multiple, sequential, beeping noises upon start-up.

To be honest, it did this about 1+ week ago, but I did the "system repair" and restarted and it somehow "fixed" itself (for the moment atleast) and allowed me to log- on to windows 7 until now.

It started again this morning, despite working last night. I shut down the computer via the "shut down " option in the start panel.

I tried doing the system repair option & memory diagnostic on the BIOS screen. Doesn't seem like anything helps.

It keeps beeping, and it pretty much won't stop. Is it the motherboard (hardware), or maybe software? over heating?

I really REALLY wanted to delete that stuff before I send anything in....

Any advice guys? I would very greatly appreciate it.

 

Did you count the amount of beeps? Dell/Alienware has a code for the # of beeps. Did you have onsite warranty? Alienware will send someone to your home.

 

It's an unlimited # of beeps... it never stops... it will beep, 100times or even more just continuously like an alarm clock...

I purchased the 2 year plan, I would have to log into to Dell to see or check the box with receipt which is downstairs still I believe.

I was just seeing if anyone knows what the multiple beeps are, since there is a set "number" or "pattern"

And I had stuff on the HDD that I wanted to delete before anyone services the computer ya know

 

Motherboard failure is my guess.

 

You can still remove your HDD and connect it to another computer to remove your "private" stuff you don't want anyone to see, if you really think this is necessary

 

Sound like the mobo is fried or something of that nature.

Just take the bottom cover off and remove the HDD before you send it in. They may refuse to service it without all the original parts in, though? So the ideal is to remove the drive, install in another computer, format, reinstall in AW before you send it for service.

Good Luck!

Maybe they will give you an r2?

 

This may allow you to connect the HDD using USB on any computer :] The only problem would be filesystem differences... But chances are you can read it on another PC and maybe even Mac.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102

Easy.

 

Do you have anything attached to it? An external keyboard or ODD or something?

 

Does it beep in the bios screen or only when in windows?

If not in the bios, boot to the Windows Disc. Does it beep then?

 

Mine started doing the exact same thing this past weekend (R2 here though). I believe it has something to do with the battery. I was able to get mine to boot by holding down the power button to shut it down, and then plugging in the power cable before attempting to boot again. Oddly enough I had the problem again and it would not boot until I unplugged the power cable. I just had the problem again today when resuming the laptop from hibernation, holding the power button and starting it again solved the issue.

I also was getting a continuous beep that never stopped.

I should add that my problem started when I hit control+alt+delete during the windows 8 bootup (missed getting into the bios - was on the way to turn off the cpu turbo feature).

 

Well I made the mistake of shutting it down completely (it was going to sleep and waking up just fine)...

Now it won't boot and does the continous beeping thing. There is no beep code here, it continues forever.

Any help would be appreciated. I have read that it could be "power" related - is there a way to reset the battery?

 

Yes, take the CMOS battery out, the battery and the AC Adapter and press the power button for 1 minute then put everything back.

 

Dumb question, but I can do this w/o voiding my warranty right? I've built many desktops in the past, so I'm not worried about breaking anything, just voiding the warranty.

edit: I found a video that shows another m14x doing exactly what mine is:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=490R-dEJI-Q&desktop_uri=/watch?v=490R-dEJI-Q

Removing the battery seems easy, but I haven't found good instructions on how to get to the cmos battery. I may try the regular battery first and see if that works.

 

Alienware allows you to open and modify your notebook without voiding your warranty, unless you break something in the process. As for the teardown, I think there are
some good vids on youtube

 

Sounds like I'm getting a motherboard replacement...

I pulled the battery out for a while and held the power button, but did not dig around for the cmos battery.

 

Maybe you have a stuck key?

 

I wish it were so simple. Dell support said that it sounds like a corrupted BIOS... Apparently hitting control alt delete before windows starts up is a really bad idea.

 

The CMOS battery is right beneath the palmrest, on the left side. Here's a 1080p teardown video in case you want to give it a shot.

 

Just to future referenance, I was able to load the system restore where it loaded the repair menu.

I did a restore via Alienware Respawn I believe, and it kept all my old files in a folder.

SOMEHOW, the computer was able to boot again after.

Suprisingly, the problem happened again, just yesterday, after weeks of it working.

I again, loaded the repair windows feature, and it worked right after booting.

I'm so confused as to what the hell it is and why it works sometimes, and why it doesn't work other times.

And I do have a external monitor, keyboard, and mouse plugged in

 

Make sure you do what Mr. Luis tells you to do (though is a headache)! Unfortunately, to reach to the cmos battery, you will have to dismantle half of the system. You may also want to check if you are not getting a virus or something. Do a diagnostic at boot and see the life of your battery. Could be a bad memory as well, but battery reaching to an end is my believe... Unfortunately your battery is covered by the warranty only for a year (I think). But you must do a power drain and see how things go on. Also you may want to turn of the charging warning from bios... Sorry about your problem, hopefully you will have it fixed soon enough.

 

I wonder if you've got a failing drive and your boot/recovery partition is failing and that's why it works again after you load the recovery back on. When was the last time you ran a chkdsk /f ?

 

I have the same problem with an Alienware m17x-r4. Been trying to start it for a few months now, havent let me in once. Just black screen an repeatedly beeps. Is there any hints for what i can do? I noticed the vid Luis added supports m14, my computerskills are kinda low, so will be hard to explain me. But anything that helps im greatful to recieve it.

 

This started happening to my M14x just a couple of months back. Before this happened, my laptop got dropped (ouch!) and I replaced the hard drive with an SSD.
There seems to be something wrong with the fan, now.
The beep pattern that I get is three beeps with a pause, which just keeps repeating itself and waking up my neighbors until I managed to power down the system.
I haven't called Dell yet what it means.
Anyway, what I do is just turn the laptop upside down whenever I'm switching it on. The works about 95% of the time - the times that it doesn't, I just try it again It just proves that there might be something loose inside the unit which is causing all this trouble.
This won't make the problem go away but at least it will give you a last chance to boot up your system, save your files, and clear your hard drive before you send the machine for servicing.

 

3 beeps = chipset failure motherboard would need to be replaced, if your fan has not been running you've probably fried it.

But in future start your own thread as your issue 1) isnt the same and 2) this thread is from last year.

 

Ive had this same issues for a few months on my 14R2. normally hard shutdown and a reboot does the trick. Has anyone had success with the CMOS battery trick to resolve this issues completely? This maybe happens once a month for me so its quite rare But when it does its very loud beeping.