M14x random shutdown/restart during browsing, games, and virus scan

Today my laptop has started randomly shutting down and restarting. It happens while playing Skyrim, but also while running the McAfee system scan and it even happened while browsing. My temps for CPU and GPU are NOT high at all.

Could this be a virus? I would hate to have to send this in or do a system restore and delete all my files and all that.

 

I had this happened to me before, randomly shutting down showing a bsod and then a black screen, and had to force restart. It happened so frequently to me untill the point i do a factory restore and untill now it didnt happen to me again, if it is a virus and it even shut down when scanning then i really dont know what to do .

 

Did you get a BSOD? Because it sound really like that your HDD is going to fail, and the easiest to spot if it is the HDD is going to fail is the defrag the drive either drive C or D would do the job, however for me, if I defrag drive C, it is working fine but not until I try defrag Drive D, then after 10% done it will flash me a BSOD with the error message of either the PCIE card is needed to plugin or the Kernel inpage data error.

And at first I thought it is a virus, so I proceed to do the AlienRespawn, to factory image install, to fresh install Windows 7 and it still happen, the worst thing is that it each install cause it to happen more and more frequently. So for my suggest is that you should start to backup your files so then if it really the HDD is going to fail, then you dont have to worry about your files, then call Dell for a HDD replacement, it is free if you still under the warranty.

 

Thanks for the reply. I got the BSOD a couple of the times it shutdown, and it said that it was shutting down to prevent failure but it shutdown before I could read more of the text. The other times it will just randomly shut down straight to black screen either in Skyrim or at about 50-60% of the McAfee Full Scan complete.

I have either 3 or 4 year advanced warranty so my main concern is having to send this back to them and wait for a month and then risk getting it back without being fixed and all that nonsense that I read about on this forum where people get replacement systems after having sent their computers back and forth for several weeks. I also cannot send it in until next month because I am currently abroad .

I was able to complete a Full Scan using McAfee that found 4 tracking cookies but nothing else. It is now shutting down less (I have played Skyrim for 1 hour tonight without shutdown). But it is still happening. I thought it might be overheating but that cannot be it because I monitered temperatures for the McAfee scan and the CPU does get high (a peak of 94) but usually not very long. And neither my CPU of GPU gets high at all during Skyrim even on High settings.

My last desktop got some kind of virus I think that made it shut down entirely and made it so I could not start the system restore/recovery program by pressing f8 or f12 or whatever at startup which was really bad because it was just dead -- nothing to do at all. I just got this computer 2 months ago so if that is already happening that sucks.

The only thing I use this for is gaming and work so I do not really see how I am getting a virus so hopefully that isn't it.

 

So to repeat this, I have gotten the BSOD about 3 times. Is my computer having diarrhea or what?

 

Today I started having problems with my computer randomly shutting down, not just while playing Skyrim but while browsing the internet or performing a McAfee Full System Scan as well.

One time, my monitor even stopped working and started displaying jumbled fragments of the desktop -- it kind of looked like heavy artifacting in games.

I got a BSOD about 3 or 4 times and the other times the computer just shut down entirely to black screen.

I think I need a diaper for my M14x.

Is it going to die soon? I have a 3 or 4 year advanced warranty but I would rather not waste 1 month getting this fixed.

 

Have you reloaded it yet? Have you tried booting into safe mode to see if it still crashes? Do you have any external items like mice, keyboards, monitors or anything connected when it crashes?

 

I did a system restore to a point made three days ago. I then tried doing a full system scan with McAfee and my computer turned off halfway through but this time there was NO BSOD, it just shut down and restarted.

Since that time, I have been able to complete 1 Full System Scan, and I have played Skyrim several hours tonight without the computer shutting down. However, the fact that it has turned off and restarted twice since this system restore makes me worry.

 

Try run this program called WhoCrashed, it analyse the crash dump, it is sound like your HDD is the one causing problems, very similar to me, as far as I know, virus will not cause BSOD or random shutdown, nor I have experience any since I use PC. Also try the Dell Diagnostic, you can access it by pressing F12 (Boot Option) during the startup of the machine, and hit enter on the "Dell Diagnostics". With that it will diagnose your laptop and report any problem it can find, if you find any problem, write the error code down and contact Dell because only them know what that code mean.

 

Fallout, I've merged your two threads. Only need one since they are both related. Questions on the merge, hit me up via PM.

Thanks.

 

So my computer has resumed crashing but without the BSOD. Now it just shuts down and tries to restart, but I end up having to do a hard shutdown by holding down the power button and then restarting.

I ran the system diagnostics by pressing F12 and it says everything is alright (I did the short version not the one that said it would take more than 30 minutes).

I was just playing Skyrim and the screen started BRIGHTLY flashing scrambled colors wildly like my computer was having a seizure. SOMETHING IS WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Contact tech support ASAP.

 

uhhh fallout4 have you even tried to defragment your drive yet? seems like you're asking for help but aren't trying the suggestions given from people who have had these same problems before

 

Ive had my m14x for 1 week and it has done this exact same thing 3 times. The first time i was playing diablo 3 beta when all of a sudden my screen flashed all colors. i had to do a hard shutdown.

I spent 3 hours on the phone with tech support dialed in. they reloaded drivers but failed to reload direct x. then tech support closed for the night and i had to wait till the second night. the second night they re-re loaded the drivers after 3 more hours on the phone with them.

The second time, i was still playing diablo 3 beta, same deal. I then went into the bios and they scrambled. had to hard shutdown again. i waited 5 minutes, booted it back up and it worked okay for 2 days.


Last night i was playing everquest 1 (made in 1999) low graphic game, then all of a sudden my m14x locks up and i get tons of flashing colors... had to cold boot once again.

getting sick of this, $1620.00 for this?

Alienware M14X - Stealth Black with Soft Touch Finish
Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2GHz (3.1GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
14.0 High Def+ (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight
3.0GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M using NVIDIA Optimus technology
500GB 7200RPM SATA 3GB/s

 

It sounds like a faulty video card. Hard drive issue should have shown up in the diagnostics test. Or hopefully, only a driver issue, but I haven't heard anyone else complaining.

Did you send it for repair ?