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    alienware will not boot

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by mark_taba85, Jun 17, 2012.

  1. mark_taba85

    mark_taba85 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I apologize in advance, but I was not available to find it if there is a solution.

    Anyways, I hope someone can help.

    I have a m14x which was working fine one moment and then when I was about to hit the bed I decided to do a boot time check. My laptop will not boot or go passed the boot screen. It is stuck on the alienware head logo or at times the windows boot logo screen. at times I can get on the bios our boot bios, but I can't get into safe mode. I have tried removing the ram and reset them.

    I'm not sure what else to do. Please help and thanks in advance.
     
    mark_taba85, Jun 17, 2012
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  2. steviejones133

    steviejones133 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    You could try removing the battery and a/c and perform a power drain (hold down the alien on/off button for 10-20 seconds and try that. You could also then try removing the CMOS coin cell battery to reset your machine. If you can get into your bios screen, you could also reset all bios settings to default. Those are the things that I would try first.....
     
    steviejones133, Jun 17, 2012
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  3. mark_taba85

    mark_taba85 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I will try it later, but how can I access the cmos battery?
     
    mark_taba85, Jun 17, 2012
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  4. steviejones133

    steviejones133 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The online serivce manual should help. I found this with a quick google. Not sure which revision of the 14x you have but I imagine the layout should be fairly similar.

    Documentation

    Seems that a bit of a tear-down is in order to get to it so you may want to leave it as a last resort. It may or may not help the issue but could be worth trying if you still experience problems.
     
    steviejones133, Jun 17, 2012
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  5. Cees007

    Cees007 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Didn,t you leave any cd in it?
     
    Cees007, Jun 17, 2012
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  6. mark_taba85

    mark_taba85 Notebook Enthusiast

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    lol no i did not leave a cd in it since i removed it for a 2ndary drive caddy.
     
    mark_taba85, Jun 17, 2012
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  7. mark_taba85

    mark_taba85 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I completed the test and looked like something is up with a drive. I thought it was my SSD, but loaded the optimal settings in the BIOS and for some reason everything seems fine now. I am not sure what happened but we'll see how long it last.
     
    mark_taba85, Jun 17, 2012
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  8. steviejones133

    steviejones133 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Glad its working for now - if it continues, it might be simply because your hard drive is on its last legs. Hopefully it's covered under warranty by Dell or the manufacturer. At the very least, I would back up all your important files incase catastrophe strikes.
     
    steviejones133, Jun 17, 2012
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  9. mark_taba85

    mark_taba85 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I hope not since this is the R3 model. I just had my laptop for about a month and I just ordered my SSD a week after that. I'd be mad if something fails on me!

    It is still under warranty and have purchase an additional warranty through squaretrade.

    I will look into backing up my files. thanks!
     
    mark_taba85, Jun 17, 2012
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