Alienware 18 Blue screen issues.

Hello, first let me start by saying I'm new so if this is the wrong section, please forgive me..

Anyway onto the topic...

As the title states, my Alienware 18 notebook has been getting constant blue screens for a long time now, in fact, ever sense I bought it. I tried googling the issue to no avail. It happens at random times and really is a huge inconvenience. It usually states IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION and I have no idea what to make of this. I'm really just an amateur with computers. Some info on the blue screens, the most recent one happened while I was watching a movie online in Google Chrome, but it has happened randomly, during games such as Fallout New Vegas, Far Cry 3, Brink, Defiance to name a few. Sometimes it just plane happens when nothing is going on, I've left my computer on all night and logged in to see "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown". I've looked at Whocrashed reports, and most of them point to some random system files (pasted below) and the Alienware PC Checkup utility says it's NVLDDMKSM.sys, igdkmd64.sys, or ntoskernel.exe , I read this was an NVIDIA file and tried a completely fresh install of the drivers (uninstall, reboot into safe mode, use driver sweeper, restart into safe mode, reinstall drivers with the clean installation option) and it STILL blue screens. I use the Intel Rapid Store Technology for the default factory RAID settings (caches on the SSD for those who don't know). I would REALLY like some help on this as I dropped 4.5k on it expecting a good quality computer. All I have right now is a giant ticking time bomb waiting for the right time to ruin my work process.

System Specs:
Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core i3/i5/i7 4xxx @ 2.80GHz 44 °C
Haswell 22nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Alienware 01W2J2 (U3E1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (Dell) (Also has NVIDIA GTX 770M, issues are all the same no matter the card I use though).
Storage
698GB WDC WD7500BPKX- SCSI Disk Device (RAID)
24GB INTEL SSDMCEAW0 SCSI Disk Device (RAID)
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRWBD CA40N SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

WhoCrashed Reports:
(put on pastebin)
BSOD Crash Logs - Pastebin.com

Dell PC Checkup report (latest crash, 2/13/2013, my computers valentine gift to me)
https://imageshack.com/i/10a7qip

EDIT: Just got another while trying to watch the movie again:

On Fri 2/14/2014 4:56:27 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\021314-11856-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x75BC0)
Bugcheck code: 0x3D (0xFFFFF800050800D0, 0x0, 0x0, 0xFFFFF800032C6172)
Error: INTERRUPT_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This bug check appears very infrequently.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

 

Hi, I am new too and sorry in advance for my bad English, because in from Quebec, Canada (I speak French)

If I post here, it is because I have the same problem than you and did not find the solution so if we fount it, it would be nice to post the answer here. So here a summary of what I think:

First, my specs are:

MODEL: ALIENWARE 17
OS: Windows 7 Pro
MOTHERBOARD: 068R5X
CPU:Intel I7-4700MQ
RAM: 16GB DDR3
WIRELESS CARD: Broadcom 802.11ac Network adapter
ETHERNET CARD: Killer e2200 PCI-E
AUDIO CARD: Realtek High Definition Audio
VIDEO CARD 1: Intel HD 4600
VIDEO CARD 2: NVIDIA GTX 770M
HDD: WDC WD7500BPKT-75PK4T0 (750GB)
SSD: LITEONIT LMT-64M6M mSATA 64GB

What I tried and did not work:

Update to last BIOS A08
Update all drivers from DELL
Fresh Reinstall of windows 7 with an MSDNAA legal Copy ( I was on windows 8 at start)
Install all drivers from DELL and still getting BSOD
An other Fresh install of windows 7 but I disabled the RAID configuration and installed only the OS on the SSD (Legacy mode and ACHI)
On that installation, i installed the fallowing driver and disabled everything else: Wireless card, Audio card, Video (HD4600) and Touchpad And guest what BSOD
So to proceed by elemination i disabled the wireless card from Device Manager AND from BIOS. and i run on Ethernet(installed after bsod) and i did not get a bsod yet ( 1 day)

I analyzed all BSOD with the Windows Debugger (Windbg) and not found everything.
I contacted Dell Tech Support and they did not found the problem.




I did all the falowing test without errors:
Dell Test at BOOT
Memtest+86
VideoCard Stress Test


So here what I suspect from now:

Wireless Card hardware
Motherboard hardware ( Are we from the same batch?)
Wireless Card Driver
Touchpad driver? ( i dont think so)
SSD? (you not have the same and getting BSOD)
NVIDIA CARD?: I was suspecting it since the beginning but I got BSOD even on the fresh install without driver installed and running on HD4600. I also got a BSOD running on just the GTX 770M.


The assembling date of my Alienware is: 9 August 2013 and I bought it on FutureShop on November i think and I am getting BSOD since I bought it.

Good luck and thank you!

 

hi,
i had the exact same problem like you but with my MSI Dragon Edition 2 and tried every possible solution with no success and i ended up replacing the laptop for an AW18.
i then found this solution on MSI FAQ section on their website but didn't have the chance to try it.
this is not acceptable solution though, since there were some people who got the same laptop with the exact specs but didn't face the same problem.

 

I'm having these exact same issues. They recently sent out replacement RAM sticks but that did not solve it. I've done all the steps you have done as well and still get the errors. The system at this point is unreliable. Support wants me to reinstall the OS, again. I'm going to do it today or tomorrow. I'm a bit concerned at this point that if the OS install does not solve the errors that Dell will want to replace parts in the system with refurbished parts. Normally I would not have an issue with this but being the system was received mid Dec/13 I really don't want to start swapping used parts.

 

I got two BSOD since i disabled WIFI card from Device manager and BIOS so I dont think its that...

Well idk whats the problem now, maybe one of the latest driver from DELL is the problem or maybe my motherboard is defective...

 

my 17 had issues with blue screens, and we pretty much 0'd out the computer and reset the BIOS, updated the BIOS and reinstalled all software and drivers (Alienware tech did it via remote)... now it's running good, with so far only 2 blue screens for different reasons (can't remember the exact verbage).

I would start with a call to them and demand they do what they can to reset the machine to factory specs... slowly install software and see how it goes.

I also invested in Webroot and CCleaner to do occasional maintenance tasks, and only once did a registry scan/clean up which may have also helped.

Bottom line, you paid good money for a good computer, you need it to run well.. don't settle for less.

 

Your issues could be caused by a number of reasons, and troubleshooting in such conditions is now matter of trial and error until found the culprit. My question is, does this happen even while using the notebook in safe mode for a while? What about doing a fresh OS install and installing only the video, audio, and chipset drivers? Those drivers will allow you to do some benchmark, play games, or running multimedia applications, thus giving you an opportunity to test the copmuter. If under these circumstances you don't experience a BSOD, you'l know that the cause is something else - you will be narrowing down. Next step would be installing the rest of the drivers one by one and test it everytime. The moment you see the first BSOD you'll know that it's either a defective part or its drivers. However, going through this process could be time consuming and tedious, and it won't guarantee a successful outcome, but that's what I usually do when I experienced this kind of problem with a computer.

 

I just did that, and get a BSOD . I am working with Dell Tech Support to find the problem, And meanwhile, I go on other forums to find someone that has the same issue and found a solution.

 

No more blue screen since I removed the two accessibles RAM sticks from my Alienware. Maybe one of the 2 RAM is bad, maybe I have a Bad memory Slot on the MOBO. I will provide update later

 

Curious who makes those? can you tell? Mine comes with Hyundai Memory of all things.. I never knew they made memory... Cars, Ships and computer memory.... wow.

 

Hyundai or Hynix?

 

Update: No more blue screen since i replaced memory: the faulty Memory was from Nanya and Dell shipped me 2 x 4GB of Hyundai memory

 

Glad you sorted it out