Alienware 18 Unexpected Shutdown

Hey guys

So, I've been running into this issue where I'd leave my system running while I'm gone, and I would come back to it powered off. It didn't bother me at first. Except yesterday I was literally browing the internet, no load on either CPU or GPU, and it just turns off, no warning no nothing.

I powered it on. and it takes a bit longer than usual. I get the notification from chrome trying to restore everything etc.

I check the event viewer, and it showed the following.
https://prnt.sc/ua4h1i
I'm assuming that is what triggered it. As the Kernel Processor power one shows the following:
https://prnt.sc/ua4lxp

Now, Just to double check, I look at the battery. ( I have desktop mode enabled, and its always plugged to power supply). I noticed it was at 96%. I thought that was odd.

Later on, I decided to unplug the power supply, because I remember it shutting down unexpectedly on battery and its basically the same logs which you can see here
https://prnt.sc/ua4fzy

I figured the power supply might be overloaded or something. So i run wprime and furmark for 10 mins, runs fine, no high temps or anything out of the normal range (85C CPU and much cooler for the GPU)
I do regularly clean out the fans, etc, so it can't be heat related.


I have the 780M SLI, and 4930MX. It always runs fine aside from these weird shutdowns. I honestly rarely game anymore, and last time I used the GPUs was for a project I was working on ages ago.

 

not sure if related or not, but i had a similar random shutdown issue with my old clevo laptop, which had prema bios on it. turns out the cpu power mode was set to maximum performance (which it didnt like) and changing that to balanced power fixed the issue. Not sure if the alienware 18 has such settings tho, but thats the thing that comes to mind for me

 

I'll be sure to test that out. I hope it works lol

Funny enough I was trying to check the dell website for any new bios/drivers etc. All I did was install the support assist, it ramped up my CPU, then I remembered that it was doing that the last i had it installed and uninstalled it.
and again a crash following log

https://prnt.sc/uabvwh

 

yeah thats the same log it had on my clevo, no BSOD or anything, just a complete shut off, like the battery was pulled

 

That happened to me back in December. When I restarted it, I could no longer see my second hard drive. It turns out there had been a short near the SATA connector. You may want to inspect your motherboard for shorts or electrical burn smell. I have noticed that has been happening to these systems by other users.

 

The same thing is happening with an M17x R4 that I'm working on. Complete power shutdown at random times like the adapter and battery have been pulled out. I've swapped out all other parts and tried both 2.5" drive bays and the mSata so it's definitely an issue on the board. I'm going to assume there's a faulty MOSFET

 

I really hope its not the MOSFET thing lol.
I have grown attached to this device over the years lol. Nothing can compare when I need snappy performance haha. Not even my new m17r2 (as sad as it is to say lol)

I ended up doing the Alienware/Dell update thing, there was a chipset update and something else I can' remember at the top of my head. I set it to balanced, and its been running fine for the past few days. the longest I have had it on without an intentional reboot has been 48hours so far, will keep it going till i see another crash or atleast try to keep it on that long lol.

Any clue on the new Bios? I have not upgraded since I installed the modded A10/A12 one.

 

Degraded performance due Intel vulnerability security fixes.