Please help anyone. ugh my alienware is acting crazy again.

my alienware 18 keeps turning off by itself. Its happened three times ina row as i attempt to burn a dvd, (while its decrypting). i get heat alarms on my cores as they are up in the 90's and then it just shuts off. Could it be core temp is turning it off to safe? Its driving me crazy, it shouldn't even be that hot either. I have my laptop back propped up so air can easily flow under it , i ahve a vorndo floor fan blowing right at the back of it at full blast and its under a open window and themps outside are like 55 degrees right now..this computer is really starting to me off big time..I wish alienware would just givfe me a brand new one .

 

Have you tried repasting it?

 

no alienware is sending someone out with a new heat sink for my cpu I will ask him to repaste that and the video cards when hecomes nxt week ...can anyone recommend a good paste? THe tech guy said they are all good. Some just last longer then the others, and the others are usually more expensive.

 

I'd recommend IC7 as a no fuss great performance paste, or Liquid Metal Ultra if you're a performance nut.

 

I recommend gelid extreme and ultra liquid. Just remember and follow the job dell technique are doing. Otherwise, you risk a terrible job done. See what Dell did with my heatsink. They used the screwdriver and remove the thermal grease. Did Dell send me a new one, so I chttp://forum.notebookreview.com/asset.php?fid=107991&uid=612304&d=1398839066ould do the job yourself. View attachment 111496

 

I would normally say don't even bother with anything except Liquid Ultra with a 4930MX blast furnace CPU, but if this is not something you cannot do on your own at this time, then go with Gelid Extreme or IC Diamond on a temporary basis while the tech is there. IC Diamond is truly outstanding and from Codenamefa's results I have seen the Gelid is also really excellent. I have never used Gelid personally. However, one this is for certain... I would absolutely not trust a general technician to apply Liquid Ultra. If you don't know how to do it, it's time to learn so you can be self-sufficient. Liquid Ultra is the only thermal solution that is going to tame your 4930MX.

 

Let us know how it behaves after the tech's visit. Try IC
Also, there are some Youtube Videos for you to learn how to do this process.

 

today out of nowhere, i noticed that my laptop was plugged in but not charging. its at 75 % and says pluged in but not charging. anyone know what that could mean? the only other weird thing is the alienware lights on the front right of the laptop keeps turning from red to purple when its supposed to just stay red..? anyone have any ideas for me?

 

Plugged in and not charging is a common problem in my laptop as well. However, my power button stays solid when its not charging or it says plugged in and not charging. (color depends on alienfx theme)
This usually happens when it wakes up from sleep. How do I fix it?
1. Reconnect charger 3 - 4 times. Fixes 80% of the times.
2. Power it down and power it up (rarely fixes)
3. Power it down, remove charger, remove battery, hold the power button for 30 seconds, reconnect battery, plug the charger, and it should be fixed!
Once its fixed, it again starts fading from color1 to color2.

But if you are also seeing the gradient, and the plugged in not charging message, I think the control panel is not working as it should, cause gradient means charging, and solid means charged or not charging.

 

If you have a new Alienware 18, disable the "Desktop Mode" feature. When I enable it, I'm not happy with the result. With it disabled everything works properly. The battery might not last as long due to fatigue, but that's better than having frustrating "plugged in, not charging" problems. I had not seen those issues since the M17xR2 until I tried using this "Desktop Mode" thing. It doesn't work correctly as far as I am concerned. I'll sacrifice the battery for the sake of keeping my sanity.

 

I have a alienware 18 from august. The plugged in but not charging issue I knew how to fix, just by unplugging the battery and holding down the power button then putting the battery back. everything is up to wrking again, but not sure what caused that.

As for temps i dont know what else to do. right now all im doing is typing on this message board and my 4 cpu cores are 49 degrees, 48, 46, 50 respectfully. Is that hot for normal use? Ugh i should have just stayed with my intel i7 990X CPU. the thing overclocked steady at 4.6ghz with no heat problems at all and never had any problems with it.

The dell tech is sending me a new heat sink and fan ?i know it was a heat sink and something else, but i can't remember. Why should i have to reapply paste already? I barely use my computer for gaming for more then half hour a sitting, and its mostly for email ect. seems alille frustrating to have to open the entire computer up to repaste the CPU. Plus i believe the CPU is being held in place by a special screw that you need one of dells tools to open? is this true?

What are normal temps for the i7 4930MX? i ahve only had the computer shut off when decoding dvd's using all four cores, usually core temp comes on telling me which cores are reaching critical (which is around 99 degrees). Should i turn off core temp?" or maybe try to figure out how to set the temps alittle higher? thank you everyone for your help.

p.s. I totally tried to swindle the alienware tech guy to send me two 880Ms for my 780M's and then take a i7 4940MX lol.. not happending . all they are sending is a new heat sink.

 

You need to repaste using Liquid Ultra. That's the only thing that will work. This Haswell 4930MX was borderline unusable due to overheating until I did that and now the temps are effectively managed. No other thermal paste is going to be good enough, so don't waste time and money trying other options. The new heat sink they are send it going to be a waste of time and money if it gets installed with the stock TIM pad.

 

get it approved first! other wise the tech will not do it..

 

The tech doesn't know what he is talking about. They are not all good. Some are flat-out garbage. If you have an "el cheapo" system like an Aspire, Pavilion or an Inspiron it doesn't make much difference because the CPU never runs at a high enough clock speeds to need an excellent thermal solution. You might get away with using toothpaste on one of those low performance models (just being facetious). The tech is obviously not an overclocker or performance enthusiast or he would never make such a misinformed comment.