a few problems in the last week, m18 r1 6990's...

so i tried to burn a DVD for a friend the other day, but it didn't work, i thought my cd's were toast.... went to reinstall windows today with my AW Win 7 cd, and it will not read..... i still have 250 days left on warranty, don't know what to do...

 

so for the last week now, every hour or so my m18 would lock up, and go to a black screen (no power to screen at all) and i cant do anything without unplugging the power and removing the battery, then it starts up normally....
i have had my m18 for 2 years now, and i have never had this problem... i keep everything up to date, on 12.11 beta 4 drivers right now, was on 11.08 drivers last month, i don't know if its my crucial m4, or my ram that is causing the problem....

all im playing is borderlands 2 and battlefield 3, i thought it would be tempatures, but everything is fine, and i just did a repaste today...

i want to format and do a clean install, but my dvd drive in not reading dvd's...
please post any links that may help... thanks

 

Couple of things -

Have you tried rolling back to 11.08 and see if the problem continues?

Other than the display driver change, have you changed anything else recently (software or hardware) recently?

If you still are on the original OS from the factory, you should be able to restore via a respawn. This will not require DVD access.

As for the DVD issue, call Dell and have them dispatch out a replacement DVD drive. Pretty easy to have it swapped out under warranty and you can always request it be sent directly to you as opposed to having the on-site tech visit. As long as your NBD is active, it should be in your hands in 48 hours provided you call before the weekend. Once you have the replacement, will be easy to determine if it is fact the drive.

 

If you no longer have AlienRespawn, two suggestions:

Hurry up and download a Windows 7 ISO before they are no longer available now that Windows 8 has been released - install from USB stick

See this thread: Legal Download from DigitalRiver: Windows 7 SP1, 13 languages​

Download the new version of AlienRespawn

Get it here: Download the Basic Version of AlienRespawn - Click here to download​

Unlike the older version, the new version of AlienRespawn (even the free version) will allow you to install on a brand new HDD or one where all existing partitions (even the original Respawn partition) have been deleted.

Edit: I just noticed there were two threads for issues on the same system. I merged them because we only need one thread for this. And, it will also let the Alienware reps in our community easily identify both issues you are having.

 

so i still have a problem with my m18, it locks up almost exactly every hour, just reinstalled windows 7, have 12.10 amd drivers installed, and keep having throttling issues (temps hitting 95-100 in gpuz before fan kicks in on a fresh restart into windows...)
then everything idle's right on the next restart (45-55 idle temp).

just reinstalled borderlands 2, and it crashes everytime i get into a room to play..
i am going to call dell on monday, get the cd drive replaced, maybe see if i can get two new heat sync's with pads, because that is the only thing i didnt replace with the repaste....

 

so i checked my event viewer, and it says my group policy client service is not starting... and i cant click on windows firewall in the control panel, or windows defender.... any suggestions for help....?