I restored my m11x using the included Install disk, updated to all the latest drivers, and installed most of the Windows 7 updates. While I was downloading some Steam games overnight, I woke to a frozen laptop that required me to do a hard shutdown. When it powered up, I noticed that Windows 7 began installing 48 updates. I began resuming my downloads from Steam again and walked away for about an hour. When I returned a moment ago, my screen was frozen, no buttons or mouse movement would work. I had to do another hard shutdown. The only thing I noticed was that Window downloaded another set of updates. Could the combination of my Steam downloads and Windows updates be causing my M11x to freeze every time?
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I was wondering if it could be the free fall driver I installed on my SSD? Should I remove it? I also just recently upgraded my 256 Samsung SSD firmware on my R1
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yer, freefall sensor is obselete on SSDs. Did removing it help?
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I would always recommend that you don't do anything in the background with Windows updates. You *SHOULD* be ok most of the time with multi-installs. But I always let the Windows updates be the only active install, because any kind of screw up during a Windows Update could potentially hose your system.
If you cannot resolve this problem, I would just reformat the machine and start from scratch again.
As for the free fall sensor - yes, you can remove it. An SSD has no moving parts, so there are no moving parts to protect. -
Okay, I'll remove the free fall driver. So far, it seems quite stable after my Steam client finished downloading
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are you on wireless?
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If you're using wireless there's a known issue with the Dell 1520 card/drivers which causes system lockups, particularly when downloading large files or interacting with Steam. Myself and others have went to the Intel 6200 wifi card and no longer have those issues. See this thread for more info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/494366-totally-random-lockups.html
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I think that must have been the issue because I have not had any more lockups. Sometimes my camera fails to initiate now, but it works most of the time. I had to reinstall the driver for the Fall Sensor because the computer keeps asking me to troubleshoot for the missing driver. Once I reinstalled it, everything seems fine.
Fresh install of Windows 7 Freezing
Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by gman901, Aug 17, 2010.