Severe m11x Hard Freezing Issue

Let me start from the beginning: spilled beer on my precious m11x but had it covered under accidental warranty so Dell replaced out the Mobo and some other critical components. They left some of the main plastic frame parts the same though (I could tell because they were still sticky when I got it back) but for the most part it worked so I couldn't complain.

What I did notice though was that there was pretty frequent (at least once a day) freezing. And this was hard freezing. Cursor, Ctrl Alt Delete, all useless. Had to hold the power button to reset.

Figured that I'd do a wipe since I'd been meaning to anyway. Used the basic Windows 7 64 bit recovery disc they shipped with it and downloaded the other drivers I needed from Dell's website. I noticed frequent freezing again though with hardly any programs installed. It especially happened while I was downloading games from Steam which led me to Google wireless issues with m11x laptops. It appeared that there were many. It seems like the 1520 card was the culprit.

I tried a number of fixes for that card including not allowing Windows to shut off the device to conserve power under hardware manager. Didn't help. I also installed the latest drivers for that card from a Latitude laptop which many said worked. Didn't help me either. Finally I caved in and decided to just buy a new wireless card.

This time, I have an Intel 6250 Advanced Wireless N - WIMAX card. Since Dell doesn't officially support that card in an R1 (and the R3 drivers don't allow install), I used the Intel website directly and found drivers there. They installed pretty much without a hitch and my network speeds were noticeably faster.

Unfortunately, the freezing is still there. And if it was once a day I might still be able to handle it but this is MUCH more frequent than that. It will lock up whether I'm using the laptop or not. Whether surfing, idling, or gaming, it will absolutely lock up and if there was sound playing there will be a loud buzzing noise from the speakers (not a hardware noise but almost like the sound just gets cut off).

I'm pretty sure I'm correct in my assessment of the wireless card being the issue. I've tried disabling it using Fn-F3 and I was still getting freezes but once I disabled the wireless card in BIOS, it went a whole day (via a wired connection) without a hitch.

I'm at my wits end. My accidental coverage is 3 days expired. I still have both wireless cards with me (currently the Intel one is still installed) but both are having this annoying issue. I can't game online because it happens even when I'm not downloading games at 1.5 MB/sec. I've reinstalled the drivers and done thorough clean installs a dozen times. I don't use any software that comes with the Intel card, just the basic drivers. I formatted like 3 days ago and I'm pretty sure it's not a virus or anything like that. Unfortunately I can't ask Dell for assistance and I've tried cleaning my sticky case as much as possible. I also ran diagnostics during bootup and everything passed. As of right now, I have the wireless enabled in BIOS but disabled via the hardware key after yet another clean install of drivers. For the time being (roughly 1 hour), it appears to be working. Freezes can take anywhere from 3 minutes to several hours from what I've noticed.

This seems to be an issue that is frequent across all 3 revisions but I've seen certain solutions and wanted to know if anyone else had no luck. To summarize those solutions they were:

1. Go to device manager and make sure Windows can't shut off the device to save power (Failed)
2. Reinstall the drivers and do a clean install using driver sweeper (failed)
3. Get angry and format Windows (failed)
4. Replace the entire wireless card (failed)
5. Use drivers that aren't officially for the card, but tend to work anyway (failed)

I'm absolutely stuck here and any help would be hugely appreciated! Thanks!

 

Completely disable the NIC and use a cheap external USB wifi. Run that for a while to confirm.

In my case I did that for months until getting a card that worked (for me).

You can also approach this as NOT being a NIC issue and start diags.

 

Maybe you can try call Dell/Alienware up anyway. Maybe you might get lucky.

 

I'm inclined to keep treating it as a NIC problem. What I've noticed with the Intel 6250 is that while gaming, the connection will drop at some point (usually within a half hour). I know this occurs because I will get an in game pop-up (in this case for StarCraft II) saying that you have been disconnected and can no longer receive achievements.

Then if I minimize or close out of the game, I see a yellow exclamation mark on my wifi icon which when clicked on, inevitably results in a hard freeze. It says connected but no internet access. I've tried toying with this a little bit. After I minimized StarCraft, the computer was still working even while that yellow exclamation mark was there. At this point, I tried disabling the wireless by using FN-F6 which appeared to work but the icon wouldn't change to the red x indicating that it's been disconnected. I've also looked at the event log and it clearly points to some errors with the wireless card. I've also tried minimizing out of StarCraft and doing other stuff but within a few minutes, a hard freeze will occur whether I click on the network icon or not. Also, I haven't only been playing SCII so I'm positive it's not the culprit. Similar things happen for Crysis 2, Unreal Tournament 3, and The Witcher 2. I know the 6250 isn't directly supported by the m11x, but could that really be the issue here? I'm inclined to believe that the 1520 card and the 6250 card both not working is suspicious. I swapped them out again and the 1520 froze the system within minutes of booting.

I tried contacting Dell but there's a huge premium just to speak to a damn tech. I want to exhaust all possible options before I go that route. Thanks for the suggestions thus far though.

I can currently get by on hard wiring my phone to my laptop as a makeshift modem so I'm not totally screwed. I'll spend all of tomorrow with the wireless disabled in BIOS and let you know if it's any better.

 

Try this:
eVGA Precision Tools on the Alienware M11x R2 + Freezing Fix - YouTube

 

Until you completely bypass the NIC you will just be guessing and assuming. So using your tether is a good approach.

There are LOTS and LOTS of complaints about intel wifi cards. Not for everyone of course but enough that I can say both models you list can each be suspect. This forum alone has many claiming that replacing the 1520 fixed their issues... I personally had issues with the intel 6200 that was horrible.

The tough part is we do not know WHY the freeze is triggered. The same cards you are using might work great in another similar system. Also possible that the NIC is not the root cause.