M15x Problem/Technical Question thread

[DallasPhil]

Thanks everyone. It is not doing what the youtube videos indicated. It will all of a sudden power down and then reboot. Here are some specs:

Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) (build 7600)
1.60 gigahertz Intel Core i7 Q 720
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
6144 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)
3484.93 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
1892.44 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GA31N [Optical drive]

Seagate FreeAgent USB Device [Hard drive] (2000.40 GB) -- drive 2, s/n 2HC015KJ
ST9500420AS [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5VJ5HMW7, SMART Status: Healthy
WD My Book USB Device [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 1

Board: Alienware A08
Serial Number: .6Q3DSM1. .
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Alienware A08 08/24/2010

8182 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' has 4096 MB (serial number 23811321)
Slot 'M2' has 4096 MB (serial number 23A11382)

c: (NTFS on drive 0) 484.34 GB 303.01 GB free
e: (NTFS on drive 2) 2000.40 GB 1300.25 GB free
f: (NTFS on drive 1) 1000.20 GB 289.19 GB free

Intel(R) PCHM SATA AHCI Controller 6 Port
Ricoh Memory Stick Controller
Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller
Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller

Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B34
Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B3C

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 [Display adapter]
Samsung SyncMaster [Monitor] (24.0"vis, s/n HVDQA00730, October 2008)


Happy New Year everyone!

[svl7]

Even though it's not a BSOD according to your description there might be an entry of the error in the System log... can you check this and post it in case there's something?

[DallasPhil]

I ran the attached event log for all Warnings, Errors, and Critical events that were logged over the past seven days. I have been unable to determine which event, if any noted, is causing my machine to power off and then reboot. Thank you!

[svl7]

Well, according to the log, the system got shutdown 3 times all of a sudden. There's always the same warning immediately before the warning, but I don't know it... "stcvsm" There's no description available for this in the log file.

I have no idea at the moment, sorry.

[DallasPhil]

svI7. WOW! You may have just solved my problem. After researching "stcvsm" I learned that this is a snapshot driver added by ShadowProtect software which I use to complete my backups. The knowledge base for ShadowProtect addresses this issue and how to disable this driver for troubleshooting. I will immediately disable it to ascertain whether or not this is the reason for my shutdowns. This is by far closer than I have been in resolving this annoying issue. I will report in after a few days. Again, thank you so much. Happy New!!
Dallas Phil

PS Should I be concerned about all the controller errors?

[TheHighlightGuy]

So, I just booted up my M15X after a BSOD today. I had to disconnect the BIOS battery to get it to boot up because it would get stuck on the Disk Check part.
I ran the full diagnostic test and everything came up fine.
Now, though, I seem to only have 2 processing cores running and my clock speed is fluctuating between 1192Mhz and 1844Mhz.
Anyone have any idea what's going on?

[Indiran]

@TheHighlightGuy, it is alway recommended to state the M15x specs so that members of forum can identify the problem more efficiently. Thats a huge difference in fluctuation, im not sure, try reading the throttling thread somewhere, not sure where xD. Happy New Year All !!

[Indiran]

Im not sure, lol, first time im seeing like this. Based on the thumbnail, i can say it is showing only 2 windows representing 2 core because the computer is only using 1 physical core from the whole 4 core, and 1 core has 2 threading, therefore shows 2 windows. 4 core = 8 windows. Maybe someone who has better understanding can help you.

More info on your processor : Intel Core i7 840QM Notebook Processor - Notebookcheck.net Tech

EDIT: Try CPU-Z to see how much core it shows

[lordvice]

Try another driver version, for example the latest nvidia driver or an older one from Dell.
Or cleanly uninstall your driver and use driversweeper, ccleaner and then reinstall it again.

i have cleanly uninstalled the driver before as indicated in my post. i think i will revert back to the old driver, the current driver doesnt let me output sound to my TV over HDMI either.

NEW PROBLEM: not on my alienware, on a friends windows 7 desktop, but its annoying me to no end. using IE8, you MUST enter http:// to go to a website, if you type Google for instance, it will throw an error saying that the site cannot be found. does anyone know how to solve this? i have been searching for an answer for the last 2 hours and the only answers i have found only apply to IE6. installing firefox or something is not a solution, its not my computer and this user does not want, nor would they understand that firefox is better. TIA guys.

[svl7]

svI7. WOW! You may have just solved my problem. After researching "stcvsm" I learned that this is a snapshot driver added by ShadowProtect software which I use to complete my backups. The knowledge base for ShadowProtect addresses this issue and how to disable this driver for troubleshooting. I will immediately disable it to ascertain whether or not this is the reason for my shutdowns. This is by far closer than I have been in resolving this annoying issue. I will report in after a few days. Again, thank you so much. Happy New!!
Dallas Phil

PS Should I be concerned about all the controller errors?

Wow, great to hear you found a possible solution! Hope it's going to work!

I just checked my system log and I got a bunch of those controller errors to... and everything is working fine so far... my guess is that these errors are caused by external drives like USB sticks, SD cards or HDDs. Maybe it happens when you unplug them improperly... but that's just a guess.

I really don't think it's something to worry about since everything seems to work fine and anyway, I always keep backups of the important stuff.

You could of course check your harddrive with the test programs from alienware... I have never done this but I think everything's described in the user manual.