Alienware M9750 will not stay shut down

vdub12

vdub12

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I have one that I can't figure out.

I have an Alienware M9750 notebook here and it runs great other then the fact that it has a bad battery.

The problem is when you shut it down it turns off normal and then in about 10 to 15 seconds just powers up again. This happens weather you shut it down from windows, UBC4WIN, or DOS. I haven't tried a Live Linux disk but I am sure it will do the same thing.

I have tried flashing the BIOS, didn't help.

Tore the whole computer apart and cleaned everything, No affect.

I even pulled the hard drive and booted UBCD4WIN and it still did it. The only way to keep it off is to hold the power button down during post.

Alienware is useless there support stinks now that Dell owns them.

It almost seams like a power state after power loss setting but the BIOS offers no power management configuration. I wonder if there is a a program that can access hidden BIOS settings?

Anyone have any ideas?
 
rusty.nells said:
The NIC or modem may be configured to wake the computer, are either or both in use at the time? You might also find a clue in the Windows/system event log.
Click to expand...

The only thing that I have ruled out is it has nothing to do with the OS. It does it even if the hard drive is out of it.

I have tried turning the wireless off and unplugging the NIC. they didn't affect it.

The part that surprised me the most is for a $3000 computer is has no settings at all in the BIOS. Alienware offers an XP and Vista BIOS I might try the Vista BIOS and see if that helps.
 
Just tried the Vista BIOS and it didn't change anything.

I'm going back to the XP one now.

Dose anyone know of a program that I can use to modify hidden settings on a modern AMI BIOS?
 
Well I think I have determined that this thing has a bad motherboard.

The keyboard just up and quit working on it now.
 
Well the new motherboard fixed it.

Then a week later that board went out. Out of the blue it started doing the exact same thing again. I have heard other reports on the net of other M9750's doing it also. The only motherboard I could get was a used pull from ztronics. At $330 for a used board that lasted a week it wasn't a great deal. Alienware will sell a used board for it for $250 but they will not sell the board outright, you have to let them install it for $300 so the total would be $550 from alienware for the same used junk.

BTW alienware claim they replaced the motherboard in this notebook 8 months ago right before the warranty expired. So if there telling the truth this notebook has gone through 4 motherboards in a year in a half. One of those boards went on my bench. Honestly I think alienware is lieing because there was no evidence that the board was ever changed before I went in to it.

Just a tip for everyone. Don't ever recommended or buy alienware computers. There junk.
 
geeky_jason said:
Since Dell bought them out.
Click to expand...

The M9750 that I have here is pre Dell. My customer got it right after the buyout. This model was from before the buyout. The x17 replaced it.

From what I have heard they have gotten better since Dell got them. There customer support still stinks though.
 
Yeah I didn't tell my customer yet.

I am going to make some calls tomorrow and hopefully get this figured out. Honestly I am getting sick of looking at this notebook. worse yet my profit on this job is blown and I still need to put another mobo in it now. I hope ztronics is going to make this right.
 
um maybe
Device manager->Network Adaptors-> NIC->properties-> power management-> uncheck box for "allow this device to bring computer out of stand by"
 
Carus said:
um maybe
Device manager->Network Adaptors-> NIC->properties-> power management-> uncheck box for "allow this device to bring computer out of stand by"
Click to expand...

The problems not OS related.

It restarts even if you shut the computer off inside the BIOS. I even pulled the drive and booted from UBC4WIN. Its a hardware problem, and a known problem from the info I found from Googling it. Many people had the exact same problem with this model notebook. I think alienware would rather sweep it under the carpet rather then making it right. Reminds me of the old IBM hard drives.

From all the reports its obviously a product flaw and alienware knows it.
 
ah, rally behind the cause and fight the power!
is this hardware problem of alienware's exist with units they sell today? you need to get people to pretty much abuse the warranty system with this problem, return return return till their statistical analysis software points out the problems for the higher ups
 
Just an update for everyone. I just got off the phone with ztronics and they showed me a procedure that seams to have solved the problem, fingers crossed.

Here are the steps.
1.) unplug the note book and take the battery out.
2.) un plug the cmos battery from the bottom access panel.
3.) power the computer up on AC power
- You will get a checksum error turn it off and back on again
4.) power all the way in to windows with the cmos battery unplugged.
5.) shut the computer down (This time it should stay off, it did for me)
6.) un plug the AC power
7.) reconnect the cmos battery
8.) reconnect AC power (It will start up automatically this is normal)
9.) you will get another checksum error (turn off and back on again)
10.) hit F2 to enter the bios and set the time and date
11.) Save settings and boot in to windows
12.) not shut it down, it should stay off now. If it doesn't you have a bad motherboard.

It worked for me. I am going to let it cool down in my shop for a few hours and make sure it still posts, since I was having a post problem when cold. If it works then I am getting this notebook out of here, im sick of it, lol.

Hope this works for anyone else having problem like this. I guess these notebooks are really finicky hopefully this fix will last for more then a week. Maybe this should be done after every BIOS flash for good measure.
 
What a bizarre problem and an even more bizarre fix!!! I hope this works for you, but if it does, that is one of those repairs that you could never figure out on your own. Wow.
 
Appleby said:
What a bizarre problem and an even more bizarre fix!!! I hope this works for you, but if it does, that is one of those repairs that you could never figure out on your own. Wow.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know.

Who would have thought that you need to boot up a computer without a cmos battery. The tech I talked to at ztonics even said that these systems are real finicky and sometimes the fix is just messing with it until it works.

Its still not posting when cold, who knows what the fix for that will be. Maybe I need to get a plug in heater like they use on diesel trucks in the winter, lol.
 
geeky_jason said:
I'd just set it on fire. That would cure all its problems at once. :eek:
Click to expand...

I second that, get the lighter fluid. :D

I would if my customer didn't just make the last payment last month of the $3,000 he paid for it.

Honestly he is more upset then I am about it.
 
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