Alienware randomly freezes, won't boot up

[erality]

I have an ongoing problem, which both Alienware tech support and I thought was the motherboard, but now I'm not so sure.

Three months after I bought an Alienware Area-51 7900, the computer started to randomly freeze. It would happen no matter what I was doing on it. Often, when I'd reboot, the computer would get stuck. Sometimes it'd freeze while booting into Windows XP. But more often, it wouldn't get to any of the splash screens. The computer would turn on but neither monitor nor and of the perpherials would respond.

After repeated Alienware tech support calls, I learned one way to fix it. If I opened up the computer and unplugged the hardrives, video cards, motherboard, RAM, and removed the little round battery on the motherboard, then plugged everything back in, the computer would boot up fine again. It's only a temporary fix, though, sometimes lasting only 24 hours.

Thinking it was a defective motherboard, Alienware replaced it. That fixed the problem for a couple months. But now the problem is happening again. I'm going to give tech support another call, but before I do, I wanted to see if anyone had an ideas of what could be causing the problem so I could suggest some things to tech support.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

My computer's specs:

Area-51 7500-R3
Full-tower green case 2.0B chassis
ASUS PFN32SLISEDEL 2.02 G motherboard
Core 2 DUO 2.13GHZ E6400 4M cache 1066MHZ processor
PDP 1GB DDR2 low latency PC-6400 AW96 memory
Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA 3G NCQ system drive
Samsung Spinpoint 250GB SATA 3G NCQ storage drive
NEC 16X dual layer DVD±R/W recorder primary CD ROM/DVD ROM
Lite-On 52/32/52 CD-RW black Rev.3 secondary CD ROM/DVD ROM
ASUS P5N32-SLIDELUXE integrated audio sound card
EVGA nVidia GeForce 7900 GX2 1GB Long PCIE graphics processor
Microsoft Windows XP Pro COA operating system (Office software not included)
Cyberlink PowerDVD 6.0 operating system (Office software not included)
Symantec Ghost Corporate Version 8 (License) warranty
AlienAutopsy: Automated technical support request system warranty
AlienGuise Invader Alienware Extras
Technical Reference for ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe PDF operating system (Office software not included)
Owner identification card operating system (Office software not included)
AVC Pentium 5 Dual Coard HSF Z9H741K001 chassis upgrades
Alienware main board RGB REV 4 chassis upgrades
Control ELC DIP card chassis upgrades
ELC to Motherboard USB cable REV3 chassis upgrades
ELC to Motherboard PWR/HD cable REV3 chassis upgrades
700 WATT OEM ATX PSU
GX2 7900/7950 Dual slot card keeper graphics processor

 

[kmcferrin]

Could be a bad or failing PSU. But honestly, since you paid extra for the Alienware box and the support that comes with it, I'd let them sort it out.

 

[paparazi]

The power supply is always going to be high on the list of suspects but in addition some thoughts:

Does this low latency DDRII PC6400 (DDR800) require over volting as standard, most require around a 0.2volt increase to work reliably.
Check Connections and cables, from the motherboard to the wall socket.
Martin


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