Anyone know anthing about fixing computers?

dude, you paid for an alienware, you also paid for GOOD tech support. call `em. and if they feed you shit that doesnt work, ask for a manager and move on up until you get it resolved.

does it freeze and stay frozen? or does it only freeze for a little bit?

it freezes and stays frozen.
they wont talk to me cuz my warranty is expired.

it might be overheating. are you oc`ing? (if you are, dont do it anymore)

try to defrag and reinstall everything

you could run a hard drive diagnostic test and then post your result(s)
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[QUOTE=Minuet]it might be overheating. are you oc`ing? (if you are, dont do it anymore)

try to defrag and reinstall everything[/QUOTE]

Or it could be factory OC'd if AW wanted to be tricky little bastards and upped the clock speed and/or multipliers.

A bit more info? It's hard to discern from what you've described so far. I'd try to reformat first off, then reinstall everything. I don't know if AW has some recovery disk they provide for their customers or just a windows disk, so use whatever. Hopefully (and preferably) a normal windows disk.

Otherwise yeah call AW's Tech Support. You paid for the damn thing, you better get your money's worth (especially considering the prices AW commands for their rigs).

yea but he doesnt have a warranty anymore.

its not overheating. THis happens on startup after its been off for hours and hours. Im not overclocking. Im gonna reinstall everything, im just worried that a: it wont reinstall cuz my dvd-ram drive has more or less kicked the bucket and b: if its a hardware problem, im screwed anyway. Any ideas on how i could figure out where the problem is? now that the windows logo covers up the bios init, i cant see where the problem might lie. Though, when i booted to safe mode, it gave me an error about a file called "bus346.sys" but i have no idea what that file is.

what do you mean by hard drive diagnostic?

run a hard drive diagnostic test and then post the results before reinstalling everything because with that disc drive being crap....

[QUOTE=sacredchao23]what do you mean by hard drive diagnostic?[/QUOTE]
right click your drive > properties > tools > error check, first, then see what it says

k. ill try that after while. thanks.

yup, no problem . hopefully you get it fixed

[QUOTE=sacredchao23]what do you mean by hard drive diagnostic?[/QUOTE]

Your drive could have a bad sector where critical windows files are stored and can't access them. It happened to me a week ago, except it was just a complete data overflow (attempting to download too much stuff with too little HD space and the drive flipped out and overwrote some critical data, at least I think thats what happened).

Any odd noises? Try to boot up into the BIOS (hold down the Del key right after you hit the power on). Flip through the lists and see where it says boot device order. It should be (depending on what you have) Floppy > HDD-0 > CD-ROM (or in your case DVD it seems). There might be another odd device listed (my BIOS has it as LS120, dunno wtf it is but if it's not in the boot order I can't load windows) there so try that, but put the HDD-0 first.

Other than that not much I can help you with without having the lappy right in front of me.

edit: Bah, minuet beat me to it. Do the check disk stuff first though, then fiddle with your settings. Make sure you write down the originals though so you can change it back if something is funky. BIOS is always accessible since it's accessed through your motherboard.

i think the hard drive error fixing thing may have helped. It doesn't seem to be freezing as much anymore. Ill wait a few days, see how it goes and maybe reformat. Thanks a lot.

[QUOTE=sacredchao23]i think the hard drive error fixing thing may have helped. It doesn't seem to be freezing as much anymore. Ill wait a few days, see how it goes and maybe reformat. Thanks a lot.[/QUOTE]
stick linux on it. solved all my problems with windows

if youve not used linux before, its hard to find drivers for some hardware. blah, right? not too big of a deal.
cant agree that linux is better, though it has softened up on the edges a bit.
i wont ever use it. and i dont know anyone who has that stuck with it

[QUOTE=Minuet]if youve not used linux before, its hard to find drivers for some hardware. blah, right? not too big of a deal.
cant agree that linux is better, though it has softened up on the edges a bit.
i wont ever use it. and i dont know anyone who has that stuck with it[/QUOTE]
ive had it for almost two years.
there are "noob" installs such as suse and fedora (which are also widely used in buisness) that include the ability to run RPM (like a linux exe) the most trouble i personaly have had with the OS im on now is trying to get it to recognzie my floppy without having to manually mount it via command line-or console (which is basically dos)

as a user myself i would say that one of those is worth a try to anyone who is sick of windows. both do automated partioning and the installs are painless. but as minuet says its not for the faint hearted. its not going to come out of the box how you like it. but for the average user thats only a few minor tweeks away.

He wasn't asking to switch operating systems, he asked if anyone could help with his current problem with the one he had. I don't bring in a car for a oil leak and decide to buy a new car because the new model is more efficient and doesn't give me as much problems.

[QUOTE=UbikRex]He wasn't asking to switch operating systems, he asked if anyone could help with his current problem with the one he had. I don't bring in a car for a oil leak and decide to buy a new car because the new model is more efficient and doesn't give me as much problems.[/QUOTE]
i know
if your computer is freezing then there is a broken file (or extention) someplace
those alienware bastards gave you a fuck disc, right? they damn well better have

for those of you who dont follow
fuck disc - Noun - disc used to restore ones computer to factory settings. see also: reinstalling windows.

this is exactly why i build my own computers.

I prefer call my building more along the lines of jury rigging.

ive used linux a bit. Id switch, but there arent as many games readily available for Linux. If that werent true, id switch in a heartbeat. Im more worried this little problem is hardware related though.