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[Reelya]

definitely the thermal stuff and the fans.

After getting it back to speed it might be an idea to under-clock it a notch or two to reduce future thermal load. As long as it's way faster than now they'll be happy, and knocking a few degrees off the top will extend the lifespan. After all, they're not really intending this for high-end gaming usage.

[Starver]

Check if it needs defluffing, if it isn't anything more substantial. More often seen on laptops regularly run on a sofa/caroet/bedspread than in (I imagine) a worklike hospital setting but five years give a lot of possible fibre-inhalation to reduce the cooling effect.


It could be, even after reinstalling (assuming you let it update again afterwards) a whole load of security updates and patches that just happen to take up the laptop's computational energies.

I've seen AV program updates that now seemed to assume more memory than the (old) hardware had a chance to give it so dug far more deeply into swapspace every time it scanned something new. Found a different AV, in this case, that hadn't (yet) been overdeveloped beyond any useful optimum.

Or check one of the Dimm modules isn't unseated (halving the memory available) or otherwise inaccessible. Check your HDD isn't riddled with bad sectors, with a suitable low-level tool. Was it once overclocked, or at least up-optimised, and it's recently been reset to 'normal' (could be old enough to have needed BIOS-retaining battery replaced, and it's conceivable that something is reset). Loads of little things like that.



Normally I'd have suggested you consider the reinstall-from-scratch (digital crud builds up, like loadsa zero-length files in the %TEMP% area, not using "real" disk space but incrementally increasing the time for the system to work out what new TempFile it can write to, in any given circumstances as requested by various differently self-serving applications) but it sounds like that's already dealt with. Assuming it was done properly, though, so do quickly check if it has been or if it was fudged before taking that as read.

[Reelya]

Ahh, the HDD point is a good one. Lots of moving parts there that can degrade, and also pretty easy to replace.

Unless it's eMMC. Don't get a device with eMMC if you can help it. They save on costs by soldering SDD chips straight into the motherboard, so the SDD isn't replaceable if it dies. Effectively eMMC means they used phone memory in your laptop instead of an actual drive that can be upgraded or replaced.

I knew a guy who went to the same job place I used to go to, and he had a Windows Netbook with only 16GB of eMMC storage space. He couldn't run Windows Update because there was no space to download the updates, and he constantly had problems with other stuff not running. A Windows 10 device with only 16GB of non-upgradeable SSD space is something you would never want.

[methylatedspirit]

After getting it back to speed it might be an idea to under-clock it a notch or two to reduce future thermal load. As long as it's way faster than now they'll be happy, and knocking a few degrees off the top will extend the lifespan. After all, they're not really intending this for high-end gaming usage.

I know ThrottleStop/Intel XTU can do that (at least in the turbo range, which is still plenty), but something that risky, something that can absolutely crash the system if you look at it wrong sounds a bit iffy to me. Is there a way to underclock that doesn't involve those programs?

[Reelya]

I wasn't talking about any programs, and i wouldn't trust them. I was talking about the bios.

[methylatedspirit]

Are you telling me that Alienware laptops from 2015-ish come with unlocked BIOSes that let you mess with the multipliers and stuff? Most laptops (not even the gaming laptop I'm typing this post on) simply don't let you mess with any of those settings in the BIOS.

[Reelya]

If any laptop would have that it would be Alienware, because of who their target audience is.

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-au/sln297032/alienware-overclocking?lang=en

For Notebooks

Using OC Controls in the Alienware Command Center (recommended):

Open the Alienware Command Center

    Click OC Controls
    Click the OC Profile tab
    Click Level 1
    Restart your system

Test your system with these settings if you find it stable you may repeat the steps and select Level 2

Using the settings in the BIOS:

Press F2 while turning on the system

    In the BIOS go to the Advanced tab
    Select Overclocking Feature and press Enter
    Select Extreme Edition Core Ration Limits and press Enter
    Select OC LV 1 and press Enter
    Press F10 to save and exit

For Alienware m15 and m17
i7 & i9 OC is done by adjusting the power limit (PL) on the processor. Different power limit are built into the thermal profiles in AWCC.

    Quiet mode sets the PL1 to 45W. This is i7 default setting
    Balance Mode sets the PL1 to 60W. (This is the system’s default setting from the factory.)
    Performance Mode sets the PL1 to 75W.

If the IT people nuked it and installed vanilla Window on it then it may not have the Alienware Command Center thingy though.

You could also try under-clocking the GPU using GPU-related tools.

[Starver]

If any laptop would have that it would be Alienware, because of who their target audience is.

That's why I thought it might be no-longer-overclocked, in one of my ideas.

Not had much direct experience with Alienware, but my impression was that this was the whole schtick with AW machines, overclocked as built (pushing the component limits more than normal consumer limits) then let the end user push it further if they want to take the risk. At a premium and with some risks involved.

Which makes it an odd 'direct replacement due to unavailability', but if it doesn't break under the strain it does at least mean it should have lengevity of performance (modern office software seems to eat up more processing power than a lot of classic cutting-edge games did). I guess this one broke a little, though.

[Imic]

I am not a tech-savvy person and the quarantine has prevented me getting help in the village, so here I am. My computer freezes constantly. constantly. I know very little else besides that. This computer had all the old bits ripped out of it recently, and the only things still around from the old computer are the hard drive and the case, so it’s definitely a software issue. Does anyone know of how I might go about looking to fix this? Does anyone know where even to start?

[Lord Shonus]

Define "freeze". Does it lock up entirely and need a force reboot, or are they short-term freezes that go away on their own? Is it a BSOD? Just non-responsive? Does everything actually stop, or is it just non-responsive?

[Imic]

A program or the entire pc will become unresponsive for anywhere between a few seconds and ten or twenty minutes. Sometimes sound effects will be unnaffected, but other times the music will endlessly stutter instead.

[Lord Shonus]

Ok, that rules out a lot.

My first instinct here is something wrong with the RAM or the hard drive. I'd start with the latter, because you've specified that this is reused. If you are in a Windows environment, open a command prompt in administrator mode (easiest way to do this is to type "command" in the search prompt to bring up the icon for command prompt, then right-click and "run as administrator").


Type "chkdsk /scan" into the prompt. Post a screenshot of the results.

[Starver]

Freeze-pause to react again or freeze-halt requiring power-cycle?

Any software, any time? Mouse (USB?) not responding? Does the Numlock key[1] toggle the NumLock light?

For Windows does Ctrl-Alt-Del bring up (eventually?) the task manager (also try Ctrl-Shift-Escape)? It might take time, but should pop up in a not-utterly-frozen situation eventually. If it gets you to a BSOD (or equivalent) it's something more, if it reboots it's maybe worse (memory access/management issue, IME). It's a freeze that does nothing until you power down/case-reset it then it's deep but maybe easily solvable.


There's a lot to go on. For one thing, we don't know the OS. And if it's Win10 I'm going to have to stick with "it works with prior versions" advice, myself, as have not touched it enough to know how much things might have changed.

Can we assuming you've got AV software, updated, may have done other malware scanning and have initiated/allowed basic disk checking, including that you're not down to your last few Mb of disk space, etc? Without eyeballs on the system, I think we need to flail about a bit before we're sure we know what problem needs solving. Other than system reinstall from scratch which I wouldn't suggest if it's maybe as simple as reupdating corrupted drivers or similar. If it gets that far, maybe you need a tech-guy to work on it for you, one way or another, but maybe that's for later.


((Ninjaed by three messages. Hopefully not stomping on anyone else's toes.))
(((edit: Ah, good. We're getting somewhere. Carry on!)))

[1] Or combo, in laptops, but I'm guessing it's not that from the bit about its bits.

[Imic]

It’s windows 10, I typed in chkdsk/scan into the command prompt and it’s doing it’s thing. The eta is still a ways away, so I’ll stick this here now instead of waiting till then.

Beyond that, I’m really not tech savvy enough to answer any of those questions, except that I’m definitely not down to my last dozen megabits of ram

Edit: here it is.

[Starver]

Yeah, most of what I asked is covered (I struck through whole sections no longer necessary, the bold was already there from when I realised I needed to drag you away from the 'petty' stuff I'd just written.

Your RAM (physical) and your disk space (physical) are different things, though do coincide with Virtual Memory[1] being stored on disk. The scandisk results will doubtless show us the disk usage and put that idea to bed, though. I just sometimes go a bit mad on that myself, is why I mentioned it.

I'm probably not going to interfere any more in this, tonight (post midnight here, anyway) so have fun, and if I think I need to I'll join in again on the morrow. But now I know you've got at least one useful person helping, with others doubtless able to when their moment seems ripe.


[1] Or, in the old old days, and maybe back again recently in a different form, ramdisks. But that's not important here, just struck me as a funny reemergence of an old thing, sort of...