My PC sometimes boots up but sometimes doesn't, what can be the reason?

Question

I have a personal Dell Alienware laptop 2017 model which has started behaving very weirdly. It sometimes just crashes and then doesn't boot up for next 2-7 days. And after that it starts working again as normal and may not even crash for like 1-2 weeks or may crash the next day. Formatting hasn't helped, reinstalling windows hasn't helped, unistalling drivers hasn't helped so from a technical perspective what can be the reason?I suspect it could be a hardware issue but am unable to come up with a conclusion.

LinuxBender · Accepted Answer

If it were me and I didn't want to rip the thing apart to start diagnosing at the hardware layer, I would start by:
- Verify the BIOS is up to date. Newer windows updates can conflict with older BIOS. They should be kept up to date together.
- Disable any devices in the BIOS that are not actually used.
- If that doesn't help, disable any "AI" overclocking or other overclocking especially if the laptop does not have an unlocked CPU that officially supports overclocking.
- If that does not help then I would suspect either power supply going bad or something got into the vents of the laptop and is periodically shorting something. Compressed air or "canned air" can help. Remove the batteries AND then hold down the power button for 20 seconds. If you can and use compressed air to clean out the laptop. Keep the can upright and adjust the position of the laptop, not the can. Blowing dust bunnies out often is good to do regardless.
Some newer laptops maybe yours counts can start acting weird if they don't get a motherboard reset from time to time which requires holding the power button for 20 seconds to turn it on and holding it for 20 seconds to turn it off at least every once in a while. Sounds silly I know but the Lenovo's from that period are notorious for this and I would not be surprised if other vendors had the same issue. No idea what if any shared components exist between an Alienware and a Lenovo.

Cheyana · Answer

If by not booting you mean not powering up, next time it happens unplug the power, take the back off, and disconnect the battery, then hold the power button down for 20 seconds to clear it, then put it all back together. This seems to be an occasional thing with Dells. We have over 2000 laptops here and every other month or so we have to do this.

NicoJuicy · Answer

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/A...I would suggest to call Dell though.

Bostonian · Answer

There is an active SubReddit https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/ .

h2odragon · Answer

how does it fail to boot? error messages or is it evidently a brick?
the time frame says "capacitor discharge" as a twitch diagnosis; check PSU, RAM, NVRAM, flash (SSD) .. but i dunno what to check for other than "any hinky behavior"
More information would of course help. This could be an issue with "software suspend" from your description, too.