Just thought I’d post an update to my computer situation for all 3 of you who read this stuff.
I called the Alienware tech support guys a few days ago (Monday, I think it was). It turns out I may not have to send away my entire machine to get serviced. Apparently lots of people who bought the m9700 were having problems with their wireless hardware. It was causing all sorts of problems including BSODs (imagine that). So I finally got my new wireless card today in the mail and installed it. And it works! Hooray, for the first time in over a year I can actually use my wireless 
The tech support guy I talked to said that it was possible that the wireless could also cause the odd problems I was having with other things (like the Vega map editor BSODing/crashing when I try to paste something, etc). So he wanted me to take care of that first and foremost to rule it out. However, this does not seem to be the case. The wireless works great, but I’m still stuck with my other weird problems. I’m happy that I got the wireless taken care of, but frankly my main concern was figuring out why in the hell I’m getting this other weird crashes and errors. Yesterday I found out that GIMP will crash as soon as I open the ‘File’ menu and WMP completely refuses to play any videos (however Winamp plays videos just fine).
So today, after I got the wireless card installed and working, I asked the tech support people what else I could try to diagnose the problem. I told him I thought it was either the video card or possibly the RAM/chipset causing the problems. He suggested that I try to run the memory diagnostic test again (the one that I did with Supergod) with one stick at a time (I have two, 1GB sticks in this machine). Apparently having both in can sometimes cause inaccurate results, so I’m going to do that again. He also suggested that I run 3DMark06 to see if it’s a video card related issue. My gut is telling me it doesn’t have anything to do with the video cards (since I haven’t had any other noticeable problems out of them). I really think it’s RAM-related or something deeper than that (possibly with the mobo).
I was going to run the tests tonight and then post my findings in this post, but it’s already pretty late and I’ve got to get up early in the morning to go out of town. So it’ll have to wait a bit. But when I do get some results, I’ll make yet another boring post about it 
Wish me luck!
Carnevil
10 Jul 2009Good luck! Hopefully it’s just the memory, which I think would be the easiest to replace. Anything else, like the motherboard… ugh.
Mechadon
15 Jul 2009I have an idea.
I think throwing my laptop out of a moving vehicle might fix it. I’m gonna go do that now.
Jimmy91
27 Jul 2009What’s up Mech? Haven’t seen you on any of the forums in weeks. Hope everything’s okay down on your end.
Mechadon
31 Jul 2009Don’t worry, I’m still alive. It’s just that I’ve been reduced to using a computer that’s semi-retarded for the time being.
Super Jamie
4 Aug 2009Just so you know, a software memory test isn’t really conclusive. It can identify alot of faults, but not all of them. Swapping the sticks is a good idea, and run as many different tests as possible. The Ubuntu LiveCD comes with memtest86, and if you’re into pirating stuff, Microscope 2000 is a great commercial diagnostic suite if you can figure out the tests.
Sometimes a faulty stick of RAM can get past the best of software diags, but swap the stick out for a new one and your problems magically vanish. You could try just running one one stick for a few days, see if the problem goes away. Try the same with the other stick.
When you’re changing your sticks, don’t touch the chips or any contacts, grip it by the edges of the PCB. Keep a hand on the housing of the laptop (or any large metal chassis areas) to minimise the chance of static discharge.
If things are dusty in there, brush with a small paintbrush. Put tape over the metal part of the brush bristles if it has one. It also might be worth investing in some isopropyl alcohol (10 bucks at a chemist/pharmacy) to clean the contacts if stuff is very dirty. Some LCD iso wipes would be better than nothing, just make sure whatever you use is alcohol-based, not water-based.
It could also be a hard drive error (pagefile or something hitting a dodgy sector as you move large apps around in memory) or even just a borked Windows install. Wiping your hard drive and reinstalling everything might sound painful, but it’s an option. Make sure you have the latest BIOS from your manufacturer too.
This is all just general PC fixing stuff. I did it as a job for years, during and after highschool.
Good luck! I’ll turn on email notification for replies here.
Mechadon
5 Aug 2009Hey, thanks alot for those tips Super Jamie! I had exhausted all that I could do up to opening up the case and taking a peak inside (I reinstalled windows multiple times and I even tried Windows Vista). I really wanted to avoid opening it up but…well that didn’t quite work out
I sorta know my way around the components and what to do and what not to do, but I just have stupid fingers and I tend to break things easily. Thankfully though, from what I can tell, I didn’t really hurt anything (aside from breaking the edges of a really small clip…I can’t see how people can grip those things).
Incidentally, I was just about to make a new post on my whole computer situation. It turns out that the problem, from what Carn described to me, was Windows-based (possibly with Windows Update). He started getting the BSOD in XP and errors in Vista, which was the exact same problem that lead me to believe I was having some sort of hardware failure. So at this moment in time, the problem is resolved and I can resume working on Vega!