Alienware Alpha new Christmas present wont work

sadie1502

Hi all

Im desperate at this stage my sons christmas present and we cant get it working its stuck on a screen it wont let us load anything. Does anyone know about these consoles? Its a blue screen it says other users wont connect to the internet nothing all day were at it. Thanks

The_Valeyard

Is this the steam machine version?

sadie1502

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Is this the steam machine version?

No its not its just the normal alpha machine

testicle

Take a picture of the screen and show it here, because what you've said doesn't make sense...

The_Valeyard

Pic be great.


Does it boot up at all?

Is it bsod?

sadie1502

It turned on fine etc but then it went into recovery mode its just a blue screen of the Microsoft login it has asking for email and password theres no network connections available. Ive boxed it up and ill ring dell in the morning.

Skerries

Dell will want you to troubleshoot it so you are better off setting it back up as they won't take it back until you have gone through many hoops if they can't resolve the issue

bren2002

Have you tried a physical wired cable instead of Wi-Fi?

Shiminay

This might seem like a dumb question, but have you connected it to the internet? I agree with Skerries, Dell will just want you to step through some things when you call them (I'm pretty sure they're open today).

sadie1502

We cant connect to the internet have installed and uninstalled two times already im sure it's something were not doing but it wont let us connect to anything we haven't tried a cable as we don't have a network cable. No dont think they are open today ive tried to ring them

degrassinoel

their support is mostly in Bangalore in India but the hours would be Irish business hours afaik so ye might get them tomorrow on the phone.

Have a read through the quickstart guide you got with it - set it back up again and do everything literally that's in that guide as they'll ask ye to do that anyway - also try this before you do anything

while all the cables are unplugged press and hold down the power button for at least 20 seconds. Then pop your cables back in like in the guide and power it up normally again.

If you or your son put an email & password onto it you'll have an easier time if ye know them, otherwise Dell are probably gonna have ye reinstall the Operating system. (Doesnt take long either tbh)

keep in mind that you're entitled to a refund if you bought the machine recently, it's a shame that this happened on christmas day too

sadie1502

Id say it will have to be reinstalled again cant get back to that menu its stuck on the same menu. Ill try them in the morning feel so bad for him but all day were at it brother father boyfriend everyone. Going to get an ethernet cable tomorrow.

Spear

Is the screen like this one:

sadie1502

Spear wrote: »

Is the screen like this one:

Very similar but it has a computer sign in the left bottom corner with a red x and it doesnt give a skip option and the sign in is in the centre of the screen and when we click on network it says mo networks available

sadie1502

We think its in pc mode but we dont know how to get back to the start to put it into console mode

degrassinoel

ye shouldnt have to if it's on that page linked above ^^

just follow the guide through to the end and then we can all figure it out from there

The_Valeyard

ethernet cable should sort it.


If it's a win10 system then there have been WiFi issues

degrassinoel

It's worth knowing too, that clicking on the wrong button or skipping past something wont break your computer. But yeah it's good to come at problems like these when you're fresh too - i cant even imagine the stress it's caused for ye

sadie1502

I'm trying to post a picture of the screen were trying to log in with put Microsoft account but it's saying wrong password and it's not the wrong password. It's right. We got the Ethernet cable it's connected to the Internet. Dell alienware support not back working until Tuesday I rang this morning how do I post A screen shot ?

Aka Ishur

If its saying wrong password its not a hardware issue. Just create a new microsoft account (using another device if needed) and use that to get you started.

sadie1502

I used my outlook.ie account and it still won't let me login. It's saying wrong password.

Aka Ishur

I know you did, and as I said, create a new clean microsoft account to try get you up and running. If it doesn't work we can rule it out.

https://signup.live.com/signup?uaid=5c2f45e1193d44d89428daebd2e6e83f&lic=1

testicle

sadie1502 wrote: »

Very similar but it has a computer sign in the left bottom corner with a red x and it doesnt give a skip option and the sign in is in the centre of the screen and when we click on network it says mo networks available

If it says that you've no networks available and you've confirmed that the PC is connected to the router, and that there are lights on both ends, you need drivers.

sadie1502

Well I set up a new outlook just now and still nothing

degrassinoel

sadie1502 wrote: »

I used my outlook.ie account and it still won't let me login. It's saying wrong password.

Keyboard might be setup as american - if it is hold Shift and press 2 to get the @ symbol

make sure capslock is off too

sadie1502

Here is the screen we can't login get past nothing we've tried everything how do we wipe it clean and start again. Heads are wrecked from it

sadie1502

We've done that email password and correct it's not what we are inputting

Aka Ishur

Well we can see you are connected to the internet properly- what are the two additional users underneath the password box?

sadie1502

The two are local or domain and Microsoft

Aka Ishur

What does the screen say when you try local? You said you reinstalled twice already? Did it not ask you to create/sign in a user during the install process?

sadie1502

It's states the username and password are incorrect. Should we be putting in the Microsoft password for the local or domain?

sadie1502

If we hit yes will this just restore to factory settings.

sadie1502

We're just trying to get back to the very start wipe everything how do we do that anyone know what are we to press ?

degrassinoel

Dont be messing around in the BIOS screen!

that's an accident waiting to happen lol

just turn off the power and start it up normally - select one of the other users. If you want to restore the system to factory setting you CANNOT do it in the BIOS screen.

degrassinoel

Get it back to this screen


and pick one of the other users - try your password in both of them.

sadie1502

Thanks it won't let us log in with any user

degrassinoel

Okay, well look - dont change any settings in the BIOS screen - they're all hardware and boot options and not at all relevant to the problem right here right now.



It sounds to me that the password was typed in wrong - a simple typo or something

so for instance, if the password was "password" it might have been misspelled as "pasword", "passworf", "passwors" etc.. that kind of thing, and ye could spend days trying to figure it out.

But if you're like me and commonly misspell things like "the" as "teh" you might catch a break. with a few different combinations.

Try it on the first account you made on the new pc, that one should have admin rights.

You can also try
"Administrator" as a username
and "Administrator" as a password, though i dont know if thats even a thing in win10.

sadie1502

It's definitely not password issue I've set it up again took a screen shot typed it out in the other box to see what I'm typing and that everything is correct I'm at a loss really and truly the frustration is up on the top of my head now.

degrassinoel

i hear ye

if ye want i can talk ye through getting it reinstalled over the phone - though i think that's pretty much swatting a fly with a hammer

It's up to yerself though

sadie1502

Would you really?I've just boxed it up can I ring you in an hour or so or when it suits you ? That would be brilliant you're a star.

degrassinoel

sadie1502 wrote: »

Would you really?I've just boxed it up can I ring you in an hour or so or when it suits you ? That would be brilliant you're a star.

will pm my mobile no. , i'm here til around 6 so ring anytime before that or i'll be in a turkey & ham coma

The_Valeyard

We get sorted?

degrassinoel

Sadly no, no disk drive and no bootable media via usb - unless there's a soft factory reset, i'm stumped for this one

sadie1502

No we didn't but I just want to say thanks so much for tak our call and trying to help us. We really appreciate it. So nice of you.

degrassinoel

No problem at all, it's just a pity we couldn't get it back up and running

The_Valeyard

Really bizarre. sorry OP

Star Lord

Have a look in the manuals you got with it to see if there's any factory reset option/recovery image.

sadie1502

We've tried everything we can think of that we are capable of. It's probably so easy to remedy but when you haven't a clue it's a minefield but we are so thankful for the replies thanks peeps ill let you know how things go with Dell tech

degrassinoel

Sadie, one last thing

this video shows a demonstration of the initial setup you would have done with the machine.

I noticed that you have to enter an email address there @ 0.52 seconds and at 1.48 you have to create an account for the machine - both of those would be separate, then again at 2.22 you create a password for that account you created at 1.48 - They really could have made that a lot simpler by just asking you to create a password at the same time you create the system account. Tbh it confused me why they did it that way too.

So.. that video might jog the memory a bit - if not dont worry, check your email addresses to see if you got a confirmation mail from alienware that might have your username (from 1.48 in the video) if not, again dont worry too much.

You might even be able to set up a new account to gain access to the system this way - though you may have to register a new email address somewhere.

If all of the above fails - and i'm certain you're sick to your eye-teeth of it now, you still have Dell as a safety net to get it working the way it should be.