[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results

Please take the laptop apart (Don't wait until tomorrow, that's lunacy), REMOVE the electrical tape, REMOVE all of the liquid metal. LOOK CAREFULLY for any tiny conductive balls of doom that may be anywhere outside of the silicon BGA slug. In fact, maybe you can take a high resolution picture of it for us, with any modern cell phone (please don't say you can't do that or you don't have a cell phone). A second set of eyes always helps.

After taking those pictures and posting them, clean any balls of doom you found anywhere, then put REGULAR THERMAL PASTE on (even some old el cheapo stuff....if you don't have any, you could even use toothpaste TERMPORARILY, but make sure you order GRIZZLY KRYONAUT, Noctuna NH-1 compound or Phobya nanogrease extreme (if you can find it) immediately, reassemble and then turn it on.

Bet you it will turn on, provided you didn't get conductive balls somewhere....

 

My laptop can be revived by doing that? Becuase I already opened it up for a second time & made sure liquid metal was only on my heatsink & cpu, gpu. Made sure all cables and ribbons are connected. Still nothing.

 

How do I remove the liquid metal completely? Alcohol as well?

 

As i said you have to do a complete cleaning and put on regular paste. And tiny balls of doom might look the same as typical solder joints.
But yes you should remove everything including the tape. And take pictures.

Yes, alcohol + Q tips just sucks up LM. Just make sure none of the stray balls wind up getting under any BGA chip housings

 

How long has it been since you've received your unit? I got mine around October 3 (I think), and I'm only returning it tomorrow (or Friday at the latest, EST).

 

Early September I received my Alienware.

 

What about protection against static electricity?

 

Oh. Bummer. Have you tried getting "angry/frustrated" over the customer rep? Maybe they'd allow you to return it. I don't know, I'm out of options right now. I'm a bit frustrated for you that you have to spend more on a unit that's supposed to be good when bought.

 

Haha no I haven't done that. I am still going back & forth with Dell & working something out. I'd rather have their professionals take a look at it then me because I have no idea where or when things went wrong.

 

I was working on it on a wooden table. Is that bad? I never saw or read about static protection in any of the guides I looked at.

 

You say you working on a wooden table. I can see this... But you could still have charged your self with static electricity from everything around you before you started the job. Touch the electronics even on the wooden table, and puff See also Antistatic_device

 

So what you are saying is static electricity will kill my motherboard? No chance of repair

 

I don't say WHAT happened to you. But if you cant fire up your laptop... You can clearly see what will be needed. Static electricity can KILL electronics. Same way as Liquid metal can.

 

Touch the base panel of AW every 10 mins to drain static electricity.

 

Also, IIRC, stay away from carpeted floors when working on it.

 

Sorry to hear that story buddy, hopefully Dell will get it sorted for you, LM has ran out on me before and blew my GTX 1050 in my XPS 15. No I take no chances with LM, just tape is not enough to prevent potential LM running out

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Using liquid metal requires:

1) NAIL POLISH or Kapton (or scotch 33+) tape over the SMD resistors around the CPU or GPU silicon. I prefer nail polish, tends to get slightly better thermals. This path is your choice.
2) highly compressible FOAM DAM around the CPU and GPU. Mr Fox used Kapton tape around his GPU (top of picture); bottom is socketed CPU. LOOK and pay attention: If you do this, it is impossible for LM to kill anything. YOU MUST NOT USE FOAM DAMS IN SUBSTITUTION OF NAIL POLISH OR KAPTON/SUPER 33+ TAPE!!!! they must be used TOGETHER.

The purpose of the foam dam is to stop any chance of LM from spilling outside onto the mainboard or GPU MXM Module. Then combined with nail polish (3 coats) around the SMD's right around the CPU and GPU, or properly covered kapton tape, you are 100% safe.

The foam dam trick was discovered recently by a very smart user (an airplane pilot) who needed extra insurance, and it works.

 

Seems like using LM is high risk/high reward. Wish I would've known that.

Is there any alternative paste that is almost as good with minimal risk or none at all?

 

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut. Don’t leave it out open for too long as it tends to dry (?) up. You can always wrap the whole tube with plastic then dip it into hot/warm water (I think Papusan mentioned 60°C for its temperature).

 

LM doesn't harden or thicken after some time?

 

All types thermal paste can solidify, even Liquid metal. The question is when, All depends on how good heatsink fits on the die, bad batches osv

Take a look in this thread.

 

You be the judge:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/after-1-year-of-thermal-grizzly-conductonaut.799343/

 

is 83c on the AW 17 R4 stock good temps or is that good?
Thanks

 

Hopefully the folks at Dell can fix and take care of whatever the issue is.

Can they actually fix the motherboard or replace it? I'm not sure which will happen.

Do you guys think that they will put back the default thermal paste that they use? or I will be able request a specific brand?

When I first opened it up, the TM looked very similar to the pictures iunlock posted when he started this thread.

 

Dell will most likely replace it. As for the thermal paste, it depends on the technician, but they will probably have the bad ones. Since you’ve tried applying LM before, try applying the regular thermal paste this time. Like I said before, TG Kryonaut should be a good choice.

 

If you mean pict of the stamps... Dell have changed to unknown thermal paste instead as what I know. They will pick what they have in the tool box, when they put on new paste. And always quality of lowest price. Every penny counts.

 

is 83c good temps?

 

Kyronaut over Phobya ?

1. TG Kyronaut 12.5 W/mK
2. Phobya NanoGrease Extreme 16 W/mK

Also since I'm not sure if it was the LM or ESD that fried my motherboard. Wearing plastic gloves like iunlock should prevent ESD ?

 

Yes the pic of the stamps. Very similar.

 

They shouldn't use stamps anymore for CPU with newer models. Only the gpu from what I know. They changed long time ago. Or did they? @iunlock should have the answer for you.

 

I'm no expert, but I'd say that's bad for stock. I only reached those temps after a couple hours of gaming overclocked.

 

I guess I was sent a bad one then. Becuase when I look at iunlocks photos & with what I saw on my own Alienware. It may as well be the same motherboard & heatsink.

 

Correct, the GPU is still stamped but the CPU is not.

 

May have to repaste my own 17R4 its suffering from the dreaded overheating plague. Got 104 on one temp sensor last night. Wonder if this will solve the issue...

 

No, LM is the best by miles. 8 - 10C cooler than anything else

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I think whenever you get anything past 90°C, you should repaste.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll take that into consideration.

 

Why did you return 15 r3?

 

Had the thing repasted along with a heatsink swap last week. 7820hk/1080 combo but it still creeps up bad under load. Heading towards a mobo and 2nd heatsink swap again. Sucks as hell as they saying they wont replace the unit it because I bought it from a outlet seller.... :C

 

I didn’t like how I had multiple issues within the first month. Some were unfortunate mistakes. I’ll list them as best as I could.

1. Temperature: At stock, I’d max out the CPU at about 93°C. After buying thermal pads/paste, I got it down to 75°C (cores 0 and 2) and 60~63°C (cores 1 and 3). I was going to use LM, but I was annoyed at all the issues by then. In the end, the core temp difference 6 to 15°C was too much for me.
2. Design: The heatsink and tripod design is flat out flawed. I figured, “Hey, let me just lap this heatsink, and adjust this tripod arm.” But then you slowly realize, “I paid good money for this, and I still have to do these?” I do believe that I could have solved the core temp differential in time, but it really wasn’t worth the hassle.
3. Hardware: I didn’t trust the Killer Network card which led me to buying the Intel 8265 a full three weeks ahead of my unit being delivered. I (futilely) asked Dell if there was any minute chance of picking the brands for the parts they’re using, but they said no.
4. Software: Updating things isn’t as seamless as they make it out to be. You have to be aware of where to get and what stuff you need to install. Don’t just rely on their website.

General build and technician mishaps (LONG STORY):

The unit arrived with a broken Enter key on the keyboard, so I asked Dell for a replacement. When the technician arrived, I told him to just give me the replacement, but I got lazy as well. I asked him to replace it since he wanted to do the job anyway. Big mistake, he never did anything to make sure he was ESD-safe. He also broke the macro key LED cable when he was putting back the machine.

I had to wait for the following week to get that replaced in which I specifically told him to just leave the part, so I can do it on my own. After replacing it, I noticed that there was a bubble on the lower right corner of the palm rest which prompted another call for replacement. As such, I also asked for replacement screws since the previous tech loosened several heads.

When the parts arrived, the same tech came to replace the palm rest and had the screws I asked for. I’ve prepared the laptop open at this point, and I showed him the loose screws. The unfortunate bit is that, neither of us could take out the screw at the metal jacket covering the power cable which meant that he couldn’t replace the palm rest. I also asked for a replacement bezel because the one that came with my unit wasn’t properly attached (too much adhesive on the middle bottom and almost none on its sides).

So, I wait for the next week again to have the jacket, palm rest, and bezel replaced. A new tech comes, and he starts to work on the replacement. I was preoccupied with my M18x R1 when he arrived since the old GPU just died. Now, after all the bumbling by the previous tech, I was more wary while the new tech worked on it. I called him out properly when he wanted to take out the heatsink because he said that he can’t lift the motherboard without doing that. I told him that’s unnecessary, and carefully showed him how to lift the whole mobo out because I didn’t want him messing up the repaste job I did.

This irked him apparently. He started blaming me for getting the laptop screws off when I already took out the bottom panel, and the two screws at the back – the ones near the back ports – even before he came in. I know that it can be hard when you’re being watched, but he used that reason as if I was persecuting/judging him. In this regard, I preferred the “idiot” (as he referred to) that came before him as I felt that we were both working together on it. I was trying to learn from them (I didn’t learn a thing, but that doesn’t mean you will be disrespectful to one another). I opted to be silent as he yapped about things because he wasn’t clearly receptive to my help. He replaced the jack and palm rest, but couldn’t replace the bezel as the replacement that Dell sent had a broken connector (?) where you connect the LED cable I presume. It also had zero adhesive on it. None at all. So, the tech had to use the old bezel he just ripped off. He left, and apologized after he did the job.

So, there I was with my machine – parts replaced/reused and a bit weary for the night. I noticed the tech left out one screw, so I had to open up the laptop, and I fixed his mistake. Only then was when I finally gave up. I sent an email the same night to have the laptop sent back. I put back the original network card, and sent the unit 10 days after receiving the shipping info.

I also had some problems when shutting down or restarting the laptop, but I figured this post is too long already.

 

Hey all, this is off topic but with the holiday season coming up & black friday/cyber monday that comes with it.

Is there a thread in this forum about recent gaming/electronics sales?

Or can does anyone have tips regarding that?

 

That's terrible, where do you live?

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I figured most people would skim through or ignore my lengthy post. I live in Toronto, Canada. It’s a shame. Alienware had the aesthetics going for them. They’ve always looked cool for the most part. Despite my initial reservations, I gave them another shot. It didn’t work out this time.

I went on to make a deal with HIDevolution so that they can accommodate my purchase according to my finances. I have really high hopes for their P751TM unit.

Right now, I still have my trusty M18x R1. Just waiting for a slave heatsink and an SLI cable at this point. Maybe I’ll even change the CPU after.

 

Its a 7820k or a 7700?
While you don’t have any thermal throttling you are fine.

 

Undervolting thru XTU might be a solution


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it's the i7 7820HK i'm considering, if i bought it from DELL, should i have any issues? a user on youtube bought the same model but with UHD, he had no issues and the cooling was top notch

 

Because the youtuber got lucky.

You can always return for overheat problem and get another one to play the lottery game, but that takes time and money.

 

Win the lottery game doesn't mean stutters - freezes finally is gone. Seen it come back. Same with higher temp.

 

There is no such thing as top notch cpu cooling right out of factory from alienware. for GPU, yes, it's really good even with the thermalpaste stamp dell uses, but when it comes to CPU, no. i can say with VERY high confidence 99.9%, if not all, of the units coming out from factory have serious cpu core temperature differential as soon as you unlock PL1&2 to 100W and OC to 4.1GHz and above.

 

That's the alienware experience for you