Alienware 15 R1 CPU ISSUE *WARNING*

Yeah 2.6ghz stable atleast is playable in most games, unless its cpu intensive game.. but again it shouldnt go to 2.6 at first place..

 

Wish @Alienware-Frank and @AW Khan had seen in the spoiler... They'd yelled in anger at what they did with Alienware

@rinneh @soulvengeance @altecX @VICKYGAMEBOY World record(Laptops) wPrime - 1024m stress test 4xCPU 132.617 sec By BGA Pussy-Crushing Killer aka High performing laptop with desktop hardware...

Click the spoiler in my sig. Or click the link below ↓↓↓
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sager-clevo-overclockers-lounge.788975/page-18#post-10214559

 

ive no idea why none of the alienware reps responds, its not like a stupid battery issue or something, major cpu hog, still no proper response..

 

You should find the correct email adress to this person → @Alienware-Frank aka Frank Azor and push out a angry mail.

 

I've read Porras saying that Dell is undergoing many re structural changes at the time of Maxwell and rumors on newer Alienware refreshes, that time all the reps were so much offline.

Porras was most active member we NBR were grateful to him, the Dell is dead man. They are Done, the Alienware is just an echo. We Alienware M17x series & M18x series owners feel very sad that this had happened, many people left the dying ship, now only a few enthusiasts are the only ones left....

After so much of bashing the brand, even multiple requests Frank Azor and Khan don't even care about us, they only cater to n00bs now.

By the way here's the TRUTH that no one can deny.

Spoiler: The reality of Dell & Alienware

 

Your system is bigger thus logical that it cools better, my desktop also cools the same performing system 20c cooler than yours, does that mean you got a **** system? Ocourse not because the system i compare it with is much larger.

But there is nothing wrong with temps under 80c for cpu under 100% load and gpu around 65c under load.

Stop the pissing contest. And no game on the market right now mainstream or not utilizes the cpu's enough now for it to be a bottleneck.

Yeah and thats why i got 3 with zero throttling. Stop the ********.

 

Respect other members if you cannot do in a pleasing manner then better avoid, smart choice.
And your desktop 20C cooler than the 6700K at 4GHz on all cores with an under 19C temperature at idle ? that's his machines idle temperatures beat that !
And the Overclock at 4.8GHz with Cinebench is a world record on Laptops, if the benching stuff is not for any person then they shouldn't even point fingers at.

 

Guys calm down, i opened this forum for my help, i dint expect any wars between BGA and SOCKET.. its like im i 9gag comment section between Nvidia and AMD fanboys.. no offence, he did best with this laptop, OC record, Cool Temps, but then rest is upto the user, what he chooses and what he likes, how he later realizes, helping out is one thing, but blaming is a different scenairo, so please i request u all to stop pointing at each others, every single tech is a poineer, some are carried forward, some dont.. i would be more than happy to see my case solved, and help others out who are having this kinda issues..

 

Statements like "pussy crushing bga killing laptops" doesnt really show respect, courtesy etc.

I run with liquid cooling and have a temperature delta of just 5c. 360mm rad for just 1 cpu because currently i dont have full gpu waterblocks for my cards because i wait for pascal. I couldnt care less about the benching stuf, its meaningless for me. But i do get tired of that whole pissing contest and of the constant if someone has a problem "thats just because alienware is a total bga **** crap system". How does that help any user out here?

 

This is't a contest. 3 + 4 = 7 system... This mean 3 of 7 working Alienware system. Have only a word to say... This is Tragic. Remember there was a reason that @VICKYGAMEBOY created the thread Alienware 15 R1 CPU ISSUE *WARNING*
Edit: I have also tried the best I can to help him with the problems.

 

Damn if statistics would work like that i would be a rich man by now.....

What part of refurbished did you miss? He received motherboards that were already returned by others. @VICKYGAMEBOY would be best off with at least a non refurb new motherboard.

 

Refurbished motherboards have always worked on older Alienware machines. Why is the issue a more common problem on newest Aw? This is Obviously a *** problem. Interpret this as you will.

 

What if, and we dont know it because we didnt handle his system. What if here is something else wrong with the system.

YOu and me both dont have any clues about how reliable these systems are. Only the people at Dell who see the numbers. On a forum there are always people complaining, it is human nature to do so if there is something wrong. There is simply no reason for people to register here, opening a topic and say they are happy with the system. So based on posts here to see if a system is good or not is not reliable way to do so.

 

i hate to say this, but trust me both of you, ive checked all the refurb mobo ive got so far, some throttles less, some behaves the other way, its always confusing with XTU , intel thermal framework drivers, MEI, and so many things around, yes like @rinneh mentioned, if they had given me a new batch motherboard, atleast the chances of getting throttle wud be less, but who knows its just the board itself, or the bios somehow interfering with windows making it think its on balanced mode. only guru's can find this out..

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you received the same one again.

I know they dont mark these motherboard boxes for scrapping. So they are reused after testing. But they never test them thoroughly. Here in Europe they always bring new parts. It sucks that in India they have such bad support. The policy here is after 3 repair jobs and the system is not fixed that they swap it for a new one.

 

In Alienware BGA threads recommended several AW Echo owners <if I remember correctly>, that you should for *best cpu power* put balanced performance in Win power plan... This was a <brilliant> solution so that the processor shouldn't throttle more than necessary. Pretty amazing Throttling processors is a well known problem aka image below.

Spoiler: Throttle Gate

 

the policies are same here, but replacement happens only one time, so ive already got mine once, 2nd replacement not possible..

 

Second full system? Wow that would be extreme bad luck then.

 

again tested with intel thermal framework driver disabled, IME drivers disabled, TS bdproc uncheck, speedstep uncheck, C1E uncheck, when CPU usage is below 30% the temps are fine and no throttlling, the moment it touches 50% above i see instant temperature burst, to 94c above and as well as 10 sec speed throttle, then it gets back to normal, now i exactly cant figure out whats causing it, in thermal throttling it shows 30%, in power limit it says 37%.. but when i ran XTU stress test without intel framework drivers, it had almost 0 throttle, temps max 82c.. this is confusing as hell...

 

Yes this is my second new system, first one had tempertaure issues, so i went for replacement instead of heatsink fixes, and the second one had only 2.6ghz throttle that too not noticable, untill they came and changed it to a refurb mobo, from there it all started..

 

Sucks man. I hope you can resolve it.

 

If this problem <can> be fix remains to see.The Main problem is DEll tech support in India. All Dell's tech team all over the world said the same also with the 180w Psu Gate before the whole internet boyled of angry laptop owners.

 

Yeah, it doesn't really help anyone. I'm not really sure how posting your laptop achievements in a thread that has nothing to do with it helps at all actually. I guess it makes people feel better about themselves.

 

I don't even know what is going on in this thread, so I have no idea why I was mentioned. On top of that your post was so hard to understand due to the messed up language that it just makes you sound like an angry 13yo.

I don't give a damn about BGA vs desktop hardware.

 

Aw_Kevin is on the case now.

I'm very sorry you don't understand my not so good English grammar, as English isn't my main language. But mostly all other forum members here and in other forums as well, understand mostly 100% of my posting in every topic. So one more time... I'm very sorry you are not capable to understand my messed grammar.
Ps. I'm in @VICKYGAMEBOY thread for helping him with this mess and also tell about other options on hardware/brand.

 

I fail to believe that the phrase "pussy crushing killer" has anything to do with English not being your first language, but everything to do with you being immature. Nor does that explain why you tagged me in this thread.

 

Pussy-crushing killer = my laptop's BIOS boot logo and a part of the name on my <Kunshan P870 BGA Pussy-Crushing Killer Edition>laptop. My Aw17 is also called with the name "Elitist". This has nothing to do with my bad English grammar. I like names for my computers
Thought the thread to OP was of your interest and of course more (Aw)members who posting in this thread, will give more pressure on Aw reps to help him.
Shall not hijack the thread to the OP but he needs all help he can get. Ps. It was also I who encouraged OP to create this thread...

 

They failed to make a system go throttle free after multiple replacements, which translates to the worst possible brand ever for being advertised as the all mighty "Alienware" !!

They lost their crown, ASUS and MSI can make hellova beasts with the new world fav BGA tech with a GPU on MXM, spend $2k for a dual channel RAM ROFLMAO !!

This thread should continue so that many people who spend huge sums of money for a machine and worldwide support, they expect something better to take a shot at looking into threads for a helping their decision in getting a better product, these types threads should exist to contrast the difference and let people know where to invest the cash, smart people do that often. And for the Alienware company representative members also while the other brands offer phenomenal support where this brand has failed miserably recently...

I wish the OP gets the skylake Alienware as a replacement. Good luck for that.

 

Thanks for letting me know dude, today im recieveing my 5th motherboard, lets see if that makes any difference, i just want to ask u guys one more thing, usually i remember seeing a plastic sheet on back of keyboard unit, a transparent one, last time my engineer opened it, it was not there, recently whenever i press hard, my systems shutdowns as well, might need to check that today, today is the doomsday.. 5th mobo for godsake, haha, im excited as well as depressed, Hope Kevin takes charge if this doesnt work, ill hook him up with the senior tech analyst here and product team..

 

thats the exact reason why im struggling, no one knows from their own team what is causing the issue, sometimes a power throttle, sometimes current throttle, sometimes thermal throttle @ 85c, so basically overall a nightmare to findout, my friend recently bought a ASUS G572, damn bro the temps on those laptop never touched 70c, but once again i never will compare two diff brands with two diff styles and sizes, offcourse i love alienwares design.. but not the internal themal design.. yeah im really hoping for a skylake refurb/new mobo/ or a new unit.. or atleast a workin 4720HQ.. lets wait and see..il update in another 6-7hours, its 7.42am here..

 

AW_kevin
I just finished checking your case in notebook review with Porras too. It seems that the case have been escalated already so the only thing that we can do at the moment is hope for the best. Since our cover is US and Canada there there is so much that we can do to engage with the Dell India cases. I hope this gets resolve quickly for you.

 

The plastic sheet should be there. If not you can short out the machine.

It's not the grammar, it is what you actually wrote "pussy crushing killer" .......I mean it really really really sounds beyond ridiculous and childish. No offence, but I wouldnt take anyone serious that writes stuff like this.

 

oh i see, got my 5th mobo, VID was pretty good. 1.030 max, even 0.960 it was running at 3.4ghz, i ran XTU stress test, 0 throttling, when i started gaming it started to throttle to 2.6 when heavy load under both GPU and CPU, all i noticed is when the cpu reach above 40% usage, it throttles down, and yeah after some 20mins gaming, it goes to 800mhz, the moment i saw that i was so broken, im reinstalling whole windows again with A00 bios, with only intel chipstet driver from alienware driver site.. no thermal/management drivers.. lets see.. anyway i updated this to tech support, tomorrow ill be getting a call from escalation team manager, he will tell me whats the final procedure, i have no hope now.. ill update the screenshot once im done testing..

 

Did you use Throttlestop in your testing? If not, try more tests with Throttlestop running(maybe you can increase power limits on the processor?). Also ask Aw shop if you can try your laptop with an other PSU. You could also go out and buy a cheap Kill-A-Watt for monitoring the max wattage when your processor start to downclock. Also test with 180w psu to see if hybrid bios can increase the wattage in Max load. Test also with both high and balanced performance in win power plan.

 

no i dint not use throttlestop, these are my two test setup now, i have 2 diff drives, a SSD with windows 10 fresh installed, nothing updated, manually installed chipset,intel, nvidia driver from dell webste with only two softwares installed, cpuz and XTU, and 2 games, another HDD with window 10 fresh installed, nothing updated, manually installed chipset,intel thermal framework driver,intel management driver,nvidia driver, intel graphics driver from dell site, and 2 games installed , both setups running on high performance mode. with 240w adpater and BIOS A00.. (later ill go to alienware shop, i dont think they have 180w adapter, they had 150w adapter for alienware 14, and 17, ill ask him anyways, first ill test these two modes.. need few hours. will be back with results..

 

Test Results (Alienware 15 R1 5th refurb motherboard) @Ashtrix @Papusan @rinneh @altecX @Alienware-L_Porras @DeeX @soulvengeance

Test Setup : BIOS A00, 240W adapter, Windows 10 Fresh installed on SSD, Turned off internet, nothing updated, manually installed Chipset Driver from Dell, Intel GPU, Nvidia GPU drivers, no other drivers installed to make sure BIOS is controllling everyting.. Programs used CPUz, XTU, games tested ac blackflag, madmax.. screenshot after installing chipset driver from dell driver page. intel celeron/pentium thermal framework device ??


Result : First the stress test on high performance mode was completely fine, max overall Wattage Consumed by System noted from APC 1.5KVA UPS.. 70W total, 43-44W cpu package, 0 throttle, VID aroun 0.98 volt for most part, max 1.030


Cinebench Test : 0 throttle, 75W overall system wattage, 45-46W Cpu Package, Max Temp 71C.


Unigen Valley (heavy GPU + low CPU Usage Test)

throttles down to 2.6ghz after 2mins of test, but stays like that for next 30mins.. core utilized max of 22%..
Package TDP 14-16W on CPU, Totally wattage consumed 125-135W.. no indication on XTU, all three power throttle, Curren Limit, Thermal throttle were 0%, so basically the BIOS itself controlling the CPU no matter the temps, when load on both gpu and cpu



Unigen Heaven (heavy GPU + average CPU usage Test)

So basically at this test, cpu throttles from 3.4 to 2.6 to 1.6 the lowest on 30mins test, NO XTU limit reasons popped out, Max Wattage Consumed 145W, 32W max cpu package, max cpu utilization 52%, i believe thats where the throttling started, it kept fluctuating.. and i also see 1core active, may be its the program itself single threaded.



Game Testing Done, But im not able to Upload the videos, because of my slow internet, but its the same, after few mins of gaming no matter what the cpu throttles to 2.6ghz, sometimes it stays, sometimes it doesnt stay, goes below 1.6ghz depending on cpu usage.. when stressed CPU alone there was 0 throttling for almost an hour with stock voltages, temps were brilliant comparing im running on stock paste.. 72C max.. but this is more like a BIOS issue i believe, users need ur advice / suggestion.. whats next.. im still waiting for call from escalation manager, should i tell them to atleast try to get me a downgrade which is 4710hq ?? do u guys think its the BIOS causing issue with power delivery system.. and last test is to try with 150W or 180W adapter, ill see if i can do it today..

 

I am out of ideas, what happens if you use throttlestop with this motherboard? Does it work correctly then? Similar issue to what a user orancoren experienced on this forum.

 

hmmm, no point of using throttlestop, the cpu is holding up 3.4ghz when stress testing, but the moment there is load on GPU/CPU, motherboard holds cpu back for some reason, and its not thermal/powerlimit/current limit.. its the crippled motherboard/bios itself, ive recorded a video when i went to DELL alienaware showroom, a alienware 14 haswell running perfectly @ 3.2ghz no throttle at all, while my laptop throttled to 2.6ghz, and worse later.. im uploading video in sometime.. i need backup, because if friday dell product team doesnt give me a good solution, i might have to consider going to consumercourt forums..

 

It should never throttle under 2.6ghz underload no matter what. But the strange issue is, that it doesnt happen directly under load, it happens after a while. I wonder might the VRM's get too hot because a not good applied thermal pad between those and the heatsink?

 

Run Throttlestop anyway. Only options now is to try another psu. Something is terribly wrong with this ****. Take a screenshot of CPU-Z (motherboard) and see if others with the same laptop can compare data. Also get info from DEll. Maybe they have more than one revision of the motherboard. Compare also graphics vbios. Test also with different Nvidia drivers(use ddu).
Dell were right when they created the slogan for their Echo models<Full - throttle gaming> .

 

I Had diff mobo with different voltages, some from 0.98 to 1.2 volts as well, i always use DDU when installing graphics driver, Yes ive tried 240w adapter in dell showroom, its the same.. share this video with alienware team as well.. sorry for the bad quality.. i was so mad anyway.. that 14 inch alienware laptop had 0 throttle.. 3.2 rock solid..

 

even i was thinking the same, because i coudnt find any other sensors on board, could you please locate for me in a R1 motherboard picture.. so that ill see if the thermal pads are there or not

 

ROFL that FULL Throttle gaming made my day

 

Try this picture, but some pads are still stuck on the motherboard on this photo, so please check both pieces.

http://www.myfixguide.com/manual/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Dell-Alienware-15-Disassembly-24.jpg

 

i have this picture, but im just waiting for call from product team, which is the last hope team for me, also added the video of alienware 14 vs my laptop, u can check, and share the links if u like to, ill check with the thermal pads in a day or two.. if nothing works then RIP alienware 15 R1

 

@Papusan @Ashtrix @rinneh

New Update : now the product development team wants to capture my system for sometime, so that they can observe the issue, check with softwares/some other stuffs, then they will give me solution, so ill give them coming tuesday, with basic OS, Bios A06, monitoring softwares installed, and few games which is cpu intensive, i've no idea what this reasearch and development teams gonna do.. hope its all for the best.. might take more than 10 days after capture, ill keep u guys updated..

 

Might just be a new system for you then I presume. I they cant fix it they will replace it.

 

@rinneh what if they don't see the cpu throttling at all, they should run cpu speed info software along with msi afterburner, i really hope either they fix it, or get me a new machine..

 

Good luck. Remember to put in every power hungry software you normally use in the background. Don't make it easier for them when the testing start. Every patches from Win update and all your software you think of, LOL

 

@VICKYGAMEBOY it may sounds like a stupid question but did you set your power options on intel dynamic platform and thermal framework settings to max? i just did a windows restore on my machine and it was trottling like crazy to 800mhz after 20 min or so

i even ran trottlestop undervolted and downclocked the cpu until it was just trottling down to 2600mhz only just to find out the intel framework driver wasn't removed with the restore even if it wasn't showing in the installed programs the settings were present and adjusting them to max stopped my trottling

the good thing is that now i know i can undervolt my cpu -70mv and it runs much cooler from 5 to 8c lower