Alienware 15 R3 Link Degraded error Dell Diagnostics

Hi,

I just got my hands on an Alienware 15 R3 with a GTX1060.

I wanted to run the Dell Diagnostics tool and I received the error a PCIe - Training Error (see attached photo).

I have looked everywhere online, and I only found a couple of people that had that error, one was a problem with a server and another one fixed the error by playing around with the power settings.

From the manufacturer code, I understood that the error is from the video card, but here is the strange part. Since Saturday afternoon, I have been running all kinds of benchmarks and stress tests on the system, trying to get a BSOD or something similar, to no avail.

I have tried 3d Mark Benchmarks (20 times loop), AIDA64 Stress Test, FurMark and I didn't get any errors.

Well in AIDA64 I got a CPU Throttling error, but not a single GPU error.

I am going to take the machine for maintenance and new Thermal Paste, as soon as I get my hands on good paste (in Mexico my options are quite limited).

What could be the cause of the error or what else can I do to test the machine.

Full specs:

Alienware 15 R3
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz
8Gb Ram (soon to be upgraded)
Intel(R) HD Graphics 530
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060

 

well all it says is that the card is running in 8x instead of 16x, could be caused by multiple things really. I also believe you have no bottleneck on 8x vs 16x, so obviously you don't see a difference at all.

 

Check all cables, reseat RAM and SSD and try ePSA test once again!

 

In all alienware laptops with the AGA port the gpu runs at 8X. So thats not out of the ordinary. Cant say what this error is though. Never saw it.

 

it basicially says the PCI-E port is limited to 8x.

 

Yeah and that is what I say too. on all alienware laptops with the AGA port, the GPU is electronically hooked onto an 8X lane. 8x for the GPU, 4x for NVME1, 4x for the AGA. On the PCH 4X for the TB3 and other 2 NVME ports.

 

Try BIOS update, even if it means reflashing same bios

 

That was the first thing that I did, actually.

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So you think I have nothing to worry about?

Because the laptop worked well with every benchmark and test that I threw at it.

I am going to reinstall everything today, OS + drivers, just to see if this might change something.

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On an unrelated question, my previous A15 R2 was always set in AHCI mode in Bios.

This one is set on RAID.

I heard that on RAID there might be some problems with dualbooting Linux and Windows.

Should I change to AHCI in Bios?

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For dual booting Windows and Linux, use AHCI.

 

Thanks

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Does this error show up during normal use and only during the diagnostic test? Then yeah I wouldnt worry about it.

 

Just the Dell diagnostic.

Here's the funny part, the error shows up and then when I run the diagnostic, nothing shows up.

I didn't run the 3+ hour Dell diagnostic test yet, but not sure if it will tell me something different.

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I would say, dont worry about it then. Seems like a weird software glitch.You can try to do a bios reset/powerdrain for a piece of mind.

 

Is there a tutorial on how to do that?

Would it involve taking out the battery or something?

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Only the cable

See this video for details

 

Thanks, I'll do this when I take the laptop for maintanance (IC Diamond Thermal Paste will only get here next week).

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No problem. To be honest I just wouldnt care about it. The diagnostic test is bullcrap anyway.