Alienware 17 R4 GTX1080 in game random Stutter & Freeze

ensure u have the official OC vbios installed. u can get it from dell website

 

I only see one labeled as "nVidia 1080 GTX OC video BIOS for Alienware 17R4 with 120Hz GSYNC panel".... I have UHD board not the QHD GSYNC one. When I try to use this update it says incompatible firmware also.

Can anyone confirm what my vbios is? I check gpu-z and it says 86.04.5B.00.91... is this new? old?

 

Declocked vbios 86.04.54.00.0A
Overclocked vbios 86.04.5B.00.8F
You have something new.
Please dump and upload file (bios_dump.rom) to forum)
P.S. Before installing the declocked vbios, you need to install an overclocked from dell site.

 

Not sure what you mean by uploading the dump file. Do you mean the option where I can save bios in gpu-z? I tried that and it says "bios saving is not supported on this device"

Am I to run that vbios backup file you have attached?

 

just run backup_VBIOS.bat

 

thanks, I'll give it a go later.

 

Here's the bios dump, not sure if you got my message.

 

You have an overclocked BIOS, but the version differs from the one on the support site. I would advise you to switch to a declocked version. It is the most stable and safe for hardware

 

Thanks, is there somewhere I can get that? I can't use the one you provided due to it being only for 120hz GSYNC model downgrades.

 

Unfortunately the declocked version is only for G-sync

 

Damn, so it seems people without the GSYNC models are out of luck for this method? Unless dell provides a downclocked vbios.

 

Agh... just got off with dell. They're escalating my case. Hoping they'll just give me a GSYNC board or something, getting tired of this.

Why can't they just give me a vbios that isn't using 180 watts for GPU.

 

On my 4th Alienware 17 R4.
Still have some stuttering.
Part of me wants to return this laptop and get a desktop with a 1080 TI, or 2 1080's.

 

which fujipoly pad do you recommend? 11.w /mk or 17.w/mk?

 

non of them. Try using a far cheaper alternative recommended by @Mobius 1 , arctic cooling thermal pads. Those fujipoly are overkill, not reusable and flaky once compressed

 

Has anyone tried the K5 PRO viscous thermal paste for thermal pad replacement? Seems too good to be true, but still...

I've bought some gelid extreme thermal pads with better thermal conductivity (12 W/mK) than the Fujipoly (11 W/mK) and half the price of the Fujipoly, but they are really soft, so not sure how the re-pad will go, wish I knew if the K5 Pro would be better...

 

I would not advise using Fujipoly this is a single use and Incredibly overpriced
I'm use gelid extreme thermal pads they are in my opinion much better (I ordered a complete kit (0.5, 1, 1.5, 3mm) in China for $~35) and Larid flex360 (it is incredibly compressible and very soft, almost like a thermal paste).

it seems to me it will be impossible to remove it from the motherboard...

 

Wow that sucks man...

I was about to sell mine too. Get a different machine with a 1080 or a nice desktop. But it's hard to find something with the same build quality, screen and performance as the AW. Clevos and MSIs are huge and also have to deal with their own heat issues.

I find that downgrading the vBIOS and replacing the stock setup with liquid metal and arctic pads result in a fantastic notebook!
Pair this with a well tuned undervolt and you'll get great temps and fan noise.
Raise the back a little. Doing that is essential with the 17 R4.
My CPU and GPU stay bellow 83C with the back raised and playing lots of BF1 in 30C ambient temps

 

What CPU frequency and what's your O/C on the GPU (if any)

Have you unlocked power limits with BIOS & XTU? What are you using to undervolt?

Thanks

 

K5 Pro is used to replace thermal pad material, and is easy to wipe off. It "hardens" on the outside to keep from drying out, and lasts a long time.

I wouldn't use it for a large expanse, unless you are good at applying sparse amounts to keep it from gishing out all over. It's non-conductive and won't hurt anything, and wipes off easy.

I would recommend getting actual thermal pads for the AW use, and use K5 Pro for filling in gaps - like if the pads won't compress and there are heatplate "reaches" that don't make it - it's better than buying all new pads again that are a "little" thinner.

K5 Pro is good to have around, when you don't have it nothing else is thick enough to do the same. Normal pastes dry out and pull away across the gaps and break thermal conductivity.

K5 Pro is a "viscous" solid gap filler, up to 3mm.

K5 PRO viscous thermal paste for thermal pad replacement 60g 3X20g pack (Apple iMac, Sony PS4 & PS3, XBOX, Acer Aspire etc)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K04D3UK
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=K5+PRO

 

I just checked my gpuz readings and found out that there were a few vrels registered but the gpu load never dropped to 0 which would happen before the repad what does it mean?


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you are fine as long as you dont get stutter or GPU load dropping to zero and spiking back up again

 

The gpu load drops to anywhere between 9% to 60%


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I have weird issue where only some games have occasional stutter.

I can play Witcher 3 fine, Doom 4K butter smooth, DOTA for hours and hours.... but games like Arkham Knight have stutter occasionally (not like constant stutter for 1 sec). It doesn't show as VREL though, and doesn't always show dropping to 0%. I notice it most when I drive or fly around the city.

Maybe it's just the game? I thought they fixed that game.

 

your machine is fine. game problem

 

@alexnvidia thanks man what size pad did you use for GDDR5X and the chokes?
also find attached a log from GPUz - BF1 for 30mins on the old vbios
Cpu tems avg 75 max 85

 

What thickness pads did you use for GDDR5X
I still get micro stutters especially in the beginning


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All other pad have imprints except for the ones on GDDR5X


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If it's a heat related issue, requiring thermal pad adjustment, you shouldn't be getting stutters only at the beginning, as the GPU memory heats up the stutters should get more frequent and be worse than at the beginning.

Usually stutters at the beginning are from the game continuing to load data while starting to play, which is usually an HDD issue.

Are you loading and running the game from HDD or SSD?

 

HDD

Before i replaced the Thermal pads the stutters would usually start around 10 15 mins in to the game and would freeze the game for a couple of seconds.

After replacing the pads stutters start at the beginning but only freeze the game for a few milliseconds and the frequency is far less than before the replacement.

I also checked the gpuz log file and found out that the gpu load dropped to 0% once and then to 1% or slightly more whenever vrel occurred

 

Often it's fragmentation if it's at the start of a game, snags during loading, when it's in the middle of game and a big snag before loading a level or continuing into a non-loaded area of the map, the HDD time to "wake up" or unpark the heads and read will be the problem.

So defrag, or move it to an SSD where there is no such problems.

If you experience lag mid game then try quiethdd, and disable through it's systray app after boot. It only works on one hdd. There are other such tools out there like Crystaldiskinfo/mark(?), google shows some helpful stuff, try modifying the search for more recent stuff. I haven't needed a fix for a while since moving to SSD's.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hdd+lag+fix

It could be a disk problem too, so when you get a chance schedule a boot time disk check for the HDD if it's the boot drive, or do it while all programs are unloaded from the drive running Windows.

There are WD / Hitachi / Seagate tools to unpark the heads and keep it from sleeping to, it's disk dependent, check for your model at the vendor site for support, load the app and see if there are any such options.

Again, I don't think it's the VRAM's as you describe it.

 

if you read my first post, i have had similar experience during my first attempt to plug all the gaps. i mean i was so sure everything is in place and there are no more gaps but the stutter came back even though much later into the game (30min). so i opened it up, check and recheck everything only to discover new gaps which i had previously missed. use the twizzer wiggling tip i mentioned in the post and in the video interview with @OWNORDISOWN . it has proven to be helpful for a few forum members.

what thermal pads are you using? i higlhly DO NOT recommend using those ultra high performance fujipoly 14 and above pads. not only are they expensive, they are flaky and do not return to shape after only one use. pretty useless to check for imprints because you do not know those prints are new or old. and do not follow the "famous" repaste guide blindly. that guide is riddled with inaccuracies and misinformation which got me into this stuttering nightmare in the first place.

if you insist on changing out your thermal pads, try arctic cooling 6. those are far better than fujipoly when it comes to fixing stuttering issues. in fact even stock pads can be better than fujipoly. be patient and be thorough. it took me at least 3-4 attempts to finally get it right despite being sure i had done it right the previous time. if all else failed, call dell.

 

@Altairwarz , one area which can be easily missed and hard to check visually is the GDDR5X right under the copper heat pipes. if you notice, the copper heatpipe is actually higher than the metal plate covering the bottom GDDR5X. you'll understand what i mean once you disassembled it.

 

Yes, I understand what you are referring to in fact i used 1.5mm pads but couldn’t get any imprints I’ll try again and let you know how it goes.


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@alexnvidia, I cover all the gaps, Now the stuttering goes away when the AW is flat but when i use a cooling pad it adds a little tilt and the computer starts to stutter again, do you have the same issue?

 

My laptop is tested with both cooling pad and flat surface. No problems for both. I'm using cooler master U3 full time without the fans. If your laptop is still stuttering, please triple check the thermal pads again. Maybe not sufficient contact. When u raised the laptop, air is no longer forced to flow over the power delivery circuit which caused them to overheat if not cooled properly.

 

Listen, I have disabled Turbo boost via Throttlestop with no UV and the problem is vanished. Absolutely zero stuttering, what in the world is going on?
and BTW I've checked two times after I posted that previous post, everything is printed and nicely tight. Can you explain what's happening to my baby? lol

 

Why disable Turbo boost?

 

I was just trying to bring my temps down to minimum and that took care of 10C, haven't noticed any performance drops. Have you unlocked TDP limits after the vBIOS update? or does it just work flawlessly? I'm having a hard time here.

 

@alexnvidia Okay what I did is that I checked my thermal pads AGAIN. I then enabled Turbo Boost back and this time I Undervolted my machine (-100 mV). Then I fired up Ghost Recon Wildlands, gave me a solid performance up until now. is that a normal solution? or should i repad and repaste again with different kind of pads? Have you seen users getting this fixed by undervolting?

 

This issue is irrespective of cpu undervolt, overclock. What kind of thermal pads are u using? Be extra careful with reusing fuji poly pads as they don't return to shape after compressed. It can be an asset as well as weakness because you don't know if the imprints are new or old. Either way, if you have rechecked the pads and not getting anymore stutters, just let it be. Good job

 

Okay now, for the million time, I check my Fujipoly 17 pads and I went a bit generous with them and updated the VRMs north of the GPU, I was happy with the outcome because now I'm playing Mafia III with Ultra graphics without UV and with Turbo Boost enabled AND with the OC vBIOS, I'm happy to report that stuttering is gone.
Now to the bad news; I tried to overclock my 7820 to 4.2 GHz to check, stuttering came back to haunt me again. How are you overclocking your machine? and have you tested it with overclocking? and what about Mafia III is it more or less graphically demanding than BF1? Thank you for your post and @iunlock post. Both helped me a lot. you guys should work together.

 

for some boards no matter what you do it will shutter due to faulty VRMs or power delivery circuits

 

Yes, what's happening to mine is weird, generates heat more than it should even with highest quality pads, I'm not only stopping here i'll have to get it working with Oc'd CPU with no UV, if it's not happening, i'll call dell to replace the mobo/HS

 

Have you tried arctic pads or any pad that can compress/decompress easily.

 

i dont really recommend using fujipoly. they are too good for their own good. i've tried with both arctic pads and stock pads. they all work better than fujipoly in my opinion.

as for OC, i've tried with OC PL1&2 100W 4.2GHz during testing and it's all good. @Pete Light had stuttering issues with his laptop as well and he fixed them with proper pad contacts and he OC his cpu even higher than mine.

if you have tried everything, it's best you contact dell to replace the parts.

 

I want the best performance possible, so I think I'll order me some arctic pads and wait for a new HS to come to apply them on it, already contacted dell BTW. If that didn't work either, I'll ask them to replace my mobo. No point of having a 7820 HK if you can't overclock it without stuttering. At least I can play my games until the technician visits me.

I'll order these next week, If I knew this I would have ordered them long ago.

 

@alexnvidia The heatsink part number is:
FRPY8 ASSY, HTSNK, W / FAN, G3, K, NEW, AW17

Do you have any information about it? Is it Sunnon or CCI? does it come with their pads? or you have to reuse the old ones?

 

FRPY8 is the latest part number for the heatsink assembly. you can find more info here. http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...u-core-temperature-differential-issue.805062/

i've had several FRPY8 they are all CCI. i've seen one with Sunon from other forum members. either way, they are the same crap as before, meaning the heatsink is not balanced and build to extreme tight tolerances. dont get me wrong. the cooling potential of alienware heatsink is phenomenal. with proper contact, i can easily say it's one of the best if not THE BEST cooling solution in any laptop.

the good news, GPU cooling is top notch in 99% of all the heatsink assembly. the bad news, CPU cooling is 99% crap in all all of the heatsink including the latest part number and current factory assembled laptop due to the weak tension arm design on the CPU side.

 

Omg thank you thank you THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I've gone through 3 different laptops now, all had the same issue then stumbled upon your post about the tilt.

I was using a cooling pad which indeed tilted the laptop forward a bit while playing (or trying to play) Destiny 2. I was having the 1-2 sec stutter every 30 seconds.

Didn't even bother closing the game, laid the laptop flat on my desk and ditched the cooling pad, no more stuttering.

Tried putting the laptop back on the pad, stuttering appeared after 2-3 minutes.

You, sir, just saved me so much frustration. I can't thank you enough.