Alienware 17 R4 GTX1080 in game random Stutter & Freeze

Haha I suppose so, just seeking information from people who know more than I do.

 

no idea to be honest. i've not seen the revised motherboard and until i see it, i can't say for certain it actually exist.

 

Okay so my 17r4 came in today so far petty pleased, I know its not a demanding game to test the heat of the cores but ive been playing league of legends for about 4 hours and my fps has been around 200+ and my core temps have been less that 69C. All within about 3-4 degrees apart. Ill play something more demanding tomorrow or when I get a chance.

Edit: my MAX temps havent exceded 69C, my current value temps have remained 40C-55C with a min of 36C

 

what mobo do you have? and what revision is it?
check it out from alex's thread.
also do you have the uhd display?

also the best way to confirm using gaming, is to do a witcher 3 test.

 

I have not looked inside yet. Ill get into it some time this week and get back with you, I ordered it from dell on Feb 9th, So I am hoping it would be the newest available to date. Ill run a witcher 3 test this weekend as well.

 

I have the 120hz QHD. Sorry I didnt see that question for some reason.


Okay so just for fun I ran a Heaven bench mark for the full benchmark, used OCCT to monitor my temps, as follows highest core temp Core 0 - 72C, Core 1- 68C, Core 2- 68C, Core 3- 67C. Frams per second were 166 and the score was 4195. Settings were on ultra. Idk if this remotely tells you anything you may want but it was kinda nice to not see it get close to 80C. while it could be alot better with a repaste, I am happy to know I didnt buy an easy bake oven.

 

It seems you might have got a newer revision of the motherboard. An actual working heatsink ,maybe ?!!

 

That's what I'm kinda hoping. If that is the case for the sake of the forum I will take pictures and post them on there for @alexnvidia 's research and hopefully help others out. The score I posted earlier was slightly off, I wasn't running occt and Heaven at the same time. I was only running Heaven while monitoring with OCCT. I did run into nearly 100% cpu usage, but I didn't get any stuttering from what I could tell. I would happily set up a day to get on discord and set up a screen share with some people and make sure I am doing everything properly. I am very new to this, so my mistakes will be present. I only want whats best for the product I paid for and this community. I don't agree with any secret keeping. In order to make a change in the quality of the company, we have to make a change in the community that gives their money to the company. I will keep in touch, I gotta take my lady on a date. Y'all take care and have fun.

 

try to unlock the CPU and overclock, run OCCT and see if the differential is still within 5C.

Go to BIOS, set PL1 & 2 to 100W, overclock your CPU to say 4.1GHz for all 4 cores and run OCCT for 15-20min.

 

Had everything set up as you stated, in OCCT I had it set up to shut down if cores reached over 85C, It shut down after core 0 reached 94C. I had the performance fan setting turned on as well. As far as the turbo I left at 0 as a reference from a previous forum read. During this time I noticed core 0 and 2 were on average 5C to 10C higher than cores 1 and 3. It never went above a 10C difference. Kinda makes me sad that it didn't perform as I hoped. Is there anything I did wrong? I will plan a day to do a repaste I suppose. lol

 

you did nothing wrong. it's just the design flaw of the heatsink which has weak CPU tension arms. just as i had suspected and has been saying all this while. 99.9% if not all 7820HK GTX1080 coming out of the factory has cpu core temperature differential problem. those who dont unlock and overclock or opt for weak HQ CPU might not have noticed it, but once you unlock and overclock, the whole thing goes down the drain pretty fast. and that's just a conservative 4.1GHz overclock. thanks for confirming it.

 

Well I'm glad I could be of some help. About how much does a repaste cost from someone other than Dell?

 

it's free if you do it yourself. just need to pay for a good thermal paste. you dont even need to change the thermal pads, just make sure they have good contacts that's all.

 

I guess it is alittle intimidating being that I have never done anything other than change the paste out on a ps4 heat sink, which wasn't near as costly if I made a mistake. I thoroughly enjoy the results I'm seeing with the people who have used the liquid metal. However if I decide to do it I will likely use a regular paste my first go around. Thank you for all of you're time and effort responding. I will continue to follow and keep up with everything.

 

~450$

 

That much money is the price to extend a year of warranty from Dell for ProSupport.

 

That is just info I found on this forum...

 

where?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...4-owners-lounge.797457/page-751#post-10661861

 

Hey buddy, depends where you are based. EU, UK or US?

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

I'm in the US.

 

@iunlock

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

You don't need to strip it down to access the motherboard info, you can either just take the back cover off and look near where the wireless/ssd pci drive is - the revision is stamped on the green board. Most are stamped October 2016., or alternatively use WMIC in CMD prompt...

 

Don't pay others to repaste - send it back to dell and order another, or give then a chance to fix it. Really though, i'm not sure what you have currently but if you can hold off to say to the end of April /
May i'm sure you will get more for your money i.e. with the new gpu and cpu revisions from intel and Nvidia... and hopefully a more capable heat system in the next Alienware revisions... There are lots of Alienwars on the outlett now and thats always been a sign that a new revision is in the offering... For the same monies iin 3 months time i suspect you will bet able to to get a coffelake 6 core cpu and Nvidia Volta or Ampere GPU 2180 or 2080 .. whatever they badge it as... I know folk on here will say.. you will never buy anything if you keep waiting for the next thing, but Pascal is end of life... and this Alienware 17 r 4 hasn't been there best revision.. ( i have been through 4 of these, and finally stuck with the A17 r4 UHD Gysnc 1080 7820hk, but not sure i really have ever settled with it like previous revisions ...

 

Well I returned AW 17R4 waiting next gen

 

Thats the protective stickers manufacturings date right? No way that the kaby lakes rolling off the assembly line now are made in 2016 (mine says 2016 as well but os a recent kaby lake).

 

Probably big stock of half baked MB. Just weld on the lacking cpu in needed value (7700/7820) after what's requested.

 

hmm from what I see it is just the protective plastic sheet/sticker. when I take my system apart again I will post a photo of it.

 

My 17r4 1080 120hz also having this problem after nvdia driver update few months ago. League of legend fps drop from 120 to 74 for few seconds then recover. I solve it by installing the dell driver instead of latest nv driver.

 

This is what the tech is trying to install now.

 

take a clear picture of the motherboard front and back

 

I don't have any problems with league of legends. I keep a steady 150 - 190 fps on everything on the highest settings.

 

Sorry, missed your message, it's already repasted and back together. But I did take another photo of the serial numbers.
I'll take more photos if I open it up again.

 

thanks

 

Played several hours of Wildlands after the motherboard replacement and a repaste, a game that very quickly surfaced the stutter for me previously. The bad news is that the stutter is still there, but very very rare, so not really noticeable anymore during gameplay. And that's with the OC VBIOS. So it's a notable improvement over what I had to put up with before, but I'm disappointed that apparently all motherboards have the potential for the issue. I haven't yet had the chance to try other games, but others weren't as bad previously.

I'll leave it be for now and contact Dell again if it gets worse over time. The CPU core differential is quite high (10 deg), maybe I won't tighten the two screws as much next time I feel like opening it. And I have to put something on the PCH to make it cooler.

 

this is probably less of a motherboard issue and more of a heatsink contact issue.

 

Has anyone tried TG Minus 8 pads? Are they spongy enough to do a dry run to see the imprints before final application?

I have numerous gaps between the heatsink and the components and will be repadding and repasting.

@alexnvidia is it fine to stack 2 pads to achieve 2mm height if required?

Also, one of the GPU memory chips which is right under copper heatpipes - is it fine to put an extra 0.5mm on that one because of the level difference of the heatsink and the copper pipes?

In addition, what do you think of cutting the thermal pads to the size of the memory chips and not having it as 1 big strip?

Lastly, you did replace the 0.1mm pads above the CPU, didnt you? That's only recommended if there's a gap? Otherwise it could decrease the pressure on the CPU thus increasing core temp differences.

Appreciate the answers!

 

ideally stacking can reduce heat transfer efficiency, but if you dont have a choice then it's fine.

cutting individual memory chip pads is ok too but thats's a lot of work and you dont gain much performance wise.

i did not replace the 0.1mm pads cos i dont have k5pro as alternative.

 

for you guys who repasted/repadded your laptops, than decided to have dell fix it, were you successful in them repairing it? i did conductonaut a year ago and repadded.. but today decided to compress air blow out the system for dust, and that totally blew the LM compound onto the mobo, and now the monitor wont turn on.

 

Maybe if you can clean it off so it isnt visible works but if you cant. you have to pay for the repairs i think.

 

Don’t know if this will help anyone or not, but I’ve been struggling with this annoyance for a few months now and it’s been rather frustrating. A three-thousand dollar laptop that won’t work? ********.

Anyway, been following multiple threads online (this one included) and updated all of my drivers and flashed my BIOS to the most current version. After doing so, still no fix. FINALLY I remembered seeing someone mentioning something about a “fall sensor” and the laptop needing to sit flat. Reluctantly I tried one last time on a flat surface (granted it wasn’t dramatically slanted before) and successfully played Dying Light at max graphics and Final Fantasy 15 at max graphics, stutter free for around 4-5 hours. Did that yesterday for the first time, then again today to recreate. I’m a little bummed that my expensive “top of the line” laptop is really THAT finicky, but I am stoked that I can actually play my games now. Hope it works for others!

Happy gaming!

 

You can uninstall the kionix free fall sensor if you want.

 

I figured there was a way, just haven’t looked too much into it yet. Has anyone tried uninstalling the sensor to fix the stuttering issue?

So far my rig has been stutter free for the past few days while being on a flat surface.

 

A laptop should be able to be elevated with a notebook cooler without run into stutters or freezes. The free fall sensor shouldn't be that sensitive. We don't talk about a desktop who is tethered to a dekstop table 24/7.

Why should this be needed for a laptop? Nope, He or Dell need to find the underlying problem. If the notebook work as intended in all other types task with the kionix free fall sensor, You should look elsewhere.

 

well i never had issues with the freefall sensor and i am not always using it level and i have zero stuttering. Not sure what the exact purpose of the freefall sensor is because mechanical harddisks have a sensor built in as well.

 

Its strange though, the freefall sensor should not act up if the laptop is stables. Doesnt matter if it is level or not.

 

didn't know that was possible, did you put tape around the LM?

 

my laptop is elevated at an angle with a cooler master U3 24x7. no issues at all

 

for around six month ive been suffuring from stutter and frezzes. cant play my games ,I put my money on this and cant do sh*t with it.
I opened it repate with 4 difrent thermal pastes...nothing happen still the same problem.
today I listed it for sale...I was hoping for half the price

then u came with the simplest solution.. I said what the heck lets try it ....AND GUESS WHAT!!!! ITS WORKED LOOOOL WTF!!!

SIX MONTHS I was using it for youtube and web browsing haha

thank you taran Peterson.

I don't care why its need to be on flat surface.im just happy that's now I can use my laptop the way it meant to be

my English bad sorry,i felt that I need to say thank u.thats all.

 

Hate to bump an old thread but I am now dealing with this issue. I bought my rig (7820HK GTX1080 with QHD..etc) last June and immediately re-pasted with LM and have not really had any issues with temps (79c max on CPU and 65c Max on GPU). Early this year Ive been noticing some freezing going on and finally decided to do something about, so I repasted AND repadded again.
Although the temps are still great, the stuttering is still there. Since my premium warranty end soon, I have contacted dell to see what they can provide for a solution. After having me turn on OC Level three and trying again (lol) still stutters and they will be calling in an hour to move forward.
My question is, was there any confirmation of a new revision MB that helped alleviate this issue?

For reference, here is a video clip of my stutter issue (occurs at 00:26, 00:52, 01:16, 01:50, and 02:33)



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jNf3gzdHF2-SNJ2Fm6aUBPkmuGx0fc7v/view?usp=sharing

And here is a screen of my current temps (does not show Core 0 due to window placement but it is at 75C)

EDIT: trouble adding image will try again later.
CPU Temps <76c
GPU Temp 65c
PCH Temp 71c