Alienware 17 R4 GTX1080 in game random Stutter & Freeze

Dell tech asked me to record a video of the stutter so I made two, might be useful for you guys as well...

 

Yeah, it's their usual procedure.. Panacea (facepalm)

 

Exactly what mine does but I took a screenshot of GPU-z

 

That's a very nice screenshot, I sent them similar ones. Didn't know GPU-Z could be expanded horizontally.

 

Thanks. What program did you use to make your videos?

 

NVidia's built-in Shadowplay thing (Alt-Z). I found it very good, although it doesn't record in 1440, only 1080.

 

I asked the Dell tech I've been in contact with to provide me with the official non-OC VBIOS so I could try it and see whether I still have the stutter, but for some reason he didn't want to give me a link. Maybe because they don't have it packaged in a nice installer?

Anyway, I found it here on the forums and flashed it. Played Witcher 3 for a few hours and didn't get the stutter (tried the same game before flashing and got it), so that approach seems to be working for me for now.

However, I'm not entirely happy with the slight performance decrease. ~180 points in Time Spy. But I guess it's not really noticeable while actually gaming.

So the next question is, do I still push the tech for a heat sink replacement (he's offering it)? As well as a full system replacement or a refund, but I otherwise like the machine and want to keep it. And there's still the chance that the stutter might appear again even with this non-OC BIOS.

 

In your case, if you don't have high differentials of CPU cores temps, I would do a re-paste and apply new thermal pads (as it's recommended in the 1st post of this thread). You can do it yourself or for instance, ask LHz team members to help you.

 

150W vs 180W is hardly noticable in gaming to be honest. 1-2fps at most? most viewers here fixed their stuttering issue with a vBIOS downgrade. this is the fastest and easiest way to stop stuttering though in my opinion it's not solving the underlying issue. Chances of stutter happening with non OC vbios is extremely slim, non that i know of.

 

They really do not have it. I posted dumped from a laptop (17R4) official Vbios.
I got to restore the guarantee and today I received a replacement of the motherboard (on it have strange yellow stickers) and display.
The problem with micro stutters is completely gone I installed a new OCVbios
P.S. I think that without replacing the motherboard, the problem can not be completely eliminated.

 

any pictures showing the new motherboard? is it the same revision as @Shark00n is showing?

 

I've already repasted with Kryonaut and Arctic pads (couldn't get Fujipoly in Europe).

Yeah, I didn't notice the few missing frames yesterday. However, after looking at the GPU-Z chart I noticed one sharp drop, which indicates the stutter. I didn't actually notice it while playing, but I guess it's still there. So just like you've said, it's not a 100% fix.

Did a tech come and replace it for you? Or did you get the motherboard part? I can't get Dell to send me a part. Even if a tech comes, I'd ask him to use my paste and pads. And yes, pics please!

 

Been saying this for weeks

 

There were so much misinformation on this thread, this is the truth

 

So if the best solution is to get a motherboard replacement, what hoops does one have to jump through to actually get one?!

 

I bought an m17 with 7820hk, 1080 card and qhd screen: had stuttering (prolonged but not fixed by downgrading bois/vbios), heat issues, core differentials, screen banding and wifi card issues (bluescreens from ****ty ****ty killer software/drivers) and a hot ssd (the ssd temps they refused to agree there was an issue with; regularly got over 70, going up to 81....or even as high as 91 in cpu performance mode...for some reason that makes it idle in the high 70s).

Contacted aw support, after an hour or two of chatting, gpu-z and hwinfo etc, they said they'd send out a tech with a new heat sink, screen and an intel wifi card instead of the killer ****e. Tech arrived (instantly broke an antenna trying to remove the wifi), replaced everything; changed cci heat sink for a new sunon one (turns out there was even a piece of thermal padding just completely missing above one of the vrms). Core diffs were much smaller with the sunon and temps overall were better with no more 90+, however stuttering was still there.

Got back in touch, a few screenshots and an email later and they offered to send the tech back with another new heat sink, a new mobo and a new lid (for the antennae). I tried to insist on brand new parts but was told support couldn't guarantee non-refurbished parts but that they'd be as good as new (yeah yeah, I know!). Tech arrives, swaps lid, alienware head no longer lights up. Good first step. We have a look at the heat sink and notice that some pads aren't really making contact with the components as predicted. I notice the replacement mobo is refurbished and shudder but think hey, maybe it'll be QA'd properly! Replaced mobo, put 2nd new heat sink on with padding cannibalised from the other one so it seemed everything was making good contact. We boot it up and discover the refurbished mobo is a total lemon as I feared with most of the keyboard no longer working among other fun issues. Regardless we try to make it stutter just to test the heatsink....aaaand it still stuttered, big core diff, high temps. Old mobo goes back on. At this point it was 11pm and the tech had been with me about 5 hours so we decided to leave it till the next day.

The next day: the guy comes back, we take the 2nd replacement heat sink off and go back to the 1st replacement. In the meantime amazon finally delivered my fujipoly! We started off replacing the padding with iunlock's guidelines then modifying slightly to make sure everything was making contact but not using too much extra material (incidentally was also using my own paste instead of the dell stamps). Finally it's all re-assembled and working ok. Core diff acceptable, temps acceptable.......still stuttered.

Cue angry email to alienware! They immediately offered me a replacement machine or a full refund +15% off next purchase. I took the replacement as I couldn't afford downtime due to work projects (arranged to return the old one about a week after the new one arrived without any problems); I did try to wrangle some kind of ram or ssd upgrade out of them as compensation but couldn't get any traction sadly.

One week later and new laptop has arrived from china (I'm in uk, might explain the better than average phone service). Latest vbios, bios etc.....no stuttering finally! Core diff only seems to be about 4 degrees or so, temps all seem normal, no crazy throttling etc. Only remaining niggle is an overly warm toshiba ssd, though I may just stick a heat spreader on it and see what that does; or buy my own samsung. (hopefully I'm not speaking prematurely as I haven't yet done any serious stress testing but the stuttering is definitely gone.)

Tl;dr....If they change the heat sink and that doesn't fix it they should offer a new mobo but due to their ****ty parts policy I'd be inclined to just push for a replacement machine straight away, there shouldn't be any particular hoops to jump through beyond just demonstrating that problems exist (though I did link they and the tech guy this thread and a couple of others). However judging from some of the posts on here from different parts of the world...your mileage may massively vary when it comes to customer support, maybe I got lucky.

 

if you are in US, accept nothing less than brand new MB replacement, don't waste ur time with anything else

 

Recommendations from this topic rather allow you to hide the problem. Unfortunately they do not solve it 100%.
Require replacement unit / motherboard with the cooling system.

The technician waited while I prepare the system for applying liquid metal and update the broken thermal pads.

 

So I got an exchange computer sent out with 2 days to test before my return window was up. Supposedly a brand new machine but pulling the bottom off showed evidence of someone working on it. Clear stickers had residue, small amounts of grime, etc. Anyway, fired it up and tested it out. For the little time I had it it ran like a dream. Heaven + OCCT for 1 hour+ and barely cracked 80 (one time I think) with the rear raised and the CPU clocked around 3.2. BF1 no stutter at all. Absolutely solid (again for the short amount of time I had it).

Screen has a line that looks like a freeway running through the middle of it.

http://imgur.com/a/gqIX8

-_-

 

keep the MB but get a new screen, if you still have your old laptop then just swap the MB

 

Looks just like mine

 

are those yellow sticker motherboards brand new or refurbished? i think those boards are refurbished, probably did some enchancement to fix the stuttering issue.

any members here getting a brand new laptop recently have those strange yellow stickers?

 

No stickers or marks in new laptop. The replacement refurbished mobo that was half broken for the last one had yellow stickers and little pen marks on some components.

 

any pictures on the components they marked with pen?

 

My first 17 R4 had a lot of pen markings. Probably quality control checks and then there was a little chip circled out:




My second board had no markings or stickers, but it came in a refurbished box and had a broken keyboard connector.

My third board was also supposedly refurbished, it came with those yellow stickers and the technician said those meant it went back to Dell for some reason. But now it works flawlessly.

The weird thing is: if I do the PCH mod and put a heatsink on it some freezing comes back. Without it I have absolutely no issues, even after a 4 hour BF1 session in 36C weather

 

36C ambient is quite high, is it inside at your place? Maybe PCH's HS spreads more heat to the south area of the MB, hence lower VRMs and chokes get more hotter..

 

@Shark00n when u did PCH mod and it stutters, was it the same symptom as the stuttering described in OP? u need to use GPUz to check the graph log. it could be a different kind of stuttering, probably CPU dropping to 800MHz issue that's related to PCH overheating

 

Yeah, last week was mad hot. Now it's back to normal, about 22C at night

Yeah it was CPU related. GPU kept it's boost

 

Hm, does it mean, that PCH actually worsened the situation then? Either small HS or something else.

 

PCH mod requires a laptop cooler, otherwise it will get higher temp then without

 

Nope, I've this mod and PCH never heats more than 70-75C under long heavy loads. Only lifted backside by 5 cm, no additional coolers.

 

And when you don't lift the backside?

 

As I remember it can go up to 80C

 

I actually got better temp with a pch mod, regardless if using with laptop cooler or not

 

I don't use a laptop cooler and did PCH mod. When the laptop stays flat I get much better temps on PCH and SSD (about 10C less) compared to lifted back (about 2 cm). However cpu and gpu temps behave the other way round and get about 10C cooler with lifted back.

I guess whithout lifting the laptop fans suck in air from the front grills which cools the PCH and SSD.

Now it is a dilemma for me what to opt for: high temps on cpu and gpu or high temps on PCH and SSD.

Maybe i will try to put SSD in palm rest slot and remove PCH heatsink and use the laptop in lifted state.

By the way, I don't experience stuttering eather way.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G955F mit Tapatalk

 

just when i thought my stutters where gone. dishonored 2 pushes the system... but if i lift the rear up onto something, it wont stutter as the bottom gets more airflow.


So the best solution now seems to be to get dell to motherboard swap? Did anyone have issues after repasting and still getting them to swap it? Also, i travel for work, (different city every week), would they work around that and meet me after the typical work day hours?

 

Hi i am back stuttering has gotten worse! Playing dota2 i get like 3-5seconds of stutter this time around from the micro second i experienced before flashing from the bios on this link. Only way to fix it is if i do a restart and then its gone. 3 hours into playing its back and a restart is needed again for it to go away. any idea why this is happening? Last resort is to do the bios update and hoping it does not brick but if it does brick ill be out of a laptop for around a week.

 

Disable Steam Overlay for DOTA 2. See if it helps.

 

Return it. I think everyone around here has seen enough proof that Alienware should and can fix it for you.
It takes a while to appear in DOTA because it's not a very graphic intensive game. The reboot works because it slows and cools everything down for a while longer. How does it fare in more demanding games?

And it would only freeze after 3 hours?

 

I received my Alienware 17 R4 w/ GTX 1080 (laptop #1), after about 2-4 hours of strictly gaming use I smelled something burning coming from the bottom of the laptop. After flashing to old bios (not 100% sure I did that correctly) and ensured proper ventilation, even underclocked the gpu and undervolted the cpu (different things) still faced the stuttering issue.

Requested a new laptop (laptop 2), received it but screws were so tight on the back and some even stripped (yes, using the correct size screwdriver) I was unable to install my new ssd.

Stuttering problem occured using laptop 2 after 15 minutes of use (using a resolution of 1080p and medium settings on games like Witcher 3 and Doom.).

So requested laptop 2 to be serviced, but then coming home from work the next day, I found that the trackpad from laptop #2 felt somewhat "loose" compared to laptop 1, and the screen (4k UHD) was absolutely washed out. And at certain angles had a reddish tint to it.
So I figured Laptop # 1 was better manufactured than Laptop # 2. I called Dell and told them to take Laptop 2 back and to service Laptop 1.

This has been a nightmare
I bought a gaming laptop over a month ago that can't even do the gaming part.
I contacted dell and if I were to guess I've been on the phone with them for at least 10-15 hours total over the past month with nothing resolved as of yet.

I told them keep laptop #2, as it was worse, and told them "let's figure out how we're going to deal with laptop #1".
If this doesn't work they better give me a new functioning laptop otherwise I will force them to give me my money back.

 

I will post pictures to show this absurdity.
I want people to make a huge deal about this. I know I'm not the only one who has dealt with this and I'm pretty sure there are many more people that are dealing with this that don't have a registered account on this website.

Based on the users on this forum 18 votes or almost 50% of the consumers on this website are facing this stuttering issue.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

I'm all for opening up the laptop and replacing the thermal pads and the thermal paste with liquid metal, but that should be for recreation, not because I absolutely have to because the laptop wont work right without it.

I do plan on working on the internals, but I need to have a the laptop operating the way it's intended prior to even consider doing any of that.

Everyone should be absolutely outraged, sales should have gone down and Dell deserves to be exposed globally because of this.

If someone bought a Challenger Hellcat that dyno'd at 550 hp instead of the 707 hp as advertised regardless if you like working on cars or not, Dodge would be in a HELL of a lot of trouble.

EDIT: Keep in mind that these problems are ultimately not the sales or tech supports fault but Dell's. Most of the sales and tech support are very helpful and very respectful, but instead this is Dell's doing. IF the market was not ready to place a GTX 1080 and a 7820 HK with proper optimization, then they should not have done it, and they certainly should not have advertised or marketed the product as such.

 

Hi can i have your guide for your cpu and gpu overclock ? @alexnvidia

 

the gtx 1080 laptop alternatives are not much better, they all have their own problems

 

ok so far freezes are gone after what @Vasudev suggested. Will be playing doom and witcher 3 inabit. Only option I have is to have a mobo replacement @Shark00n as they dont do the replacement in my country I also dont want to let go of this sexy laptop maybe in the future if i get enough money for a gt75vr or a gs73 with a full 1070 and if they move the power port to someplace better.

 

You could go for EVOC MSI or EVOC Clevo. One thing about Clevo is their keyboard is smaller when i looked at the pictures. 2 AWs, haha you could have got AGA w/ 1080.

 

forgot to change the aw 15r3 with 1060 was sold already. OK so playing doom causes stutter again similar to what i experienced when playing dota2. i am running a -110 on core via intel xtu is it possible that its because of this? I guess i am calling later and asking for a new mobo.

I already owned a clevo and its such a hassle! I had to tweak everything to be able to make it run like a champ and i needed to delid +undervolt to get temps at an "acceptable" number! the 6700k is so hard to tame and CLU was needed. I was eyeing the gt73 but it was too big for me and i wanted something small to i could travel with it and not break my back LOL.

 

I think PCH is overheating thereby causing throttling.

 

will a new mobo fix this? i have to atleast try right?

 

The new (1080) AW line tops the statistics of problems (I follow most brands). No other 1080 laptops will even come close to what I've seen from AW (and 1080)!!