*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

Noted, but check the price, another 130 bucks (albeit after a couple of years), but my point was to avoid this mostly because I use my laptop on a desk connected to the power cord, so why do I need to forcefully lose a ton of battery capacity (25%-30% a year) when I'm not even using it ?
I would be ok with that if most of my usage was on battery but it isn't, so Dell is actually forcing me to buy a new battery every 2 years or so in order to keep my laptop healthy.
On top of that, how do you actually change the battery without voiding the warranty ? Is it possible ? Assume I've got the 3-year warranty and my battery needs to be replaced after 2 years, what can I do ? (assuming I know how to tear my laptop apart to replace it). The Dell warranty clearly states that it does NOT cover normal wear an tear (which surely also includes the battery).

That's true, Li-ion batteries are bound to lose capacity over time ( check this), but making the circuit capable of stopping charge at a given percent is not really hard, and they only need to do it once, so that the MANY users like me out there can enjoy a longer battery life (gaming laptops are mostly used on AC power, not battery).

 

You can chang eit yourself ofcourse and dont lose your warranty. But they replaced my battery once when it started to wear out mor equickly for some weird reason. After 6 months of use I only had 1% of wear by the way.

 

Yes this the panel before it was replaced, sorry for not being clear.

There is also a much larger user base for AW than gigabyte.

 

Thats why I chose Alienware I want to have the ability to get spareparts easily.

 

Ok, at least you can change it without voiding the warranty, but that's not what I meant, look at the following quotes so that you can see my point.
And by the way, a question, how do you got that 1% ? Did you check the actual battery capacity (I assume that's was the case) ?

"Although a battery should deliver 100 percent capacity during the first year of service, it is common to see lower than specified capacities, and shelf life may contribute to this loss. In addition, manufacturers tend to overrate their batteries, knowing that very few users will do spot-checks and complain if low."

"Lithium-ion suffers from stress when exposed to heat, so does keeping a cell at a high charge voltage. A battery dwelling above 30°C (86°F) is considered elevated temperature and for most Li-ion a voltage above 4.10V/cell is deemed as high voltage. Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling. Table 3 demonstrates capacity loss as a function of temperature and SoC."


And for those that do a full discharge cycle every now and then, just don't:

" Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, the depth of discharge (DoD) determines the cycle count of the battery. The smaller the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine. There is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life. The exception may be a periodic calibration of the fuel gauge on a smart battery or intelligent device. "

"Table 2 compares the number of discharge/charge cycles Li-ion can deliver at various DoD levels before the battery capacity drops to 70 percent. All other variables such as charge voltage, temperature and load currents are set to average default settings."


*Source of the quotes

 

Guys, Im dying here trying to restore to factory default. I cant find any guidance on accessing and using the recovery partiions from outside of windows (I formatted data partitions). Any help???

 

You would be a whole load better off not using the recovery. Get the media creation tool from Microsoft and do a clean install, then get the drivers and software from the Dell site

 

Also, I think I have a Sharp (391-BCMY) 300 nits.. Is the LG one supposed to be better?
If yes, I will try to assert this in my call with the tech-rep today. Kindly advise!

 

I was thinking the same thing. Just wanted to be sure I wasnt missing anything. Will be nice to not have all the dell adviser software ********.

 

Don't read too much in battery university, its a bit outdated unfortunately.

I just checked the battery health within HWInfo and till now it always has been accurate for me. Temperature is indeed one of the killing factors of a battery. But within these Alienware machines the batteries are quite far away from the most hot parts within the chassis. Just use it when you must, discharge till 50% from time to time and sometimes a full discharge for recalibrating the sensor inside and replace it after a few years when its worn out. Till now I never experienced a failing battery in the lifetime of that I used a laptop (max 3 years).

 

Thanks for the advice, and yeah HWInfo is quite accurate. Luckily AW laptops are somewhat cooler than many others on the 15"-16" range and as you've pointed out, it helps a lot with the battery.
To be honest, I would like to keep the laptop for more time, but since the new AW models have soldered CPU and GPU there is no way around that, so 3 years seems like a good compromise. It would have been awesome if they had at least MXM GPU like the older M15X, it's really a shame but all manufacturers are going that route anyways. Only a few models from Clevo and MSI have the MXM slot.

 

I know what you mean, I would have loved to see an MXM socket as well but on the other hand a 980M MXM board costs around 900 euro, I rather use that money for a new laptop then. Replacing the battery is a bit tricky though. The motherboard needs to be removed for it as well.

 

Fair enough, although you can always sell the older MXM board
By the way, how's your display ? I've read that some people have replaced it for a "better" one.
The other thing that would've been nice is GSync, I know it does not work with Optimus but some laptops (Clevo P650xx) have a mechanism to select the GPU that drives the display, so when you select iGPU, Optimus is available, and when select dGPU, GSync is available. That's just amazing !

 

Unfortunately optimus cannot be turned off at this time. I to be honest dont know what is neccesary for the hardware to be able to do this. Maybe a second circuit with direct connection to the panel and thus bypassing the Intel igpu.

There are mainle 2 panels on the market standard in these laptops. THe Samsung one and the LG one. The Samsung panel is the one from the NBC review and is truly terrible. The LG panel is okay but hasnt incredible brightness but slightly higher than the rated 220nits when I check it. I measured mine at 250nits. THe Samsung was rated at 190nits by NBC. Its easy though to change the panel.

 

Ok. So i mailed the tech support yesterday and he asked me to update the drivers (intel and nvidia).

This is what I mailed after doing the same..

-----
Just to update, I just I updated the drivers from the links you had shared (both for Intel & nVidia).
It doesn't create any difference what so ever; the issue remains. Please refer the screen-shot.
This is a hardware issue. I request you to help me get a issue free screen replacement please.
---
then, this is what I got as a response...
---
We have contacted out parts team and they have suggested that these kind of graphics issue occurs sometimes because of using 180W adapter ,so we have sent 240 W adapter ,please check your system with new adapter and even after that if issue persists ,we will proceed with LCD replacement .
---


So... We start the merry go round with the Dell Tech Support.

I guess I need to wait for the adapter to arrive and then will take another photo to send them as a proof.

What a waste of time and money. Sad.



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I know he got confused with the 980m.but i clearly told him I have 970!

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You're correct, what Optimus does is to copy the resulting image from each render to the iGPU, which in turn, drives the display. That's also the reason of why GSync can't be used, since it requires the display to be driven directly by the dGPU.
What the Clevo P650 does is use a switch, which can be turned on/off in the BIOS, to connect the display to both, the iGPU and the dGPU. So when the switch is in one position, the iGPU drives the display and Optimus is enabled but when the switch is in the other position, the dGPU is the one with the display, Optimus is disabled and GSync can be enabled, cool solution right ? I hope that other manufacturers do the same.

About the display, replacing it does not void the warranty ? Or Dell is allowing users to do it on their own ?

 

Regarding the power adapters, does anyone know off hand the golden rule (if there is any) of what percentage you'd want to stay under of the total capacity of that adapters output?

ie...For those who are OC'ing or having issues like what's being mention here, at what point of the power usage does it start to get fuzzy? Stay within 80%?

Just because an adapter can put out 180W for example, is it true that you wouldn't want to keep using that 180W at high revs all the time, compared to using a 240W at lower revs....??

Hope that makes sense....

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Let alone for the price of a MXM, we could buy a nice desktop gpu and an amplifier.

I'm curious how the future AW updates will do with the release of Pascal...

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I remember @Alienware-L_Porras stating in one of the topics about the screen that as long if you dont damage your system in the process that the warranty of the other parts will not be void.

Yeah the prices are just ridiculous, I almost can build a full desktop for that money with a Geforce 980 in it.

 

You're right about the price, but not everyone out there is willing to carry an extra big box around, so it will obviously have to live on a desktop, and at least for me, it defeats the purpose of a laptop. Besides the fact that there is a real bottleneck on the PCIe link to the GA, even if it's not perceptible in many current games.
In the end, it would be better (price/performance wise) to buy a full blown desktop instead of a laptop, everyone agrees on that, but some of us wants some level of portability and to have full power whenever we need it... so think that despite the high price, MXM does have it's merits.

And well, about Polaris, it remains to be seen if AMD actually delivers, but taking into account that in the current process NVidia has a clear advantage in performance/watt, it wouldn't be surprising to see NVidia coming on top in the new 14-16nm process too, so I wouldn't hold my breath on AW offering many Polaris options

 

Well said...and wow forgive me, did I really say Polaris? Lol...oops...I meant to say Pascal...

Regarding the amp and having a portable full blown gaming rig, I'd opt for a clevo or alike with desktop components instead of settling on a 9xxM gpu...well unless it's SLI =)

Do you game at 4K?


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The MSI Dominator is another good candidate, it does have the MXM slot upgradable to Pascal

And well, Pascal must be much better than Maxwell, maybe NVidia plays conservative with only 20% or so in performance improvement (the same as in the past) but the process upgrade must bring major improvements in the energy consumption department (I'm guessing a 30%-40%). In total I'm expecting about 50% better performance/watt, which means that the "1070m" (970m successor) should be pretty close to the 980m in rough performance, using about 40W less, and for me that would be more than enough

About 4K, not at all, I'm a happy camper with 1080p, 4k in a 15.6" laptop it's just a waste of money (MY opinion), because 1080p on that size becomes retina at about 50 cm (roughly the same distance between my eyes and the display) so I wouldn't notice the difference.

 

I agree...Pascal seems very promising....looking forward to it.

I game at 1440p on my 17R3 over 4k...best of both worlds of 1080p fps and 4k quality. Nice sweet spot.

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At least in 17" 2K is useful, since it's a bit larger than 15.6", and the 980m can push all current games on that res too, so yeah you've got quite a good rig there

 

It surprised me on how the 980M & 970M was released back in 2014, yet the 965M and 960M's released a year later in 2015....just odd....

They should have just equipped all the gaming laptops with 980M's lol....with the same price point.

Gaming at 1440p has been a great experience and the 980M does a great job to deliver more than enough.



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Hey guys a couple questions.

1. How would the 15r2 maxed out with GA and titan x perform for RED 6k video editing? This allows me to be portable but still have desktop power when I need it.

2. How easy is it to change the boot drive to the Samsung 950 m.2? Is there a place to do 2 m.2 raid 0?

3. The other laptops I am looking at are the sager 15 and 17 inches with i7 6700k. and either 980m for the 15 inch (which is what I prefer) or the 980 desktop gpu in the 17inch. Would this processor blow away the alienware r2 with GA combo?


I really need your help here because I am having a hell of a time trying to decide what to do. My desktop is going out fast and we just had a kid so I need to be able to work outside of the house but still be able to export from home OR have something heavier like a 17 inch which I would rather not do (but will if I have to)

Another thing is I want this to last about 3 years.

Any help is MUCH MUCH appreciated. Thanks!

 

Hmm the cpu in the bigger Clevo's are a tad better, desktop vs laptop cpu's ofcourse. The Clevo's you are talking about use desktop CPU's ofcourse. So you gain some performance, you lose some portability. The AW15 with a GA is ofcourse a very potent setup. But maybe not ideal for your uses.

I have no experience with rendering RED movie files and also not with running raid drives on these laptops. But If you need the most cpu power available in a laptop, then go Clevo. But these machines are really like much thicker, especially the 17inch version which is almost twice as thick.

 

So playing the division today, no overclock on anything and my laptop keeps thinking it has been unplugged and replugged.. Nonstop.. Ugh.. I am going to try a different BIOS as that is the only thing that was recently changed.. This is the first time I have really played a game at 4k and fully taxed the system though.. By the way about 25FPS in 4k with high settings.. Looks great ...Was about to try overclocking when this started...

MAX GPU temp was 65
CPU 86

So nothing was overheating and the power adapter isn't even hot... I hope it is just the adapter(if not the BIOS)... And I have tried multiple outlets just to be safe but my killawatt shows no drop in voltage.

 

Did you get the Cable and did you get a 3k or 4k panel to work with just that? I'm using my laptop for Photoshop painting and the stock 1080p panel is terrible. From what I've seen the best easy to get panels for color gamut are the 3k and 4k panels, so I'm thinking about doing this myself if it is possible. Thanks

 

Of course dell tells me I have to call and speak to a tech, they can't just send me a new power adapter even if I do have video proof that I sent via email.... Bios changes made no difference..

Here is the video of anyone wants to look.

 

Hello guys, I just bought Alienware 15R1 second hand from Ebay and touch pad sometime work sometime not. Is this issue come from hardware or software.

I try to install fresh windows 8.1 and 10 and install driver from Dell website, but it still have this problem.

 

That sounds like a hardware issue to me. It could also be a not so well inserted ribbon cable.

When the touchpad stops working do the buttons continue to work? I ask because they are different ribbon cables. If they both stop working than it is either the connection at the motherboard or the touchpad itself.

 

When the touchpad stops working the other buttons for left click and right click is still working and also keyboard works perfectly.

 

I've had the 4k installed since Thursday. The Dell part number: GJMG7 is for the new 40-pin connector, $15. And the 4k screen which I ended up just getting through Dell is part number KY9JH. It's a Sharp LQ156D1JW06, which by model number is different from the LQ156D1JW03 which is highly touted on notebookcheck.net. What actual difference there is I don't know, but the JW03 isn't available online anywhere. The mount points are completely different on the 4k screen than the 1080p screen, so until I come up with some workaround I have the screen in the laptop without any screws, just sandwiched down by the bezel, which works for now as it literally can't move at all but only a temporary solution.

The glossy 4k screen, LQ156D1JX01 which is available on ebay is a wide-gamut screen which I can't stand using for photoshop so I opted for the matte from Dell. (An image that looks properly saturated on a wide-gamut screen will look undersaturated on everyone else's screen)

As far as I can tell the 4k screen I have calibrates well, I don't know the exact sRGB color space coverage, but the JW03 is supposed to get 96-97% coverage, I'll post again tonight with a better estimate once I tinker with it more with my colorometer. The 3k screen from Dell gets 98% sRGB coverage but would have cost $560 which I wasn't willing to spend for a 15.6 inch screen.

If you want to stick with a direct swap 1080p screen and not need to change the cable or mounting screw locations, I would recommend the Samsung LTN156HL01 (102 denotes the matte) which has a 97% sRGB coverage. Just be weary to get an actual Samsung screen and not a "compatible replacement", for that reason I bought a used screen from ebay, but looks like there's some legit ones being listed currently.

 

Hello all just to update.. The Dell technician visited to check on the bleeding issue. He got the 240w psu but due to lack of typical dell hindsight I wasn't able to check it (as it had a missing and different power cable).

Anyways coming to the original issue, I was actually not having a good feel of getting the screen replacement for a new laptop. Moreover, the technician said that the replacement screen is not guaranteed to solve the issues.

So I have ended up refusing a repair and am initiating a replacement for the entire system. Just hope the replacement does not give me any worse or different surprises!

Out of curiosity, can anyone suggest if (given a choice) should i opt for a fhd or 4k screen this time?

Thanks for support as always.

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after installing a Samsung 950 PRO M.2 on my AW15R2, I've been having issues during startup, where my computer will stay on the AW logo screen loading, and will not go anywhere till I turn it off and on again-- then will it load fine. Any suggestions?

 

This sounds very much like an issue I had with BIOS ver 1.2.7.

When I had that BIOS installed, "restarting" my machine would cause my POST screen to hang indefinitely. In fact when this happens, hit F2 and you will see all of your drives gone..... even the HDD (this was the case with me anyway!).

Much like you, if I powered the machine down and then powered up again, it would be fine.

I fixed it by rolling back to BIOS ver 1.2.2.

I hope that helps

 

I recently have the same bug. No idea what causes it. I only have it with reboots by the way.

 

What BIOS version are you running?

It's a bug found in ver 1.2.7 but may well be in other versions.... I've not updated to 1.2.8 yet as I've read about issues with that too

 

I have 1.2.8, but I am reluctant to downgrade. Always worried I brick my system. I have no clues about restorting a bios with the R2 series yet.

 

What about @skunk1 ? Could he fix his bricked machine?

 

I downgraded from 1.2.7 to 1.2.2 just fine so you would probably be ok (Disclaimer..... I don't know that you will definitely be ok!! )

 

nope........ 1.2.7. absolutely FKED my machine!!

 

Have you talked with @Lord Zog about this mess?

 

no.... never made contact in the end, had the board swapped out in it, now working again!!.....

im noticing now though that my external monitor on HDMI seems to loose power for a second..then reappear at random, it never happened before...??

im hoping its a bug which will disappear..... its quite annoying, but so is picking up the phone again, lol

 

Ah you had a bricked bios from an update? I cant imagine that there isnt a way to restore it.

 

Well, they seem to be backing off the system replacement now. I am trying to raise this further but no hope.

Let's see if the screen replacement helps.

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Can you post 1.2.2 exe? It's no longer on Dell's site. I'll give it a shot. I have the same super long reboot issues. I noticed it got much worse when i installed killer suite also.

I have tried multiple reinstall from Windows and uefi, non uefi , raid, ahci ...anything to get this damn nvme drive to show in BIOS but it will not. It runs fine just takes longer to boot than it should as it is not seen in BIOS... My cheap ssd that came with the laptop feels faster

 

I'll have to check my system as I did it a little while back now, I'm not sure if I still have the file.........

Scratch that.... I forgot about their FTP!

Scroll down on this page and you'll find it:

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/alienware-15-r2.html