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

Probably not. It would take some really ludicrous heat for a long time to damage it. Does it exhibit any evidence of damage? If not, just let it cool off and don't use sleep until you get it sorted. Set your power profile to "do nothing" or "shut down" when you close the lid and manually choose "shut down" from the Start Menu when you are done using it. (I never use sleep for a lot of reasons, and what just happened to you is just one of many.)

 

I was having some sleep issues for a couple of days in my AW 17 R3. It didn't sleep and couldn't wake either so it was necessary to force shutdown. The last time it happened I thought it was sleeping but it turned out there was a BSOD after a long time with the lights still on.

I think the cause were the new Killer Suite drivers (1.1.62.1727). There's a thread around here mentioning other issues. I can't confirm yet because I didn't try sleep mode since rolling back to the previous version. Worth checking if this could be the problem.

Edit: Ok, just did a quick test and it went into sleep mode and back again. So, pretty sure now those drivers were the problem.

 

whew..... It had gotten into a low battery shut off screen where I could either turn it off or continue turning it on once I plugged it in. I tried playing overwatch and I was only getting 60-75FPS when I normally get like 120+ fps at the same settings. I think it was because I needed to restart it and maybe it was charging the battery a lot in the beginning. I did a restart after about 30 min of playing and then everything was back to normal.

 

Anyone having issues with their mic no longer working after the Windows 10 Anniversary update? (or could be the cumulative update after that)

 

Guys need advice. I am facing some issues after a fresh install of windows 10.

1. Just post the initial load screen, I get another screen for 2-3 seconds of the same type as the initial screen but with a pinkish load bar at the bottom. This wasn't there before in the factory install.
Any ideas of any custom load/boot screens of alienware which post reinstall no longer exist?

2. Again post the install, the desktop icons are now bigger (more like an hd screen thaa 4k one).
The original screen had smaller icons for sure. The drivers are all installed and i have set the size of icons as smallest in the display setting of intel as well. No effect.
Same is the case with text in Windows and text boxes.

Has windows finally got the scalability thing right?

Nothing which hampers performance but I was planning to take an image of fresh install before any further application installations. So any corrections can be done now.

Do let me know if there are any ideas please.

Thanks
Ckhurana.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

Can you link a short youtube or Vimeo video so we can see what you're talking about?

 

Hello everybody!

i purchased my M15 in march of last year, and it's been about 3 weeks my battery has completely died.
Laptop doesn't power on if PSU is not plugged in, did all the fun tests with Alienware, and it seems because i'm out of warranty I have to buy a new battery (YAY!)
Has anyone experienced this issue?
And did anyone buy the battery on their own? Can i get the make and model?

I ran the diagnostic tests and it says my battery has a permanent issue and needs to be replaced.

Thank you all for your help and your time

 

Ok, here it is



You can see the quick appearance around 00:20 (sorry for the bad quality! I am trying to get a better one in lesser size)

I am also facing some other issues. Honestly not really sure if its AW specific or a Windows 10 bane.

1. Touchpad - I have the 2 finger scroll on but is there setting for a single finger vertical scroll ?
2. Control panel hang ups - Doing any changes and pressing OK hangs up windows for me for a couple of seconds (I can tell as the touch's mouse cursor stops moving)
3. I have had 2 BSOD's since yesterday -
a) module: nwifi.sys
b) module: bwcw1.sys

Anyone has any ideas? I have the latest drivers from the Killer suite (non-dell).

Thanks as always for the support guys!

 

Wow, that's weird. I've never seen anything like that. If you restore the original Alienware load does it go away?

Where'd you get the media to install the fresh install? Is it this new Windows 10 Anniversary edition?

 

1) By original Alienware load you mean the load/bootscreen? If yes, no I haven't tried. Where can I find it and how to do it?
2) I have the build number 10.0.10586. So its not the aniversary edition (i think that's build number 10.0.14393)
And to add, I used the 64bit ISO image from the Microsoft download site.

Although it is not actually an issue, but quite bothersome and slightly unnerving. Any solutions would be welcome!

 

I meant the reloading the original stock load from Dell using Alien Respawn.

 

Ok. No. I had to do a fresh install as I had shifted to an ssd (original configuration came with hdd)
So had to use the iso.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

I see. I just clone the manufacturer load to my new SSD and as I change or upgrade SSDs I clone those over. I am not a fan of fresh installs and I haven't had an issue with my AW or MSI systems.

That said I don't see how a fresh install would cause that little pink loading bar.

 

Ok. In that case, people who have done fresh installs here, anyone got this issue as well?

I have a hunch it is related to either a power scheme or the fact that we have dual video cards...

Ideas anyone?



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Interesting. I don't know what would cause that. I've never seen it before and I'm still running my system with the Windows it came with.

 

I had this weird bar at startup since receiving my AW 17 R3. Apparently, it was just a minor BIOS issue with the 4K display. It was one of the things solved by BIOS 1.2.13 and up (at least for me), although you might have seen in these forums that updating the BIOS is risky on these notebooks... For instance, I had a shutdown issue after my first update. Anyway, before finding the working solution of clearing the CMOS, I tried downgrading and could confirm that when going back to 1.2.8 this pink bar returned.

Regarding the BSODs, the latest Killer Suite drivers have been responsible for all sorts of issues (including several BSODs). The previous version is working OK for me.

 

Hmmm, Did you have the exact same bar at the bottom with the same color? If so and it is BIOS related perhaps @Ckhurana changed the bios at the same time as the fresh install. It would be interesting to see if a BIOS update resolved the issue.

 

Well I am still on the original BIOS version from factory (1.2.2, 10/28/2015).

Not sure if the latest version 1.3.6 (marked as urgent on the site) is safe to install? Any luck anyone?
EDIT: Also, can anyone share the stable version for the Killer drivers?
Thanks!

 

I went from 1.2.2 to (with a brief stop at 1.2.15) 1.3.6 and had no issue.

In Device manager my Killer 1535 shows driver date of 02/19/16 and version 12.0.0.217
I have no hangs or Windows glitches. All my games work perfectly and I don't notice any random disconnects.
Waking from sleep first thing each morning and reconnecting to everything takes about 30 seconds but I can live with that

 

Just upgraded my screenpanel with a 300nits LG glossy ips panel. Love the deep blacks and the colors on this panel. My old LG panel wasbt bad after calibrating it but this new panels blows it out of the water.

 

The fhd one, yes?

Even I have been chasing dell here to switch me to the uhd touch 4k as that is having almost no bleed and excellent colour reproduction.

My current uhd (sharp) is good but has an irritating bleed with a persistent yellow tint which I haven't been able to solve.

Let's see.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

Guys,

As we have dual GPUs in the AW, is there any way I can switch the nVidia one (970 in my case) rather than the Intel one?
How do you advise?

My main concern is the color gamut which is on the UHD. I want to see if the nVidia improves anything and helps alleviate the yellowish horror in everthing on this otherwise great screen.

Thanks as always!

 

You cant. But you can calibrate your screen in windows. Remove some red and green and add more blue.

 

I guess no one is having a mic issue after the most recent Windows updates? Can anyone offer some advice? I've tried to uninstall and reinstall the Sound Blaster drivers, including trying the release prior to the most current and nothing.

 

What issue are you facing acually with the Mic? (sorry if you mentioned it back somewhere!)

 

Guys, i have the Alienware 15 laptop with i7 4710hq model, i would like to know how much better is Alienware 15 r2 from it? The thing is that i am getting my motherboard replaced for the laptop for some issues, it has been a long time since i7 6700hq laptops came out, so is there any chance that they might send me the i7 6700hq processor if the i7 4710hq is not available? I am asking this because once before too i had got my cpu changed to i7 4720hq when they didn't have i7 4710hq in stock.

 

Although the i7 4729HQ is slightly faster than the i7 6700HQ, it is much less power efficient and far hotter, which lead to several cases of thermal or power throtlling in the AW 15 R1 and AW 17 R2 models. Many of the serious throttling problems happened only with a combination of the faster CPU and the GTX 980m GPU, usually coupled with using an insufficient power adapter of 180W when it required the 240W adapter. So, the main benefit would be power efficiency (including improved battery life) and much diminished chance of serious throttling issues.

Aside from that, the AW 15 R2 has a Thunderbolt 3/ USB 3.1 Port replacing one normal USB 3.0 Port and there is the lack of a Display Port. It also uses DDR4 RAM instead of DDR3, allowing the current maximum of 32 GB of RAM.

Another major difference is that for some cost-cutting reason most displays used in the AW 15 R2 have lower quality than those used in the R1. I think they were recently offering a glossy 4K display with touch that should be the higher quality one, matching the R1.

Summing up, there were many improvements, but it probably won't be a HUGE difference unless you experienced the throttling issues I mentioned above.

There is a real chance they will upgrade you to a newer model in case some older part is unavailable. In that case, they probably would exchange the entire notebook for a new model with "equal or better" specs.

 

i highly doubt that they will give him a R2, unless an exception, it also depends on his location, and also his warranty status.. but he can try.. good if he gets it.. cuz I don't want to see another R1 user go through what all I went through, but also the thing is only few knows what caused the real throttlin issue, unlike before, folks were pointing out at power issues, mobo power delievery system etc.. we are still testing on that, we will make a thread once its confirmed 100%.... bashing things is common these days.. most of us here are to help..

 

Currently looking into buying a Razer core or other TB3 GPU enclosure. The AGA cannot house my EVGA 1070 FTW card since it is a bit too tall for the lid to close.

Any data now abotu how it works with the AW15R2? I remember a video where Dave2D said it worked well but there where a lot of disconnects. But the TB3 firmware has been updated past month.

 

Did you get it from laptopscreens.com ?

 

Okay guys there must have been a misunderstanding in what i said, i am not getting my entire laptop replaced, i am getting my motherboard replaced, and yes when i had once got the i7 4720hq as the upgraded replacement motherboard, it had that weird throttling issue. But i wanted to know whether i can get the i7 6700hq as the replacement just like i got the i7 4720 instead of i7 4710 earlier?

 

That would be no. Different processor families can't be swapped in.

 

Okay Thankyou for the quick reply, but i also wanted to know that, the i7 4720hq processor throttles always?? I mean every motherboard with that processor had reported throttling issues?

 

I had a 4720HQ and it did not throttle even while I overclocked my 970M. The 980M versions appear to be more problematic but I dont have data to back that up. Only based on the posts I read on this forum.

 

most of the 970m ones are fine, most 980m got this issue, that's all caused by internal thermal issues.. u can ask them for replacement.. but I don't think they will do such favors..

 

B


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

so the throttleing is ussually caused in i7 4720hq or i7 4710hq with gtx 980m, right? so that is because the gpu temp reaches 76 degrees?

 

It is something totally different. It has something to do with thermal management not the chips itself I think.

 

Search the Alienware sub threads. All info about the throttle mess can be find there.

 

Okay, i know it as it was a problem for me too, but can u please give me a link to such a thread where they have decoded the reason for such throttles?

 

The thing is, no on eknows for sure. 1 user blames his high PCH temps and he fixed it with a heatsink on the PCH chip. Another used different Intel thermal control drivers and could fix it like that. Another just arranged a full system swap with Alienware.

 

okay man, but just tell me on thing honestly, if they send me an i7 4720hq, should i get it installed or not?

 

If they send you a motherbaord only it will be a 4720HQ for sure. Since the new motherboards with skylake officially do not fit in the old chassis (it actually does but the cutout for the USB-C port is too large because it was originally designed for a standard USB port).

YOu can test the 4720HQ if it throttles.

 

the reason why we are taking time, it is caused by linked things, PCH thermal somehow messes with the bus speed, same goes to GPU power system.. one thing is for sure, its not caused by CPU core temps / GPU core temps, and also same goes to the voltage.. It happened on my R2 as well, Specially with Premamod.. I was blindly pointing out at the CPU before just because of the influence I had, now I have someone to help me with the testing, I can tell its not the 4720HQ which is causing the issue.. people should really wait.

 

Okay man, i totally understand what you said, so then this completely discards the idea that Alienware 15 laptops were defected and their BIOS bad and Haswell had problems of stupid throttles. Since the same problem has also been seen in skylake processor motherboards right? Since it is not because of the processor.

 

skylake one's throttle due to bad thermal on some component, as well as driver, some drivers have lower throttle point, some version of intel thermal drivers causes the issue above 82c on PCH.. on some version it doesn't, its really hard to point out of one particular thing, when there are many things in a system which is linked.. specially on laptop chipsets..

 

Hello,

On the same note, I am seeing my 6700 idling around an average of 60 degrees C. And this is just being on the Intel HD with an active Firefox and usual work stuff.
Although I haven't re-done the thermal paste, is this normal at all?

 

its normal if u see, the stock paste wont give you better idle temp, also 6700 is poured with extra volts. unnecessary, it also depends on ur ambient temps, yeah its always better to repaste, do a Liquid Metal Paste like Ultraliquid or Grizly Conductonaut, if ur worried about repasting with LM, go for tradionational paste like GC extreme, Kryonaut, Cooler Master Nano.. just stay away from IC diamond..

 

Huh IC diamond is pretty good. Dont you mean MX4?

 

IC Diamond is good but, many don't like how it scratches the die and heatsink....