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

Check battery capacity in Wh it should be 99Wh and anything else is a downgrade or else you can buy that bigger one after the current one wears down.

 

Yes. I agree. In fact, I already mailed them asking the same a couple of days back.. but no reply as of yet.
Can't really argue for the upgrade if the battery is not 99W, considering the other system specs. Thus I had already decided that I will upgrade when needed.

 

@iunlock @Mobius 1 Do you guys have a picture of thermal pads placement on heatsink on 15 r2 with 6700hq/980m?

 

Iirc it's all 0.5mm

Unless the memory / vrm uses something different

 

Thanks but you said that all pads are 0.5mm do you have a picture of repad?
I have stock Dell ones and in some parts they are sandwiched like in this picture
And is there any way to confirm the pads placement is perfect?

 

On the parts sandwich, seems too much pressure.

I'd check individually since there's going to be tolerance difference for each heatsink.

 

Repasted and Repadded couple of days ago and was undergoing deep testing and literally I'm tired and caught a nasty cold.

I used Cooler Master Maker Gel Nano and Arctic 6 W/mK Thermal pads. Undervolted to -120mV on CPU, cache and System Agent. Everything including drivers and OS to updated to latest version.
I used Balanced Power profile and TS with Intel SST set to 128.

@Papusan @Mr. Fox @Phoenix @rinneh @judal57 @unclewebb @VICKYGAMEBOY @sagarbhathwar @hmscott @Midas Touch @j95 @iunlock @Mobius 1 @lokoroxbr @Falkentyne @0lok and others ( Sorry if I missed someone)
Before Repad:
OCCT CPU Test w/ Ambient 25C at Stock clocks

Image 2:
Idle


After Repaste and Repad w/ Arctic:
First and Second Tries of repaste (Horrible repaste) -----> See next Post.

 

Yeah I know its bad one.
See the repads on CPU and GPU VRAM

PCH: Thanks to @judal57

GPU VRAM : Thanks to @judal57

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This is my perfect paste application till date (See Below). Thanks to @judal57


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Now its time to show off some benching results. I used OCCT w/ AVX enabled, GPU Caps Viewer, My own CPU stress tool, AIDA64 w/ CPU, FPU,Cache and GPU checked. HWINFO was the monitoring tool used.
Ambient temps were 28-30C.

1) OCCT on Stock Fan Profile from Dell:

 

2) GPU Caps Viewer's OpenGL based GPU Test and OpenCL CPU running on 8x MSAA:


3) My own CPU stress tool:
Pre-alpha v0.0.1

ii) Pre-alpha 0.0.2

3) AIDA64:
Stock Fan version:

AIDA64 using @judal57 Fan profile in HWINFO:

 

After exiting all apps and allowed to go idle, these are the temps


Thanks everybody. PCH temps are down by 10-15C and CPU temps are further reduced after repad by 10C-15C. Under full load CPU and PCH temps are exactly same otherwise PCH would be higher than CPU by 20C.
So, in future I might try LM which will reduce temps by 10-15C and use custom BIOS to tackle fan speed issue.
I'm very happy.

 

I hope @Papusan enjoyed AIDA64 test.

 

My laptop is becoming such a pain, the thermal throttling is just beyond annoying. If I play everything at low settings its fine, soon as I crank up anything thermal throttling every 20minutes or so. Complained to dell numerous times when the warranty was still active they told me it wasn't a problem and refused to do anything. I've now moved to Canada I bought the laptop when I originally lived in the UK, I'm pretty much stuck with super hot, slow £2000 laptop.

To say it's turned me off Dell is an understatement.

 

You could send it to @iunlock @DeeX @Mobius 1 @zergslayer69 depending on whoever closer to you.

 

you cannot do custom bios for the alienware

you can flash a custom bios for the videocard though

 

You have to use programmer though, even vBIOS downgrade/upgrade from Stock to Prema and vice versa is locked out for weird reasons.
Is the temps acceptable on AIDA 64 and OCCT at ambient of 28-32C?

 

If you run all cpu settings in Aida included Stress Cashe, then you should also check the box Stress System Memory, as the memory and Cashe is tied to each other. But temp looks good

 

Thanks. Similar to AIDA64, my stress test consumes nearly 90% RAM like OCCT and AIDA64 unforunately it has no GUI so you will see a decrease in temps by 3-5C on proper fit heatsink and 5-10C on improperly fit HSF. I'll upload a 10 min test of AIDA64 in couple of hours.
Thanks for the insight. Are you interested in temps after turning on CPU performance mode and Full speed?

 

If yoo bother. But yoo don't need to. Always run with Cpu performance mode and full speed. The way it should be with max stress on HW. Or use it the way you use your machine.

 

Here it is, I ran it only for 7 mins though

 

Using nvflash on safe mode works with the 970/980M

BIOS is not programmable due to safety code in the PCH according to @bloodhawk

 

So that killed it. I added some menus for OC'ing using AMI tools with updated RAID, fan speed, cTDP, Intel HWP, BCLK offset, PCH throttle temps increased to 95C etc..

 

If its for the AW's before the 17R4/15R3 etc (the current gen) , then yeah vBIOS programming for Maxwell can be done using the nvflash version with certificate check by passed. If its Pascal, then a programmer is needed for the vBIOS.
The BIOS however is a totally different story, because of Intel Boot Guard.

 

IIRC, Intel boot guard is disabled in my BIOS dump from Dell in both default and optimal value. Checked using AMIBCP. Only thing is the unique server side signing from AMI is missing in modded BIOS.
I just tried to flash back Dell Stock VBIOS to 980m before BIOS flash, it simply didn't accept flashing the vBIOS.
I tried using Cert Bypass version, same issue. Even tried unlocking the ROM and locking it, still stuck on Prema VBIOS which is great.

 

Is this for the 15 R2?
If so then yeah, dont think they implemented boot guard around then. But locked things down in a different way.

Also what error are you getting during the vBIOS flash?

 

I tried in safe mode, during flashing I get a clicking noise and it says flash wasn't successful because of some mismatch or something. Can't really remember.

 

With Prema's 970/980 vbios made for Alienware Echo all it needed was safe mode to properly flash it.

The dGPU wouldn't activate on normal mode for some reason.



Did you try flashing with this version of nvflash? http://www.overclock.net/t/1521334/...ypassed-for-gtx-950-960-970-980-980ti-titan-x

 

Going to need the exact message, but from what i can tell you were probably using the normal nvflash and not the one with certificate check bypassed. The linked to by @Mobius 1

 

Yep using the same 5.287 bypass cert version. During flash, it says error: BIOS Cert 2.0 error. Flash aborted.

 

Using this guide? http://www.overclock.net/t/1523391/easy-nvflash-guide-with-pictures-for-gtx-970-980

" nvflash -6 ROM_NAME.rom"

 

yes.
@Mobius 1 & @bloodhawk

 

Does this system have the iGPU enabled?

 

Cancer line of Alienware have optimus permanent

 

At last, finally flashed the stock BIOS of dell using normal nvflash64 and flashed Prema VBIOS again using cert bypassed version. One thing I forgot was, write protect was enabled and disabling it fixed the issue. Thanks guys.

 

So after 2 mainboard replacement, they even upgrade my cpu from 4710HQ to 4720HQ but no luck in fixing the throttling. Today, one female tech support wanted to control my machine to verify the problem. I agreed and let she do her job. At first, she ran occt for 10 minutes and no throttle in cpu then she switched to Heaven and ran it for about 30 minutes more. It constantly stayed at 3.4Ghz and dropped to 2.6Ghz for a minutes before went back up. After 2 separate test, she jumped to conclusions, saied that there is no throttle, everything worked as it should. When I asked her to run them side by side, she said no eventhrough I keeped telling her that the cpu only throttle when both cpu and gpu in use. But she still denied and keeped telling me to run only cpu stress test or gpu stress test, if one of two test shows throttle, they will give me new mainboard. I even showed her the cou throttle when I was playing games and she said it was normal as cpu usage wasn't full load.
I can't beleave that Dell has this kind of tech support, who don't even know what they are talking about.
I'm out of patient now and will try contact higher seniors.

 

Try the latest BIOS and restrict all cores to 30 multiplier and see OCCT LinPack result.
Try GPU CAPS viewer then run OpenCL CPU Julia4D with 8X MSAA and OpenGL 2.1 Rain Forest (no MSAA) at default resolution.

 

Hey @iunlock and @Mobius 1: Is this the max potential AW 15 r2 can achieve with traditional paste and arctic thermal pads w/ ambient temps of 30C or more? Is that even good according to your previous repastes on AW Echo 15"?

 

I tried occt Linkpack at 3.0Ghz, undervolt 80mV. It peaked at 80*C at first and stable at below 70*C.

Here is GPU Caps viewer

Bios was updated to A09. The reason why I use A00 is A00 has better fan profile and better temp when idle.

 

I think you're hitting PL1 and PL2 limits on stock clocks. I'd recommend you enable CPU performance mode and tweak the TDP limits to 65W.

 

So I tried once again with A00 and A09. Here is the result.

Without set multiplier, when playing games, it will drop to 2.1 - 2.5Ghz more often than when I set multiplier.

 

@judal57 can you help him.

 

I ran Fire Strike and my cpu dropped to 1.1Ghz (bios A00, performance mode, undervolted by 80mV). But when I set multiplier to 30, it only dropped to 2.6Ghz. Temps were ok.

 

I recommend you stick with latest BIOS for CPU microcode fixes and haswell had minor flaw of increased temps which was fixed in later BIOSes.
Maybe sandwich of 3 or 4 0.5mm thermal pads on PCH will reduce your temps. Also, look for any burn-in of the DC cable which is existing on 15 R1 and 17 r2.

 

So I just tried bios A09 and it only throttled down to 2.5ghz when running Fire strike. I also checked pch temp and wow, it's 88*C. Gonna try pch mod and see if it helps or not.

Update: it's still throttle to 1.1 - 1.3Ghz with A09

 

Check DC cable for burns.

 

Look like it got burnt. Gonna ask for another cable.

 

Its burnt. Buy some more DC wires and keep it in stock because you will need them.

 

The bill should have been sent to Dell. A design flaw which in the worst case can lead to fire.

 

I contacted Dell, asked for DC cable replacement and today they agreed to replace it for free.

 

Let us know how that goes. If you run into any trouble send me a Private Message.

 

Hi guys,

I'm having issues with the Win 10 Creators Update on my 15 R2.

After updating, the screen goes blank once my system is on battery power. I did a Google search and saw a tip to disable the Intel 530 graphics, when I do that, the screen stays on when on battery.

However the NVIDIA 980M doesn't seem to work with the screen or something. Once I disable Intel, I get a small black band at the bottom of the screen, so the taskbar doesn't completely show up, and everything looks bigger. Trying to access NVIDIA panel when I right click on the desktop also shows an error that the 980M isn't being used (screenshot attached).

Question now is, is there a fix on this issue? Or is the Creators Update a no no for the 15 R2?