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

I have a 15r1 with unlocked bios and I can disable that through bios, but why ?

 

this is not the first time dell team have uploaded wrong information about the version / dates, they did that on first meltdown / spectre bios fix page as well, so its a mistake, probably by july end we should get if not august, version will be same 1.7.0 IMO.. like they have uploaded two bios with same number before.

 

hey can you send us the screenshot of your new BIOS... and please PM me the details.. i just want my brightness control back, nothing much.

 

they will be like 100 photos :S i am gonna make a video and try to upload it to youtube. too much menus and sub menus

@VICKYGAMEBOY

Spoiler

@VICKYGAMEBOY that was only for display .....
the good thing is that taking the photos i found the panel color depth and increased it from 18 to 24 bit

 

holy mother of settings, seems like im intrested to give my bios dump to him.. can you post the link to me again ?? PM me..

 

Don't play with those settings! If you see Auto in more section it means they are connected, so be careful.
Set Primary display to Auto if you want to use ext. screen using AGA. Dell options are confusing.

 

@judal57, I put your pictures in a spoiler box. It's great that you posted those, but it was pages of images...

 

So AW 15R1/17R2 has unlocked bios but my only concern is fan table, which prevent me from upgrading from A00 to newer ones. Does this unlocked bios has anything related to fan control?
@judal57

 

That conclude my suspicion. Good to know. Then we have to look at the date for when the new version of 1.7.0 comes and just to be sure compare the two files before doing the flash. Covered by warranty 2 years so I am "safe".

 

haha thanks, you gave everything, except this, i figured out why the error was there
fptw64.exe -BIOS -D BIOSDUMP.BIN also this FPTw.exe -bios -d biosreg.bin

 

It

It's not a fan curve, its a..... Modification for Intel thermal framework, to make the fans more responsive. Put a active trip point and a passive one. For example with the A10 the fans start only when the CPU is at high temperature. So I can change that and make the fans start working at 60•C for CPU. But there are a lot other components than can active the fans, like ram, gpu,pch, etc or in my case I turned all off and only make it work for CPU. And set the active point at 63, Because I work on a high poluttion ambient, so I don't want my fans taking dust from there.

Is not a curve, is a set point

 

Now you have AW 15r2's CPU performance mode. Change cTDPs to 92W or higher.

 

del

 

HDMI is conneced to Nvidia whilst TB3 is connected to Intel iGPU. I believe HDMI is 1.4 which can do 4k @ 30-60Hz.

 

I have the same computer and I find 1080p on the screen to be very sharp. I game with an external monitor now a days and it definitely outputs the dgpu thru the HDMI port.

 

I got my AW15R1 bios unlocked and tried the thermal configuration settings but they did nothing for me, I changed the active points to around 39°C (or 32°C, whatever the preset number was) but it made no difference. Did I not use it correctly or are those options just not working for my model?

 

active point is throttling, passive is FAN start point
edit: dont forget to have the Intel thermal framework driver installed ( from Dell)

 

Thanks, I'll check for the driver.

Could you explain to me how it works and what is TC1, TC2 and TCP and how do they work?

 

Hi @Prema, please can you send me your vbios for gtx970m 3gb.
https://ibb.co/tpQv8gh

 

I noticed a while ago that there APPEARS to be at least one additional M.2 slot hidden under the plastic cover on the bottom of the AW15R2. Has anyone ever tested these to see if they're active? :

Looking around on the internet, I was able to find these board images that appear to confirm the existence of TWO additional slots:

and this one:

Anyone have any info on these two mystery slots?

Thanks!

 

Dell went cheapo and re-used same MB for both the Aw 15 and AW 17. I expect they should work. Most likely same firmware as well.

 

I don't have it at all! Only 2xM.2 SSD.

 

ive seen one of my old R2 set had this, only the first rev of 15R2 and 17R3, quick after all the mobo i got had no extra slots, and most R1s have the same 4 set config hidden under, ive tried to use it, one port does work but you have to have a custom bottom base, like the one i made, i removed HDD, just to add another set of JBL sub and tried with a 17R3 IO port with sub port on it. for some reason i left that project and that bottom base.. the output is maxed to 2W and 5ohms or something i guess

 

After may update my laptop freezes randomly. Clean installation didn't help. Could you help me?

 

I reverted back to v1809.

 

Is it worth upgrading the fans/cooling on this laptop? I have stock fans right now. I'm planning on repasting with Kryonaut soon. Should I do anything else?

 

Where would aftermarket ones be for sale? Ive never seen any.

 

eBay in all likelihood.

NBR users have found fan upgrades for their laptop models. The replacement fans have higher cfm and are quieter. Example (older laptop).

I'm wondering if there's been a fan upgrade found for the AW 15.

 

@Vasudev @ThomasAAT New Intel Graphics Driver is out, and Intel DPTF 8.6 latest for Windows 1903 Release is out.. Dell Airplane Mode Swith 1.4.9

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28991/Intel-Graphics-Windows-10-DCH-Drivers?product=80939

http://www.station-drivers.com/inde...ory&Itemid=353&func=startdown&id=4113&lang=en

http://download.windowsupdate.com/d..._a6c0551114b233cd0c088964148b7f1e44d1e69d.cab

I Just Tested Both drivers on 1809 and 1903, i have no issues.. New Bios For Alienware15R2/17R3 will be out soon.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...and-liquid-metal.806840/page-21#post-10938224

 

Thanks for the heads up. But I think on waiting to update drivers until new BIOS 1.8.0 is out. And I am a bit hesitated to update to a generic intel graphic driver... Tempting if it cure the lagging in windows animations on 4k display. As for the other two I may give it a try soon if no problems in to report (that goes for the intel gpu driver also)?

@Papusan @Vasudev @VICKYGAMEBOY Also I think the desktop battery mode on my aw17 r3 is acting up.
Starting from 30. July my charger turns off after some hours. It stops charging, and the blue light at the end of the charger turns off and doesn't indicate that its plugged in. But if i unplug the AC adapter from the power outlet and plug it back in its good to go. This started on 1903 (it can be the 1.7.0 bios also). In this old tread it seems that this is by design based on the comment from an dell/AW technician: https://eu.alienwarearena.com/ucf/s...umPost/desktop-battery-mode-or-faulty-charger
Last time the feature kicked (several weeks ago) in the AC adapter stayed on and only the battery discharged down to 75%.

That said I haven't tried to let it discharge down to 50% but since the AC adapter turns off I doubt it will turn it self back on when the battery level is at 50%?

I have run all the diagnostic test (supportassist full Hardware scan, F12 diagnostic including separate tests of the battery and AC adapter). And made sure the adapter is recognized in bios - correctly shows 240w. No problems detected. HWiNFO64 shows 6% battery wear level.

I have disabled the desktop battery mode and the AC adapter have not turned off after that. That leads me to suspect this feature to be the issue. Someone else that have the desktop battery mode enabled in W1903 with bios 1.7.0 that have seen this, or any others?

Update: The AC turned off even with the battery mode disabled. I have the AC adapter plugged i to a power strip and I think that is the problem - it cuts off the power to the adapter so it have to be reset/unplugged-plugged back in.
The power strip is a basic generic brand and begin to get old. So I will invest in a good quality power strip designed for electrical devises/computers and report back. No I understand the issue described in the tread I provided. "But if i turn off the main switch and turn it back on its good to go". That is more likely to be the problem, not the AC adapter

 

Thanks. I've been thinking it over, and I think I'm going to go with Conductonaut LM this time. Let the GTX 980M really breathe.

I can get 1g on eBay for $12-14 so the value is insanely good. I'll put some quality tape on the capacitors before applying.

My only concern is that I've heard LM makes it difficult to separate heatsink from the die? Is there any reason to worry?

 

No. A old fashion thick paste is worse. But always be careful when you take it of.

 

I'm going to go with nail polish on the caps instead of tape. It has some fairly solid endorsements, cheap, and easier to apply than tape.

1

2

 

If you can remove it before RMA due problems everything should work well. Only negative with this solution.

 

I have a problem with my 15r2 it has gtx970m I play gtav on it and it has started to randomly close the game. But it is not overheating and support assist says nothing is wrong with my system.

 

guessing a driver issue or conflict with windows 10 updates? Have you tried reinstalling gpu driver? If so, did you use DDU? You can try j95 modded drivers as I highly recommend them coz since I used his drivers I have no issues at all..
Also for you to be aware I dont have gta 5 and this is just a general recommendation. Hopee this helps.. Again try j95 drivers.. hehe..
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nvidia-geforce-driver-436-15-whql.830213/

 

Same behavior in other games?

 

It's the only game I play on it I have tried the nvidia driver from Dell site and it would close and I tried the newest driver from nvidia website same thing. I dont know what ddu is?!

I am on 1809 w10 version I looked in the game bar settings and game mode was on so I turned it off and I defraged my c drive so I will see if it was windows game mode that was causing it.

 

I would test with other games...

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU)... https://www.wagnardsoft.com/

How to properly update your nVIDIA graphics card driver

 

It was the windows game mode because I turned it off and just played 4 hours straight on max graphics settings and 4k. Windows game mode is default to on which is dumb but glad I found the problem. Now which nvidia driver will be better the one from nvidia or the one from dell for my specific model?

 

Use DDU all the time when reinstalling gpu drivers.. That is like a must to do now a days.. Again use j95 modded drivers as it is bloatware free so no geforce experience and telemetry and better optmized.. If you want to have good/better preset of you games use nvidia profile inspector instead of geforce experience, youtube can teach you how to use it. This are the things I do so I wont have driver issues and problem with my games.. it might be tedious but I dont update drivers often.. newest nvidia driver is always not 100 percent good which is why I wait and read reviews by other users.. But from what I have observed people who uses j95 modded drivers most of the time has no problems, like 99 percent most of the time.. Anyways hope this helps.. to answer your question which driver is better that i know as what i am using is nvidia driver 431.60 j95 modded one.

 

Do you have a link to the uninstaller and the preferred nvidia modded driver for my system?

 

Link to DDU Unistaller posted above.

You find all released Nvidia WHQL drivers in the link. Look after @j95’s posts http://forum.notebookreview.com/forums/gaming-software-and-graphics-cards.26/

 

Ok it did it again closed to home screen! I am updating to 1903 to see if it is an 1809 bug.

 

@Vasudev new bluetooth driver is out.. already installed on 1903.. no issues.. tested on 1809 as well.. im just waiting for new bios, got my new 92whr battery, 0% wear level, but on hwinfo it shows 88whr, kinda weird, probably calibration issue..

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...etooth-Driver_V373W_WIN_10.0.0.916_A14_01.EXE

 

Grab latest Killer WLAN drivers from Killer site.

 

i already have lol, nothing special.. i only do the inf install for all components, only gpu i install using setup

 

v1903 is much more buggy for gaming.
Actually after latest nvidia driver updates GTA 5 seems to use more than 8GB RAM on high setting including 4GB VRAM.

 

I loaded F2 bios menu and enabled cpu performance mode and it hasn't done it anymore since, so more than likely it was the cpu kicking the game out.