*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R3 Owner's Lounge

THANK YOU! This will be done tonight to see if it works!!!
Going through my troubleshooting steps, the only thing that stands out is that RAID is enabled by default. I pray that this works and I do not need to change SSD MFG.

 

You're welcome! Saved my life when adding an ssd to mine!

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

 

So I'm the guy who ordered a 15 R3 with a GTX 1070 (and 6700HQ, 1080p IPS, 128GB + 1TB) but received a 1060 instead of a 1070. My replacement order, with build date 1/6/2017, arrived today AGAIN with the wrong GPU. Have any of you been able to successfully ask for an upgrade to a 6820HK? Mobius's comments are really scaring me about the 6700HQ, and I heard that the 6820HK orders are being processed correctly.

 

I think your problem is that currently on their website your build configuration does not exist...

I assume your 1080p IPS is supposed to be the non gsync version. Currently that display is only available with the i5-7300HQ and AMD Radeon™ RX 470 with 8GB GDDR.

If you are looking for:
15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 60Hz IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled
15.6” Display FHD (1920 x 1080) 120Hz TN+WVA AG 400-nits NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled

then your configuration does exist.

They make the 7700HQ in 1060 and 1070 configs but the 7820HK is 1070 only and thus it is impossible for them to mix that up but it uses the 15.6” Display FHD (1920 x 1080) 120Hz TN+WVA AG 400-nits NVIDIA G-SYNC Enabled display.

 

Hey guys, for my laptop guide just wanted to check in about Kaby Lake temps.

Are they better?

I'm mostly interested in if the heatsink design has changed. Anyone know the answer to that?

The 15 is so good except for the trash heatsink design on the Skylake revision.

 

Yes the thermal pad issue was fixed which caused uneven pressure on the cpu heatsink.

 

Hm, that's true. They might not be manufacturing the 6820HK anymore, and I definitely need a non-Gsync display for battery life, so the current 7820HK/1070 models can't replace the current unit.

 

Personally, I am waiting for them to offer the 7820HK non gsync before I order.

 

Is it possible to plug the 120 hz screen into the wrong place on the mobo? Like can you plug it into the intel gpu on accident instead of directly to the 1070 like it's supposed to be?

I had thought they replaced my 120 hz screen with a 60 hz but the service tech is here and replaced it and both screens are FHD and it still won't activate 120 hz or gsync and the brightness still dims to half at max setting


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Does anyone have a link to the screen data for the HD and UHD panels used on the 15" (I know the UHD is not available right now) I wanted to know what their color range ect is.

 

A small update. The fans are now soldered on the heatsink and in order to thermal paste the cpu / gpu you have to take the motherboard out of the system, unplug the fans and then remove the 7 screws, thermal paste and voila...

 

IT WORKED!!!!! Disk Management instantly saw the OCZ drive.

It also boots into Windows twice as fast. GEEEEZ.
I am going to clone the OEM drive and then wipe it.

Thank you SimplyJ3sse!!!

 

I assume this means there will be an update to the repaste thread in a few days?

Wait so what does this change, looking at the repaste thread the fans are attached to the heatsink there... has something changed since the kaby lake update. I am confused now.

 

I believe that all 1070 models have had soldered fans. Before and after kaby lake.

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No prob! Haha.

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Thanks, the order was placed december 14th, I am assuming it have the updated thermals, also the fans are really quiet until gaming is in use, haven´t tested battery life also, just plugged it in and started gaming out of the box.

I am really happy with this machine, I will keep updating you guys with anything

 

Questions:
Is anyone else having issues with the IR camera?
Is anyone else experiencing wifi that goes out periodically?
Is the 4k screen known to be on the extremely cool side? The one I got is extremely blue and looks pretty bad next to even my toshiba 4k (radius 12)

 

Is there a way to permanently boot from the new clone? Right now it makes me hit F12 to select the new drive. Is it as easy as wiping the old drive and Win 10 booting from OCZ automatically?

 

Should be. That will make out the only Windows installation then, which should force it to boot that.

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I solved this by unplugging existing drive and booting once into the system. Then it will always boot from new drive even if you keep system on old one.

 

I thought about that too... I will try this tonight. Thx!

 

Does 15r3 still overheating now?
wanted to get one so badly but the temperature issues stopped me

 

The heatsink has a redesigned thermal pad, but you always have the 30 day return window + dell in-home service to take advantage of.

 

unfortunately, not all have had the issues resolved. my laptop ordered 12/27 is running "cooler" than ones built before it.. but look at the core differentials:




maybe new paste was used on mine, but as you can see... the heat sink may not be seating properly because of those core differentials. and i have the 15r3, 6700, with a 1060.

 

Maybe yours was built before the change. It is a 6 series and could have been already built before the change was made.

 

it was ordered 12/27. delivered to me 01/06. i tried and make sure that i was way ahead of the 12/06 "fix" day we were told about. in fact we were told ALL orders after 12/06 would have the fix applied. programs from the factory were installed on the machine 01/04/17.

from my order, it's still a crapshoot on whether the laptops would have thermal issues or not.

 

From your order we can tell that as we know already anything with a 6 series cpu is going to be a toss up. I have yet to hear of any 7 series cpu having the issue, therefore the only way to ensure your system is not effected is to have a kaby lake build.

 

like your enthusiasm, but if you read back from this thread or go to reddit, you'll find a myriad of issues people are having with alienware right now (not just hardware related). there aren't enough kaby lake systems on the market to say one way or another. even though my order is (or going to be WAS) a 6 series, it doesn't change the fact that they said on 12/6 thermal issues would be resolved and it wasn't.

i hope for the people ordering the 7 series they do not have to deal with the ish show that was the 6 series, but that's yet to be determined. maybe this go around they can keep the issues to the "1%" they claimed.

and i don't want to be a downer -- i did order their laptop. just that i got the one with the thermal issues which should have been already resolved.

 

If you open yours up you will be able to tell if you do have the issue or not. If you have the updated pad/tape then your problem has a different source than the one that was "fixed". Without you opening yours up for a repaste it is not possible to know if you got a "fixed" one or not.

 

whatever the source of the issue with my laptop, it should have been resolved. alienware / dell marched up and down saying that 12/6 thermal issues would be gone, be it 6 series or whatever. people sent back their 6 series and have had mixed results on fixing thermal issues.

again, i am hoping the kaby lake will not have these issues, but that's to be determined.

and no, i will NOT open up my machine to check pads or the paste or anything else. i do not believe any NEW out the box item should have to be worked on or fixed. as stated alienware / dell said post 12/6 thermal issues would be resolved and any orders after would not have said issues. guess what, it was a lie. my tests show it was a lie. i am happy for those who received 6 series and have been getting great temps., congrats to them.

if alienware / dell knowingly shipped me a system that was made before the thermal issues were fixed, after i ordered on 12/27 to avoid getting a bad one, that's even more of a farce. it would indicate they do not care about the end user as they are knowingly shipping out bad systems in hopes that the person would be oblivious and not test it.

 

What they said was that the issue being caused by a pad being too thick on the chokes would be fixed. They did not say any new problems or other problems where being fixed. So if you want to complain that they did not fix what they said they would you need to actually open it up and see. Otherwise we can only speculate as to why your unit is overheating. Maybe they did not fix it, maybe they did and there was a QC problem on your machine ect. Maybe there is a new problem we do not know about yet but if no one investigates we can never know what is actually going on. I understand that you do not want to open your machine to check and yes you should be upset that you paid so much $$ and did not get a working device. I just hope that if anyone else is having issues they can open theirs up so everyone can know if the machines were "fixed" or not and if so we can investigate what else might be causing the problem.

It is also true that post "fix" alienware is now putting real thermal paste on the cpu. If this is done by hand it only takes a human to **** up the application and you can get poor temps due to bad TIM application. There is no way to completely eliminate the possibility for poor TIM application but it could be minimized my machine application or possibly machine QC. For example a camera on the production line checks TIM application automatically to verify spec. I am not aware of any TIM mass manufacturing process such as this as TIM application on a mass production scale is almost unheard of. While it is possible that specialized equipment for TIM application and QC has been developed it is very unlikely. Likewise although QC camera check for things similar to TIM application (in other industries) do exist it is unlikely anyone has taken this technology and reprogrammed it to check TIM on die application.

 

any other instance, i would gladly be a guinea pig and open up the system. but i want to make sure the laptop gets returned before they can object. plus the longer i keep it, the more i want to just "put up with it", and that's not good.

we are all paying good money and should have working systems.

 

just got done with dell chat and getting a return label. i will be purchasing a new kaby lake 15r3 and seeing how that goes. if the thermals look like my 6 series... it is also going back. going to maybe be a month before i can test a kaby lake model since I do have to return my current system, wait for the refund, order... wait for it to be made, and then wait for it to be shipped to me.

 

do note that unless you get the lowest end model you currently can not get a kaby lake system with optimus for the 15r3 and will be forced to low battery life.

 

yeah, the system is staying on a desk plugged in. if i do take it somewhere, it's to family's house where it will go on a desk and get plugged in. lol!

and if dell thought i was going to be one of the oblivious customers not checking their systems to see if they resolved their issues, they thought wrong. again, we are all paying good money for these.. we shouldn't accept anything lower than our own standards -- and mine are perfection out the box.

 

(Temps and USB Type C issue)

Hello everyone,

I received an Alienware 15r3 1 week ago. It is a replacement unit after the graphics card did not work on the first one (there were red dots on the screen when booting with Nvidia GTX-1070 GPU in D GPU mode. Also with Integrate mode the Nvidia graphics card would not run).

This replacement unit seems mostly OK with some minor unevenness in lighting with some of the light bars on the side.

The CPU temperatures are vastly improved with the maximum difference in core temperature around or less than 7C. (CPU is the i7 6820HK). I have tried it over-clocked to level 3 and, with the performance fan enabled, the CPU temps did not surpass 70C while rendering out CAD images on the CPU. Moreover, the difference in CPU temperature was just 3C! After gaming for 1 hour, normal fans, playing GRID Autosport the max temps were 72C and 67C for the CPU and the GPU respectively.

One interesting problem I have noticed is with the USB type C port on the left hand side. When connecting a usb C device one way it works fine, however, when inverting the connector and connecting it the other way up the device disconnects when the cable is moved upwards slightly. The exact same thing happened on the first unit I had. I am not sure if this is the same on all laptops or just an isolated issue.

I am using a USB A to C adapter and have tried connecting a few different USB A devices to the laptop through this adapter but the device still disconnects when the cable is moved upwards slightly when the usb C is plugged in one way. When it is plugged in the other way it's fine.

I know it is not the USB devices or the adapter where the problems lies as there are no problems when connected either way to the USB type C port at the back of the laptop.

I would appreciate if anyone with the new laptops could see if their systems exhibit the same problem and report back.

Thanks in advance,

 

Well the port on the back I believe is not really USB 3 but a thunderbolt port which uses the same physical connector although compatible wires which have passed the certification should have a lightning bolt on them.

What is strange is that there is no USB 3.0 type C connection listed as sone of the ports:
Ports & Slots
1. Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port | 2. RJ-45 Killer Networks e2500 Gigabit Ethernet Port | 3. Mini-Display Port 1.2 (certified) Output | 4. HDMI 2.0 Output | 5. Thunderbolt™ 3 Port | 6. Alienware Graphics Amplifier Port | 7. Power/DC-in Jack | 8. Noble Lock port (cable and lock sold separately)| 9. Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port| 10.Type-A SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Port with PowerShare Technology | 11. Headphone 1/8" Port (retaskable for Microphone/Line-In analog audio input) | 12. Audio Out 1/8" Ports (Compatible with inline mic headset)

Maybe it is a type A port with a type C connection for fun?

Very strange...

 

Hello All,
newly signed up, having read most, if not all, if this thread.

I'm new to this, but I'll be taking possession of a 6820hk/UHD equipped machine tomorrow - ordered Jan 4th!?

I nearly talked myself out of it, but when I called to try and have Dell put it back in my shopping cart (riiight!), as I liked the build but had reservations, I was offered an extra $150 off the already nicely discounted price, so I lost my resolve!

Obviously, I'll be wanting to ensure that there aren't any screen-bleed or overheating issues, and, for the latter, I'd welcome any info on what's best to download, in order to stress-test the system and get info on core temps etc. It seems OCCT is a popular tool...!

It's also got the 16gb (2667mhz) ram package, which I'd hoped to augment quite soon - after a good bit of not too successful searching, I was wondering if anyone could steer me toward a good solution there.

I'll be doing more photo editing (and video) than gaming, but, through jumping on game deals when I see them, I've started to build a bit of a library of mostly first-person type titles.

I thank you in advance for any information that can help get me started and for reading this far!

 

Thats a misprint. Type c refers to connection type, and it looks like a type c, so its a type c. After that there is usb 3.0 and 3.1 (twice as fast) and thunderbolt 3 which uses usb type c connector, which can work as an usb type c usb 3.1 as well.

BTW do we know if there will be more models with no gsync or not? one of the main reasons i wanted to get an alienware was that there was an option for pascal gpus without gsync... Im mainly interested in a 7700 with 1070 without gsync...

 

Today they just started offering the UHD screen again but only for the lowest end system. Currently they continue to offer gsync only for the other CPU options.

Personally I am waiting for a 7820 without gsync. The only reason I did not buy this laptop when it first released with a 6820 was that I can grealy benefit from the video improvements in kaby lake for battery life and so waited explicitly so that I could get a 7820hk non gsync.

 

OK so I finally broke down and made a twitter account just so I could hopefully get some answers on non gsync options for the 7820HK: https://twitter.com/ZERO_ibis/status/819578400725749761

 

Looks like there is currently no plan to offer non gsync versions for the high end cpus anymore...

Maybe we need to get more people asking about this so they realize how many of us were waiting for kaby lake for the improved power efficiency.

I see someone made a great point about non gsync configs being offered in the past. Let us hope that Alienware sees the light and offers us some more options because I am sure they want our money and I am sure we want to give it to them just as soon as they offer the config we are looking for. I know I am!

 

Lol! Im waiting for the 4k non gsync 7820HK so that sounds about right (for my luck). Anyone here in Australia? Whats the go with the alienware site last 2 days? seems super confusing and u cant configure jack? WTF are they doing?!?

 

Better tell them you are waiting for that config! If they do not know we want it they very well can not sell it to us rofl! I created a twitter account after avoiding that thing like the plague just to let them know that I want the 7820HK with a non gsync monitor option on the 1070!

 

as soon as i saw that, i commented as well

 

Plan to order a new 15 R3 since the heatsink problems seem to be ok.
There are 2 options now, and it comes down to
1. I7 6700, 120Hz FHD G-SYNC for 250,000 JPY ( about 2200 UsD)
2. i7 7700, FHD IPS G-SYNC for 300,000 JPY ( about 2550 USD)

Is the new Kaby Lake worth to trade 120hz screen plus 300 $?

 

No, Intel's processors have been pretty consistent with gaining nearly no performance whatsoever. I've been using Intel since Haswell, they've been milking the 5% performance increases with each new revision. As much as I enjoy laughing about AMD releasing jokes of a GPU and CPU, Intel's 'new' Kabylake is just as big of a joke. Idk about laptops but the only thing it offers for desktops is 4K netflix capability lol

 

Just a heads up for those interested, finally got my 960 Pro from amazon. These drives pack some serious performance! This was with the Samsung NVMe 2.1 driver installed. I had to switch the laptop from RAID to AHCI mode to install the NVMe driver. Used the following procedure so I did not need to reinstall windows, worked like a charm!

http://triplescomputers.com/blog/un...ch-windows-10-from-raidide-to-ahci-operation/

 

Do you know if they released any firmware update for the Toshiba?

 

Kaby lake was a decent upgrade for Clevo models. Now you can finally run +5.2GHz And ram overclocking work as well much better