*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R2/R3 Owner's Lounge

@sagarbhathwar: I recommend you open it up yourself and spend little time during saturday or sunday. Yeah Matlab, R studio and VS eats CPU for lunch unlike games that use GPU.

 

Dell is sending in a replacement motherboard this Wednesday. I'm not sure whether to accept it or not, since the replacement is refurbished. All I can think of is that since my entire motherboard has taken a hammering in the past two months or so(and more hammering in the past year due to intense work, compilation of projects, R, Matlab, Deep Learning, gaming etc.), I think I should just accept the replacement motherboard.

What is your opinion people?

EDIT - If I have to repaste my current the replacement motherboard, my only option Is Arctic MX-4. Nothing else available in India

 

Is it free or paid? Can do a repaste after replacing the board?

 

Free due to extended warranty(I purchased extended warranty and I guess it is paying off with a replacement motherboard!)

 

how much did you pay? Just inspect the board and check it with a game before leaving the tech. Are you in Mumbai?

 

I'm in Bangalore

Paid 14K for one year because I have too many important work and needed a gurantee for the next one year of my studies incase something goes awry.
Yes I will run a game for 30min(Witcher 3, usually for testing) and make sure everything is fine.

 

I've heard from three independent sources that Dell actually replaces with new parts, just naming them refurbished due to *cough* *reasons undisclosed*. How true is this?

 

Yes it is true. But there's another thing as well, someone complains board issues and dell replaces them. After taking it to their depot/service center they'd check the board for same issues if everything is working fine, then it becomes a refurb too. I can't say if its true or false.
I asked dell about warranty extension they didn't reply even after a month. Thanks for the pricing.

 

Makes me worried about the motherboard I'll be getting Can someone assert your experience with parts replacement(esp motherboard)?

thanks

 

Can You Please enter other options? There must be more than a single thermal paste option.

 

Yes @Papusan only MX4 is available at the moment in India. We're running out of options.

 

I have Masscool Fanner 420 laying around but I think Arctic MX-4 should be much much better

 

MX-2 and 4 are quite similar(Mx-2 in the test). But Masscool Fanner 420 is really bad. Stay far away from it. Old unknown test, but this does not look good. A unknown paste brand for me. Not much info.

 

So, my replacement motherboard + fans + heatsink is coming in tomorrow and I have a few questions.

1. How do I completely clean thermal paste off the heat sink? What should I use?

2. I have Arctic silver MX-4(best available in India for low price). What is the best method to apply(single spot, cross, spread etc)?
How much to apply?

3. What temperatures are considered ideal for i7-6700HQ and GTX 970M while under heavy gaming?

4. VERY IMPORTANT: Which BIOS version should I flash?(1.3.10 seemed really stable to me but, any older version is better?)

Looking forward for all your opinions

Thanks

 

See all in blue

 

Anyone likes to add anything further?

Thank you

 

@sagarbhathwar: If you're confused on how much amount of TIM to apply, refer my post [Q] AW 17" R3 / AW 15" R2- Repaste now or wait until your warranty expires?
As for BIOS, 1.3.10 is the stable and last version of BIOS you'd see for 17 r3 because its EOL.

 

Motherboard was just replaced and I'm stumped! The surface is still heating like crazy!!

I checked every possible cable inside and everything looks so normal! I don't have a clue what to do!

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

 

It needs a repaste. Anyway, you can disable or uninstall Dell provided SW like Dell Support Assist, Foundation services and other Dell Apps.

 

It is very hard for us to knwo whats up because its all subjective data. we need actual temepraturea and locations to be able to help you.

 

I re-applied Arctic MX-4. My friend is going to US shortly, maybe I will import Kryonaut or Conductonaut from him.

Okay, I have been testing from two days and all I can say is, now my laptop run much cooler than it used to(it's still a little hot while playing Witcher 3 on ultra high settings, though my laptop isn't made to play it at 25FPS). And here is the temps while playing W3 for 15 min. It get pretty hoy above the keyboard, and a little hot around "DFG" keys. Right side remains relatively cooler. But this heat is way little compared to my previous burning hot keyboard.

I really wonder what was wrong with the previous motherboard. Or is it proper application of thermal paste that determines if the heat doesn't escape to the surface?

 

If you applied the paste correctly then you're good to go. But I still think 60C at 6% load is too high unless you've your IDEs running in background. HWinfo is a very good tool try posting its sensor status. I'd say turn off SQL VSS writer service and set the startup type to manual. Kill VsHub.exe after closing VS2015( Its telemetry after your build/compile each time and it collects data about running time, CPU/GPU usage etc.
Just Open command prompt as admin and type the following:

1. cd C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
2. ngen eqi /nologo /silent
3. cd C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
4. ngen eqi /nologo /silent

Note that it will take some time to compile .net libraries and optimise it for your PC rather than generic ones.

 

Hmm 86c under full load is still a tad high though. Unless you have a high ambient temp.

 

Avg room temps ranges between 30-35C. So, its okay.

 

Oh wow thats a whole 10c higher than what i am used to

 

At morning its more, could reach 35-38C, its tiring to walk during this temp.

 

I cant even imagine that. i wouldnt survive it. its 10c outside today here and in the office 18.5c which is a tad cold though.

 

One hour on Assassin's creed unity. Keyboard surface remains amazingly cool(just a little warm) but CPU temps skyrocketing to 95C. I guess it is unavoidable? Liquid Metal paste is the only way to go?

P.S. - The CPU load shown by Realtemp is a red herring. Don't buy that

 

I think you aren't fixing or aligning heat sink properly. At the max, 85-87C is acceptable with normal paste. Use HWINfo64 and post the temps. Realtemp doesn't tell the whole story.

 

Well thank you Dell for such an amazing motherboard replacement. I just feel like donating my laptop to colder countries who are not able to afford heaters. 99C? This is the highest temp ever reached by my laptop. Praise the lord for thermal throttling too. Praise the lord for 10 FPS drop in Witcher 3. Praise the lord for warming my fingers(yes, this problem is back again!) I really don't have a clue what to do with this overpriced overheating laptop!

Regarding heatsink fixing, the dell technician fixed it and I feel he fixed it okay. Also applied Arctic MX-4 the way @Vasudev had shown in his thread.

 

Rather give a big thanks to Intel WHO take their Own Responsibility for implementing different types of Throttling techniques in their chips. This way y00 don't need to use your precious time to fire up your machine several times a day after thermal shutdown @iunlock when will this see a end? With next revamped models?

 

What can you expect from a monkey tech? Quality reassembly? Nope. This is no secret as we know about the horror stories of these monkey techs that do not know what they are doing. Very said indeed...

 

This means y00 expect future owners of next revamped models will experience exactly the same? Perhaps Dell will go back to 4 legs cpu heatsink and cooling for PCH. Aka a new or old feature... Select what fits y00 can dream

 

@sagarbhathwar
Even after repaste, cpu temps rising upwards of 90C is really bad and terrible. Did you use isopropyl alcohol to clean old paste? Did the tech do it correctly by aligning the screws?
Check your Page file usage it is abnormal. If you've 16GB or more, set page file size to 512MB or less. Don't set it to Auto. Disable hibernate on SSD.

 

Do a stress test that fully stresses all cpu cores. Because from what I see, there is a 10c difference between cores. Which could indicate that the heatsink you have is faulty or faulty assembled.

The screws need to be tightened in a certain pattern. Some heatsink have numbers on them to show what pattern but in general you tighten them in a cross pattern. Which might not be done in this case.

 

Yes @rinneh it looks like a faulty HSF placement by the tech and didn't screw in according to the numbers written on heatsink.
@sagarbhathwar: I think you can attempt to do a repaste yourself and also use sand paper preferably from 3M with grit 400 to even out the heatsink surface. Note that you use the sand paper in one direction either horizontal or vertically.

 

Can u please explain me how page file usage shows me improper alignment of Heat sink? Looks interesting

AS far as I remember, the tech guy tightened the screws in some arbitrary order. And Dell said they sent the 'senior most' engineer for the MB and heatsink replacement. What a joke
I have attached the screenshots of full CPU stress test by Intel XTU. Don't ask me to run Prime95, I do not want to burn my CPU!

I really wish I was capable of opening the extremely complex arrangement and moreover, had the time to do it amidst my college coursework. And I think 10C temp difference is absolutely inevitable. My older motherboard + heatsink had 20-22C difference between Core 1 and Core 4. Only prob is the temps is super high!

I asked issue escalation to L3 level, and the L3 guy says the system is functioning normally . I think i will throw this in the electronics waste bin after my exams

 

You can run AIDA64 system stability test. Check only Stress FPU and GPU box. Uncheck all the other boxes. This is a known - valid test, that you can show DELL's support. They can not sneak away if the result is appalling-awful with massive throttling.

 

This is another Prime95 Believe me, the temp shot up to 96C the second I pressed start.

And insane thermal throttling! 3.1GHz to 2.5GHz!! Unbelievable! Any dell representative here who can assert that my laptop is fit for the garbage bin?

 

Awful!!
I have seen @Alienware-K_Castro on the FORUM friday. I have taged him for y00.

 

Thanks a lot @Papusan . I have undervolted the CPU my 150mV. undervolting by 200mV caused the system to shutdown. Undervolting by 150mV, the CPU temps remain within 80C and no thermal throttling. I don't understand how this works though.

Is there a way to disable turbo boosting in Intel XTU?

 

Yeah, undervolt will help a bit on this mess.
Have never tried crippling power in any of my machines.
I would never do that. But You could change processor power settings in Windoze power plan. Aka reduce processor performance % for high and low power if you understand what I mean. Try also ThrottleStop. Ask in ThrottleStop guide for more info. Tag in TS author @unclewebb
But DELLIENWARE should-have to fix your machine or refund your money!! I wouldn't accept this.

 

Abolutely, though I think refund is out of questions due to one year old + foreign import.

Anyways, -150mV caused WHEA_EXCEPTION and Windows shut down. I have kept 99% as maximum processor state so that turbo boost is disabled. Staying below 80C now

 

You need to find what voltage that will fit your chips. Not all chips are equal. Decrease your voltage offset if your processor crash. Small step down to everything is stable for your workflow.

 

@sagarbhathwar: You're misinterpreting. Page file has nothing to do with HSF placement. I just asked to check the values because you've 8 GB of RAM and page file values were huge that's what I told to confirm.
I know you have strict schedule for coursework because I'm doing similar coursework too. I did dedicate a whole saturday for repaste and on sunday a full day of stress test incl. OCCT, Heaven, FS and TS.

 

Oh, I have 16GB Ram. And, whats the optimal page file size for 16GB?

I could dedicate an entire day so that I can use the laptop with peace. But I lack the skills to open it

 

DId they replace the heatsink at some point? It really seems your heatsink is not really okay. Especially if you had a 20c difference before the repaste.

 

Heat sink replaced three times

 

I would put it to 800MB. For kernel memory dumps, the page file must be at least 800 MB on systems with 8 GB of RAM or more. Have the possibility for reading kernel dumps might be useful. Hence why I suggesting the minimum 800 MB for page file.

 

Hmm makes it even more difficult to assess whats up. clearly something is not assembled correctly.