*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

Only a week in with new Alienware 17 R4 with 7820 CPU and 1080 GPU. Everything going swimmingly out of the box using OC1 but I have a problem with wake from sleep and it seems to have only started since patching to the Win 10 Creator's Update.
I use an external non-GSYNC 1920x1200 Dell U2413 as primary, laptop screen stays off. I put it to sleep ok from the desktop or by closing the lid but after pressing power to wake, both the internal and external displays will flicker intermittently forever. I can work around the problem by reseating the DisplayPort cable or, strangely, closing the lid until it goes to sleep again and reopening it. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue.

Tried:
Updating Intel Chipset drivers to 10.1.1.42
Updating iGPU and Nvidia drivers to latest

 

So I got my replacement laptop today. Just to recap, I originally had the stuttering issue with games such as Witcher 3 and Doom after about 15-20 minutes of playing. Downgrading the vbios resolved my issue, but Dell still sent me out a replacement because it's not supposed to happen.

After about 30 minutes with the replacement machine, the stuttering started happening again. I couldn't get it to start in Doom but it did start in Witcher 3 after about 10 minutes, directly following 20 minutes in Doom. So there goes that - it's more widespread than I thought. What's interesting is my CPU and GPU temps are about 8-10C less than on my original machine. I'm not sure if they did a special job on my machine since it's a replacement one. It took 2 weeks to get so...

I'll probably just live with the replacement and just downgrade the vbios since that seems to have resolved my issues. I wish I could get it to work with the newer vbios, like some others are. Perhaps I'm just stressing the machine a little more than I should. Or maybe it's a deeper issue. Either way, I don't think I'll be playing the repair/replace game any more.

 

you need to read this http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gtx1080-in-game-random-stutter-freeze.804499/

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing. I actually just got everything I need to repaste and repad the heatsink, so I'll probably be tackling it this week sometime. We'll see if that helps.

 

I am waiting for my 1080ti but I modified mine to be able to take in a evga ftw3. My modified I mean I made it into a open case lol.

 

Edit: honestly though it is bullcrap and if you want to you should just call it a day and try another laptop.

However, if you want to fix it.

Could be heat related due to the 15-20 min onset. I really think it could be thermal pad related. After getting the mobo replaced on my 17 r2 a couple times the thing somehow didnt even have thermal pads anymore. Adding them helped immensely.

 

This is some ********.
If your new PC is so sensitive to higher temps or more demanding games when it's brand new, imagine how it will be in a few months time when it's full on summer and the fans had time to gather a bit of dust...

Plus, you only found stability downgrading the vBIOS, taking a chance on a random file on the internet in no way supported or recognized by Dell.
This is already unnaceptable with a 300 dollar laptop and even less with a 3000 dollar one.

 

this is definitely a manufacturing issue. in a mass production facility, they can't customize each heatsink thermal pads to cater for each motherboard. All the thermal pads and heatsink came out from the same assembly line. because the heatsink is so wide, massive and it's made out of copper, it's very difficult for them to mass produce them to meet tight tolerances. for high end systems with GTX1080 with OC vBIOS, the margin for error is even smaller.

If you are one of the few lucky ones, you will have a system that is stutter free from factory. If you are not one of the lucky ones, you need to put in some work to fix this issue which i've detailed over here http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gtx1080-in-game-random-stutter-freeze.804499/

performing this is like doing a repaste, you simply shouldn't be doing it in the first place and expect a fully functional laptop out of the box. but in reality, this is not the case. a repaste is almost mandatory with such high end system and for the unlucky ones who have stuttering issue, a customized repad to fit your heatisnk to your motherboard is also mandatory.

Again i can't stress enough, downgrading the vbios is only a quick fix that ignores the underlying problem with your laptop's power delivery (PD) components cooling system. Playing games and stressing the laptop with the old vbios will highly likely shorten the life of your laptop because the PD components are already operating at temperatures exceeding their specifications.

And no, despite how many times you repaste or repad, if you are following the standard guide to repaste and repad, it's equal to not fixed in the first place.

 

yes i totally agree. this is how i fixed my system stuttering issue which i detailed in this guide
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gtx1080-in-game-random-stutter-freeze.804499/

this is by no means a standard guide, you will to personalize it to your own heatsink. but the main objective is the same, get all the thermal pads to make proper contact with the heatsink and the power delivery components

 

Yeah, you have a good point. I actually gave it a lot more thought last night and decided to just return it instead. I originally intended on repasting to improve temperatures, not fix problems. And considering there are a couple others that are having issues, even after multiple repaste and heat sink mods, it really worries me. I pulled the trigger on a good deal for an Aorus X7 DT last night and we'll see how that goes.

 

Right on bro. I think a repad would have fixed it but you made the right call. Screw the companies if they cant provide a working computer then they should make proportionally less based on their fail rate. Takes some balls to return cause who wants to wait for a whole new system but yeah let me know how it goes.

 

Yeah but did you fully fix your problem? Is yours completely stutter free now? Or is the onset just a few minutes later?

 

you guys are lucky to live in the states where you have lots of choices and don't need to live with this nonsense. for people living in asia like myself, the only systems on sale with GTX1080 are msi GT73VR and Alienware 17 R4.

Between the two, GT73VR is thick and made with plastic rubbish and the selling price is actually USD1000 more than alienware. totally not worth the price. and MSI is not honest as a company (at least not in asia) and i was one of the naive ones who got CONNED by their marketing trick saying GT72 with 980M is upgradable to future generation graphics card. In asia, we do not get compensated for anything and their support will ignore your request or simply tell you off. but their system is generally usable out of the box and you can't open them anyway in the first place due to some stupid warranty void sticker.

Alienware has QC issues out of the box which is yet another nonsense given how much we actually paid for this thing. but if you know what you are getting into and know what to do, the problems can be fixed and the fixed laptop is far better than MSI GT73VR in almost all aspects at any given day. And their support is far far better than MSI even though their technical guys are a bunch of morons.

so i choose the lesser of two evils.

 

If you can take a look at my thread, yes, i'm happy to report my system is completely stutter free now!

 

...you mean the Thread linked via your 7-last previous posts ?

 

this one http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gtx1080-in-game-random-stutter-freeze.804499/

 

Can you please share your average temps of CPU\GPU during gaming sessions?

 

i'll take a screen shot later, but GPU is about 65C+- (OC vBIOS, OC another 180MHz core, 250MHz Memory), and CPU about 85C+- on the hottest core and 75C+- on the coolest core. this is after playing BF1 more than one hour straight. Room temperature about 23C and im using traditional paste. no LM.

I have yet to resolve the CPU core temperature differential issue so if any of you have any ideas, i have also started a thread dedicated to this issue here http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...u-core-temperature-differential-issue.805062/

 

Thank you, still quite high temps I guess. Forgot to ask about PCH temp. What about it?

Wow, you did a lot of attempts to fix unevenness. I had 10C differentials. The proper bending (from the 2nd attempt) of the HS arm made all temps of the cores absolutely even. If I'm not mistaken iunlock stated in his guide, that excessive thermal pads also make the HS contact uneven, hence this floating temps..
Forgot to add, I sanded HS a bit as well.

 

Wow, you fixed your core differential problem. Now i have several questions for you
1. are you using LM?
2. did you change the thermal pads on top of the CPU for the chokes and VRM
3. do you have any tips you can share to even out your core temperature differential?

i have tried bending the arm many times, i even used 1mm pads on the VRM as opposed to iunlock's guide 1.5mm. nothing works. If i'm running just OCCT, my max cpu temp is about 78C on the hottest core at 4.1GHz undervolt 100mV. I'm using grizzly kryonaut traditional paste.

My PCH temp is 65-70C max. i added a small aluminium heatsink to the PCH with a thickness of just of 3mm. 5mm is a no go, even 4mm is quite tight to be comfortable. you can see the entire motherboard bend downwards.

 

1. yes, Conductonaut
2. I've changed all thermal pads with Alphacool Eisschicht 14W/mK pads (couldn't found Fujipoly in the UK, but Alphacool seems pretty good) using this iunlock's config: http://imgur.com/RiHAK93
3. As I mentioned in the previous message, the only thing which helped is a good bending of the arm and also I added a bit more LM. And I didn't change the positions of the pads after first repaste, I left them as they were. I would love to have some pressure paper (film), but even in small amounts it costs quite a lot: http://amzn.to/2q7Kioy, and I decided to go without it.

I'm also on a new vBIOS and my CPU max temps are around 78C and GPU ~67C without OC, but unlocked power limits (OCCT+FurMark or AIDA64 FPU+GPU stress test). If I limit CPU back to stock, then max temps: CPU ~60C and GPU ~62C.

I also did PCH mod (15x15x3.9mm), but if I'm doing OCCT+FurMark GPU or AIDA64 FPU+GPU stress test, PCH temp can go up to 92C (this is without any OC on CPU and GPU, only unlocked power limits) and 84C if CPU PLs are locked.. I think the size of the HS must be slightly bigger, will redo eventually.

And yes, stressing the system using OCCT+FurMark GPU or AIDA64 FPU+GPU usually will give higher temps than gaming and may be treated as unrealistic loads..

 

just as i suspected. LM fixed the cpu core differential issue on your laptop. by putting more LM on the area (usually upper half of the CPU die) not making proper contacts with the heatsink, you effectively bridged the gap with LM which has 7x the thermal conductivity of the best traditional paste like kryonaut. the arm bending trick is basically pointless. it add no addtional tension to the already weak arm. pressure paper is a complete waste of money. you dont need fancy stuff like that to tell if you have a gap issue. just apply traditional paste, attach the heatsink, then remove the heatsink and it will show u clearly almost the same result as pressure paper.

it does not have to be fujipoly, any decent thermal pads will do. your cpu temps are good with LM. and as we already know, LM does no magic to the GPU, as u you are basically getting the same GPU temps as traditonal good paste. your PCH temp is extremely high, im using a 20x20x3.0mm aluminium heatsink attached to the PCH with thermal double tape to keep it in place. 70C max i'm getting for PCH is with PL1&2 at 100W, CPU OC to 4.1GHz, GPU OC 180MHz. my laptop is also resting on a cooler master U3 Plus. u probably just need to raise your laptop a bit. without any PCH mod, under the same condition im getting in excess of 86C for PCH reaching even as high as 90C

 

Nice trick with the traditional paste, will take a note.
Have you tried AIDA64 FPU+GPU or OCCT with some GPU stressing together? Or these temps are from gaming sessions?
I've lifted backside of the laptop by 5 cm, so I think it should be enough. Probably I need a bigger heatsink for PCH.

 

those temps are what i got from playing BF1 for more than one hour straight. if it's just synthetic benchmarks like OCCT or firestrike, the PCH will not even go past 60C. if your back is already lifted, you might only need a wider heatsink. what's the temperature of your PCH for gaming sessions? im asking because this is a more realistic gauge as compared to stressing it with software like furmark etc..

 

Understood. During 2-3 hours of BF1 PCH goes up to 82C, if running only CPU stress tests in AIDA64\OCCT it goes no further than 65C. PCH usually heats most from GPU.
I've ordered 30x20x6 and 20x20x6, will try both starting from the first.

 

does that mean i should lower gpu to help with the pch?

 

Has anyone populated the new Optane M.2 slot and configured it with a 16GB / 32GB Optane module for use?

How well does it work for improving performance of the HDD / SSD?

Where did you order the Optane module, or did you get it from Dell?

We've been discussing it here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-unrated-version.801192/page-14#post-10531495

 

Alienware: EVERY day I get annoyed and pissed. >.< i forgot to read the part about PCH temp. THUS i forgot to buy a chopper shim. So my question is, is there a quick fix like putting thermal pad on it.... (i am out of the country and where I am it will take some times to find what I need. I ordered 3 packs of conductonat because the thermal paste they use here is worse than Dell's toothpaste)

SO any quick fix till i can get the part made or have someone bring it in?

good laptop but I kind of feel that dell should have fixed a lot of this. Example the 512gb toshiba SSD, they should replace all of them with Samsung.

 

Yeah, it has enough problems..
I think the only way to lower the PCH temps is a mounted heatsink. I don't think that thermal pad (even several layers of it) will improve heat dissipation from PCH, on the contrary, it may worsen the temps..

 

Boy I'm feeling REALLY lucky to not have this stuttering problem out of the box. I had a ton of issues with my prior machine (as did everyone really) which was an AW18 780 SLI and was kinda cringing pulling the trigger on yet another AW rig but so far (apart from the sleep/wake issue I mentioned few pages back) it's been a real gaming beast. Funny story, my order was put on 'parts hold' over a problem they were FULLY aware of (US people getting a Brazil power cord) so I ended up getting $100 refund for my troubles and then when the order finally arrived, you guessed it, I got a Brazil power cord.

 

Dell Alienware support keeps denying that this is a problem. Went as far as to say hwinfo was not giving the right reading and unlesss the CPU or GPU exceeds 100c this isn't a problem.

It's like the iPhone 4. Apple fixed it by giving everyone free cases.

How much will it cost Dell to send everyone a heatsink or state they will replace it at any authorized retailer?

There is a reason Apple is apple and Dell Alienware is just a rebranded Dell.

 

Mind if I ask if a heat sink 14 x 14 x 6mm will it fit the PCH?

I am trying to find a alternative. Or one that will fit

 

14x14x6 will fit, but the height should be ~4mm, i.e. 14x14x4, you'll have to cut it. I would take a bigger one, at least 20x20, as I have 15x15x4 now and it's not that good.

 

As what @Niarus said, 4mm height is the absolute max thickness you should use for the PCH heatsink, and your system will be a lot more comfortable at 3+mm. 20x20 is a good size, just right. i believe a 22x22 will fit as well, but i personally use a 20x20x3mm

 

I am modding a raspberry PI heatsink for this lol (yep the getto style, but this apprelty is the only "quick fix" for me right now)

So would it work if I add 2 instead of one? Or would that have a negative effect. 1 heatsink covers one half the other the other half.

 

the best heatsink for the PCH is to have a thin base, with lots of tall fins, and all that should fit under 4mm. That way it can increase the amount of surface area for maximum heat dissipation. the material is preferably aluminium because of it's thermal density properties and you will need some kind of weak or light airflow. Believe me, with just PCH mod, it can only prolong the time before PCH temperature hit 80C+ but with just a bit of airflow, even a weak one, will give almost 10C additional reduction.

 

Does anyone here know what these parts are/mean? (laptop is AW 17 R4 with GTX 1080)

Qty Part # Description
1 26GHT SHP MTL,BOX,ALIENWARE,CASSINI
1 H307N INFO,SVC,RTN-WYBL,GND,CMPTCHS

 

There is a quick fix to this but I don't think it is adviced.

I bought a cooler master notepad 3

http://www.coolermaster.com/mobile/notepal-series/notepal-u3/

I put ALL the fans near the middle and lifed the back end of the laptop up by 2cm.

With lowering the CPU to 4ghz and this seems to bring it down to 48°c at idle and (BF1) 58°c at sever loading screen (will keep this updated at i test it on BF1)

 

From the last post till now I played one game and it went up to 70°c quoting the game brings it down to 54°c and it's still dropping. CPU was at around 65°c

 

ya, im using a coolermaster U3+ which raised the laptop quite a bit and adjusting the fan position to concentrate near the PCH area. temps drop by a significant 10C+. your new temps looks good

 

Is the shuttering problem that people are referring to happening in the new Kabylake Alienware 17 r4 or only in the older skylark model?

 

I was having mine with the kaby qhd 1080

 

Hi I'm going to purchase refurbished aw 17 r4 7820hk with gtx 1080, 120hz panel 1440p. I read posts in last few weeks here and I Seen many ppl talking about that pch does all kabylake have that issue and cpu overheat? It's quiet expensive machine and I don't want to have issues out of the box. I'm happy to repasted it needed but nothing else. I'm not specialist

 

That's the one I was looking at. Did you send it back?

 

This is my second one and yes I'm sending it back. It might be worth the effort to try and fix it but there are other options available so I thought I'd give them a try. If they all suck, I'll just stick with my GS73VR and my desktop. I was hoping to replace both with one, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

Do you like your gs73vr? I'be been trying to decide on a laptop to purchase for a couple months and haven't found one I'm totally sold on. I guess I just need to order something and give it a try for myself, I'm open to almost anything just want something that will last

 

All brands and models have their share of problems. Yes most msi work fine out of the box, but their problems like quality issue is not possible to fix by the user. They have a warranty void sticker in place, they use cheap plastic, their display have dead pixels all over, overpriced and not honest as a company overall.

Alienware has cpu core temperature differential problems out of the box though it is improved in kaby lake models but it is still there, some tolerance issue with their heatsink and thermal pads and most of the time the thermal performance is not that good out of the box. But if you are willing to put some work to fix them, the end result is you will get the very best laptop out there now, in almost all aspects.

I own both msi and Alienware and I can attest to that. And I will choose Alienware in a heart beat.

 

About the most I I think I could do is repaste, I was very close to ordering the Alienware 17 r4 with 1080 until I saw people complaining about the shuttering issue. Would I be better off getting a different model or lower end gpu to avoid this? Which Alienware do you have?

 

The stuttering issue is officially discussed here. It can be fixed. In fact all the thermal issues with Alienware can be fixed. The problems are mostly tolerance issue and thermal paste quality.

I have both Alienware 17 R4 Skylake and kaby lake gtx 1080. Both laptops came with cpu core temperature differential problem. Obviously Skylake is a lot worse. I have yet to get this issue fixed, but it's not something very serious because my hottest core at 4.1GHz during long gaming session is still lower than 85C and the coolest core is about 75C. Acceptable I would say. I got my kaby lake early this month. You can read more here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...u-core-temperature-differential-issue.805062/

As for stuttering issue, I didn't have it in Skylake, but I got it in kaby lake. I have opened up a thread dedicated to this as well. Short answer is yes, it can be fixed. It is also a hit or miss so it very much depends on your luck. You can read more here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...gtx1080-in-game-random-stutter-freeze.804499/

 

I would not feel comfortable trying to fix this problem myself on a $3000 laptop. Does this problem only exist in the Gtx 1080 model?