*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

i know the feeling bro.

-bought the initial one from best buy....but it overheated like crazy.
-went ahead and considered tech support usable,instead of repasting it myself.
-stayed 3 hours with a chick from phone tech supp, and she said, after 3 hours that 98C is ok on the CPU.
-hung up,called again, this time i got a latin guy that agreed that 98 is hellishly hot,and we need to fix it
-dell sent a fedex box, sent it in a box.
- it came back, with paper saying fan and heatsink changed. right side neon lights strip wouldnt turn on all the way, and color was dodgy.
-called dell again, they sent a field tech that didnt respect time of day or date we established for his visit,because who the f*ck cares, , field tech came with a new cover and wire, managed to break off the neon jack on the motherboard. he opened the laptop again.
-after trying again to install it, he fried the mb. laptop wouldnt turn on. he also forgot to put in 3 screws.
-called dell again,sent it in, asked for repair to be urgent, cause i was leaving the US. they swore that it will be fixed in less than 20 days.
-15 days in, repair status was still on hold. part needed not in stock.
-called dell again, like 15 times, 2 times a day, got 3 support techs to escalate the case, got in touch with their ****ty tech support manager.
-he nodded his head and said he cant do anything. eventually he said hell ask exchange team to replace it, but cant guarantee.
-4 days in, and exchange team says they are considering a replacement, but in 2 weeks time,minimum.
left the US without a laptop, had to beg a guy to hand carry it in europe, to give it to another guy,to bring it home.
-finally got it.
-applied to transfer the US warranty from MY name to an international warranty...2 months and nothing.
-I reapplied to it...still nothing.
-laptop overheated again, repasted it myself without breaking any wire, because i'm not an effing retard.
-laptop finally works flawlessly
-total time wasted on getting second unit: 48 days.
-asked dell support to extend warranty with 48 days, they said that it''s ok you're still covered by the 1st august 2018 warranty due date. no extension.

Dell's workers are the peak of incompetence ,if there is one.
premium or regular warranty means ****....just money down the toilet.
premium hotline is like regular hotline, sometimes it gets calls forwarded if regular's too full of regular customers (dell tech said so)
nothing differs from premium to regular.
same BS.

if anyone from Dell is reading this, you guys should fire all your retarded field techs and do a thorough clean-up of phone support idiots.
they are gonna be the death of you guys.

 

Hi,
Sorry to hear your pain.

To be fair to the techs - I didnt face the insane call cycles you did. The techs responded fast and came home on the time they promised (once they got the parts). Maybe it was because I am not in US right now (though the system was bought from US).

My issue is with the quality of design (and therefore the high probability of failure for repairing even simple things like space-bar) - I think that they know how to design better laptops (e.g. Latitudes), and should use those learnings for Alienware.

Doesn't mean what they did with your system service request was right - it is a true horror story. I can just hope things improve. But now - I am not going to buy another Alienware (and from what people say - no Asus etc either.. whats left ( ). Maybe Dell Precision!

 

Mind you, Dell designed Aw m17x R4 and Aw m18x R1/2. Probably the best quality of design ever made for any laptops. Dell turned completely around and screwed up from the 2013 models. Aka last gen AW laptops with socket hardware.

 

just had my 4-year-old m18 mother board replaced with 1 month left on warranty I buy a new alienware every four years because of the service

 

You could ask for a replacement. Next time repaste it yourself to save the trouble. The motherboard is near mint condition. Also, you have added an 8GB Crucial Memory as well.
You need everything new, bottom case door, entire palmreset, a new display. Might as well push for replacement. They will its refurb, don't worry about you will have your board swapped into new body. Like a live transplant. If you're lucky they might give you a KabyLake one with locked CPU or unlocked CPU.
Where do you live?

 

These techs are idiots. Like literally. (specially the ones in India, i know because im from india, and sister used to have a Dell Inspiron or something)
It took me an hour and a half the first time to take the whole system apart, swap the motherboard ( from 7700HQ / GTX 1060 to 6820HK / GTX 1080) , change the display cable and the LCD (FYI this does not need the whole hinge to come off, as most resources online state) and then put it back again. Also did a repaste (No thermal pads changed yet, going to do that tonight), just for kicks.
And this is coming from a person who has no prior experience with Alienwares.

 

Okay thats a relief,that MB swap works . BTW, where did you buy those Clevo's from? I want to know badly, so far I came across Azom but they aren't p870dm3.

 

I'm in California so.... HIDevolution

As for the motherboard swap, gonna be mindful of the native To vs IR tobii. Otherwise the diagnostics will freak out, at least without a modded bios.

 

You moved to CA. How is the keyboard generally on p870dm3, is that too compact for 17" like Phoenix said.

 

Garbage.
AW 17's keyboard is way better.

 

Then how do you use the laptop w/o keyboard?

 

How is it not in policy for you to get a replacement? After 4 attempts to fix it or more you should be looking pretty good to their replacement callmakers. Hopefully you just mean they havent tried enough times yet.

 

External keyboards.
Both at work and at home, if it's the latter then I'm mostly using the DM3.
Now at work I replaced the DM1 with the AW.

 

Any other Clevo's come to your mind that can beat AW.?

 

Plenty of them. But it will depend on what you are looking for. There are a bunch of Clevo's that have way better cooling, and price/performance ratio. ( @D2 Ultima , can point you in the right direction).
But if its build quality you want, then those Clevo's dont come close. Obviously with AW's you will need to respaste and stuff in most cases.
End of the day, i was looking for a 6700HQ/7700HQ system with a 1060, and i found this was barely used on NBR marketplace for $1000 Shipped with 2 years of Microsoft Complete Warranty. So picked it up and swapped out the motherboard and LCD panel to the UHD. All in all spent about $1600 in total.

 

Essentially you got an AW cherry picked by MSFT. That's good to hear. So, at the end of the day: You need both Clevo and AW. Clevo for RAW number crunching and true Gaming Machine. AW for balancing game/work, correct? NBR sells refurb electronics too? I didn't know.

 

Not quite.
Clevo for Benching with Mr. Fox , JohnKsss and Prema
AW for time pass games at work, on the go, random stuff, media etc. (Wasn't cherry picked, just jumped on a great deal over at the FS forums)

For Number crunching i have these -
Desktop - 6850k , 128Gb RAM 3200Mhz CL15, 2 x GTX 1080Ti.
Workstation - 2 x Xeon 2699V3 , 256GB 2400Mhz ECC (128 GB Per processor) , 1 x Titan XP.

Very unlike what most users would need

 

Are a working in a military? Which revision of Titan XP is it? The first one or recently released along w/ 1080Ti.

 

Nope. I work in the VFX industry.
Its the first one, not the new one.

 

What exactly are you looking for?

 

Excellent question .. as per them it is so because I bought it in US, but now I am in India (atleast for several months). It doesnt make sense to me - the amount of parts they are replacing + time being spent is just too much - it may have been better to replace it from economical perspective.
I also called US support in case I can get it replaced when I get back - they will start the process from scratch though. Looks like they operate differently - and cannot honor each other's work.

 

I'll PM you because I don't want to hijack AW with Clevo.

 

Can anyone correct me on this if im wrong -

6820HK + GTX 1080 + B173ZAN01.0 (UHD/4k) = No Gsync = Optimus Should be working?

6820HK + GTX 1080 + B173QTN01.4 (QHD / 2k 120Hz) = Gsync = Optimus Should not be working?

If the first case is correct, how does one make sure that optimus is working? Because no matter what i do, or what order i install the drivers in, i cannot see the Intel Graphics control panel.
Pressing Fn+7 , shows the switching to Hybrid mode window and the restart now button. But after the restart, nothing changes, the primary is still Nvidia.

 

Alienware, even with the button installed, does not always have a MUX.

The B173ZAN01.0 is a gsync panel.

Optimus working means your control panel is threadbare as Intel's arguements against AMD threadripper.

You probably have a motherboard that doesn't have the MUX switch but will give you the option to reboot into optimus anyway. Welcome to Alienware.

 

Hey everyone. I've been out of the AW game for a couple years now. Previously I had an awesome M18X R2 that was a beast. I ended up parting it out to help fund other projects (still have have a spare LCD cover in Space Grey and the daughter board.....). I am gearing up to deploy again and need a system that I can use to game on and do some schooling on. I was looking at a lot of different models (various MSI's, Clevo's, and AW's). Was about to bite the bullet on a 17R4 w/ a 7700, 1070, and 1080 screen when I remembered about the Dell Outlet. Found a few systems I liked, but they kept getting purchased before I could submit. Finally last night I was able to pull the trigger. Ended up getting a 7820, 1080, 1440 screen for a great deal. It doesn't come with an SSD and only 8GB of RAM, but that's easily fixed.

I am excited as I've been out of PC gaming for a while. It's unfortunate that the CPU and GPU are no longer upgradeable in these systems, but I feel my days of tinkering and modding my laptops are behind me. If anything, I'll build a desktop and have fun with that.

I've began doing some research on these systems. I plan on repasting and changing out the pads. It appears that Conductonaut is the rage these days and Fujipoly is still some of the best pads available. Anything else I should be concerned about? Any tips and advice will be greatly appreciated. (And yes I am doing some research on my own, but it takes time going through all the threads and posts about these systems.)

 

Try reinstalling both nvidia and intel drivers. If this dosent work contact alienware support.

Yes qhd panel has gysnc but no optimus.

The 4k AUO panel has Optimus and is a gysnc panel unless you get the sharp 4k panel which is not gysnc, however it doesn't matter which 4k panel you get as gysnc is not enabled on the motherboard on the 4k alienware versions.

 

Already did not. Im not dealing with Dell/Alienware support. If i cant fix it, or get Optimus to work, doesnt really matter to me tbh.

Gotcha, yeah thats what i have heard, If the Panel is Gsync and its enabled on the motherboard, Optimus wont work.

My 4k is a stock AUO panel, it does not have the EDID, so if it indeed is GSYNC compatible on AW systems, then that would be why. Either ways its probably contused because of the non AW Panel EDID being read, but the panel info matches the whitelist or whatever.
Either ways, i couldnt care less about GSync, was just wondering if i can get Optimus working.

Thanks for the input though!

 

The AUO panel is the better 4k panel for speed and blacks over the sharp 4k version.
I press fn and f7 and it prompts me as per the image I've attached... to either Optimus or performance switchable graphics ...

I have the 4k version alienware 17 r4

 

Errm.. yeah. Thing is that my 4k Panel is not from AW/Dell.

But yeah i get this -


After the restart though nothing happens. Im still not able to get the Intel Graphics Control panel, even thouhg the drivers are installed and its working fine in the Device manager.
Im pretty sure its because my motherboard is confused because the Panel is GSync Compatible, but the EDID is wrong.

 

So, I was able to pick up an open boxed AW17 R4 from Best Buy today. I see one pixel on white screen it's kinda black and on a black screen it looks light blue/white.

Also, can you do resolution scaling? Like, it's a 1080p screen, but I want to put it at 1440p and downsample to 1080p? I don't see the option in the NVidia CP.

I like this screen a heck a lot better than the MSI GS63VR I bought about a month ago. Trying to compare to see which one to keep. That's a little off topic as to the thread though, so, just about the pixel and the resolution downsample issue.

edit: scrap the DSR, I got it sorted. It's available in NVidia CP now.

 

A little help with HWINFO64 here ... I have 2 temperatures on my SSD. Before only 1. Which one do I believe? How do I get HWINFO to scan my SSD options again? I do not want to reinstall ...

 

Hi is there any dell representative or anyone who can contact them?
or anyone who can help me cause this problem really dissapointed me

mine come with FullHD panel, i7 7700HQ, gtx1070, 16GB and 128GB+1TB with tobii+win10
bought this in malaysia while i live in indonesia
the seller claim this is the 2nd batch and i believe him cause i know him really well

the problem is
the CPU is have high temperature and the difference between each core can reach up to 10 degrees
and the GPU itself really hot reach up to 91
i watched it with HWInfo and HWmonitor and giving stress test with AIDA64 only for 7 minutes
repasted already with grizzly kryonaut
yes there is no throttling detected
but 91 on GPU and 10 degrees differences in CPU while others only 80 in GPU ?

contacted dell already
they sent the heatsink and the fan, which i think still normal in their BIOS check (forget what it was called)
they sent the heatsink and the fan 3 times already and none of it can be attached to my laptop
and the problem is the socket for the left screw is in different location, about 0,5 cm (same thing happened to all of them)
here it is (bottom one is the one come with the laptop)



and dell give me 2 options
1. claim back to malaysia to replace with new unit, and dell indonesia can't help it since i buy it in malaysia
2. wait (again) till the next fan or heatsink come again, and this time they going to send everything including the motherboard cause i dont think the fan or heatsink is the problem

yes i appreciate them with everything they did, but c'mon three times it tooks months and all of it could not be attached to my laptop ????
anyone can give me any other option? or other suggestion if i just have to wait or replace it with the new one?

thank you

 

Send you a private message...

 

RAID or AHCI? It could be OP'ed partition. I believe second one is more precise or align with your usage. BTW, do you have Samsung RAPID enabled? Is 960 Pro updated to latest NVMe driver and firmware?

 

Can anyone vouch for how hard/easy it is to do the LCD swap? Reading that it uses clips (which break) and tape (which stops sticking) to stay on is kinda worrysome on being able to take it off and then put it back on and have it secure. Still waiting on the exchange unit (hearing itl be about 22 days....) and know that i'm gonna have to replace the worse-than-TN LCD thats on it if i decide to keep it.

 

So yesterday while working on a simple Word document on Google Drive I got RKO'd outta nowhere!!

.... I mean... I got a BSOD out of nowhere!
Something related to Whea Uncorrectable Error... I never had it...

I was on S1.1.7 BIOS. Just updated now to 1.1.8 and also installed latest chipset drivers, let's see if it doesn't happen again.

Luckily I was working on Google Drive so I didn't lose any work. Otherwise I would be pi-i-i-i-ssed!

 

Did you overclock? Did you have dump file, if so use Blue Screen view from nirsoft. Could be killer driver too, I got it suddenly and updated to latest version and so far no issues.

 

No overclock or undervolt present.
No dump file, computer stayed frozen on BSOD at 0%...
Yeah I updated Killer too. Let's see

 

Remove the older version completely using Revo or similar. Then install the new version.

 

I find it amazing these newbee 's that think absolute stability is the norm luck has nothing to do with it

 

LOL

I find it funny these oldies used to broken machines that think getting a BSOD while working and doing NOTHING close to hard work on a machine is quite allright.

I'll just type the last 2 pages again, amirite?

Had 2 Clevos before this Alienware, one MSI GS70, a GS40 and a GS60. Across all of these machines I only had one BSOD. It was on my P770DM and it was because the CPU fried so yes I was preocupied that something was wrong

Maybe I'm just new to Alienware. I mean screw the customer right!? My unit only took 2 months to get fixed properly. God knows I've only known stability and out-of-the-box usability from my 17 R4.

/s

 

hey guys, been reading this thread since the beginning, was actually the deciding factor on me getting an AW17, thought id share my experience. So after looking around trying to find the best deal, since i dont have a big enough budget to get the top end 1080 model. i found a reburbished aw17 on ebay, sold by a dell partner reseller, but as luck would have it, it was cancellation stock, so basically brand new. when i finally got the machine, the temps on the gfx were fine, but the cpu was hitting 100c from just booting up windows, but since the machine came with 3 years worth of warranty, i decided to give dell a call. Not only did they send out a technican the next day, they also brought a brandnew heatsink + thermal pads (altho i told them i was thinking it was a mishap on the paste application) the tech did all the disasembly, but he let me apply my own thermal paste and reseat the heatsink (thermal grizzly kryonaut used). so once the machine was reassembled, booted it up, temps were now down to 35c at idle, did a benchmark with prime95, max temps were 77c. did a undervolt some days later of -0.150mv, which was stable (8 hour stress test), temps are now at 66c max with prime95. all in all a very nice machine, sorry for the wall of text

 

Awesome to hear that. I have the same 6700hq 1070 model. I was able to get it down to hitting 71c max in overwatch with kryonaut, laptop cooler, -137mV, new thermal pads. 66c is very good. Enjoy it. it is quite nice once you cool it down.

 

i have mine set on a custom made stand, so the vents can breathe when its on my lap, in guild wars 2, which is a cpu heavy game, i average around 55c with peaks of 63c, havent gotten around to testing other games yet, did a 20min small FFTs test in prime 95, i ran this for 8 hours straight with same results. i had a weird issue where before i undervolted, it kept TDP throttling slightly, now with the undervolt applied it runs constant 3.1ghz 4core turbo

 

What are the chances to get a 1 bad pixel screen warrantied?

 

I should be getting my outlet 17R4 in tomorrow. Is there anything I need to do right off the bat? I'm very excited as I haven't had a new(ish) AW in quiet some time. Is there a specific BIOS and VBIOS I should be running? My system will have a 7820HK and a 1080 GTX. I know I need to monitor temps and repaste/repad if needed. Anything else I should look out for?

 

ive been running the bios it came with, id say run a stress test and see what the temps are like, as to which stress tests, i cant say im an expert on the matter, i use prime95 personally, others use OCCT, wPrime etc. as far as other issues, ive heard about the backlight bleed and bezel problems, mine has minor backlight issues, hardly noticable unless ur staring at a black background, bezel is easily fixed, since its usually the double sided tape giving way, but its not a common issue. only other issues ive had arent really alienwares fault, more OS related, power settings mostly, u need to use alienwares software to tweak power plans (make sure to use the admin feature in there so settings stick)

 

after 40 years of computer crashes anybody that does not set up auto save well you are running billions of lines of code the most advanced hardware in a rediculous compact design that any of this works is magic the design engineers deserve a round of applause

 

You really don't understand standardization concept and how it works, at all..

 

It's magical....






Or maybe it's God





Or maybe this is all just a simulation ran on advanced alien hardware.
Not to be confused with alienware