*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 R4 Owner's Lounge

@iunlock : Thanks for debriefing with us.

So now, what can we ask dell to do for older units. Send 0.1 thermal pads ?

 

We don't have official information about how they will address, but if your unit is really bad and you're not wanting to repaste, then I'd call Dell and hash it out with them to exchange your unit out for the newer one.

 

Very good news iunlock and thank you very much for your informations.
So.... Il order m'y unit the 1st december but Dell Web site change it to the 5th. My unit production start yesterday... So... It will be patched or not ??

 

You're very welcome mate.

Regarding the unit that has already shipped, that's tough to say. On one end I want to believe that the slight delay in the recent orders was to address these issues, but on the other hand I can't be for certain.

If worse comes to worse and you end up with one of the original units, you could exchange it for the newer one. I would find it counter productive for them to be shipping bad units after a fix has taken place....

Cheers

 

Nice work ! so iam on my way to repaste again. Are the pads in your gide the right ones? 2x 1mm and 1x 0.5mm for the gtx 1070 Version? Is Dell using the same pads now?

 

Any source for the thinner thermal pads? (0.1, 0.12) Or just leave the stock ones in that location? My laptop is not due until 1/1. I've been collecting the stuff for a Kryonaut repaste.

 

The guide has been updated. Here's the new pic...much easier to read too.

 

That's awesome ! Thanks mate !

10/10, will repaste anyway

(Delivery : 30/12/2016 and production start 14/12/2016)

 

We (Team LHz) have confirmed that they will be replacing the heat sinks with updated pads as opposed to just replacing pads etc.
An alternative in my personal opinion would be to get a system exchange if you are within your initial return period.
I personally would not want an on site tech to be opening my system if I was still within the return period.
Heck, I'd rather order another one and return the old one then have my brand new system opened up less then 30 days in.
Feel free to PM me with some extra tips on getting this resolved if you are not happy with how Dell is responding to you.

 

Yours will have the pads.

 

So funny story..... and I know I should be more careful but apparently I enjoy self inflected frustration. I've repasted twice now (first time not enough on cpu). Got good 50s-60s gaming temps with no OC and 70s/ low 80s with 4.0 OC. I'll change the settings and undervolt depending on what I'm doing but yesterday I was getting so frustrated because out of nowhere my temps were spiking high very quickly in games and stress tests up to the high 90s. I was getting very upset not understanding why this was happening when everything was fine the day before. Got more paste ordered on amazon and was cursing myself for having to repaste again! I took a break and then decided I'll go take a good look at the settings to see if I can figure out why this Isite happening.... and I'm an idiot. I don't know how I overlooked this several times but low and behold there was no ( - ) next to the core voltage adjustment.... hmmmm 3 second fix and we're right as rain. Moral of the story. Pay close attention to what you are doing.

Now that I'm done throwing myself under the bus I'd like to thank everybody who has contributed to this forum and others. Just outstanding. Its one thing to figure it out yourself and another to go in depth explaining and making videos to help others out. It's very much appreciated. THANK YOU

 

not sure what to do myself as my wifi card is broken, i have 20 degree differences in core temp at level 3 overclock, im in my 30 day period, wrote to dell tech a few days ago haven't heard anything, do you think they'll do a exchange?

 

Soooooo goooood!

 

I think the same thing

 

I did try OC Level 3. The temperature results are pretty much the same as Core 1,2,3,4 (40x each) Turbo Volt (0) PL 1,2 (100,000 each). My max temps go upto 95 C and average temps are around 70 C. Should I try undervolting using XTU? A -0.100 V with the above settings ended up hanging my AW. Sigh, didn't expect these issues from a 2700 laptop.

Hey Mobius. I don't yet have the option to PM. Can I reach you some other way? Or can you PM me?

 

I just got off the phone with alienware support, and i think im going to go for a exchange on my r4 in hopes to get one with a "fixed" heatsink. I was kind of shocked to be honest how different it was talking to a tech support guy, compared to a sales guy. I felt like the tech support was way more honest and didnt sound like a robot. I told them about 3 issues i had with my r4 and he pretty much finished my sentences and knew exactly what i was talking about before i began. I told him about the glue on the bezel coming off a bit and he told me that its been a pretty common issue, that supposedly the glue they used wasnt strong enough to hold the pressure of the tobii tracker in the bottom. It was a big issue at first, but he hasnt heard it come up very often with the recent batches. I then asked him about my fans revving up at idle, and he told me the 1.08 bios is has been causing alot of issues for people. That im better off on 1.02 (although i might have higher temps) or 1.06. He said alienwares working on putting out a new one since 1.08 seemed to have caused more problems then it fixed. Lastly i told him about my core differentials, and he said its a massive issue that alienware has addressed. He explained about the heatsink not having the correct amount of pressure because the wrong pads were used. This is before i even told him that i already knew this. All together im sort of impressed by alienware, i was expecting to be told a bunch of story's, but i was told the same thing people have been saying here for months. It was sort of refreshing not to have a company completely deny everything. He offered to send someone out to swap the heatsink and put new glue on my bezel, but he said since it only 2 weeks old i probably would be better off with a fresh start. I need to call some other number monday to initiate a exchange, so hopefully there as friendly as that guy and they dont give me any **** about swapping the pads or replacing the thermal paste myself.

 

The alienware support is not scripted and usually good like that. I have had similar experiences in the past. Get ready for some pushback on the exchange. I am not saying it won't happen but don't expect them to be as good about it. Glad to hear that they are briefing the support staff though, this should make things easy.

I have an HK w/ GTX 1080 on the way that was just finished and am hoping I got a good one. I sprung for the 4 year warranty (4 for the cost of 3) just incase.

 

I bought the 4 year + accidental for mine too, so if they give me some pushback about exchanging a two week old laptop i payed $500 for a warrenty for, ill be there to push back harder. lol. If they dont want to exchange it there only other option is sending me a updated heatsink and i will just put it on myself. Im not to keen on some tech coming to my house for something i can do myself especially when its there fault to begin with.

All i know is im not sending this one back till the new one is in my hand. So if they think that is happening they bumped there head. lol

I guess i will just have to see how it goes monday. Luckily i have the day off of work with nothing planned, so i have all day to play games and run around in circles with them if they want to do it the hard way.

 

As for them sending you the part for you to install... its more difficult than forums make you think. Just a heads up. The techs that come out are eh... every now and then you get a good one but most of the time they are careless and pretty awful. I am with you all the way, just send us the part to do ourselves.

 

Or you can video them doing stuff, get proof.

 

I already did a repaste on mine (actually did it twice), so replacing the heatsink wont be to big of a deal for me. The thing that worries me about the dell tech doing it is while its not very hard, there is plenty of stuff that can go wrong if you dont take your time. I just dont see some other guy taking as much care as i did. Ive already read a few horror stories on here about dell techs.

 

Just finished up this 17R4 and here's the 1 Hour OCCT run.

Repaste+Repad+Custom HS Mod+Fix

Max: 55, 52, 53, 52

Current: 47, 47, 47, 47

Avg: 49, 46, 47, 47

 

Have you updated the whole fix procedure on your guide?


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Great work Iunlock. Thank you

 

It's in the video(s). The main fix is the thermal pad size and the custom HS Mod is me at the shop adjusting the heat sink unit with pressure paper over and over and over again until it is adjusted accordingly. However, just with the thermal pad size of 0.1mm + slight bending of the arm will do the trick to even things out a bit. Not all units will produce the same results as it also depends on the amount of time spent one spends on the heat sink assuming that all the tools are available.

 

Hello, i am really glad to see your posting about repaste, i got my Alienware with GTX 1080 yesterday, and i have test it both CPU(AIDA64) and GPU(Furmark). It turns out that the CPU is average 75c and the GPU ist about 54c. But the fan speed is a little annoying. Have you test the Alienware GTX 1080 with Gizzly Hydronaut or some other thermal grease? How did the temperatur and fan looks?
I am hesitating, if i should do the repaste?
Thanks for your answer.

 

here's what I dont understand...

they are fixing the banding/watermark issue with the qhd 120hz and remove the 17 R4 qhd 1070 on their site, but still continue selling the 17 R4 gtx 1080?
AFAIK they have the same panel so.. why?

 

I ordered last night with the 4k screen, 6820HK, and gtx 1070, 1TB SSD. Should I cancel and wait or is their already a fixed heatsink on the new ones? (does one exist) I really don't plan on doing any crazy overclocking but I don't want thermal throttling either.

 

I recommend the Conductonaut, much better thermal performance.

Cause they know some customers don't have a clue and will still make money off it.

Most likely fixed.

 

Joking right? Print this and frame it guys... Just unbelievable.


http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN304215

::iunlock::

 

Crazy !


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3 or more cores exceeding 97C call support. What a joke If 1 or 2 cores go over this temp is all fine. Even 100C degrees, Oh'well. Maybe post this **** on Mr. Azor's Twitter or FB acount and ask if this is correct

 

This is crazy considering the progress we were making...


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mfw seeing 97c is within spec and considered ok

 

With these new systems, IMO the only traditional thermal paste that should be considered is Geild Extreme or now even better Grizzly Kyronaut. Gelid works good, but Kyronaut has an edge to beat it out. The lowest grade paste I've tried was Crest Toothpaste. Anything in between Crest Toothpaste and the best traditional paste Grizzly Kyronaut..I haven't bothered with.

Absolutely insane right? I mean seriously, what donkey even allows that nonsense to be approved to get posted? Absolute ludicrous.

Indeed. There are a lot of things that I can say about this, but I'll save it for another day.

 

As I said. Please ask Mr. Azor and Umar on social media. They should know all this

 

apparently 100degrees is normal on the cpu? well damn. Why dont we just remove our heatsinks altogether and cut down on some weight of these laptops?

On second thought, lets not give dellienware any ideas for the future.

 

I received my replacement unit 5 days ago and there are a lot of lightbleed, a dell tech must change it ... so the problem is still there

 

17R4 and here's the 1 Hour OCCT run at 40x.
(The one posted before was a stock clocks 36x.)

Repaste+Repad+Custom HS Mod+Fix

Max: 65, 61, 61, 61

Current: 53, 53, 53, 53

Avg: 55, 53, 53, 53

 

Dell should be blowing your phone up with job offers. LMAO ... (seriously) ... ;-) ...

 

Hi!

Sooo this laptop also has the Grease Collector (tm) palmrest, and it cannot be taken off easily for cleaning. Does anyone know if there are vinyl stickers out for it already somewhere, to save the surface from becoming a lard sandwich?

 

You have to hand it to Dell, I thought it was impossible to improve on the fingerprint magnet surface of the XPS line but they have done it!!

 

The chance of me returning my soon to be delivered 17 R4 will also reach 100 if it displays this behavior.

 

Wow. My HP omen 17 with the 6700HQ and GTX 1070 tops out at 78c on the CPU and 69C on the GPU with prime 95 and furmark running at the same time. All CPU cores are within a few degrees. With the 4k G synch screen, 512 NVME ssd, it was a steal at $1409 (epp perks at work price) plus 30X points for another $420 off. I was hesitant at first given HPs rep but the Omen has performed well so far. Came close to getting the 17R4 but could not justify the price premium for it. Photo of the internals on the Omen.

 

don't worry you'll die of explosion shortly before it reach 100c

 

When i asked DELL what to do with my faulty 15R3 now that they fixed newer units with the thermal module modifications, they just replied to check this page.

 

Just got off the phone with dell to exchange my r4 1080 so i could get a updated one with the heatsink fix. They told me 7-10 buisness day till i receive my new one. So hopefully that actually happens in that time frame.

 

Technical support offered to install a new heatsink in mine. So if you bought the warrenty they should do it to yours too. I opted for a full on exchange tho since im still in the two week window.

 

That's great news. What department did you speak with if you don't mind me asking?


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I called technical support first and they offered to send a tech out to install a new heatsink or just do a full on exchange. Then they transfered me over to consumer affairs (i think that was what it was called) they told me i needed an okay from tech support to do an exhange. I got transferred back to tech and they told me i dont need an okay since im in the two week window and tranfered me back to consumer and they issued the exchange. So from what i can tell from talking to both of them, is if your out of the two week window your going to have to get technical support to okay an exchange. But there probably going to push for a repair before they do that. If your still in the two week you just have to say your unhappy with the one you got and there pretty much forced to give you a new one no matter what.