*OFFICIAL* Alienware Area-51M R1 Owner's Lounge

that's one game i actually play on Xbox One X instead of PC because my friends play it on there with me. it sounds like it has some of the same problems as it does on PC though. it used to lag and rubber band for me even though i have fast internet with a good ping. someone showed me how to change your servers on a hidden menu in that game and it has been great since then. i just make sure i'm on the server with the lowest ping before i start playing. it defaults to some higher ping servers for some reason. the game itself i think i very fun.

 

There is also this.
My laptop worked for 1 month without issues. I have had times where I pushed my laptop further in comparison to the stress it was under when it died. So there are multiple conditions that has to be met for the pc to burn. And a flaw on the motherboard was clearly one of them looking at dell's response. (Note: I'm not implying that all existing/produced motherboards so far has this flaw, but clearly there are at least some). So who knows, perhaps we will have people for which this will only happen after 4 years, as I don't know the details. But now that they do now the issue, and since there was only a "handful" of people with this case, I guess they figured "Now that we know the issue and solve it for outgoing motherboards from now on, if the issue happens for other people, we can simply fix it in their (on-site) warranty". That would be business wise the smartest decision. But this is just speculation of course.

What I'm surprised about is, why was it only mentioned to me? Was it because I was one of the victims, that kept asking question? Did they want to keep this information disclosed? Because after getting this info, I called my local support from Belgium, He didn't even know there was a shortage on stock. After checking he was aware of the issue and simply said that there is a shortage on stock without sharing any other information. I still feel bad for sharing my screenshot, but people here made me even more pissed than Dell did, as they are always very friendly and try to help me further, nomatter how impatient I am.

So yeah, There is not much that can be done. Dell messed up, unfortunately the people waiting there orders right now, and the people who got there system bricked are the victim of their mistake. I am at least glad that the issue is now (hopefully) resolved for future dispatches. Even though I still am very uncomfortable of the fact that I have to wait 1 more month. But I searched and dug for months, Area 51M is still simply the best solution for me. The m15 came close, but the differences were obvious for me.

 

Do the produced laptops right now already have the changes? Mine is in transport at the moment. So produced last week I think. Hopefully it is already fixed....

 

95% I'm guessing its an old board and 5% is your luck if your A51M doesn't burn/die during your workflow.

 

Ok well, at least I have 2 years warranty...

 

so is there any way/tool to identify what motherboard and revision all shipped units ie the laptops we already have in our hands?

maybe we should make a list if we can get the data somehow?

also after 1 weeks of use my a51m is still performing like a champ!

 

European countries have standard warranty of 2yrs-5yrs depending on region.

 

Yes goto to Killer Control Centre / Settings / Advanced Stream Direct - disable

 

It's way too early in the AM for this back and forth bickering. How about we all play nicely since we are all on the same team?

 

This is amazing to me that the laptop is performing this well. I expect a desktop 9900k to perform similarly, even if it is in a laptop (assuming cooling is adequate), but the laptop 2080 is blowing me away.

It's making me really want an Area-51M, even though my 17R4 is still plenty capable of handling the games I play.

 

This is interesting. I posted here yesterday about my 2nd delay.

Welp here goes the third delay with a screenshot that caught me off guard.



Edit: I ordered 2 systems on March 12th.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It’s free man you don’t have to buy m15 to get it, yes the game isn’t good because I’m not good at it It was some issues with rtx cards but nvidia has addressed it.

I like your mouse as well

 

Good morning and Happy Saturday.

Area 51M / 9900K / 2080:

Note: The focus of these runs were on -> Graphics score... I did get a chance to start dialing in the CPU. Work in progress...

Fire Strike Graphics Score: --> 30587 (New PR)

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/18907308
[This run was a little wonky as it started to thermal throttle on the CPU lol...]


Fire Strike Overall Score: --> 25926 (New PR)

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/18907302

My next goal is to get a lap time in to break 26K for overall score.

 

do you OC the GPU via Curve? And could you share your curve? What are your memoy Clocks? Mine produce artifacts with more than +1100

 

Area 51m, rtx 2080, 9900k

Hi all. I'm hoping someone can help me, or at least give some good advice. I received my area 51m a few days ago. I wanted to use a different ssd, so I disabled raid, etc, and did a fresh windows 10 install. I went to the Dell support area to download all drivers and programs according to my support number (or whatever it's called).

Once all drivers were installed, it ran just fine for a few days. However- I saw that the bios had been updated to 1.3.2. I normally dont mess with that, but being a new PC I figured it was important if already out, and marked as urgent. I installed it and had no problems for the next few hours.

Hours later, I decided I wanted to get the new 200w vbios update, and it was listed as recommended. I downloaded it and installed it as well. Seemed to go well for 2 hours or so. I then updated the nvidia graphics drivers to newest version. Ran fine for an hour.

Went to dinner and came back 40 minutes later. The keyboard was lit up, but the screen was black with no backlight as well. The computer also seemed to be frozen. The capslocl key light still went on and off, but nothing else.

The only way I could get in was to run safe mode and disable nvidia drivers and use the Intel HD GPU and reboot. I have tried everything: DDU to uninstall nvidia drivers and install nvidia drivers, Dell GPU drivers, etc. I have tried pressing windows + p, fn+shift+ctr+b, etc. I have even done a fresh windows 10 installation without connecting to internet. Windows installs the Microsoft basic display adapter, screen goes to 1920×1080, and it runs just fine like that. I go to try and install nvidia drivers again and, boom, black screen. If I restart the PC, about 5 seconds after the login screen appears, it goes black. Event viewer says display driver stopped responding and recovered, but it certainly does not.

Please, I cant live on just the Intel UHD GPU. Anyone have any advice?

Edit* 2080 was not overclocked

 

My first guess is that your GPU went bad. There are about six others on here that have reported bad GPUs. One of them that went bad was the because the GPU VRM burnt out. So maybe there's an issue with the GPU in a batch of the Area 51M. I've got my fingers crossed that mine doesn't blow out. That's why you've got a warranty though, so I'd send the laptop back to dell to see what they say is wrong with it.

 

Yes, that is my fear. However, my temps were always good (below 90 in demanding stuff) and if the GPU itself was bad, then the Microsoft basic display adapter wouldnt be able to install on it and run it at 1920×1080 would it? Plus I'm over here in Afghanistan and am really hoping not to have to go through that process heh)

 

Yeah, forget sending it in if it came from Dell.(And you are in the states) Have them send a tech so you can sit right there and see exactly what is wrong. I'm about 99 percent sure it's the gpu, but you were lucky enough that the laptop still turns on. Most others it will not boot with a 100 percent dead gpu. The laptop wont charge, nor show any signs of life until the gpu is removed.

 

You are probably running off the integrated Intel GPU, sounds like your nvidia GPU bit the dust. Smell the back end off the laptop a the small vent grills under the screen when the screen is open... Any strange smells?

 

No strange smells, and I just checked it with the Intel uhd GPU disabled and the Microsoft display adapter driver on the 2080. It runs it just fine. The integrated one wont let me change resolutions, the basic adapter on the 2089 will. Very strange. I even took off the back plate, smelled the sides, top, etc. Nothing.

 

I'm a bit indifferent, when I bought the laptop I was convinced to get 1yr collect and return to save some £. I seem to have a very very hot 9900k which means it only ever seems to reach 4.5ghz and also my speakers seem to crack above 40% They now want me to send the laptop off to a depot and they claim it will take 4 weeks lol. They told me it was policy that if there were issues in the 1st 14 days the warranty would be upgraded to next day in home, but now miraculously they have to 'diagnose it' so I'm supposed to send it off. Not a chance in hell. Any tips?

The laptop works fine for the most part, its just a hot 9900k which seems to be okayish if i undervolt it and speakers which crackle, not major issues, but its a business machine and I use blender and render constantly, no chance ill send it back, i already waited 4 weeks to have the damn thing built.

 

Then lets go with the 1 percent.
Connect to the internet and use Geforce Experience to install the correct working version for you os.
Hopefully this will fix your issue. You will need to login for it to download the driver though.

 

Ok, but I tried that as well prior to reinstalling windows 10 fresh. It did the same thing unfortunately. As soon as the driver itself kicks in, black screen.
Do you think that the vbios I updated had anything to do with it? Even if it was fine for 2 hours afterwards?

 

Hummm. Are you able to flash back to prior version?

 

Certainly doesn't hurt to do 1.3.2 bios and the 200w vbios again....

 

I...did not know that was ok to do. I can flash both again? Well then.... I figured that might be dangerous since it had already been done. But, the problems did start hours after installing those two. It had run fine 4 days prior. Well, let me install both of those again and see what happens. Wish me luck heh.

 

I would love to try. Any idea where I could find the pre- 200w vbios version?

 

I would think you would need to flash the whole system..bios and then vbios. not sure if they separated the two from each other?
Wait, I think @Ultra Male might still have the 190W version.

 

Well, I know that the 200w vbios update says you must have bios version 1.3.0 or higher, but i was thinking that it might be safer to go back to the pre-200w version as that one seemed to work fine. I can still try reflashing 1.3.2 then 200w vbios again, but if I could try the pre 200w first, it might give another option. This @UltraMale would definitely be helping me out if he had it.

And speaking of, thank you all for your time and help. It truly is appreciated. The internet in this country is terrible, and troubleshooting even more so.

 

IIRC, I used to use a program called Sandra, from SiSoft, that could give a user all sorts of info. I believe there was a website that had a link to a demo of it...Guru of 3D maybe?

I think maybe CPU-Z will also give you MB info that might be helpful.

 

Seriously this "Area 51M Meltdown situation" needs to be clarified there's so much mis communication and information going on that a clear picture needs to be painted. I can't afford for this thing to burn while I'm showing something on it(hence the reason I bought this) in the middle of a presentation.

 

This exact same thing happened to me yesterday. Did not receive an email or anything from Dell about this, I just happened to check it. This will be my second delay. New delivery date is scheduled for 04/10 as well. Ordered on March 15th.

 

my speakers crack when i pause unpause youtube videos, while gaming its ok.....

anyone else having sound issues?

 

Well, I tried reflashing the same 1.3.2 bios and 200w vbios... still didn't work unfortunately. I should also mention that the screen doesn't just turn black, the monitor itself turns off after 5 second or so of login screen. I thought at first it was simply black, but I cuts off completely. The only thing I can think to try now is to find the earlier 190w vbios and try to downgrade to it.

 

@Johnksss

Negative, I only downloaded the 200w version.

 

you tried booting in safe mode? any changes then?
does the screen switch off when in bios? if not i would do a fresh install of windows again or if you imaged your og install recover that as it sounds like a driver/config issue.

 

I ordered on the 9th of march and my delivery date has been moved twice and is now on april 4th. I'm still stuck at confirmed so I'm expecting another delay

 

Then i will have to check my drive. Im pretty sure i still have it somewhere.

Thanks for checking

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

I can boot into safe mode just fine. The screen stays on. When in bios the screen stays on as well. It is in safe mode that I have to go to each time after a test in order to disable the rtx 2080 drivers so that windows will load with the Intel GPU instead.

Essentially, it only happens when I start it with 2080 nvidia drivers enabled. Microsoft basic display adapter driver works fine when loaded on the card as well. Just not nvidia. I suppose I could try a second OS clean install today, but wouldnt the first one have fixed a simple driver issue?

 

I really appreciate it. I wish I had saved my old one with GPU-z before going to the 200w vbios. I took it apart again and checked all the connections I could without removing the actual heatsink plate. Still smells like new. No ozone or burned smell.. I really am at a loss. Thanks again.

 

maybe its a clash, try safe mode, remove gpu and delete drivers in device manager, uninstall other nvidia stuff.

try dells nvidia driver instead of nvidia direct
https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER05...0-2080-Driver_TGMTD_WIN_25.21.14.1749_A00.EXE



hopefuly that helps

 

Unfortunately I've taken that exact route numerous times. Once I uninstall it from device manager, the computer doesn't find it again unless I let windows update run. Then it first installs the windows update video drivers.. which turn the screen off, then I go safe mode, uninstall, trying the Dell drivers.. still nothing. I really wonder if it is a rejection of the new vbios, simply because windows reinstall did not help, the card otherwise seems like it is detected just fine, etc. But the stupid screen cutting off thing, when using nvidia drivers specifically, has me perplexed.

 

I had a very similar experience and mostly followed the same steps as you, updated bios, 200w vbios, newest nvidia drivers, everything ran fine for a while. I left it for a while and came back to a black screen. Mine would not post until i did a hard reboot by disconnecting the battery cable and holding power button on for a min. This then rebooted fine but crashed again to black screen soon after and now wont post at all and just has an error code from LED on the power button and audio code suggesting no LCD panel detected. I have contacted dell and am in the process of requesting a refund and have purchased another A51M.

 

Dang you guys with vbios issues are making me nervous..I just updated to the 200w version about an hour ago.

 

hopefully dell are aware of this as you both taken the exact same steps......

im outta of suggestion except Build 17763, thats the windows build im using.

sorry i couldnt help no further.

hola at dell, see if they offer any suggestions

 

Good luck. I am still hoping for a miracle, or at least an earlier version (190w vbios) of the vbios to be found so I can attempt to roll back. Though it is frightening that you took similar steps with no resolution. I hope that my Intel GPU keeps it running while I try to resolve it.

 

No worries. Thank you for trying.

 

I haven't read everything here, but have you tried using an external monitor from the Display port or HDMI direct to the GPU?

 

My mind is boggled. I've UV'd my CPU by -.130mv and a slight UV for my GPU, 9900k and 2080 using TS and Afterburner.

While playing Assassins Creed Odyssey CPU is steady at 4.7ghz average temp 80 degrees and GPU is steady at 1930mhz average temp 70 degrees. I'm happy with those temps, my fan profile is default at balanced I assume because I don't have AWCC installed so I go into bios and I simply turn on Performance fans and go back to Odyssey. I can definitely hear fans now, and now temps are fantastic, CPU at 4.7ghz and 65 degrees and GPU at 1980mhz and 55 degrees - great, except now Odyssey is now choppy, still high frame rates at 80fps but choppy, strange . . . .

I turn off Performance fans in bios and things are back to normal. Anybody want to hazard a guess as to what's happening?

 

Area 51M / 9900K / 2080:

Broke 7K with 5.0Ghz... it's a start.

Fire Strike Ultra Score: --> 7015 (New PR)