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

It was my ssd1 heatsink sliding around. The screw to hold it down is stripped. Can’t loosen or tighten, so it’s floating around

 

I know, I tweeted Azor and have gotten zero response. Its crazy.

 

First Linux distro to work for me. Pop! OS based on Ubuntu @Mr. Fox

 

Just saw this. Big difference in framerates! same with the two sticks of 8GB with dual channel disabled vs enabled.

Anyone know how I can make sure the dual channel option is enabled on this laptop? Where is that option located at?

 

Just make sure you have two or four of the same RAM sticks and you'll be in dual channel.

ex) 2x4GB = 8GB
4x16GB = 64GB

 

Perfect! All drivers detected correctly? FN keys won't work though right?

 

You can check using CPU-Z under the memory tab it would say if you're running in Single or Dual Channel mode

 

I'm not sure which drivers wouldn't work.

Wi-Fi works, Bluetooth works, sound works (even with headphones) although it doesn't sound that great without the alienware sound center (maybe an EQ program can fix this)
144Hz detected, G-SYNC seems to be a thing. I think Ethernet works but didn't test it yet.

Not sure on iGPU yet.

FN keys work fine actually.

 

Wow! I'm impressed. One thing for sure is Dell taptops are more compatible with Linux than any other brand for some reason.

 

Yup, makes sense. They sell Ubuntu with some of their laptops.

Now to check if thunderbolt is working when I get home...

 

guys, i'm getting frustrated. I got booted from a game because "rendering device was lost". i updated all nvidea drivers and now both games i'm playing run 50% less FPS than before on the same settings (overwatch, division 2)). i restarted, shut down, ran diagnostics. it's a noticeable drop in performance. I had no issues with thermals going above 82 on either gpu or cpu before.

 

DDU clean install of drivers? Are you monitoring clocks during gaming to see if they are lower? Are benchmarks lower as well ?


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Did some benching and Heaven was stable at +170 core and +600 memory. I seem to have a good GPU chip, but very poor CPU, so I've undervolted the CPU with the voltage at 1.14V and offset at -100mv

 

Can we get a confirmation of the BIOS update version #?
I fly back home tomorrow and my new replacement A51M awaits me which Im really looking forward to, I just want to ensure that this one lasts unlike the first. I wont update to the 200W vBIOS this time. Just want a truly awesome gaming laptop that I can take with me when I have to spend a month away from home due to work roster.
I re-ordered the Lunar White i7 8700 / 2080 32Gb 144Hz Tobii, upgrading storage myself with 970 Pro.

 

Is irelevant the GPU offset (+170) as your boost clock is variable, I can have a board who boosts up to 2100 and I cannot add more than +30-40 MHz in offset, or you can have a board who boosts up to 1800 and you can add 200-250 offset, you need to look what's your max boost (and then start adding offset for a max overclock .. and then you can share that value and ask questions.

(memory is an exception as everybody has the same exact base clock)

 

I did a clean install of drivers, no change. I have never benchmarked. I was so happy to have 140+ FPS on my favorite games and it did great at first, but then randomly started feeezing. After that it only has 30-50% performance (FPS). There’s also a lot of stuttering every 5 minutes or so. I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be, I just want consistent gameplay. I don’t think I’m cutout for PC gaming because I don’t have the patience to continuously troubleshoot. That’s on me, so sorry for being negative. I’m sure this is a great machine and I just don’t know how to keep it running smoothly.
.

 

In the AWCC, I can change the lights of the Alienhead, rear vents, touchpad, etc. but I don't see an option to change the keyboard lights. Where is that? Still on the default blue

 

Theres two boxes of the laptop pic. Click the advanced 51m and itll take you to keyboard lighting and macros.

Should be in top right corner I believe.

 

don't have that option, I don't see the keyboard in AWCC

I'm gonna reinstall it now and see if that helps

 

Well its been a grueling 3 days, but I finally read through the last 350 pages in this thread to get up to date & I can proudly say, I am closer to opening the package that my 51m is in, than ever before!

Can anyone tell me what all the bloatware from Dell is with the regular install? Is the Killer app needed for any online connectivity or online performance or is it just bloatware & can be safely uninstalled with no negative consequences?

Besides that I will use this script to debloat Windows10
https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater

This removes the following

Spoiler

3DBuilder, Appconnector, Bing Finance, Bing News, Bing Sports, Bing Weather, Fresh Paint, Get started, Microsoft Office Hub, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Microsoft Sticky Notes, OneNote, OneConnect, People, Skype for Desktop, Alarms, Camera, Maps, Phone, SoundRecorder, XboxApp, Zune Music, Zune Video, Windows communications apps, Minecraft, PowerBI, Network Speed Test, Phone, Messaging, Office Sway, OneConnect, Windows Feedback Hub, Bing Food And Drink, Bing Travel, Bing Health And Fitness, Windows Reading List, Twitter, Pandora, Flipboard, Shazam, CandyCrush, CandyCrushSoda, King apps, iHeartRadio, Netflix, DrawboardPDF, PicsArt-PhotoStudio, FarmVille 2 Country Escape, TuneInRadio, Asphalt8, NYT Crossword, CyberLink MediaSuite Essentials, Facebook, Royal Revolt 2, Caesars Slots Free Casino, March of Empires, Phototastic Collage, Autodesk SketchBook, Duolingo, EclipseManager, ActiproSoftware, BioEnrollment, Windows Feedback, Xbox Game CallableUI, Xbox Identity Provider, and ContactSupport.

None of those are needed for Over clocking/Under volting this laptop is it, right?

 

@craigery81 Fixed it! I uninstalled the AWCC then got rid of the remnants using Revo Uninstaller except the OC Controls components remnants.

I then rebooted and reinstalled the AWCC, upon first launching it, it gave me a warning message that no Alienware devices are connected. I then closed it and launched it again and everything works now and the missing keyboard category came back.

 

No bloatware other than McAfee's Security Suite and the Killer Software trash.

1) Uninstall McAfee Security then reboot
2) Run the McAfee Products Removal Tool to get rid of most remnants then reboot when prompted
3) Uninstall the Killer Software then reboot
4) Download and run the Killer Uninstaller and remove all Killer Software then reboot
5) Manually install the drivers from device manager using the INF Only Drivers package

 

AWCC is probably the worst software I've used in the last 5-10 years. Absolutely buggy, laggy, clunky and just horrible. I had to reinstall several times just to get all the functions of it haha.

AWCC makes Razer Synapse 3 look amazing and we all know how Synapse can be.

 

Yours came with McAfee?

Mine didn't, thankfully. Neither did my 17 R5.

Are you in the US?

 

This is my first gaming rig, but isn't AWCC the only app out there that can overclock both the CPU, GPU & under volt both?

So nothing has ever come out to do all that? Seems neither Throttle Stop, MSI Afterburner or XTU can't do all of that?
That's at least what I got from reading this thread.

 

After my laptop returned from repair that screw was stripped on my machine as well. Lucky after a lot of work I got it turning with some pliers, and then slowly turned it until it was out. I had a bad of extra screws I bought for my old laptop to replace that screw.

 

Hailsa!

I received my Alienware Area 51m on Tuesday, having placed my order on March 13th. I have the i9 9900K with the 2080 RTX and 64 GBs RAM. Today is the first opportunity I have really had to sit down and play with it for any length of time. I have been following this thread since day 1, and figured I would undervolt my system per the trend.

I ran the first stress test and was constantly fluctuating between 75° and 100°. After undervolting the system to -0.65, I am now hitting 80° at 100% CPU usage.

Full disclosure, I am not the most tech-savvy, so I may be doing this incorrectly. Should I undervolt it any further? Have I undervolted it too far already? Is there any advice one can give regarding how to effectively measure how far I should undervolt before I begin affecting performance?

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On what fan profile you was?

 

hey,

is that a dual boot setup?

i want to split my raid and use the m.2s individually and use a dual boot setyp so i can have one m.2 for games and the other for work but both being windows 10.

are you gonna do a youtube guide? i would be really interested and appreciate any knowledge on how to accomplish the above



thanks

 

what was your cinebench r15 score b4 and after your undervolt.
80c is a good figure so i would deem that a great figure fir the i9 9900k

 

I'm about to upload my m15 unboxing now. I normally do 1 video per week.

That might actually be a good idea, I might do that. As of right now I am running off of a USB. But maybe I can show people how to dual boot windows & linux on the Area-51m.

I'm thinking of doing Manjaro with KDE. It includes Steam as well already I think.

Linux gaming has been rising since last year by quite a bit.

 

What didn't work on the other distributions? Was it a black screen after the bootloader? If so, that's caused by the bios setting the RTX 20?0's framebuffer above 4 GB, and grub not correctly passing the address to the kernel for use with the efifb. If you can use a newer version of grub (after 08-2018) this will be fixed.

 

Manjaro successfully working using "nonfree" (nVidia) driver in bootloader

RTX 2080 isn't supported I guess on current version of Fedora or Ubuntu. I even tried the boot flags I found online for the RTX series still nothing.

Manjaro & Pop! OS worked fine. I will try out Manjaro for now.

 

Keep undervolting in -10mv increments and then do a stress test to make sure it’s stable. Find the lowest voltage possible at the clocks you want till it crashes during the test. I was able to do -160mv at 4.8ghz and -120 at 5ghz. 5.2ghz required stock dell voltage, which is ridiculously high


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I don't understand, can't find this on Dell's website on Drivers list, last updated downloadable content : 11 Apr 2019 and it's only Intel drivers...

If i got my laptop repaired, i'll downvolt both CPU with ThrottleStop (was used to with the i9 8950HK) and GPU with AfterBurner (without OCing)... but i ain't sure i'll be enough !

Ordered some more Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut & Alphacool thermal pads for GPU memory (cost me a 20€ x 2 but if it can improve lifetime of the GPU board somehow...)

What if we really need this bios to avoid those issues and it's unavailable from Dell ? Can we use our laptops ? :/

 

On what fan profile was you laptop when burned?

 

As far as i remember, when it fried first i wanted to be safe so i put the laptop on Full RPM in AWCC when i was on Anthem (don't remember profile's name but it put the fans on full load making an huge noise but not as boring as my previous AW 17R5)...

And then when it was "repaired" i was "only" in Performance mode, but it died on idle doing absolutely nothing !

 

Is there heatsinks on the ssd from the factory or do i need to mount some myself if i want to have heatsinks?

 

Not much you can do other than use your notebook as usual. Azor, Umar and ernie doesn't seems to let/want people to know what's going on. All they say... You have warranties.

 

All new area51m needed to change pads because many dont toutch thr

Did you check gpu/cpu temps? Because i suspect: many from gpu dont toutch thr heatsink..and they run very hot..

 

I think i'll go full safe mode... No Bios update after repair... No GPU Bios update... Downvolt as much/safe as possible on both GPU&CPU without any O/C... and wait for updates...

But if this is only hidding problems for weeks or months... :/

 

The laptop runs at maximum performance only with full speed

 

Does anyone know how to stop AlienFX in games? Don’t see how I can disable this in AWCC. Metro exodus just shuts my lights off and it’s annoying


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Temps were perfect, i received the laptop modified from HIDevolution and they did an amazing job... same for the technician that repaired the laptop... all temps on Aida/HwInfo were running nicely (around 70/80 on realistic load at max (Anthem, PUBG, Overwatch, FarCry, ...)

My previous AW 17R5 was running on 95°C CPU (i9 8950HK....) & minimum 85°C (GTX 1080) with a nice undervolting & thermal paste changed... and it's still running...

 

Make all updates and change thermal pads cpu/gpu and under gpu

I got it...bad mosfets dont handle power and blow.

My advice...play and don t think..if he burns you will recive new one if he survive 1 mounth will be the good one.

 

I asked HIDevolution about what i've heard on this board & on my Reddit post about the bios & vbios update that's supposed to fix this, hope they can provide me with some moar informations... :/...

Do we have updates about those who got their laptop repaired ? Are we sure that the GC really changed (from what was told here, parts number changed), did that solve the problem ?

Why not ... after all... i got warranty

 

The only way to see that burned parts is to check the burned and new one..and need to disasambley the laptop...

 

You're true.. i'll wait for the repair... and use it on normal conditions after... if it last longer i'll be throwing nice french words to celebrate

I just have to wait now...

 

One more question...what bios have your laptop before burn? 1.3.0 or factory?

 

Alienware Area 51m rgb keyboard problems. This time letter b key fell off.

If it's a hardware problem there ain't much you can do. Use it as usual. And undervolt and tune as much you can on GPU/Cpu.