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

Just got Dell to send me the heatsinks.

 

Ahh nice. They let me swap my DGFF card out, but told me it's against policy to send parts out as I was going to get a MB swap, now I'm reconsidering as the techs in my area are Grade A garbo.

 

Talk to a manager. Typically speaking they do require hoops to prevent inexperienced people from installing parts.
However, with that said, it being against their policy is false. There is a thing called "Parts Only Service". (which includes mobos) Its used more commonly with business systems but it can be applied to Alienware and XPS. It does require the front end phone agents to get a higher level manager approval.
You would essentially need to some how convince them that you are experienced and capable of doing the install. Then they also will inform you that if there is anything that goes wrong as a result of your install, that its on you. That could be a sticky situation. If they insist on a technician I would personally just disassemble the entire thing right before the tech gets there and then just give him the old board and ask for the new one.
Put it back together with him watching you lol.

 

I may try that, if it doesn't work I'll probably just stick with the issues I'm having.

If it comes down to a tech coming by, I'll definitely ask him if I can do the work. Figured with my last incident with the techs, they'd have no problem sending me parts directly, apparently not lol.

 

Sometimes it really depends on the agent. There are a percentage of customers that call up acting like they know what they are doing and they don't so, it is what it is.
What issues are you having?

 

The wifi card disconnecting when the system uses a lot of power.

So I assume there could be a problem with the PCIe bus that the wifi card is connected too.

Not really sure though.

 

You said it's already on "Automatic (Delayed Start)" when I asked you to set it to "Automatic", not "Automatic (Delayed Start)". That will fix the problem. If it doesn't, remove the AWCC completely, delete the installation folder, reboot and run CCleaner and do a full registry scan and delete unused entries. Once done, reboot again and do a fresh install of AWCC. It should fix the problem. Unless you have turned off your windows updates and something is screwing up with the installation. There are a million variables here.

This is a problem related to unstable overclocks when the PCIe bus controller can't keep up. It seems related to your previous similar problem that you posted here. Keep bumping up the voltage until that errors stops appearing. It only appears after undervolt/OC or both. A workaround could be to switch to a new wifi card that runs on CNVIo protocol instead of going through PCIe. Intel 9560 is a good option (since AX201 is still not out yet).

I quietly ordered another unit

Just let them come, give them a cold beverage and let them watch as you do your stuff. They won't mind using facebook for a while.

 

Which wifi card?
Have you removed all of the Killer software and install "drivers only"?

 

It's happened when not overclocked though. Just stock playing games.

Didn't a new MB fix the issue for you?

1550. Yeah I've tried new and old drivers.

 

It could be doing so because power saving mode is enabled on it by default and when you game, it is unused and goes to sleep and ends up disconnecting because of poor driver support (That's what Killer is all about). Disable power saving for your wifi card.

 

I already have; all power saving/sleep/hibernate features are off including the Wifi card.

I've been getting some other weird errors/warnings in event viewer lately as well. Not really sure what's going on.

Aside from the wifi card disconnecting, everything seems to be running fine, but I'm not sure if that is causing issues I'm not aware of.

 

Try a new card. It could very well fix the problem.

 

Yeah I asked them to send me a card and MB just in case, because I wanted to try the new card before swapping the MB, but they won't send me the parts..

So it's either all or nothing I guess haha.

This issue doesn't happen super frequently so I would need at least a day with the new card to see if it's the issue or not.

Don't want to do a MB swap if not necessary, as my luck, I'll end up with more issues than I started with.

If they did indeed revise the MBs though, I might be a little more inclined to take the MB swap and risk the tech screwing things up.

 

Just let the engineer come with all the parts that he can possible come with and then retain them at the end of the service for 2 weeks. Plenty of time to play around then and see what's causing what.

 

Suppose I could try. Worst case scenario and he screws something up, guess I'll get a new machine and bug them for an upgrade.

 

That's also a nice strategy.

 

Lol. Do you think they've revised the MBs? Or just the DGFFs?

 

That depends upon what you get. Both old and revised parts are circulating in the market right now afaik.

 

Oh okay. That's kind of scary. They should have taken all of the old stock and repaired them to spec..

 

This is an awful situation for those who want upgrade or looking for used spare parts after the warranty has expired. They risk a ticking bomb if they can’t afford new parts from Dell.

 

Exactly..

 

Just found out that my replacement system, for my 9900/2080 that died last week, won't be arriving until 6/25, 6 weeks after my system died (which happened after only a week of use). So I placed my order on 4/29, and I am in effect not going to have a machine until 6/25. Hopefully this next one won't die.

 

Option 1.

 

Did anyone here try liquid metal on the GPU of area-51m, how did you guys apply it.

 

I tried, but found that it was not creating any miraculous differences because the cooler is the bottleneck here, not the thermal paste. 1/1.5 degrees celcius for all that hassle isn't worth it. I ended up removing it altogether and sticking to Gelid GC Extreme for now. My temps are great!

 

Thanks, SK
guess i won't suggest my customer to do that any more besides it's still risky

 

Unless the Dell credit comes with a huge benefit like a 20% bonus for taking the credit over the cash refund, I'd get the cash refund and sit and think about it for a while before committing the funds to another purchase.

I wouldn't be in a rush to commit to a purchase right away. Other better options might be coming down the road...

Committing to the Dell credit, even with a 20% bonus still commit's you to a Dell purchase, which could be limiting should you find something else you want elsewhere.

Dell sells other stuff though, so +20% bonus in credit could be spent on other Dell products should you find a laptop, desktop, or some other replacement for the Area 51m.

Also, make sure the Alienware Credit can be spent on any Dell product...

 

Yeah. Once a foam dam leaked on me a couple of years back when my laptop was in the trunk of a taxi and I found out after I started getting random shutdowns later in the day. I had to give it a deep bath in 90% isopropyl alcohol with a tooth brush followed by ultrasonic cleaning to get it to work again. I got lucky that it didn't burn! The foam dams are good, but one minor imperfection is all it takes. Mine lost their shape and firmness under heat and a tiny ball slipped through as the laptop took some harsh bumps in the taxi trunk that day. The only workaround I found to work best is to seal off the foam dam's outer wall with silicon sealant and stick it to both the PCB and the heat sink with liquid electrical tape to get a nice seal. All that hassle is not worth it to achieve just 1 degree cooler GPU!

 

Option 1 for sure. It's good that the system is delayed because I can tell you for a fact that the newer batches will not have these issues. The delay is from nVidia's end as well as Dell.
Also, I have it on good authority that the system affected are less than 1% of the total units shipped out by Dell and that's why you'll see many users here still driving their February delivered systems without any issues. Your warranty will get renewed as well, contact Frank via DM and he will sort you out if some issue arises in the future. Good luck

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Take it as a blessing in disguise mate, my order was placed on 23rd March and I'm still waiting for my system to be shipped out by Hidevolution two months after the payment was cleared. The Area 51m is getting rigorous testing by Hidevolution employees I'm told and they're taking extra precautions so that the customer don't have to deal with the process of waiting for a replacement like you've mentioned.
In any case, the June batches of 2080 based Area 51m should be more stable than their initial units. By the way, the delay is not just for you, its across the entire Dell websites worldwide if you order it with a 2080.

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Yeah, it's usually only a matter of time, and all it takes is one failure on a single $$$$ laptop to crap out for life.

Exactly.

 

After that day I never put any liquid metal on a laptop, but Area 51m is not really a laptop now is it? lol. May be if the heat sinks were a little bit more chunky and fans were a tad bigger, I'd have gone for it permanently. But in the current form factor, nah. Just a waste of time. Especially when you have to open the laptop many times a week for "looking at things". Those foam dams are a pain to take off without spilling LM all over the place if you stick them like I do, and for that I had to take the motherboard apart and turn it upside down before pulling the heat sink away. And do that in the open where I can easily throw liquid metal without worrying about it, like in the lawn or somewhere similar. The dams get sacrificed in the process usually and have to make new ones.

Since Area 51m is a desktop replacement, it'd be SICK to see third party thermal solutions for this machine like heat sinks and hybrid cooling solutions. This has never happened before for a laptop, but who knows if my wishes might come true.

 

DEAD with smoke, CN, May 12th batch

 

It's the same as this one: https://twitter.com/406394119/status/1129469397251137536
That's a dead DGFF because of NCP-303151 mosfet driver. Nothing that has not been discussed here already. If you are running this machine without any kind of undervolt and using factory thermal pads + TIM, good luck with the new ones as well.

 

So with 303150, should be pretty safe right?

 

Yes, NCP-303150 is a much more rugged mosfet and can take relatively higher degree of abuse before it enables self barbecue mode.

 

I reviewed the onsemi mosfet datasheet, the recommend operating condition (typical voltage) is only 12V for 303151 while the 303150 gets 19V

 

Check this also: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-owners-lounge.826831/page-922#post-10902592

 

then you just used too much LM on your repaste... I used LM on my M17X r3 / r4, Aw17R1 / R2 / R3 / R4 / R5, AW18 and had never any leak. And i traveled a lot ( 10-15 flights a month) and usualy store my notebook in my backpack (vertical)

 

So why use 12 when Ac adapter is 19v , someone must be smoking weed in Dell


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Could they?
@S.K So 19.5V directly goes to the dgff board?

 

It's a little complicated. While the part itself is compatible, the max specs are not in a high enough margin from spikes and fluctuations in power lines that can be received from the main power rail on the motherboard. It's always a safe practice to use parts that provide a safe margin to the components that it is powering so that it doesn't encounter boundary cases that often. Cutting cost by putting components that are barely meeting or slightly exceeding the required specs in the circuit is always a bad decision.

Nothing goes in directly, there are several stages between the main power inlet and the DGFF. But the mosfets on DGFF drive the 2080 chip and when it demands for more power under load, it's the job of the mosfets to keep up and sometimes the margin of error is simply not there when you place low end parts in a circuit that could easily challenge them. 2080 is a very demanding and power hungry chip and things can get A LOT trickier at higher frequency and high temps where capacitors and inductances are involved. This is why keeping a higher margin of error capability in power components is so important. I have a strong gut feeling that some of these RTX 2080 chips from nVidia could also be at fault as they just rushed these out. I wouldn't be surprised that some of them are demanding more power than they should from the daughter board under load.

 

Many companies cut corners sadly nowadays


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Cutting costs is a part of doing business, but cutting too much can bite back in the rear end as Dell must be experiencing now with all these replacements and service lines staying busy 24/7. They will spend a lot more than they could have saved with this move lol.

I personally think that we should still appreciate Dell that they have created DGFF all on their own and they just received chips from nVidia. If they had sticked to nVidia's design then they could have claimed for all these damages from them, but they made a bold and brave move by going their own route and I respect and appreciate that decision a lot. This is the first iteration of DGFF and so far things are looking VERY well, even if we include the failures that we have seen. I don't see any other company out there who had the nerve to create their own graphics form factor to make modular cards for their flagship machines. The nVidia factor could be real here as Dell could have designed the circuit considering that nVidia chips will all perform within specs and will not draw more power than nVidia claims at certain speeds. They should have taken their word with a grain of salt, which I am sure they always will from this point onwards.

 

lol what if DELL realizes the dgff gaming graphics is an unsuccessful move, so they finally cancelled doing that in the future models.
I guess there won't be RTX 3080 for the area 51m any more

 

Oh like I said , even if my one explodes , I will get another , I love AW to the death , small explosions are part of business ...... lol


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Maybe rev2 51m will come with that and all they have learnt from rev 1


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That is why we should all stop being what most of us are being against Dell these days and show a little appreciation. Good things are happening and we should appreciate when we see some positive things being done by big companies. If Dell pulls the plug on the modular grahpics for this laptop or any future ones, the entire blame will be on us because there is so much lack of appreciation around here.

 

Yeah, but as customers, we pay the price for what we needed.
DELL as a global company should do the entire APQP systematically. They have design verification and production verification before production. During the verification period, they should control carefully the Yield and make the samples qualified for mass production.
There is still no accurate statistic for the burning issues and we are not sure how good DELL has done for the mass production.
If the reject ratio crosses some certain criteria line and no practical improvement could be implemented, we can conclude the product is a failure(Samsung Note 7).

 

Yeah but that would have taken probably another 6 months to launch this machine. Even though all that you said is mostly true, I'd still take it easy, unless they refuse to replace somebody's dead computer which so far they haven't done.

 

The rtx 2080 is avaleble to order again on the Dell website. So....is it fixed now? I will go for the 2070 though..maby change to 3080 next year if possible.

 

I still have faith in alienware.

To be honest, rtx 2070 is still powerful enough. You can just go for it if you don't want to take the burning risk and not so "hardcore" just wanting decent gaming experience