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

Yet....we don't even know why they actually put this limit in place, everyone is just making assumptions. Maybe it's there for a reason and they have not solved the issue yet. Just because it hasn't be solved yet does not mean he isn't trying.

 

Same as for Dell's XPS line. The change dumped down as a bomb without a single explanation... You can ask you yourself. Why change it at all? And why couldn't they just put it back? Would you do the same if this could give benefit to your own company? Always a reason for such changes. Always!


http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-9570-owners-thread.817008/page-248#post-10890814

@chewbakaats58 It seems MB swap will be you best bet https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/Area-51m-various-keys-not-working/td-p/7507729

 

Does anyone know how well the 9700k/2080 handles VR with 4 lighthouses connected via Thunderbolt?

I've pretty much given up and just ordered a third monitor to retire my 51m and I'll start putting money aside for building another desktop. It's not what I wanted to do after relocating and renovating a house, especially as the other PC is ok-ish but its a silent build and not HEDT like I'd prefer.

If I still have the 51m lying around, I may as well use it as an HTPC and if I can connect up my Caldigit TS3+ and Rift without the games getting throttled massively then I'll at least be happy it can do something.

 

There will definitely be a BIOS update. They are still looking for something new to break. As soon as they figure that out, they'll make it available for download.

We've seen the same pattern over and over again for at least 7 years. We used to be able to fix their messes. Never had anything but good result after doing that. But, now they take steps to block fixes and preserve the messes they make.

I used to give some of them credit for trying. It was because I am a nice guy and wanted to believe they were sincere and acting as customer advocates. After a while I realized they were just employees that are being paid to say what they believe we wanted to hear. There was no truth to the words. The people speaking out in social media, then and now, are powerless script-readers that are just doing what they are being paid to do. Those with the knowledge and power to act do not. They are nameless and faceless and are not accountable to the customers that pay their wages by purchasing their products. And for the record... everything they sell functions exactly as they intend it to function. That's what they have told us. The fact that they don't fix anything suggests that those words are true.

 

After reading that, it reminded me of a quote from The Dark Knight, " You Either Die a Hero, or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become the Villain"

 

I don't see the RTX upgrade kits on dell.com did they removed it?

 

Yes the link to the kit says “You have been redirected. The page you tried cannot be found; it may be an incorrect or outdated link.”

 

Very interesting. Getting ready for Nvidia’s next GPUs? Maybe being announced during GTC in a few weeks.

 

i somehow doubt this chassis can cool a 2080 super lol

 

Not a problem cool it. The thermal limits is there already in sBios Can even let the Super scam from Nvidia have higher TDP than 200w without you should be worrying.

 

I thought they sold a cooling solution and card together when you purchase an upgrade kit? Sorry my terminology may not be correct.

 

By “cool it” i mean run at full speed without throttling.

they havent even officially fixed the throttling on the 2080, why would you give them more money for a 2080 super

 

I get your point

 

so mine just moved to shipped status, and its UPS Surepost. I didnt know you could send desktop replacement laptops with them.

Not really sure how surepost qualifies as "Express shipping" but since its free its whatever.

 

Hello there! I have this problem;

Sometimes when I'm in the desktop or browser, and mostly when I'm not using the computer for a while, the computer totally freezes.

I have the RTX 2080 and when I'm using games or so it's working totally fine, this problems only happens when I'm using the browser or so... The Dell guy told me that could be related to the switch between the GPU and the Integrated one, should I disable the integrated GPU in some way? Would affect the already poor battery when not plugged? Thanks!

 

Ok but really, anyone think there is anything more to this? It's been several hours now and still unavailable on Dell's website. I read online that Super laptops will be coming in mid-late April (probably Max-Q variation? not sure from which companies).

 

I could be wrong but I don't think the A51m does GPU switching? I thought it was in a disabled state unless you use TB for displays? Again this statement could be incorrect.

 

The incompetence of those support people... Of course the A51-M doesn't have Optimus, hence the abysmal battery life.

 

The Intel GPU is disabled and is only used for connecting external monitors.

 

As I understood it, the RTX2070 doesn't throttle in the 51M due to lower temps?

Theoretically, would a unthrottled RTX2070/9700K combo perform about as good as a throttled RTX2080/9700K?

 

Lets quantify it...its more theb 50% of posts. The another 20% is " Clevo is better".

Easy answer...polite dialogue is a lost art, people have abandoned the golden rule; and no one likes to be abused

I see the same thing, mostly on batt

Actually an area I have some...cough... small experience in.

Upgradable would hold up. They would have issue with the ram not reaching advertised speed. Dell would defend they shipped what they advertised...2,666 ram. They would say they never said it would run At that speed.

Case would settle We would get $5 each. one year extra warrenty. Legal fees would be $5,000,000.

Alienware never sticks its neck out on something as..innovative again. Even if thier reach exceeded the grasp in a few areas its still a great machine.

Just my modest opinion.

 

2080 will run a bit faster, even if they are both throttled at the same temp. If max Q is any indication, the 2080 will be 10-15% faster. Obviously, the 2080 is the nominally faster chip (more shaders etc) but also has about 20% larger die size which generally helps with cooling. HTH.

 

In case anyone is wondering the dell S3220DGF I ordered arrived. It is an excellent match for the 2070 51m.

Pros: great color. Enough brightness to stand up to a moderate bright room.
Fast response. Hz counter on screen. Goes to 166hz.
Does quasi HDR with a fair retained brightness for emphasis (quasi cuse if its not an array i feel it can't be "true"HDR.
Good build quality.
Its freesync BUT I have Gsync working (not officially supported)
It was dirt cheap on sale...
CONS. Downward orientation of ports.

Not perfect with Gsync

Its my first Curved screen. It is immersive, no real effect on text.

Note its not 4k, its native 2560x1440 which is a plus to me it's overkill on a 32 inch screen....and tanks frame rates.

I paid just over $300....its a steal at that price.

 

So that's why I can't find anything related to disabling Intel GPU on BIOS like the tech guy from dell told me...

He will come on monday to change my graphic card and motherboard and I will see if the freezing continues

 

In the passed few days I've noticed that when opening Wallpaper Engine or if I get any of those Captcha puzzles where you're asked to select all the traffic lights the images are fuzzy. It only happens on those apps that I've noticed so far. GTA V and other games are playing fine.

I know my description is poor at best and I'll attempt to get a screenshot when it next happens but is this something I should be worried about in terms of the GPU going pop aha?

EDIT: It looks like artifacting if that makes sense, but never in games or YouTube etc.

 

So since there have been discussion of the effect of running on one brick vs both..

I have been playing mech warrior 5 (good game...fyi i played the original battletech: crescent hawk games when they where released!!! I'm.....vintage...).

With one brick (large) i was getting 55 to 62 frames. With both its 65 to 72.

Edit ** Temps went up a few degrees. Max 79 CPU...53 GPU.

All grapic settings maxed.

I had what may be my first throttle with a 2070 . Playing a game and it suddenly lagged...FR dropped by half for 2 to 3 seconds. Noticed my cpu temp had hit 79c.
Now....there was something else going on with the pc so ill play later after shutdown and see if it repeats

 

Hey folks! Is it normal for the Powerlimit slider and manual fan controls in MSI Afterburner and EVGA Precision X to be locked? RTX 2080 here.

 

yes

 

Thanks! You have no idea the weight this has lifted off my shoulders. It’s very frustrating trying to fix something that isn’t broken

 

NVIDIA going back to sli with 3000 series GPU I believe. they realized if they can milk 2 cards they might as well do so, this giving some more life to 870tm if theres card made for mxm, we can only hope.

the last time i'd consider them being innovative was with the m18xr1 and r2. not afraid of doing 18 inch laptops and throw in all the crap that enthusiasts want. going to the default 2666mhz ram speed isn't exactly innovative, its what a51m suppose to come with originally.

 

Unless you're talking about throttling under older BIOS which throttles more typically for hardware, you've got to take into consideration that a "normal" throttled 2080 isn't the same as in the 51m 2080. Mine will stay throttled at 500Ghz until the load is gone and that load will be reached in games or Heaven within the first 7 minutes. In these circumstances the 2080 is worse than integrated graphics let alone a 2070.

 

Sorry for the delayed reply on this topic, but I think I can help many since it seems this is not an uncommon issue. I've dealt with the battery drain when shut down quite thoroughly, at this point. My first Area 51m was draining when shutdown and after doing everything I could find to troubleshoot, I ended up calling tech support. We spent hours on the phone with them doing all sorts of stuff, remotely. They ended up just sending out a tech to replace with a new battery, but the problem persisted. Finally, I found the solution that I'll post below. It's worth noting that I had to replace that laptop due to screen bleed (which they were very professional and friendly about, btw) and the new laptop had the battery drain issue all over again. Since it had been a while, I had forgotten the solution, but diligence paid off. When I found the solution, again, I was kicking myself for forgetting.

The solution is as follows:

It's not disabling fast boot. It's not disabling sleep in registry or turning off hibernate. It's nothing to do with USB powershare in bios (though, I never had anything connected, anyway). It's nothing to do with waiting 5 minutes to close the lid after shut down. You don't need to press the power button for 15 seconds after off, nor use the shutdown /s command. It won't show up in battery report, nor event viewer.

The problem is "Intel Management Engine." Go to Device Manager>System Devices>Intel(R) Management Engine Interface (right click)>Properties>Power Management>Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power (uncheck). I don't know why this works, but all I know is when I uncheck that box, the battery no longer drains in shut down state.

It might be worth adding that I went through the entire Device Manager list and did that for anything that showed it as an option, just to be thorough. I monitor my own power, anyway.

I was experiencing anywhere from 2-5% power drain per day in shut down state. Now, the battery stays at 100% while shut down, as it should.

 

I mean, it was even on the box and the site when I bought my AW51M... I mean at some point this devolves down into false advertising, technical issues or not. I am not that worked up about the outcome (you will literally not see the difference unless its a benchmark), but its the fact that they aren't even striving to correct it that is so galling.

 

Rather narrow don't you think? I like to give credit where it is due.

At the same time as the m18x was the m11x, which was also very innovative and daring for the gaming market.

The AGA port is a very innovative step for a direct eGPU (introduced 2014)

After that they were the first to use OLED tech in a laptop, and the only 13" screen and only Gaming one at that, after HP and Lenovo followed suit with their 14" ultra-books (I do not think the HP lasted long). Not until 5 years later was there any other gaming OLED laptops once the more widely available 15" OLED screens hit the market today.

I would say their implementation of DGXF modular GPUs (starting with their Precision line) was innovative and daring, while not even close to 100% successful though. Innovation doesn't always work like it should on paper. Not having these things swappable among product lines was a terrible flaw. They also have trouble with PCB design.

I am hopeful for the upcoming UFO project. While derivative of a Nintendo Switch, it will be the first gaming tablet since Razer's Edge (7 years ago).

 

You can overcome this throttling by setting the thermal limit in AWCC or Asus GPU Tweak to 77c, this still causes throttling at 77c but its no where near as aggressive. I can play GTA V or a similar game for hours and have an average clock speed of between 1700-1800mhz.

Excellent thanks a lot for this, I'll give it a try and report back.

 

Yes, the AGA innovation of 2014 is still pretty cool and a significant USP. The recent A51M is a major breakthrough attempt to go back to the roots of the brand. The problem, as you said is the execution, they should really focus on perfecting that instead of going off at weird angles IMHO.
The AGA itself is not built well enough, it doesn't take all the cards right off the bat - it pretty much has to be modded straight away. No need to go into the many issues plaguing A51M - it's an open beta basically.
All their laptops need to repasted, repadded and tuned using 3rd party utilities straight after unboxing...

It would be great if they could solve all those execution issues and actually make the next 15 inch AW modular too. The 15 inch precision has 4 SODIMM slots (AFAIR, the 17 inch def does), and a DGXF graphics card (albeit a pretty weak one). They would have to go back to the roots a little and make the laptop bigger which is fine. It would also help lower their support costs, as they wouldn't have to replace the whole motherboard if only the GPU failed, as is relatively often the case with the RTX line.

 

The AGA is AW trying to reinvent the wheel again since MSI already had a graphics enclosure since 2012 (thunderbolt based,
GUS II external GPU
). It took AW 2 years to come up with a design, and repurpose a PCIE cable.

The Lenovo C730 was also the first to use an OLED display back in januari 2019. In April AW started it's m15 refresh with the option added later on for OLED. Before Lenovo, Samsung was actually the first since they manufactur the Displays. The 13 inch was new. But it hasn't worked out, since they discountinued the chassis without refreshing it.

Again, they tried to mimick/improve MXM while it only became more expensive (not by much but it's more expensive than MXM). Burning out VRM's and having PCB problems i won't call that revolutionairy but more bad Q&A and not having the right people at the right positions within the company.

The UFO i won't even start about that. They cannot cool a laptop or DTR, let alone a tablet. but those are just facts, and a sprinkle of my opinion within it.

 

To be fair, aren't all the TB3 eGPU solutions slower than AGA?

 

Dell already spends unbelievable amounts of money printing and sending everyone Thick Glossy Multi color Advertising brochures quite often ( these are not cheap ), you would think they could slip an apology in there,

"Sorry folks we missed the mark" "We really wanted to make these promises happen, but realities of Business have resulted in a good machine, but not all we had hoped to achieve"

"We are still looking to implement SOME of these features we promised ( only available to new buyers ) as soon as we can get them approved over the course of the next 100 or so meetings"

I am pretty sure Dell / Alienware is buried deep in the same Multi-Meeting, Deer frozen in the headlights, deadlines driven old school management styles that are ruining a lot of business, Departments don't communicate, end up working against each other.

A small personal example is that Dell is Still sending me emails trying to sell me extended warranty for a machine I RETURNED in December of 2019 ! - The emails include the service tag of the RETURNED machine in PLAIN TXT ( I thought everyone is supposed to keep that service tag to themselves ? ).

If Dell can't even keep their records straight on returns and where the inventory is, it makes me seriously doubt that ANY of their record keeping is any better.

But maybe someone at Dell will see this and there will be a meeting about it

 

My body is ready, my wallet is not.

 

Actually. No, u dont need to mod the AGA as long as u use a approved card from the constantly updated list. If u want to use a different card...thats on you.

You do not have to repad and repaste. Many of us have not and are happy with the machine.

Fair is fair...

 

LOL. This is what Dell have to say:

"The Dell™ Alienware Echo-Series Docking Station enables a gaming-desktop class graphics experience by supporting any single full-length, double-wide, desktop graphics card."

No compatibility list on the main product page, anyway why would it be needed since any full length card is supported, right?

I'm sure there are many people who use their laptops without any improvements - they just don't know any better. The point is that because the modifications are so effective, we know that Dell are doing a subpar job.

 

its been proven the AGA is faster than tb3 solutions.

 

not narrow at all, personally would not consider the list of things you've mentioned innovative such as GPU modular design and eGPU, tho it is good for them to give it a try as they should, they wish reach wider audiences to make bigger bucks. thats a business practice that has been regressing, going back to it now would give them a pat on the back but it isn't innovative.

modular gpu exist in laptops for decades and the way they do it isn't for innovation purposes (maybe innovating in milking) its just for us won't be able to upgrade should they choose to discontinue support, we'd need to purchase new product as we have no way to upgrade.

eGPU being out for a long long time through expresscard, just crappy external cards but the idea been there and have been implemented for a long time now.

on a side note, i like your profile picture from total annihilation studio. i still got my old game that i modded with like 6-7 difference sides you can pick. core, arm, ff, aliens and few more

 

If being the first to do it is the main criteria, then the m18x wasn't innovative either...

 

The list is readily available on Dells site. Search is your friend.
https://www.dell.com/support/articl...mplifier-supported-graphics-card-list?lang=en

 

I'm not saying the list is not available, but simply that A) it exists due to design issues B) Dell advertises the device as supporting all graphics cards of particular length - it doesn't out of the box.

 

Cool made some edits, next time I'll give a little vacation time, let's go ahead and leave out the threats and other attacks.

 

So I see @Rengsey R. H. Jr. has joined the club. @Raidriar must be waiting for 10-core & RTX 2080 SUPER R2 model

I bet the R2 will "fix" the DDR4 2666Mhz+ issue, while the rest of us R1 users are stuck since there's apparently a new revision R1 MB for XMP support?

 

hi guys, my support package is expiring , how do i remove all dell software from my laptop now as cleanly as possible as i have no use for it no more, my a51m is still going strong....

i think i only need the alienware control panel to get access to the fans, or has there been any developments regarding setting fans since i been away?