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

That explains why this issue appears even if you decide not to update OC controls or AWCC. Guess best is to have a copy of the profiles to overwrite in case there is an online update.

However, this is a very low move from Dell, not a happy camper right now.

 

Caveat emptor.

 

Hi,

I've been on the phone/emailing Dell Support regarding why the XMP settings are missing from the BIOS and how to enable it. It has sent me down a rabbit hole with a potential answer/truth that we will NEVER be able to have XMP profiles unless you purchased the faster ram directly from Dell during your initial purchase.

1. They advertise on the product page that XMP is enable for up to 64GB Ram at 2800Mhz: https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-17-area51m-laptop

2. The service manual states that XMP settings for 64GB do not exist: https://www.dell.com/support/manual...7064b8-2eb4-49ec-88a8-43b102e42417&lang=en-us3. They use different MOBOs depending on the laptop you order from Dell directly. IE: If you ordered a 2400Mhz model, you will never be able to upgrade your ram as they are flashed from the factory to never allow access to XMP4. The recent BIOS update that allows "XMP" is only for customers who already have the feature enabled as they purchased the higher frequency RAM from Dell directly.

Their website clearly indicates their product is able to utilize XMP ram and the service manual even states: "NOTE: : The computer is shipped with these default configurations. You can also configure the memory according to the supported memory per slot."

So when I pressed Dell Tech Support regarding this issue, they stated the following: Depending on the Area-51M you ordered, it will come with a different motherboard with the memory frequency locked from the factory. That is why we cannot change the frequency of the RAM. They literally lock it in BIOS and ship with different motherboards depending on your initial purchase. I am escalating this higher up to get a solution that doesn't involve a refund but it's pretty disappointing that they are clearly lying about the PC's performance. Has anyone experienced this or found a workaround?

https://imgur.com/a/ZOsHzO5

 

I know, the funny thing is that they themselves are to blame for the burnouts on all those units with their terrible coding on the fan control. Quit spending time looking for a way to chizzlick your customers and spend the time coding a proper fan control aspect to your GARBAGE system control program, and %99.89 of us would be happy with this beautiful looking rig!!

Hey Alienware engineer.................Yeah YOU!

 

The problems are:

1. They are pathological liars
2. They don't care what customers want
3. They don't fix their mistakes
4. They replicate their mistakes
5. They don't deliver on promises
6. They are control freaks

Firmware is everything, and Dell/Alienware are firmware Nazis. Without good firmware, specs are almost irrelevant. What good it is to have nice specs if you cannot take advantage of them?

Meanwhile, I'm running my $1,500 Tongfang turdbook with elevated BCLK, XMP capabilities and manual timings... 3000 CL16, 1T. Why? The hardware supports it (as does the Area 51M hardware) and so does the firmware (which is not the case with the Area 51M). I'd view that scenario as being an inexcusable failure.

Disclosure: I am running modded firmware. My system allows me to. I own my system. The Area 51M has protections in place that do not allow that level of user autonomy. Dell owns their customers.

 

Is there no way to bypass the XMP lockout? I imagine a feature so baked into the Intel ecosystem and the fact that there are laptops out there with the feature enable, someone could re-write the config in the alienware control center to bypass the lockout?

 

Well, anything is possible. I think it is not likely. Dell uses Intel BIOS Guard technology and to my knowledge (and based on things @Prema has shared with me) there are no workarounds. It is hardware-based protection and defeating it would require replacement of the PCH chip on the motherboard with a compatible PCH that does not have BIOS Guard cancer. The fact that they use it shows the depth of their commitment to block their customers from doing anything they don't want them to do. Thus, my comment that "Dell owns their customers." I have absolutely no respect for Nazi behavior like this. Companies that resort to draconian measures like that to block customers from customizing what they purchase are unworthy to scrape gum from the sole of my shoes. The best way to deal with that nonsense is to boycott it, refuse to support them financially and actively promote the same behavior from others.

 

It really is a shame the effort they put into their software to NOT allow features such as XMP. Shows you they are 100% capable of allowing XMP, but ya know... that's a PREMIUM upgrade on an already expensive machine.

Definitely looking into rearranging my tiny 100sqft room to allow space for a desk so I can finally build a desktop. I wish there were more manufacturers that built DTRs like this and also offered a similar warranty to Dell.

Gonna hold out for the RTX 3xxx series before I start building though.

 

XMP support is one thing, but Dell have locked out everything above 2400MHz for ram. Tech support ain't cheap. When the motherboard ain't good enough for Intel's ram specs and people will try it on their own... The phone support would be flooded with angry owners. Easy fix.... Lock it down!

 

@Donald@HIDevolution Maybe Donald and his team can start a mail-in service to replace this BIOStrash PCH chip for a small fee.

Would it really be as simple as replacing this chip? I'm sure they've probably thought of a way to completely disable the system should you replace it though LOL.

 

The firmware need signing. I'm sure HID don't have that key. Same for the other OEM/resellers. All is locked out.

 

Ahh, of course..

 

Industrial-grade firmware cancer... a meticulously crafted and maliciously orchestrated effort to enforce compliance through both firmware signing and hardware controls.

I can think of nothing to be gained from it but the joy of defiance. It may not be engineered to adequately handle more than they allow without a risk of failure (fire being one of the hazards). And, it comes at the cost of providing financial support for the demonic beings that implemented it in the first place.

 

The best part is that they allow you to overclock the CPU + GPU if you want. I swapped the stock i7 9700 with an i9 9900K I bought from Newegg. Running 5.0Ghz on all cores @ 33C and repasted the GPU. The system has so much potential if they would just stop being control freaks. I'm mostly pissed off that there's no documentation warning users about the XMP lockout.

 

Yeah, it would be very bad if they didn't offer the same as all other brands who offer unlocked chips in their models.

And i really hope they don't go as far as lock out undervolt as they have started do for rest of their models http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-win-update-bios.831450/page-18#post-11007753

 

Just put in a 32GB stick I had lying around of samsung memory combined with my current 16GB and it took it like a champ. System definitely running faster. Total 48GB mem.

 

My Profile.zip file is dated March 26, 2020 - last accessed March 27, 22020 - I have mine set to NO Over Clock and have not touched it in a while ...

MAYBE this is why I have not experienced the Locked at 75c issue ?

 

The Placebo effect can do wonders bro! I mean with all my games installed and apps loaded, I rarely use over 8GB of RAM out of my 32GB so I don't know how your system feels faster with 48GB vs 32GB.
Please don't post your feelings but benchmarks of before/after (no offense meant)

If anything, that would be actually slower because now the 2 sticks you had earlier are still working in DDR (Dual Data Rate) mode whilst that single 16GB if in SDR (single Data Rate) mode so when something is working in that memory space it would actually be slower. That's why I only upgrade RAM in pairs of two and that's why companies like ASUS are so stupid IMO because a lot of their laptops come with weird configurations like 24GB RAM! Who does that!

In the past, doing what you did will cause the entire system to drop down to SDR speed but luckily Intel introduced a Technology called Flex Memory Technology which allows 2 pairs to work in DDR and the single RAM stick to be in SDR instead of dragging the entire system speed down.

 

Yes that's pretty much what a builder / reseller told me when we first saw this advertised.

And my guess at the time was that they were cherry picking the boards that can handle it to sell at a premium.

Well if its just a PCH chip, I have a solder gun maybe ill get really bored if this Virus lockdown continues much longer.

 

I noticed this today as well.
I had no issue with downloading and installing the previous version of the OC controls 1.2.50.1227, A00:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...wt64a&productcode=alienware-17-area51m-laptop

I just had to uninstall the new March version from Control Panel, Install the downloaded ones and I can increase the GPU temperature back to 87 Celsius.
(I restarted after the install when it wanted to. Using the latest AW Control Panel).

Still is interesting to see how they "fixed the problem".

Maybe this helps.

 

He wasn't specific

He could of gone from single to dual channel. That will 'feel faster'

 

Not sure if it's normal or not, but check out gpu high temp and no hard throttling during testing/benchmarking. bios 1.9.3 and vbios 1.0.5.... not sure what this whole temp at 75 is about.

 

Is the Alienware Area 51m worth it? Currently there is a $950CDN discount.

 

Here's something new for you guys to play around with.

https://www.basemark.com/benchmarks/basemark-gpu/

 

Damn !

I was sure someone on notebookreview have the answer to this ...

Alienware... keep on pushing silent updates to throttle their units...

Anyway, I downgraded by uninstalling Alienware OC Controls, and installed 1.2.50.1227 version.

Reboot, run Alienware Command Center (refusing to update Alienware Oc Controls for sure), 87c slider was available, I created a custom profile, save, close.

I created a backup with a winrar file of :

C:\Program Files\Alienware\Alienware Command Center\OCControlService\OCControl.Service.Overclocking.Data folder content
and
C:\Program Files\Alienware\Alienware Command Center\OCControlService\Profiles.zip

Set readonly on C:\Program Files\Alienware\Alienware Command Center\OCControlService\Profiles.zip

Re-run Alienware Command Center, accepted the Oc Controls update, reboot, and finally it's still working

Anyway guys, Alienware Oc Control Service seems to be coded in c#, I tried to read assembly with JetBrains dotPeek and it's working well :



So there's an easy way to understand the behavior of all this

I'll dig deeper on those C# Assemblies

 

lol yep, stay away from dat crappp

Well see what the R2 brings around and I’ll likely sell this locked down monstah.

I love it, but I hate it.

 

Love it. Actually I went from 2 x 8gb (16gb) to an extra 32gb stick. Too lazy to bench it - maybe its the placebo! Maybe not...red or blue pill?? lol

Personally I picked mine up off another dude and got it for much less...ie...2200cdn with 9900k and 2080rtx..

I immediately bought a 5 year warranty with the money I saved w/accidental damage.

 

So the board that can handle higher memory frequencies are identical to standard board but somehow they able to handle it ?

I smell something wrong here , I would love to enable xmp profiles , any work around ?

 

I'm so tired of all this stuff.. when I saw that my gpu was throttling at 75°c without changing anything I first thought it was a thermal paste/pad problem... I didn't check it was software related like it's explained here ><"...

So I unmounted all the computer to the heatsink part (for those who already performed this operation, you know how long this operation could be...) changed the thermal paste and pads.... and now I've got worse temperatures.

I don't know if it's due to the pads I've changed with the GPU (it's like the 5th or 6th time I've done this though...) or if it's the Nanogrease that's requiring some days to perform better... but I can finally reach 86°c (with undervolting of the GPU to 900mv & 1950mhz on MSI AfterBurner) but I reach it waaaaaay quicker than before :/

I think I'll be calling Dell if they can send me a new heatsink with thermal pads.

Any advices ??

 

Yesterday even doing everything to avoid the slider block during past days... awcc update itself and also aw controls... . don't know why... never mind... I am getting sick of this...aaaahhhhhhhh.... just needed a gameplay on Rage2 and make some kills.... lol...

What you are saying is what I am experiencing... if profiles.zip was "read-only" and I left overclock off in AWCC, temperature goes above 75 until 77 then triggers hard throttling... so at present using HWiNFO64 and leaving the HWINFO64 Fan profile window just open) allows to go to 87C (while... just using custom curves in MSI afterburner and an alarm when it reaches 82...)... backdoor path...

 

Oh, forgot to mention, as Helifax mentioned in his video... in HWINFO64 "Safety" option of "EC Support" has to be untick in order to reach temps above 77C...

 

Ah and to keep you guys updated, I will start looking at the reversed engineered (with JetBrain dotPeek) C# Assemblies of Alienware Oc Controls about the profiles and the slider stucked @ 75°c, it seemed to me they included the encryption right into the C# files... I may be mistaken but I'll dig into this also.. it will take me a lil bit of time because I have a lot of things to do @ work but I'll keep you updated asap... because if you guys wan't to change the profiles files after this update you won't be able to do this because the files are signed... but if I can somehow find the encryption method and key in the C# Assembly, I'll be able to do something with this

 

So you can reach 80+ temperatures with any BIOS superior than 1.5.0 ?

 

Could you also send me the sources (you can create a git repo or something like that) maybe i can port it over to .net core to make it cross platform immediately. I've tried to get to the sources of the AWCC but i had no luck.

 

It did worked for me in 1.7.3 and now 1.9.3...
Below video with all explanation from Helifax19 (great video)


Posted before already.

 

Woha, what is going on here? 88C? Where you running the HWinfo trick?

 

What about when playing games ?
Can you reach same temps without throttling ?

 

3d Mark is reporting the IGPU Temp (or something CPU related), not the RTX temp

 

Is it possible to downgrade bios version ?

The tech support I've called installed the 1.9.3 because they weren't trusting what I've told them and now I can't rollback.... :

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ny-alienware-to-locked-lower-versions.829542/

 

This topic is gold, many thanks

 

Yes, I've yet to have any hard throttling. I played 6 hours of control last night with no major frame drops. Everything cranked.

 

Just keep in mind what version your trying to return to. Some users have tried to go back to 1.3.2 for some reason and have said it bricked their machines, while others were fine. I would recommend against trying to go back that far.

 

What did you personally use to bypass the 75c limit, apologies if you added this earlier.

 

My guess is initial batch may just be cherry picked boards, to see if demand is sufficient to justify special orders for better spec boards, and now if there is demand they probably special order as needed on demand.

 

MSI Afterburner. Get your popcorn ready as this is a long one :

 

The process starts at 58:10 and it relies on HWinfo to bypass the BIOS thermal limitations.
However, I'm not sure what he did with the sliders in the fan section...
But apparently he's getting 80°C+ temps on his BIOS > to 1.5.0, so awesome news !

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Afterburner + hwinfo. Clean windows install, no Dell software whatsoever. Not even drivers.

 

What ??
I did not watch the entire video but he still uses the AWCC. What drivers need to be uninstalled then ?

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

He also adjusted the voltage curve in MSI Afterburner in the beginning. I recommend watching the entire video.