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

As long Dell don't make huge internal design changes there shouldn't be to difficult offer GPU upgrade kit. But DGFF isn't the same as a safe harbour. Neither was the LGA 1151 socket in AREA-51m when Dell decided to exclude 9900KS as upgrade for this notebook.

Leaked Dell Precision 7550 and Precision 7750 advert confirms design changes and potential DGFF incompatibility notebookcheck.net

Nvidia isn't in the position, to tell Dell where in the chassis new graphics modules can be attached. Dell can make major internal design changes of free will as long they follow Nvidia strickt guidelines regarding signal/power paths or vram vs chips placement on the DGFF graphics module.

 

Ask him about the adata XMP ram while you’re at it. I have been told by several dell reps that the Adata XPG Hunter sodimm should work since the newest bios supports adata XMP but I can’t seem to find a retailer that sells those particular ram modules

 

I could buy the ram in germany, delivery date is mid/end of may

Edit: https://m.alternate.de/ADATA/SO-DIMM-16-GB-DDR4-3000-Arbeitsspeicher/html/product/1611698

 

Umar answer about Xmp modules :



I have asked him some precisions

 

No we are just are just joking

 

Over 1 year anniversary and nothing has changed. Not only you joking No 2666, no UHD and no better single PSU utilization. None of the wishes from you are fulfilled.

 

To everyone:

Just let it all go mannn, nothing is going to change. What you see is what you get.

R1 is what it is, don’t expect anything more. There have been issues with it from the start and Dell is likely thinking hard about where to go with it and whether to refresh it at all.

Fortunately it’s good enough in most respects, but to keep moaning about how they *promised* things in casual Twitter replies (meaning: nothing hard and confirmed, via an official announcement from Alienware/Dell) is just insanity.

I have lost count of how many posts and screenshots of Twitter have been put up about: 2666 MHz, no XMP, thermal throttle points/gimping, no UHD yet, no vapor chamber, etc etc. I’m also bummed out, but what can we really do? Sad truth is: nothing...

It... is... what... it... is... RIGHT NOW. Take it as it is. Sucks there are shortcomings, but it’s reality. And in reality, nothing is ever perfect. Wait for R2 and sell/upgrade your R1's to that if we ever see it.

Unless you’re inside Dellienware, none of us truly know wth is happening and it’s just tiring to keep going in circles all anxious about it.

I encourage everyone to enjoy their systems until an alternative surfaces. Play some gamesss!

 

Luckily I'm not as passive as Virale. Today I will be filing a letter of action against Dell for false advertising in regards to XMP. Ill let you guys know their response. Since I live in Texas I can also file a deceptive marketing claim against them with the state.

All it takes is for one pissed off consumer with an attorney on retainer to force them to either change their marketing/user manual to be honest and hopefully compensate us early adopters with an unlocked BIOS.

 

Not quite that easy. Especially against a big corporation with the resources to buy top tier representation.
have some.....small legal experiance, and it is a tough row to Hoe. Almost as bad as litigation against a public entity.

BUT. You are correct in that the advertising was deceptive, so good luck!. As settlement they may offer you a refund...or a super ram version.

 

Luckily its not a cost concern and a principled concern. I run a business and I HATE deceptive practices. The only benefit of expensive attorneys is having the ability to drag things out.

After I send the letter certified, I will be emailing every public facing email that Dell Austin has with the demand letter expressing my dissatisfaction with their product. You wouldn't expect any corners cut on a $4,500 piece of equipment yet here we are.

Its like Ford and their F250 and F350 "death rattle" suspension issue. They didn't care until local news and legal teams were knocking at their door.

 

Do it and turn it to a Class Action for false advertisement. It will drag on for years and ultimately do nobody any good except the attorneys that make a ton of money off of it regardless of the outcome, but it will cost Dell a ton of money as well, and they have it coming as punishment for their unpardonable sins against everyone that purchased one.

 

I'll only pay filling fees tbh.

 

Good luck!

This...

Also, to add color to my previous post, I was one of the first adopters. The world was promised to me too since then lol. I asked Azor about XMP, UHD, all the jazz... 1 year ago, before the 20X0 were released even... I purchased my 51m with it still saying “1080 GTX with free upgrade to latest gen graphics when released” on the config pages.

I must have asked 3-4 times in Dell chat about XMP support and I was told multiple times it would be supported. I’m among the ones that heard the false advertising from the very beginning. Fact is, 2400 to 2666 MHz isn’t a massive difference, and they never DID confirm XMP support/configurable RAM speed/timings... so at least on that front I cannot comprehend why anyone would be so offended. Sure, Azor and others on Twitter said they’d look into it, but at that point if they actually did look into it and do something about it, it was the cherry on top. And comparing against other laptops that support faster speed/timings, well, yeah, you can always compare to something better... there always is something better. It’s all relative.

I asked in Dell chat a ton of times if RAM would run at Intel's spec, and was also told it would. Shame it doesn’t, but meh, if it suddenly did, I wouldn’t even notice to be honest. So that leads me to care less and less. I choose to just enjoy on 1.5.0 and put in thermal upgrades and am happy with this for the moment. We’ll see if the R2 comes out really juicy! Maybe I’ll switch, or move entirely to another brand with 30X0 cards.

 

I don’t understand how specs and news leak out about just about every computer
company (see notebookcheck.com daily for leaks about pretty much every computer company) yet NOTHING has leaked about area 51m. More evidence that nothing is in the works in my opinions

 

Sad but true! I fear the same

 

Issue is that there's no written/documentation stating that XMP will be locked out on the BIOS if you don't purchase their RAM. They state that all Area51-M are XMP enabled and support up to 64GB of ram @ 2800Mhz (although the user manual contradicts this and states only 32GB XMP at 2999mhz or whatever is available)

 

well they don't even wanna tell us what magical RAM we need to get to enable XMP and really if we buy that RAM will the option to turn on XMP magically appear? And even if it did, that means we'd have to ber on the new crappy BIOS which throttles when the GPU reaches 79C so it's still a step backwards.

 

lol yes:

[BIOS 1.5.0, 2400 MHz Ram, no throttling on GPU] is better than [BIOS >=1.5.4, with ANY Ram speed, throttling on GPU] ANYDAY

 

I'm surprised that nobody has taken the recent BIOS and cracked that code that enables XMP and just roll it into the 1.5. Im also technically illiterate when it comes to that level of work so it might be impossible

 

Not possible sadly

 

I posted this a few days ago. It seems Dell have edited their webpage and removed the pict of the AW with the card reader

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-2067#post-11007759

 

funny thing they have removed that now..

 

I have a feeling they monitor here and the subreddit.

 

Maybe that is the new m17 not the Area 51M. The profile dose not resemble the Area 51M

 

Yeah haha thats not the 51m.

 

I'm calling it now that Dell won't do DGFF 3000-series cards that are compatible for the A51M R1, I hope I am wrong but I bet I they don't do it to try to turn that stock of 2070/2080 DGFF cards they have.

 

They don't monitor crap otherwise we wouldn't have had all these issues to start with. They're too busy creating BIOS updates that cripple our laptops

 

Why not just use the Graphics Amplifier? I've got one with a Titan RTX on the way. Iirc, external and internal GPUs are limited to 4 pcie lanes anyways

 

Hello everyone.

I have a really strange problem with my Area 51m. I am a newbie with such high end machines.

Every now and then, the system freezes for 5 to 7 seconds. The screen keeps showing the same thing I mean. It does not flicker or get a BSOD. It just freezes. Even with every external device removed, it still freezes. Even the touchpad does not work. After 5 to 7 seconds it comes back. It does this RANDOMLY, like with no repetitive use. Sometimes this happens while browsing the net, others while typing an MS word document, others while copy-pasteing stuff.. Is this "throttling"? I am new here and I don't know what actually "throttling" is..

The temperatures are always great (50 Celsius for the i9-9900K CPU. 35 Celsius on RTX 2080 GPU and 44 on SSD 970 Evo nvme). However the system, like I said, freezes. This happens both while in battery or while charging. While gaming I've never had this issue.

Can anyone suggest a fix? Has anyone ever came across such an issue? From what I can see in DELL's website, others have also had this problem, but with no solution..

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/Area-51m-freezing-for-5-10-seconds/td-p/7479641

I use BIOS 1.9.3 and vBIOS 1.0.0.5 (I bought the laptop 20 days ago with these versions preinstalled). All SSD nvme drivers are up to date. All GPU drivers (internal and external) are also updated. I have already uninstalled touchpad drivers and still the issue appears.

 

I think the most appropriate action here would to be a fresh install of the OS. There could be a driver conflict or some software that is doing stuff that it shouldnt causing the hardlock to occure for a short period of time. Its like when most people used to use all the Virus software which would automatically start performing tasks without consent causing massive system loads to the PC when you need it the most e.g. gaming, video editing, something important which inevitably ruins what you had going.

I rarely have had to do clean installs of an OS though, I just use what was given by the factory as from my experience reliability is higher if you leave things untouched. I also have always turned off driver updates as conflicts can arise when random drivers keep installing. Untill windows 10 released I used to even keep windows from installing any updates as it always seemed to break what I had going. Freezing can be extremely annoying though, hate it when that crap happens. If its that new of a laptop I would send the pos back and tell them to get there **** together and look for another brand but were talking about the area-51m here. I dunno...lol...Clean install of windows, or new laptop...

If it wasn't doing it when you first got it, it could be a setting you have changed or some software that you downloaded or a driver you updated. I would retrace my steps if that pertains to your situation.

 

It's so funny how you and Fox, both non-A51M owners are the biggest proponents of stirring up as much controversy as possible around this platform. And why? Hands-down, this is the king of the mountain in this form-factor (DTR), and probably will be for some time. You two keep coming up with more and more non-sense to make your points and try to turn everyone off. Heck, I never even saw, nor expected a card reader, but here you are again, making folks feel like they got short-changed or ripped off.

You and Fox should give it a rest since neither of you contribute anything positive, but only contribute everything negative, and with heapings of your own butt-hurt feelings from, who knows where.

I'd wager most us A51M owners are happy with our purchase. I am not absolving Dell/AW of anything you two complain about, but I also think that most of your complaints merit much less attention than you think they deserve, especially since you do not own one.

So please, respectfully, just give it a rest. Useless noise.

 

I tried explaining this to them before, not necessarily anyone's fault, their right manufactures are making crap product and they should be called out on it. Mr. Fox has been a long time contributor to this site for many years, and I do agree with him on most everything he has posted but yea...I got banned many years ago for nonsense stuff, simple conversations but the admin is a pos egomaniac. To bad this is the only semi decent site for mobile enthusiasts. There used to be another forum, cant remem the name of it, but i havent visited there in for ever. The funny thing is Im about the easiest person to get along with that I can think of and this pos still banned me...lol...ran into many a pos in my day.

Im on the positive side though, although my machine hasnt came yet so I might be Mr. Fox on steriods if things dont go down nice. We are mobile enthusiasts, we find fixes to problems and make things work. Stay positive about things and maybee karma will lend a hand some day... or crush us in defeat as we scream NO MORE BGA!!!!

 

Wondering if most people have external monitors for their AREA 51M's.

I've got the 60hz panel and really thinking about buying an external monitor but enjoy the portability, etc., but don't want to buy the 144hz panel and replace...

What's everyone doing?

thinking about either getting the dell 32” curved https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/acc...fAqb6BTyItTt07_t1xYaAhDKEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

or

27” LG amazon edition
https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-27gl83a-b-gaming-monitor

 

I do own a multiple screen setup and it's great with the Area 51m (as it could be with any setup ^^)

32:10 43" Asus as main screen : https://www.asus.com/Monitors/ROG-Strix-XG43VQ/
Samsung Curved 27

All the details and stuff used :

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidem...inished_my_setup_finally_asus_xg43vq_samsung/

 

Its easier for me to let them speak on my behalf on the main issues for these DTRs without having to do a single keystroke!

This system was my first AW and was expecting a lot more freedom with adjustments, BIOS, etc. At this point this may also be my last AW product ever unless they change their act on locking down enthusiasts from tinkering. This system was meant to be a modern replacement of the aging Clevo P870DM-G in 2015 and has done well until these BIOS limitations were put in place that made it not worth updating a new system literally 3 months after its release. My system was purchased with 2666MHz RAM straight from Dell and still doesnt run at that speed. Every BIOS update I read about here is basically further neutering what couldve been the perfect system.

I hope other vendors release a better quality system in the future, or I may even have to turn to powerful 'turdbooks' since they offer more user control in every other front besides CPU.

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

they use to have a couple reps actively engaging the forums for a while. This was years ago but they vanished.

that is the m17 BUT, we have screenshots of a 51m that had what looks like a full size SD card reader as well.

 

It looks like you missed the point. Dell post pict of an (possible) refresh of their coming lineup showing the card reader on their own webpage. How can this be no-sense or rip-off from the poster? Rather blame Dell. And King of the mountain in this form-factor (DTR) should be on top of all bench ranking lists.

One thing for sure. Both me and @Mr. Fox is performance enthusiasts. We want the best possible performance and features in this type computer platform (DTR).

 

Can't imagine why with all the constant attacks and negative attitudes. Even if every change that people wanted was made, some people would find a reason to complain about something else. I wish people that had all the answers would go make their own gaming computer company, since clearly they know it all.

If you want a response from a Dell rep, then use a Dell forum. They have their own forums for people to use and respond on. They are active on Reddit somewhat, they have someone that replies to comments now and again, but it's sporadic.

The amount of useful info in this forum has gone downhill substantially the last few years. God forbid you actually like your Alienware around here, someone will be around to tell you why you shouldn't shortly, or how the brand they support is better in every way.

 

Thanks for the early reply! I will try not to format the drive yet, since it takes me 2 weeks to install everything back.

How did you find out it was the Killer WiFi device? I mean what did you find in the event log viewer of the former Windows installation?

I have also read that Tobii was also causing such issues related to freezing, so I have just uninstalled it.

I have also read that the owners of SSD .m2 NVMe Samsung 970 Evo (I have replaced the default 1TB Hynix SSD with a 1TB Samsung 970 Evo) should use this guide ( ) in order to make the new .m2 SSD work flawlessly (without warnings appearing on Samsung Magician) with the rest of the system by changing from RAID to AHCI in BIOS. I have also just done this and will wait to see if freezes appear (or hopefully not).

Also, I have just installed Intel Driver Support Assistant ( https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/intel-driver-support-assistant.html) and found out that Intel Wireless Bluetooth and Intel UHD Graphics drivers 630 were outdated, despite the fact that Alienware Support Center stated that everything was fully updated, since it wasn't.

I am running BIOS version 1.9.3 and vBIOS 1.0.0.5 (I bought the laptop 20 days ago with these versions preinstalled).

I have 3 questions for you (in case you can help me):
What BIOS versions are you using? I need to know since your system is stable now just in case that is the problem for the freezes..

Also, are you having temporary freezes when you have enabled pdf thumbnail generation? I do, and I have uninstalled all software with thumbnail generation problems.

Thank you for the reply and I hope you get back!

 

1) Only use drivers from Dell that were made and tested for your system. Don't rely on any other tool to update your drivers.
2) I have thumbnail generation on and there are no freezes.
3) Don't use that registry trick to switch from RAID to AHCI. Keep the system in RAID as Dell has shipped it with the factory image.

The issue you are facing are not related to any of what you're doing, it's probbably some software that you've installed that's causing this. Try running task manager then check the processes see if anything is having abnormal CPU spikes. Also let me know if you have ANY Logitech device connected to your machine (ie. mouse or headset). their Logitech G hub has a bug which causes sever CPU usage all the time and it can't be uninstalled as it has no uninstaller, I had to format my system and reinstall everything just because of my Logitech Mouse. what I did now is I installed the old Logitech Gaming Software instead of their new virus called Logitech G hub

 

This would be the first I have heard of this....I have been using Logitech peripherals for years on all my laptops. Don't get me wrong, Ghub is garbage, but it does have an uninstaller? Unless you mean the uninstaller does not work properly, I have had no reason to completely remove it and never look back, but I have uninstalled and re-installed it a few times. I have the G933 so I need it to use surround from the headset unfortunately, but yes it is garbage software.

I have also never experienced any CPU drain caused by Ghub that I am aware of? Certainly nothing like @c0ach is describing.

 

Get the Alienware 120Hz 1440P 34" Ultrawide. I have it and its fantastic. It also goes on sale often. Also there's literally no graphics card out there than can hit higher than 144htz on a 1440p ultrawide 34". So its pretty great since it maximizes what any system can push.

 

I do hope some actions will wake them up. Their recent direction is getting ridiculous. Now, I don't know what the difference between Alienware and Acer anymore. What's next? Soldering heatsinks so end users can't replace their toothpaste?
I really want an Alienware that is as good as my old ones without any major issues.

 

You have a problem with separating the product from the company mate. Everyone here mostly complains about the awful business practices of Dell/Alienware related to their Area51-M. IE: gimping the 2080 with BIOS or locking out basic features behind an invisible paywall.

The Alienware brand explicitly states its for people who like to dig into overclocking, repasting, modifying, etc. So don't act surprised when the enthusiast crown gets enthusiastic about their product. We aren't idiots who take Dells word as final because we have backgrounds that let us know what they're saying is a bunch of BS.

So again, nothing against the Area51-M and everything against Dell's terrible business practices. If I wanted unnecessary constraints and lockouts I would have bought a MacBook. At least theyre honest about the practice.

 

Well I would've never checked but when I installed SVP (Smooth Video Project) it does a system performance test when it first launches and it kept telling me CPU usage is high so I checked and it was the lghub.exe causing this. I rebooted, no luck, denied it internet access from the firewall, no luck, then I did a Google search and found many with the same issue, this is one example from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/LogitechG/comments/cxtgbp/lghub_agent_100_cpu_usage/

No solution was ever found even the Logitech support can only suggest reinstalling it but that doesn't make any sense because this was a clean install on a clean Windows 10 1809 build.

I am shocked how you found an uninstaller for it, mine didn't have that in the Programs & Features which is why I had to format because I couldn't even force uninstall it using Uninstallation Tools since it's not even listed in the programs, that cost me a lot of work. If you Google this issue you will find a myriad of threads on forums about this with no solution. I'm glad it's not doing that for you.

I installed the Logitech Gaming Software for my G900 Chaos Spectrum Mouse but also had to delete the discord crap to also prevent high CPU usage, see:
Warning: High CPU Usage with the latest Logitech Gaming Software

I swear I am never buying a Logitech product anymore, their software is utter garbage.

 

I've been slowly going to Steelseries and only my mouse isa Logitech 903. After the latest update, it will crash almost any game after 15-30 min. Whole PC just freezes.

 

Has anyone had any luck flashing an unlocked bios so we can use the locked features? I’m looking into getting a flashing tool so I can flash the chip directly since there seems to be no real way to do it with afudos. I’m curious to hear other users experiences related to this

 

If you have any USB devices connected, disconnect them and see if the problem goes away. If it does, it is either a messed up USB peripheral or some settings need to be tweaked to stop it. If it happens when nothing is attached except for the AC adapter(s), it can still be indirectly related to buggy software for peripheral devices. If you have any Killer Networking software installed, remove it. If your USB peripherals have proprietary software installed, including RGB lighting controls, uninstall all of those things. Be sure to go through all of your entries in Device Manager. Right-click and select Properties. Any that have a Power Management tab, disable the option to allow Windows to turn off the device to save power. Start with the USB devices, but don't skip any device.

That is not accurate. The above reply is exemplary of what I do frequently.

You're either not paying attention, need to spend more time in other threads, or something else. I seldom post in this thread, and when I do it is generally when I am tagged. After I respond I usually click the unwatch link at the top of the page.

It's OK to call the balls and strikes and express contempt for incompetence, lies and shoddy engineering. I do it all the time, against all brands... not just Dell / Alienware. Trash is trash no matter who has the balls to put their name on the garbage they sell. I don't care if anyone gets their knickers in a twist... not my problem. I have better things to do than spend all of my time being critical of Dell... got to give equal time to all the other craptastic trash peddlers.

I think the only thing that differs with Alienware is the disappointment is greater. But, that is on me for expecting more from them than their competitors. Silly me. I don't any more, but I certainly used to.

 

Good luck King. A few users have stated that there's a chip on the Motherboard that won't allow anything to bypass official Dell BIOS versions. I would love it if you figured it out.

 

Doing so is not possible due to Intel BIOS Guard. Even a SPI flash won't work. You would need to replace the PCH chip with one that does not have BIOS Guard enabled to eliminate the cancer.