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

Hello guys I have had my 51m for about 6months how ever I just stared to have time to game in it . I’m having an issue when gaming with the 2080 . After about 25 min of gaming my computer stutters then the gpu clock drop to about 600-800mhz and stays there . Any idea why this is going on?

 

It sounds like you are suffering from the 75c GPU limit. Although it shouldn't aggressively throttle if all is standard.. i don't think anyway.

Are you using any other software to control the GPU temp limit? If I set the limit higher than 78c in Asus GPU Tweak I also experience your symptoms. Setting it at 78c allows a slight downclock to control the temps.

 

I used a tweet to go I’ve The 75c and when it his about 80c it’s dumps to low clock and never recovers


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What tweak are you using? Try setting the limit to 78c and see if it happens?

There is also a workaround by using AWCC and HWInfo fan controls that allows you to go as high as the 87c limit.

 

I used in on reddit I found that a reinstall controll center and add a registry edit . I just uninstalled the whole thing and getting the same issue . It goes from running 1600-1700mhz to running 600mhz and just sticks there no matter what .


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That sounds like Spartans AWCC tweak which is recommended, however, if you are on any BIOS after 1.5.0 you pretty much need to leave AWCC at 75c unless you use the HWInfo or Asus GPU Tweak workarounds.

I could be wrong here as I only use AWCC for fan control. I use Asus GPU Tweak to raise the GPU temp limit.

 

I’ll try to reinstall every thing


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I just completely reinstalled windows launch the game and it was running about 1700 MHz after about 15 minutes it just dropped down to 600mhz with 50-60c


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Maybe it is Alienware Parental Control.

" OK 15 minutes of gaming is enough, Junior. Time to clean your room, then go outside and get some fresh air and sunshine. "

 

What fan profile you have AWCC on when gaming?

 

As Fire Tiger suggested any bios above 1.5 is going to produce the throttling behavior. Depending on what version of bios you have the best way to get rid of the throttling is to downgrade the bios to 1.5.

 

This laptop simply cannot be used with any BIOS after 1.5.0 unless one wants to lie to himself and let Dell enjoy his/her money whilst giving him crappy performance. With BIOS 1.5.0, it runs like a champ, after you unlock the GPU Thermal Limit Slider: Guide: How to unlock the GPU Thermal Limit Slider in Alienware Command Center

 

So I need to down grade bios


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Right



Force downgrade Alienware Area-51m Bios (or any Alienware) to locked lower versions

PS: The USB Flash Disk must be formatted as FAT not FAT32

Area-51m BIOS / VBIOS Collection (mirrors)


Here is what I recommend:


a) Uninstall Alienware Update AKA Dell Update and Dell SupportAssist otherwise they will keep nagging you to update your BIOS.


b) Flash the BIOS using the Recovery USB which you created using the guide I showed you earlier.


c) Immediately head into BIOS and make sure you disable Firmware Capsule Updates in the Security tab otherwise Windows will immediately upgrade your BIOS!


d) Once you're back in Windows, reflash the same 1.5.0 BIOS again but in Windows, I had to do that last time as I was getting weird behavior (I can't remember what exactly but once you have flashed 1.5.0 in recovery mode, you will be able to flash 1.5.0 again through Windows since you're not technically downgrading anymore you are just reinstalling the same BIOS) so do that to ensure the BIOS is 100% flashed correctly.


e) The moment the BIOS is flashed, go back into BIOS and load setup defaults then save and exit (from the last tab in the BIOS)


f) Now enter BIOS again, set your battery from Adaptive to Custom and tell it to start charge at 50% and stop charge at 90%. This will ensure the battery is never over charged and will thus prolong its life.


g) In the 2nd tab in the BIOS, I recommend turning OFF Power Share as that will drain your battery if your laptop had a USB device that needs power overnight (such as an external HDD or Game Pad)


h) While you're in the BIOS, ensure that Firmware Capsule updates are OFF

 

Ok now to figure out to do that lol


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I edited my reply above, please check and ask if you need help, don't do anything in haste and disconnect all USB devices except the recovery USB when downgrading

 

DELL pushed out yet ANOTHER OCControls update today dated 6/6/2020 which overcomes the Profiles.zip fix..... roll back to previous version regains Temp adjustment slider.

I am starting to think DELL is silently monitoring forums and using the intel to harm us, but I'm a little paranoid sometimes.

 

is it version: 1.2.74.1238_A00. from june 4th? ( that is the latest version at Dell canada) because this one works with the profiles.zip fix.....and i am also starting to believe they are monitoring this website also.

 

Wow thanks for that I’ll work out thats!


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Be happy you didn't run into this mess, bruh.

"This a total of 5 months without a properly functioning laptop or no laptop at all and no promises of when I'll get it back with no other solutions for resolution"
Re: Computer still in “repair” state for over a month + a few weeks

 

I had to roll back to Ver 1.2.70.1237 to get the Profiles,zip fix to work for me here.

It may be the usual AWCC not completely updated and keeps trying days later thing that it likes to do.

I really wish they would just stop and move on, forget about A51M rev 1 - it does not need anymore updates, unless they come to their senses and actually fix the thermal issue they caused.

 

I had the same issue so I roll backed to the May 28th update along with doing the registry trick. I also blocked AWCC in the firewall so it cant communicate with the internet. DeLL/Alienware is doing everything to push these updates anyway possible to save on RMAs and RTX 2080 modules. I have never seen such aggression on updating a product before. I had HIGH hopes for the Area 51M and i still luv it. Clevo is going to be the only ODM/OEM along with PREMA BIOS support to even consider if a someone needs a desktop class notebook/laptop. This is ridiculous. Hopefully after the R2 comes out they slow down on these updates to the R1.

 

I am running on 1.8.1 bios and I have no throttling. I set my GPU temp limit in AWCC, I have it set to 82C at the moment and all works well. I am on vbios 1.0.0.5. I have a 9700 nonk processor though so the temps naturally are low so its easier to manage to begin with but I have tested with games like Metro. I still need to undervolt the GPU using msi afterburner and I also undervolt the CPU using Throttlestop. If your any type of laptop enthusiast these work arounds are not that hard to overcome. I have mentioned if this is your first laptop trying to get everything set is going to be a difficult chore. One thing that I do to keep everything running without throttling though and at correct thermals is to prevent any updates from occuring. I turn off windows update, I deleted all the alienware update software as well as added exceptions in the firewall to prevent auto updates. Any random update can screw with all the different software I use to keep everything working as I want it.

I realize not everyone wants to do what I do, with the updates and undervolting stuff, but for me, I have been using BGA laptops for many years and I am over the moon with how the Area-51m has performed for me. I was worried getting into all this, but it really was all for nothing. Everything has performed for me just as I had hoped, and yes the performance is out of the world compared to what I had been using. I have been a 14-15 inch laptop guy for a long time, and the area51m is, well its just an entirely better experience all around. Using my smaller BGA laptops, while the Helios 300 I have is nice, its not even close to the experience I get with my alienware. Its like going from an old LCD panel that is 28 inch from the early 2000s to a crystal clear 70 inch paper thing wall mounted OLED TV. So yea, I have enjoyed my alienware immensely so far. I have to stop making these posts about how much I enjoy my unit though as its going to catch up to me from experience. I hadnt had a "desk top replacement" for many years though so getting back into it I was ready to be impressed, even if what I Was getting wasnt perfect.

I have to say though, with my experience with the Y740, Legion, I had been downgrading the bios on it and I had a whole ton of crap issues that I had to deal with. My machine was in the repair center 3 months straight with a few days here and there it was sent back to me and still wasnt what I needed done. I would not think of downgrading the bios on my alienware unit, no way, there is no reason for me to do that as the out of the box performance for me is spot on. I have had no issues what so ever getting it to run like I have said, the way that I need it to work for me and that is marathon sessions of BF. If I was you, I would find some people that have your bios, that are not having any issues, and see if you cant get your machine to work for you. There have been many reports of people bricking there units (dead processor to be specific) by downgrading the bios. For me, I dont need to tweak my laptop to the point that its ultimate perfection, and you know why that is? Because crap changes every day, something either can break, software can be released and screw with your perfect setup, theres all sorts of things that can go wrong when your dealing with an expensive piece of tech that is suppose to run like a monster. Get your unit to a point where your satisfied and stop, and enjoy it for awhile. Its one thing to spend all your time with your PC tweaking it to perfection only to be let down in the end, its another to get it running decently and game on that monster and enjoy the hell out of it.

 

I agree with what you are saying. Our system, équiped with 2080 RTX will perform almost as good as the ones using bios 1.5.0.
But you said you set a profil at 82C? Any profil set over 78C will thermal throttle in games (at 79C and more) unless you use HWinfo to control fanspeed (not awcc) and then there will be no more thermalthrottling. You can even set a profil at 87C and it will not thermalthrottle. I hope this is what you we're doing.
For people not wanting to complicate things too much i recommend setting a profil in awcc at 78C (very easy, no thermal throtlling) and using 180w vbios. (my system with this settings performs better then many system using bios 1.5.0).
For max performance we can set a profil at 87C and the 200W vbios by using HWinfio fancontrol bybass. That will give us a small improvment in performance (frames per second) but temperatures of the system will rise by 9C and also increase temps for the CPU.

 

@Normimb @DreDre

The Profiles.zip hack works even on the latest versions., I just formatted last night and installed all the latest ones while using the old Profiles.zip file set to READ ONLY mode

 

You could be right I have not tested enough to say for sure im positive 100%. I do know that with the AC running in my smallish room, my GPU sometimes runs at 62-65 degrees, and the CPU not much higher but that is just my BF5 config. I did test Metro, the latest one last week and the temps started going higher then I normally see so I played with the undervolt on the GPU and found a reasonable setting that keps temps in check. I do run HWINFO with Rivatuner for my OSD(on screen display) stuff like watts and NVMe temps as well as some other stuff that MSI afterburner doesnt come standard with but I have yet to need the thermal hack with HWINFO. I wouldnt want to run that high of temps anyway, its so nice being able to marathon game while never hitting 70s in a DTR.

It has been smooth sailing so far, just have to keep those updates from screwing with my setup as its working great as it is.

 

A locked down and undervolted 9700@65w chips as @G46VW use doesn't puke as much heat into the unified heatsink. Once he put in another chips as a unlocked 9900K this will change.

 

Good catch (i did not noticed the CPU)...that is why @G46VW temps while gaming are soo good. Now i understand, thank you.

If you wan't to test GPU temps you should run heaven (max settings) (GPU no undervolt and maybe overclock to speed up the process) in background and monitor MHZ and temps while it is running. Once it hit 79C Mhz it will drop to 500Mhz (framerates so low it wll lag).
Then create a profil at 78C run the same test and you will see that instead of throttling down to 500Mhz it will only throttle down a few hundreds Mhz and will show no lag.
You can run the same test with different Vbios (180,190 and 200w) and compare temps and performances to determine wich Vbios you wan't to use.
My personnal experience is 180Vbios (for better temps and almost same FPS) for safety reasons and a 78C profil.

 

You should change your icon to show your current laptop off

 

Might as well change the username he is an ASUS laptop model

 

Hoping you pros can assist me.

So I ran ePSA diagnostics and got an error:

PCIe - Training error PCI tag-0100 VendorID-10DE DeviceID-1F50 SVid1028 SDid-08C4 Bus 01:
Link Degraded, maxWidth x8, negWidth x2, PCIe Slot 01

After searching these forums I found refrences by user S.K. with what seemed like a similar problem so I ran GPU-z and got this:


So, do I have a problem? Is my GPU failing or is this normal "standby" performance? This is a new (supposedly) laptop with RTX2070.

Second question: any chance (assuming the above is a problem) that would cause anamolous battery drain behavior?

Thanks a million!

 

Yea who knows what I got going on here, but I'm just glad this worked, I try and avoid the whole wipe and restore as I have not quite re mastered the correct separation between C: and the other drives, almost but not fully, There always seems to be some things that will only work off C: and or they ALSO install parts of themselves on C: and redownloading a bunch of software really uses up my Internet plan fast.

I used to know everything Windows very well, but decades of living on Mac have made me forget an embarrassingly large amount of things, I really need to immerse myself in command line environments again, using GUI all the time just makes me stupid.

 

it looks like your card is only running pcie at x2 for some reason.

before you open it up to check connectors try first going in to device manager>system devices> update the driver of any pci controllers (x8) (x16) etc

 

gpu-z reports the following on my system

 

Whatd'ya know... I did as you suggested and it found a driver for both 8x and 16x. I'm going to reboot now to recheck ePSA. I'll report back in a moment.

 

NP bro and you don't need to format. I can help you fix anything. Just ask if j00 n33d.

 

Error still there. Damn! It was worth a try. Guess I'll see if I can get Tech Support to send someone out. I'm hesitant to open it up because I don't have any thermal paste on me, atm.

 

Ahh unlucky,

From what I've read the ribbon connector is easily damaged which causes the problem you describe.
So hopefully an easy fix for the tech.

I've had my 9700k + rtx2070 trouble free since launch, only problems so far have been because of software issues.

Good luck

 

Is the 2080 super going to fit in our Alienware r1?


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Thanks, again, Raza. To that end, I found a previous post by S.K. giving the part number:
Part number: DA300015110
Vendor : UNIMICRON-FPC

BUT, can anyone confirm this will also work for the RTX2070? I think his was the RTX2080. I'd like to be able to request it when I call in tomorrow.

 

No

 

I had been on this forum for many years before I made this account. I got banned for standing up to one of the punk admins. Sadly there is not many good forums for laptop enthusiasts.

 

I see, you can easily have your username changed if you want over here: Want your username changed? Request here

 

What do you think of Quake II RTX as GPU stress test?

 

I downloaded it but never tried it, metro exodus is a good one though even though the game is a console port.

 

I just got my laptop this morning !!!!!
Bios downgraded to 1.5
Temp slider for the GPU working
Was a piece of cake thanks to your pieces of advice you guys !
Can you just tell me how to block any further auto upgrade of the command center ?
Thank you

Lol @Spartan
I just reboot my computer and the temp slider is blocked once again ..
Checked the bios it is still 1.5

So I uninstalled everything redid the whole process was working again
But every time I reboot it is blocked again ..
I blocked in the firewall awcc and Microsoft store but it seems like it keeps on updating somehow even though I'm on the last version

 

You don't need to block anything from the Windows Firewall. Where did you read that?

Once you install OC Controls, before you reboot, you need to copy the Profiles.zip in the below guide into its respective folder then only reboot. This way it will always be unlocked.

Follow the guide properly, it WILL work. Now you need to do a proper uninstallation of the Command Center which is also mentioned in the guide below

You need to to into BIOS > Security Tab > Firmware Capsule Updates = Set that to DISABLED

Guide: How to unlock the GPU Thermal Limit Slider in Alienware Command Center

 

@Spartan okay fixed it now
I just did the same again and it works
I have repasted it put some fujipoly thermal pads and change the cpu for a delided one the temps are amazing! 60 degrees on the GPU with heaven bunchmark after running the benchmark 3 times

 

@Papusan @Mr. Fox

From my understanding, the Intel Dynamic Tuning Driver is just a new name for the previously known Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Interface driver right?

See: Intel Dynamic Tuning Driver same as dynamic platform and thermal framework

From the search results, they seem to do the same thing. Even the version number seems to continue where the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Platform was.

Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework v8.5.10103.7263

Intel Dynamic Tuning Driver v8.7.10200.12510

 

Same disgusting tech...
How Dell cripple performance explained by....

Dell try to make it looks better than what it is. In short a tech you have to use if you shrinked on the cooling.