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

Standard Dell procedure to go straight for the motherboard. Then when it still isn't fixed they'll send out another motherboard because the replacement was obviously faulty. Usually by the third or forth attempt they'll work it out.
Not saying your issue isn't the motherboard but I've had a few painful dealings with the Dell 'experts' over the years. Also, usually their 'Techs' have very little experience with Dell/Alienware machines and are just sent from local repair shops.

 

Their people are part-swappers, not technicians or engineers with lots of knowledge or technical skills. They do not actually fix things, they just keep swapping parts until the problem goes away or they grow tired of doing that and replace the system. I think that "let's throw more parts at it" approach is pretty much status quo for the industry when it comes to laptop repairs. The shotgun method to laptop repair works as long as the problem is an isolated component failure and not an engineering defect that affects all of the new replacement parts.

 

100%

They often end up doing more damage. Seen so many stories over the years of the great job these tech do.

 

Anyone know that the Phobya NanoGrease Extreme has been discontinued? Both newegg and amazon say out of stock along with any other sites where you used to be able to buy it. https://www.pccasegear.com/products/24478/phobya-nanogrease-extreme-3-5g

 

Try these guys. Haven't personally used them before though.

https://www.au.aquatuning.com/therm...ompounds/15898/phobya-nanogrease-extreme-3.5g

EDIT: Huge delivery time due to COVID unfortunately.

 

I still have my unopened package, but I was just recommending it a few posts back and then I got to looking...and its out of stock everywhere. Ya I seen that, 120 days lol! Nothing like waiting to repaste to get the mood set. Who knows if they even have it also, alot of sites dont update there stock and you could be paying and waiting for nothing. If its discontinued like some of the sites are saying its just a gamble to try a third party website. There are 4 on ebay but there in Germany and only ship to EU.

From what I have read on the net, the DX1 by junpus is the same stuff. The only place I can find it thought is here, https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ainekkusu-...407856?hash=item1a9afcca70:g:xBsAAOSwaZNe75f7

I guess its a bit cheaper here, https://www.amazon.com/Ainex-JP-DX1-Diamond-Thermal-Paste/dp/B00JHRXMZM

 

So nanogrease is out. Anyone have experience with this one?

Prolimatech PK-3 Nano aluminum thermal compound.

Is got a 11plus conductivity (close to grizzly) and supposedly lasts wayyyy longer once installed....and its available.

I want to paste and forget....​

 

ICD7

If you want to read it its here, http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/absolute-best-thermal-compound.808945/page-12.

There talking about how to properly apply ICDiamand 7, https://www.amazon.com/Innovation-C...diamond+7&qid=1593566956&s=electronics&sr=1-1

 

Hi guys, my area 51m just died suddenly two hours ago while it was sitting idle on windows without doing anything. I never had a problem before and I have tortured this laptop for more than one year with rendering 3d animations with 100% usage on cpu and gpu at the same time (VRAY-GPU) ethereum mining and gaming 24/7. Temps were great. It has a 9900KF with rtx2080. Can anyone help me identify if its the motherboard or gpu? I have to buy the replacement part from ebay as soon as possible as I am in the middle of a very important project. When I press the power button No fans spining, no leds or screen backlight. I disassembled the laptop to look on the gpu if there are any burned mosfets but everything looks ok and there is no smell anywhere from the motherboard or the gpu. Also my warranty expired on April so my only choice is ebay.

 

Maybe the CPU.

 

Should beep or give warnings lights. Can be everything. Try take out each components and see if you get warnings messages as mentioned.

Shouldn’t Area-51 boot up with DGFF graphics removed? Then run on iGPU ?

 

The LCD connect right onto the graphic card. It's retarded lol.

 

Dell engineering at its finest.

 

I bought mine from these guys but I am in the UK...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Phobya-N...rentrq:090f71121730a9e4231c416dffff66f4|iid:1

 

This is exactly the information I'm looking to find, if anyone else here has tried this please let me know. What it does if you remove the dgff? I know the screen is connecting to the gpu directly but if with the gpu disconnected it can still power on, then I would say for sure that my mainboard died. I tested also both psus with a voltage meter and they are fine,voltages are OK.

 

I believe it should do a sequence of beeps
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Beep-Codes-Table/td-p/5588971

If there is no beeps then i'd say it's the motherboard.

 

no beeps and no signs of life. So I'll get a motherboard now from ebay and I hope this will make it work again.

 

don't you have a dell guarantee?

 

You know there is 1 years obligatory warranty in countries as etc U.S? See... Not all pay for the extended expensive premium support.

I have warned about what will happen once the obligatory warranty is expired. In several posts when I saw the risks.

A few http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1441#post-10936885

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-1315#post-10925708

 

Yes, I know, but the warranty can be extended

 

Too late with bricked machine. And some have spent everything on the machine. Some even haven’t the money to pay for the extended warranty when the obligatory warranty is out. Other things sometimes must come first. Loss of job during Covid mess etc.

 

Dumb question perhaps but could this be a power issue?

 

I tested both of my psus with a voltage meter and they seem fine.

 

If you remove the DGFF card, you should be able to use the thunderbolt port to use a DP cable to an external monitor.

Unfortunately KF model was the one without iGPU so that's not an option.

You can try running without dGPU and then try without CPU and see if that helps. If it does not turn on, could be motherboard.

 

I already tried to power it on without the DGFF (but not without cpu) and it does the same, no signs of life. I orderd a used motherboard now from ebay with overnight shipping and I hope this will fix it. I have torturted so much the gpu for more than 1 year 24/7 it cant be the gpu, it was my hero

 

So dell woes continue. They sent me multiple scheduling emails for the motherboard swap. But now everything is postponed until further notice...no reason given.

Did I mention the only way to insure I had Prolimatech PK-3 was to buy a huge $30.00 tube? Got the dell emails after I ordered.

Figure I will have enough to start my own repaste business

 

Hmm, your in tough spot. It can be an expensive path to take trying to self diagnose and buy parts off of ebay. Thats desperation man. It might even be better to find a different PC for now untill you can pin point the failure. You dont want to get another mobo and have it go out on you as well.

I was trying to find a place that sells Junpus DX1 paste because I read its a replica of the phobya nanogrease extreme, but all I can find is a 1400$ tub of it on newegg.

 

We live in crazy times

 

How does the warranty extension work? You imply you need a functioning machine to extend it, seems like?

My warranty ran out and am considering extending it, but maybe I’m wrong in thinking that if something starts misbehaving on my 51m and I fear it is dying, I can get a warranty extension at that point. Is that not the case?

 

In my experience, you can buy extended warranties at any time, even after your warranty has expired. So, buy the warranty first, then report the issue. You won't be alone, many have done it exactly that way.

 

This was my impression from conversations with Dell when my warranty was about to end. I asked if I could buy a warranty later and they said I could, at any time, even after my current one expired.

I was like , then why are we still talking? I’ll call you when it breaks! lol.

 

Do they charge more for the extended warranty if it is already expired like in my area 51m?

 

Unsure, but it will probably be cheaper to buy the warranty than paying to get it serviced if something goes wrong

I also encourage you to consider the value of money and time. If you never need a warranty (because your PC never breaks down) then you saved money. If you needed to repair it, then so be it, you’ll have to get a warranty/pay to get it repaired (but this is low probability!)

In my mind, if I have the flexibility to get a warranty later, why would I ever get a warranty to begin with? Especially those $300-500 ones for 3-4 years!

 

I think you may have to extend during the warranty period. But i could very well be wrong.

 

They will allow you to extend it at anytime....But after a certain period they will attempt to charge a reinstatement fee. You can play hardball and get it waived however.

 

When is the limit in time for getting the extended warranty and not have to prove your machine isn’t damaged/burned out when you extend it after expired obligatory warranty?

 

It is what I was saying yesterday, it extends the guarantee not to have a brick.

I understand that it is expensive to extend the warranty, but it is more expensive to buy components on ebay.

With the guarantee they already changed me 3 gpu, 1 motherboard, 1 cpu, 2 heatsinks and gave me a new alienware r1.

My girlfriend works for a law firm and we are thinking of sending a document letter to intimidate them into replacing my model r1 with an r2.

and they still haven't taken my old r1, call to let them know and they told me that they have no idea of the service tag of my old r1 and I think I now have two alienware area 51m hahaha

 

Ok the Dell clusterf@#$% continues.

They sent met several emails on scheduling. Never gave me a date. And the last one said it was postponed until they call. I just got a call (i was dead alseep) from the tech saying he is on his way....and would be at my house in a hour...I put it off.

Thermal paste has not been delivered.

This is the same tech that replaced my soundcard. When he was done my capacitive screws where no longer capacitive. Says he has done 52 m motherboards though.

One last thing...whatever the tech did during that 2 hour remote session Gsync is really screwed up. The settings look fine... but its wacky as hell and tanking frame rates. I turned it off an they went up by about 20%...

Sigh. Meanwhile my sons MSI rsider is a 15" champ. It has a 2070 super P and is meeting and often exceeding my framrates. And running cooler!

 

And its due to those actions that warranty is expensive, and the work is done by incompetent people..
Expecting a couple free laptops due to so much "tweaking" that it ends up burned up..

Thats on the brink of scamming..
And openly admitting it isn't a good idea.

 

I am not aware of any time limit...they love to sell those warranties.

 

Does anyone please know where to find the shortcut .exe of the awcc ? @Spartan
I would like to put it as a macro just to have to press the button ( lazy me lol )
Checked everywhere impossible to find even when I right click on the image on the desktop and clock properties it shows the path and it's some kind of weird dell.... But not saying where it is .
Also is there anyway to link your profile of your awcc of fan speed to a macro ?
Thanks !

 

They don't do anything past five years, but yeah up to that point you can. The new month-to-month is not a bad way to go actually.

 

I've not seen that option is it US only?

 

As far as I know, every time I’ve turned on Gsync and use Nvidia ultra low latency (NULL) and Vsync “Fast”, my framerate “goes down” because it drops frames and reduces pre-rendered frames to provide the lowest latency possible, so framerate does take a “dip”, but by choice.

You can turn off NULL and just do Gsync on and vsync on, and that’ll usually provide the highest FPS (while reaping the benefits of Gsync), at the expense of some latency (very minor).

I have my settings for min latency because I play a lot of shooters.

 

Might be. I paid for a two year on my A51M, but did a month-to-month on my AW13 R3. I might need to cancel it, I have literally touched it once since I bought my A51M back in November

 

Just for fun, and because I wanted to know if this would work, I tried it. I disconnected the DGFF and hooked up the thunderbolt and it works. Laptop works as expected hooked up to the iGPU. I didn't remove the DGFF completely, just unplugged it from power and disconnected the LCD cable from it, but the system does not see it at all. Laptop boots up and works off the iGPU running on my TV just fine, but you don't get a picture until Windows loads, so you can't see or alter any BIOS settings.

 

So I have an update, finally it was the motherboard. I received the new motherboard today from ebay with overnight shipping. I installed it and the beast is working again!
I'll send the old motherboard to a friend who is an electronics technician for inspection. I hope he will find what exactly has burned on this motherboard.

 

Ok. Anyone ever stack thermal pads?

For example two 2mm to make a 4 mm ssd pad between the ssd and the motherboard...