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

My unit complains when it doesn’t have 510W attached (330+180), saying it will have lower performance, etc.

I have a hunch it would still warn that it “doesn’t have 510W” with the insufficient power message.

 

You can purchase a brand new replacement Dell 330 watt power adapter for $75 from Amazon... And yes it has the light up blue power ring.. I recently purchased one.. Its OEM.. I use it alongside of the 180 watt adapter.. It works great.. I tossed my 240 watt one in the barrel.. You always want to use the higher 330 watt one by itself for "light use" no gaming.

https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Alienware-M18X-0143-ADP-330AB-DA330PM111/dp/B07Z8S3RJP

 

Hello guys, my ethernet drops constantly, wi-fi is normal. Any tips?

P.s. other devices connected to the router are normal only 51M falls for seconds and returns.

 

Dell sell them in the UK. The price is ridiculous though.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/del...eland-power-cord/apd/450-18980/pc-accessories

 

Amazon UK has one left for £99.99 (assuming the requestor is in the UK).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JE51E0M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WxjeFb0MY282T

 

That's one way to end up with a paperweight.... there are traces and circuits in the board that you will almost guaranteed destroy if you drill holes in the board to make the heatsink fit.

On the bright side, the unit will be cool as ever...mainly because it probably won't turn on.

 

Only person I know that will have both at the same time is @Spartan@HIDevolution

In the R2 thread there is already one or two people with it you can try asking there.

 

both what?

 

AW Area-51m R1 and R2. Or did you sell your R1 already?

 

oh right, I just couldn't find the post before that's why I asked you. I'm typing this on my R1. The R2 won't reach here before mid August. It reaches HIDevolution on the 29th of July then they have to do the upgrades for the 10900K Silicon Lottery Delidded CPU, Repaste, Fujipoly Thermal Pads, testing, then ship it to me so that needs some time too.

 

So they can take the time to do that....but cant fix the thermal issues....

Priorities seem askew

 

This is likely a really dumb question, but if you use an AGA is the GPU still limited to 75c on the newer BIOS revisions?

 

Thats actually an excellent question..

 

For the fellow traveler who is looking for answers regarding an alienware GPU upgrade:
- The heatsink for the 2070/2080 is the same. The 2060 heatsink needs to be replaced.
- Fun fact, if you dont put the whole unit together and especially the plate at the bottom the unit wont boot up. I did not know that Alienware laptops are 'self grounding'.
- The upgrade is infact quite easy to do but it requires time and patience. Repaste the CPU and GPU while you have the laptop torn apart and replace the pads too.
- Get the 330 Watt power supply before hand if you plan to add the 2080 to your laptop. Dont be an idiot like me and wait for it come in a few days later. The laptop will keep telling you that it needs more power and its adjusting performance according to the power its getting.

I googled quite a bit before i undertook the project but so much information was going back and forth it was hard to pin point what was real. Now the above mentioned points may seem simple but I really didnt get them until i torn the laptop apart. Hopefully this helps other people as the gpu kits start popping up all over the place.

 

Network problems can be difficult to track down. You'll have to put on a Sherlock Holmes Detective Hat and be a bit scientific in your methods to track it down.

Can you try the following (one at a time so you don't have too many things changing at a time:

1) Double check your settings on all hardware. Sometimes mis-configurations like full-duplex vs half-duplex, MRU sizes, etc., can have a sporadic effect on network devices. [EDIT: added after Spartan post] Excess networking bloatware (outside of drivers) can sometimes cause issues too

2) Try a new upstream port. Does the Area 51m plug directly into a switch or router? If so, are there other free ports available? Try switching to a new port and use that for a while to see if there's any change. If you plug into a jack and that goes into your upstream router/switch, do you have a long enough cable to test plugging directly into the upstream device? I've been bitten by the "bad port" before and it can be difficult to detect, and frustrating when you do.

3) Do you have another cable to test? Sometimes a cable can go bad causing intermittent problems. Another (recommended - brand new) cable may help eliminate a problem.

Good luck.

 

Try to uninstall the Killer Control Center and remove the Killer Services or disable them at least and see if it fixes it. Be sure to read this thread:
Guide: Killer Software / Extension Un-installation and Blocking

 

My youngest Daughter got the Gamer Bug on that game when it came out I think she was about 10 when Unreal came out and it had an arena like mode where you could snipe at the AI that was my favorite, I was pretty solid at the game myself, but SHE took it to a whole nother level

Holly Molly your going ALL IN ! LOL - Please keep a fire extinguisher handy

 

If you're gonna go....go all the way in...or don't go at all....

 

Question: Is Dell's new bios 1.10 still causing throttle on the 2080?

 

Answer: Yes, just like every BIOS post 1.5.0

 

Well time for me to downgrade. I'm sittong on 1.7.3

 

See:

Make sure to right click on every file you download, go to Properties, then hit Unblock from the bottom right as it may be blocked since it was downloaded from the internet, if you don't do this before you run the file, then it may not install correctly or lead to a bricked laptop.

To prevent this automatic blocking of files in the future so you don't have to go unblocking every file you download to ensure it runs properly, follow the guide in this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/are-you-sure-you-want-to-run-this-file-yes-or-no.825668/
================================================================
Force downgrade Alienware Area-51m Bios (or any Alienware) to locked lower versions

Note: 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

 

If you are referring to the eGPU temps, then the eGPU should not be limited by this. Of course someone needs to test to be 100% sure.

 

Cheers, hopefully they'd see no sense in limiting an eGPU, but who knows.

 

Im going to say yes and no..

Let me explain.
I have been on the 1.10 bios since my machine came back from repair. I use the 200w vbios. I was mortified b/c I was on 1.5.0 before repair. I think my machine was shipped when I bought it with 1.5.2 (or is it 1.5.3 doesn't matter) and ive used every bios all the way up to 1.10 as they came out.
That being said.. I experienced the hard throttle on all bios s except the 1.10 bios and 1.5.0.. with no modifications besides paste and pads.
1.10 runs up to 74c and just sits there.. Clocks do bounce around a bit but benchmarks in time spy I am in the very high 9's low 10's and in firestrike im in the 21-22000 range. Borderlands 3 runs around 100- 120fps range (game I mainly play) and in metro depending on the area fps with raytracing bounce between 70 and 100 fps ultra settings (shading rate 1.0x)

I have been having a hard time justifying going back to 1.5.0 due to the fact I feel my machine is running where I expect it to with no hard throttling. Comparing it to others here on the forum, my machine on the 1.10 bios is in the ballpark.

Just my experience with this bios. Hope that helps

These are scores with no overclock to heavy overclock.

 

It doesn't get hit until 79C. Try and see if you can run over 79-80C. I can run up to 87C if I wanted without affecting the clocks almost at all. On 1.8.1 I would get the dreaded 300Mhz clock speed after 79C+ temps.

 

Yea.. any other bios I used prior to 1.10 would climb past that 79c and throttle me, sometimes to the point where even restarting the game I would be playing wouldn't help. 1.10 throttles at 74/75, but no hard throttle and mild performance hits.
I have done the HWinfo mod along with unlocking the temp slider in awcc to run the temps up to 87 and my machine will throttle at ~80c on 1.10.
1.8.1 was the worst I found for throttling if I remember correctly.
Point being I guess to the op is 1.10 causing throttling... Yes and no.. It holds the temps at 74/75c and doesn't allow the hard throttle. (at least on my machine it doesn't or hasn't)

I still have been tossing the idea of going back to 1.5.0 but is the risk worth the reward? 1.10 is performing very adequately for my needs.

 

https://www.dennisdeal.com/collecti...re-m18x-r2-laptop?_pos=1&_sid=72ed5c8fd&_ss=r

Legit shop, I bought 330W one from them. Delivery took 10 days 2 years ago. Comes without the kettle cable.

Cost: 48 EUR, free shipping. Picture of the sticker for you. These are Deltas=good, based on info 2 years ago when I did some research. @ratchetnclank @jnyvio

 

Because you are certainly on bios 1.5.0 or less.
All the bios after that are the same and it's how they behave:
1- 75C is the temperature limit set by dell by default. You will not experience hard thermal throttle when temps reach 75C BUT.....but it will reduced it's clock speed by approx 2,3,4, 500 Mhz and frames 10-15-20%. You can still play a game but performance is slightly crippled by this protection.
2- 79C is the temperature limit set by dell for hard throttle when you overclock the temps via AWCC to anything between 79C to 87C. That means the laptop will thermal throttle badbly when temps go above 78C. Frames will drop 80-90% wich makes the games unplayable. So to avoid this most people will set a overclock temperature profils in AWCC to 78C. Whait it does is there will be no more hard throttle but it will behave exactly the same as i explain before at 75C wich will be a small drop in performance (untill temps go down) but still playable.

Bios 1.5.0 will not hard throttle, NEVER, unless temps reach 87C. The problem with this bios is that it will not support G-sync for newest system (2020).

So for people with newer system (2020) that have G-sync panel, you can use any bios stock for OK performance with RTX 2080. For better performance you create a profil at 78C. And for max performance you have to use bios 1.5.0 and loose G-sync.

And V-bios 180Watts vs 200Watts= same performance except 200wats runs hotter.

That is my conclusion after doing a lot of testing and benchmark. I have find tha bios 1.7.3 combined with a 78C AWCC profil + 180watss vbios and finally with a good GPU repaste (Kryonaut or Phobya nanogrease are the same for me) gave me the best results but not as good as the ones running first production unit. Since then Dell has been working hard to cripled our system to avoid repair under warranty.

 

Can confirm, an EVGA 2080ti in the AGA does not throttle. It's fully unlocked in precision just like it is in a desktop.

 

I have an 2080ti in AGA too but cannot confirm it since my 2080ti never went over 45 celcius degrees underload

 

I switched it up and am going to run like this for a while.
So far so good. Im liking the results. Only difference is im on 1.10. no oc to heavy oc, but the temps were really good on performance fan.

 

Excellent news! Is buying a second hand GPU risky, I've never bought proper PC parts, always been a laptop user.

 

Buying secondhand anything is risky. That said unless you are desperate you might want to wait a couple of months and see what happens with Ampere (probably will know more or actually have a soft launch in September) because a 3070ti could be close to a 2080ti at less than half the price. I'm just using my AGA as an expensive USB hub until Ampere comes out (hopefully supported, nVidia sounds like they may be getting a bit crazy with their format this time...)

 

Where on earth can one even get a 2070 or 2080 to upgrade too now?

 

I bought a used 1070 for a friend (long story), but appears to have worked flawlessly. Got it from E bay, I think they key is getting it from someone you can return to and who has a record of good sales.

I doubt the AGA is going work with at least the higher end Ampere based cards since it sounds like the power connector is changed. I don't know wtf they are thinking here.... lower end ones probably will use the old connector. The other tidbit I have heard is Nvidia is projected to start raising prices on 2000-series cards to mess with the mining market....

 

I found one on eBay. There are a couple of 2080s on there and I'm listing my 2070 on there as well (below market price to sell it).
The one I bought came with a heat sink as well so that worked out in my favor
The heat sinks are readily available.

 

I see you have i7-9700, it's "Possible" that is making a difference in heat with the shared heatsink. I believe I have read that chip runs a bit cooler then i9-9900.

And of course each machine is in a lot of ways an individual case between paste, age of paste and type, placement and thickness of pads.

It seems to me in a closed system like these notebooks airflow is the real problem and even 1-3 degrees can make the difference between throttle and no throttle when your airflow is already maxed out.

Just theory of course, but I am glad it's working for you.

 

I try to buy parts with warranty. My Titan Xp had issues within days due to the guy putting liquid metal on the resisters and I got it RMA'd by nVidia. My new Titan Xp (refurb) has been golden.

 

Here's an article on the possible new power.

The AGA power supply can be swapped out. So hopefully if its true we have an option. To avoid obsolescence.
https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-ampere-12pin-power-connector/

 

I'm sure I've seen a few from Reddit who have swapped out the PSU, I don't have a great deal of knowledge on the PC scene, wouldn't know where to start.

 

Guys, I have a technical question.... Perhaps someone here will know the answer.... The original OEM 9900K cpu inside the Area 51M is PO stepping.. 1st generation.. Its also the one that comes in the larger soccer type retail box.. Which most of them are gone now... Intel then released a revised chip known as the 9900KS then the 9900KF.. Both chips have RO stepping... While doing this, they also revised the current 9900K retail chip (Into a new smaller box) and updated it as well to RO Stepping.. Now, RO Stepping has been known to crash windows 10 unless the motherboards BIOS is updated to support RO stepping.. My question..... Does the OEM Area 51M dell motherboard BIOS support both, 9900K PO stepping and the newer 9900K RO stepping 2nd Revision or just the older 1st gen 9900K with PO stepping?

 

Its not hard. Unplug molex. Unscrew old PSU. Add new one.

 

Yeah PSU transplant is annoying in a tower since there's a lot more to unplug and plug back in and you have to rout the cables etc.; in the AGA it's like 3 things that you have to unplug/replug and you're done.

My only concern is, do I want to pay potentially $150+ for a new format PSU on top of $1300+ for the new GPU...


Hopefully the rumors prove untrue 'cause nvidia would really be shooting themselves in the foot here, doubt many will be willing to gut and redo their entire systems just to run their new GPUs when RDNA2 is projected to be nearly as strong (outside of RTX of course).

Too bad AMD isn't really an option for us since we still have to run nvidia drivers for the built in GPU in our A51m.

 

It is in fact quite limit what PSU type and model that you can replace in the AGA, if you just want something plug-n-play, most popular one are the first gen of Corsair CXC500M/450M
You will have unlimited choices if you are willingly to cut the rear grille of the AGA
My AGA is running with a RM550x so I have to butcher the rear AGA, not the most beautiful dremel job, but my 2080Ti will have what it deserves

 

I'm quite sure newer bios versions have the needed support. I know 9900KS works in Area-51m but with the well known added power cap.

 

does not support KS or KF. Dell said they will not add support on the r1 for theee CPU’s.

 

Hi.... I'm NOT looking for KS, KF, support.. The i9-9900K's sold today are "RO" stepping 2nd revision.. This takes a BIOS update to support it. The i9-9900K that comes from the factory is "PO" stepping and no longer available.. What worries me about trying a newer i9-9900K is that its "RO" Stepping just like the un-supported KS, KF.. I hope this makes better sense.

Hi, what worries me is that the newer i9-9900K chip is also now using "RO" Stepping just like the KS, KF.. That is all they sell.. I am wondering if its the "RO" Stepping is whats making them un-supported?? Also, using CPUZ i verified my i7-9700K as a "PO" so that does me no good..

*Perhaps someone here can check their cpu with CPUZ to see if it says "RO" or "PO".. If someone has an "RO" i'm good to go.

 

Dell have inventory of chips. I expect they have mostly R0 now in the shelves. Chips with R0 stepping was pushed out spring last year. Of course newer bios have it supported.

 

I recently did a repad and repaste. The paste I used was 13.6 Wk and i did a mish mosh of pads, but nothing under 6Wk. I used the guides on the forum here for repadding and it seems to be working out pretty good. My temps on the cpu under regular gaming are in the 60's sometimes peaking into the 70's and well the gpu does what ever the F the gpu wants to do (sits at whatever the max temp is in awcc) Going to buy even better pads and paste see if i can tame the temps even father.
All in all satisfied