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

Well from experience my gt80 and gt83 were both built and designed to much higher standards than the 51m

Watch dell lower the GPU back to 180 watt and add 2666 support in the same update XD

 

I understand and I didnt mean to be so blunt but every time i read this thread we have another lot of people having to return their 51m's which sucks. Its no different then what used to go on in the alienware forums when we had replaceable parts and large threads. People have to realize though when a large group of people start taking advantage of something it will not last. If its not worth it for dell to keep pushing forward with their user replaceable desktop part laptops because to many people are destroying their pc's at dells expense they will no longer be doing any Research and Development essentially killing the line.
Just a quick thought iv been having while reading this great thread. I wont bring it up again. Thanks

 

Hey all,
I’ve unfortunately started to have issues with my 51m. I bought it a few months back but have only really started to use it extensively after selling my tower PC.

Today after playing a few hours of FFXIV my screen went black and stayed off. Both the external monitor and laptop monitor now every time I boot into windows the screen goes black after a few seconds. Sometimes even in the login screen. But I’m safe mode everything is fine. Which to me suggest an 2080 RTX hardware or Nvidia software issue? Can anyone shed some light on this. Is this a bad GPU?

I’m really annoyed

 

cant even go an entire page without one of these, sorry about your machine.

 

Is this a known issue then? Is there a fix or do I call dell?

 

Most the people on this thread have replaced they 51m's on average 3 times so I am sure one of them would know. Sounds like your GPU went kaput tho.

What have you done in regard to modifications?

 

Modifications? It what respect? I haven’t modified a thing hardware wise.

 

That's the problem (or at least part of the problem). Where did you buy it from?

It's of no use really to discuss this here. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone but I've been building systems in the past as a part time hobby + job and I saw plenty of people during that time that'd come with a dead laptop with a straight face and lie through their teeth about how innocent they were and how monstrous the manufacturer is who made a junk machine when in reality most of those damages were due to maltreatment and misuse + crappy thermal jobs applied by either them or their resellers. Even a friend of mine in Dell support told me that the management is really annoyed by the warranty claims of dead parts that were fried due to user error but hey, that's the world we live in. People put on a baby face to hide their mistake instead of owning up to it (although there are some genuine cases too, but majority are not genuine) because majority wannabe overclockers find it convenient to abuse their warranty instead of being honest about what they did (benched the hell out of it without upgrading thermal pads + paste, and sometimes inside a effing blanket) and owning up to their mistakes. And they could care less about a great product being discontinued. I am so annoyed at all this that I've actually stopped commenting about it here for quite a while now.

 

Not as much us. More that dell reneged on promises made and used shoddy quality parts. These laptops should be able to run intensive software and be pushed to their limits. After all its expected of a system of this caliber.

 

Should be? They are. Let's not convert exceptions into norm.

 

Where did I buy it from? I bought it from dell and have like four years full complete warranty with onsite and accidental damage included.

 

Great! So this means you're good. Hope you get a working system next time and you're able to enjoy it the way I am enjoying beating the holy hell out of my machine (it never shuts down. It's a high-load, multi-VM server plus gaming machine simultaneously), but I've invested a fair bit of time in upgrading thermal components on it before using it the way I use my beater machines. You can search through this thread to find out those in my older posts.

 

I'm one of the original owners, my original 9900k and 2080 still running strong.... Any other original owners?

 

me

 

Me
Tho mines getting fixed

 

I don’t see why we should have to upgrade thermals for such an expensive machine... why the heck did dell lot do this themselves if it is possible? I’m considering asking for a refund now... I need this laptop for heavy video editing too. If this is what happens when you push the GPU I’m dreaded to think what will happen when I use 8k red footage and DaVinci Resolve!

The machine isn’t fit for purpose! Have people had ANY good working units that haven’t failed?

 

I just got my Area51m a week ago. Works great so far.

 

That's nothing for this gpu. My machine routinely runs 6-8 virtual machines while the gpu is running as a part of deep learning farm 24/7. And when it is not, it's busy in gaming. I don't think there exists one soul on this entire forum that beats down as hard and for as long on their GPUs as I do. The only rest time for the GPU in my case is when I'm switching applications (10 seconds may be) after 1 or 2 days, depending upon how frequently I game or edit my child's videos. If you want to run a machine on kerosene that came from factory instead of filling it up with high octane fuel instead then this is what will happen. You get good hardware, and if you want to give it up because one department of the corporation does a crappy ultrabook grade thermal job, then yes, you should get a desktop instead.

 

I think it's best for people who had their 51m fried post not only the experience with how their 51m failed but also when they actually received their laptop. that way we can at least have an understanding if the failed laptops are from the earlier batches or if production has improved to mitigate those issues.

otherwise it will just be a one big scare and having a sense of doubt to everyone who follows this thread.

as much as i would like to agree such an expensive laptop should be working well out of the box, the real life fact is that nothing is made in such way now. if you want it as perfect as it can be, it's going to have to be do it yourself. no production line worker nor custom mod shops are going to cut it.

 

Oh no, do not misunderstand, I don't disagree with you. I just want you to know that it certainly isn't everyone messing with their laptop that is causing it. Though, I can easily see your point as to how that would increase the amount of incidents and in turn, Dells' reluctance to go the "work on your own laptop" line in the future.

I will also assume that you are not insinuating that I am in the "straight face and lie" camp. For as much as I can assume that my personal experience is the majority's experience and be dead wrong, for you to assume that the laptop line itself is without blemish and of the highest components, etc, and that the majority with a problem is self-inflicted can be equally dead wrong. None of us have numbers save for Dell, and they aren't financially reliable to be a trustworthy source. What I know is that, while I'm over here, the last thing I would want to be doing is overclocking, stress-testing, or putting up a benchmark. I use it for making excel sheets for scheduling, and for recreation because there is only so much fun to be found in Afghanistan. And after $4300, I should hope I would have to open it up as little as possible.

Yet here we are... My 6th gaming laptop I've owned over the years. NONE have failed me, and i've never pushed any of them past their factory limits. 2 of those were Alienware. Never a problem with any of them. In the past 3 months I have owned 2 Area 51ms...... the first had a dead GPU after a week of virtually nothing (little gaming, mostly installing updates on this 4 Mbps internet we have here...) and then, after a replacement, the MOBO died 10 days later. Again, after zero overclocking (I'm scared at the idea of even trying to OC this thing as it is a 9900k and 2080 in a lil bitty laptop) and zero modifications, it died. I finally receive a replacement. It runs flawlessly for a little over a month. Only for it to develop the current issue of, what seems to be, a dead GPU again........ and again, after zero modifications, no opening it up, and no stress-testing/overclocking/etc. Not even close to the stress you sound like you put on yours. Hell, most of the time it is used here for watching episode of Archer more than demanding applications or games.

I've noticed over the months that you have a tendency to blame the end user. But perhaps you should give real consideration that there are probably a lot of people out there, just like me, who simply used the machine in a non-taxing and normal way who have been failed repeatedly by this line. Honestly, 3 failures in this amount of time lends me to have little faith for a new replacement, etc, in the event that this one dies completely as well. To nay-say that as a probable lie for absolutely no gain to me is a bit of flip in logic. I paid good money for this thing.... I desperately want it to work. I have nothing but high hopes for the line. But as an individual who has done zero to cause it, I feel burned.

 

The aftermarket parts/machines will be difficult. Not within warranty.

 

What is your average room temperature? Do you operate in air conditioning?

 

Occasionally, but i maintain the ambient temps to around 30-35 degrees celcius in general when I'm not around. It's not that hot here in Singapore generally speaking.

I feel where you're coming from. But that's still bad luck as far as I'm concerned + poor QC in your regional Dell facility that ships your machines. I think I summed it up pretty comprehensively in my previous comment and that horse is dead. Rather, extinct. I'm not going to beat it any further. There is a reason this is called "Desktop Replacement" and is designed to be easily opened. But your environment / personal preferences may vary. That still doesn't take anything away from this tremendous monster. And, as for reliability, my machine is up for 40 consecutive days today. No reboots. Just beat down. Tell me that sounds weak.
P.S., I mentioned that I'm not pointing fingers, so take it as I said. That's only meant for people who know it's for them. Not everyone.

 

Well, spent the whole day getting macOS to work with the AMP/Radeon VII. I actually had it working fine, restarted, now it's not booting again. Done for the night.

me as well

 

And now we know at least the NBR identity of the humble and prolific producer of all this deepfakes pr0n

 

Nah it ain't that. This project is something related to cyber security.

 

Guys check out this jarrod's thermal testing on the A51m. Watch it from the minute i linked. Is that bios related to protect the GTX2080??

 

It's RTX2080. And no bios can protect it if it's not carrying good thermal pads and tim. I'm running mine on 1.3.2 bios with 200w vbios with 0 problems.

 

I am curious about this. What kind of issues are you having with booting?

 

Does anyone have the link for the current AWCC? Mine has been having issues and trying to reinstall it.

 

So I have been testing my rtx 2080 to the extreme, 6 hour furmark loads for 2 days now and no problems yet. Temps are in the low 80s with balanced mode, full speed temps just clear 70c.

Did prime95 + furmark loads for 3 hours and didn't see any throttling or any signs of smoke etc... (good liquid metal job ), all I can say is this machine is solid atm.

I checked the gpu vrm mosfets and they are: NCP-303150.

I'm guessing I got lucky and got the revised stronger vrms right? @Papusan, @Mr. Fox, @ssj92, @Donald@HIDevolution, @S.K?

Btw forgot to mention, bios version is 1.2.0, vbios version is 190w. Dell firmware tried to update itself but couldn’t, no battery cable loool so no throttling for me.

 

Look at 9:17, it's hitting thermal limit which means he's on the latest BIOS.

I'm on 1.5.0 & 200w vBIOS no issues as well.

It's getting stuck at the apple logo [midway loading bar]. I changed SMBIOS to iMac 14,2 and it booted to the login screen then rebooted by itself

Idk what happen, it was working perfectly. I restarted....now it's not working again.

@S.K knows which ones they were

 

Keep running Furmark and it'll kill a perfectly working desktop GPU also. It has killed too many of mine to give that program any credit. It would rather test it with Prime95 and Heaven. Just my two cents.

Sent from a Galaxy S9+

 

Furmark puts stress on the GPU that is in no way close to real life scenarios!




How can i fry my video card?


Can FurMark kill your GPU ? Actually, yes


Can't boot after stress test - GPU fried?


Is FurMark supposed to turn your gpu into a cooking surface?


will furmark kill my gpu??

 

I'm not sure. I haven't really kept tabs on details relating to this product because I have no interest whatsoever in owning it. It could be low quality VRMs. Might just be poor quality control in general.

Dell firmware trying to update itself automatically is inexcusable nonsense. They shouldn't build products that deploy that kind of robotic malware/ransomware. I adhere to the practice " if it ain't broke don't fix it" and that plays to the " if it ain't broke yet, be patient... it will be" zombie approach.

 

I disabled Firmware Capsule Updates from the BIOS so Windows Update doesn't update my firmware and uninstalled Dell SupportAssist and Alienware Update which insists on updating my firmware.

 

That's cool.

Unfortunately, not everyone is as smart as you, bro. And, some that are smart enough don't know they need to do those things. This should be something people intentionally opt in on, not something they opt out of only if and when they find out. By then it might be too late to unscramble their eggs.

I don't even allow automatic firmware updates on my router.

Dell/Alienware needs to provide highly detailed release notes with full disclosure of all proposed changes. Until they do, their firmware updates need to be distrusted and easily undoable by applying older firmware at will, and with no restrictions.

 

Me 2.

Edit: Received in February. Using Kryonaut and Fujipoly Ultra Extreme 1.5 mm in most places, some Fujipoly Extreme 1mm in others. 9900K/2080 with no problems at all over here.

Running stock clocks and UV on CPU & OC and UV on GPU.

BIOS 1.3.2 and 200W VBIOS since they were released. (Downgraded from BIOS 1.5.0 after testing for a few days).

 

Bro, sent you an EM

 

Fair enough. And as I mentioned before, I can certainly see how user error could create additional burdens on warranty. As for my machine, when it was working without fail it was a beast. Hell, I love the design of it and for all the talk of it being 'too big' etc, it is one of the smallest gaming 17's I've owned. And make no mistake, I do fear it is a tremendous stroke of bad luck I'm having, as regardless 3 times is just....ugh... heh. And I do wonder about the QC of my region. In fact, I wonder if there are higher failure rates attached to certain regions. Either way, I do have some new news though.....

I turned my laptop on today and.....no green matrix lines anymore.......... So, upon seeing that, I enabled the 2080. It came back on, had access to nvidia control panel again, etc...and then in about 20 seconds the screen went bright white and then pc froze... So, at least I now know that the GPU itself is not completely dead. After turning it back on, I still have no green lines but I have to leave the 2080 off. Does this sound like a connection problem rather than bad card? I think tomorrow I will take it apart and check everything out. Either way, I truly hope that your machine continues to run like a champ for years to come, and that I am just going through some bad luck. If I were back home, this would be so much easier. Just sucks having no tech support heh.

 

your lucky it seems like a vram problem more than anything, if the die was the issue the card would not even show up or it would show code 43 every time. The card seems repairable, maybe there are a few dgff rtx cards with bad batches of Samsung vram, it could be possible. Have you tried lowering the memory clock speeds by about 300-500mhz? Do that and see if it works...

 

Interesting. I have not tried lowering speeds as I do not know how to access the card's setting with any programs due to the fact that, when I enable the card (and programs then see it) it goes white and freezes. Any ideas?

 

so anybody went for direct die mount ? with Area 51m - I am thinking to go for it, but not sure if the cooler/radior will make contact with the CPU after removing the IHS

 

It won’t work, the vrms are higher than the actual die itself, it can’t be done. I asked the same question

 

damn .. this is some bad news ... maybe a modification of the original radiator

who has a 3d scanner and a CLC machine

 

I have done 11 services on my machine, so I know a little bit about bad luck. Although most of them were related to things other than the GPU (1 involved replacing those pesky ribbon connectors which were forcing my GPU to run in x1 instead of x8). Dell sent over a new motherboard and a replacement GPU with it (just in case) without my request and I didn't have much to complain about that generosity and I ended up keeping the new motherboard as it was a beefier one compared to what I had stock. The new GPU they sent was from old batch though which I returned. Other than that, I have had the heat sink replaced (factory one was a little warped), a replacement chassis as mine was getting yellow marks on palm rests due to paint fading (which I ended up fixing with DIY palm rest stickers in the end), 3 replacement screens and a replacement audio daughter board (stock one was heating up). For the last 2 services, the Dell support guy just came over and handed me over the parts that I needed because he knew I wouldn't let him service my machine and he realized he shouldn't waste 1 hour playing video games on his phone so he just walked away after taking my signatures haha! It wasn't that bad of an experience overall, but that's for me. I don't mind opening my stuff up as many times as I need to, until I am fully satisfied. But once I am satisfied, I don't open it until it is really needed.

It won't work. I have a brand new derbauer direct dye mount for 9900K which I ended up using in one of my other desktop machines. The Z-height doesn't allow that to be installed without extensive modifications and resurfacing of the heat sink in this machine. Not worth the time and effort imo.

I haven't seen one samsung vram chip go out so far in this card. The only ones that went out were Micron and that's partly the reason why none of the new revisions carry those chips anymore.

 

Had mine since february too. No real issues. I do get the odd freeze every now and again, but it's very random so I can't even reproduce it.

 

Next time you get that freeze, reboot and take a look at system logs in windows event viewer to see what exactly happened before the freeze took place. You will potentially be able to pin point the problem and fix it. It is usually caused by either a driver issue or an unstable overclock / too much undervolt issue.

 

Has anyone succeeded to find something more powerful than ncp303151?

Desktop cards use somewhere 14 power phases, with DRMOSes of 55 amps, and these are cooled pretty well, so for 5 phases of 50 amps I would say is again bad DGFF design from dell.
Maybe some 70 amps DRMOSes should be used, like this TDA21470/IR35411 ?
Sorry, but couldn't find anything better than this pinout description:
http://static6.arrow.com/aropdfconv...ficialintelligence_poweringthedeeplearnin.pdf

Based on this there is almost a "pin match" except for pin 1, all other are the same mainly. Maybe someone can dig this as well especially about pin no 1?
@ DaMafiaGamer, maybe you are willing to risk this try?

 

The second batch has ncp-303150 which is WAY better than ncp-303151. I've cross compared both datasheets in my previous posts in this thread.