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

But why are some of ours slugish when
GerhardK's will boot at half the time?
It just doesnt feel right for a laptop of this power to take 22+ sec to boot

 

seen how long is hangs at the first stage

 

I'll take a video for proof later too LOL

 

That is correct, the motherboard has inscribed the memory installation order.

Enviado desde mi GM1913 mediante Tapatalk

 

I

I don’t have issue with 20, never noticed never bothered me , once it boots does it work fast , if yes , life goes on

 

Does anyone now know what exactly is changed in bios 1.7.3?

 

Changelog says nothing. Classical Dell swiss cheese

 

I've updated to it but can't say I've seem much difference. It was mentioned earlier that it didn't throttle as much as 1.7.2, but I haven't done much testing.

 

I would rather deal with a GT76 with Optimus than this fiasco....

 

What fiasco? Please elaborate...

 

Well it's not letting me upload the video so I guess you'll just have to take my word on it.

 

What BIOS is that and do you have anything plugged into USB?
If so, have you tried turning it on without USB?

Also FWIW, I pressed start on a stopwatch the moment I pressed the power button and it took 9 seconds to get to the login screen.

 

I don't play WoW, but I have never had any battery drain what-so-ever on other games with similar demands.

 

Your sure you don't use Fast Startup (hybrid shutdown)?

 

I've tried multiple bios, with and without things plugged in, uninstalling free fall sensor, removing secondary drive, fast boot on and hybrid shutdown, plus other things I'm sure.

Once in to Windows the computer runs amazing.

 

@Ultra Male I was just booting Ubuntu 18 and during boot up it said tpm error and I disabled firmware TPM aka fTPM and guess what I just shaved off 3-4 secs when booting off PCIe SSD. On SATA SSD it takes 2 secs to get to Linux login screen.
So TL;DR: Check for updated Kionixx freefall sensor, disable Intel SGX in BIOS, disable fTPM.
Dell should stop shipping misconfigured fTPM on non-Windows OS or else disable fTPM altogether from factory.

 

Yep that's what it was! I disabled that and the startup time went to 25 seconds Doesn't really bother me though, I use sleep 95% of the time anyway.

 

Shutdown the laptop before putting in the bag because you don't want Freefall sensor to wakeup the laptop.

 

Guide: Killer Software / Extension Un-installation and Blocking

Removal of GPU Thermal Limit

 

Thank you, this crappy Killer control center keeps installing himself even though I blocked it and properly uninstalled everything through Safe Mode

Envoyé de mon SM-G965F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Lemme know how it goes after doing the steps in the guide. And if it didn't work, I will be happy to troubleshoot the issue with you.

 

Would the GPU Tweak 2 bypass the BIOS thermal throttling on these machines? I'll have to try it out eventually.

 

Yes

 

1568 page fiasco...

Weird, it never try's to install for me. Though I never installed it when I reimaged (my GT75) so maybe that is why.

 

Mine never drained and I've been on 1.5.0

I'm on 1.7.3 now and so far it hasn't drained.

 

I recently received Area 51m as replacement system for my old 17 R3. One thing I'm trying to do is setup macros for one button screenshots, and media player controls. Is AWCC latest able to read Fn key presses I can't seem to get it to work.

 

So I can confirm that BIOS 1.73 DOES still throttle. It seemed the GPUTweak2 temp limit bypassed the soft throttle (I mentioned earlier) at 74 but still had a hard throttle when it hit 80C and dropped the clocks to 300 Mhz. So limit the GPU to 78 C in GPUTweak and you're safe I guess. I had to use furmark and put it on silent fan mode to even get it that high though, so it'll probably be a non issue for me.

 

Is this what is happening to you as well?

So I guess 1.7.3 introduces some new throttling then? Maybe 1.6.2 can be fixed by GPU tweak then.



EDIT: I downgraded to 1.5.0 again, no issues, performance restored.

Newer firmware did not fix my TB3 issue, my AMP issue (having to restart to make the AMP work), and it made performance worse so I will stay at 1.5.0 forever.

 

Is there any way to raise the GPU Thermal Limit to like 90C? On occasion, when I'm connected to my external monitor at 1440p resolution and a lower fan profile activated (quiet) my gpu temps do peak at around 87 which of course causes the throttling. I know this is not an ideal temp to hit but it's not all the time, so I don't mind it but annoying when it starts throttling.

 

Tried it, it made 0 difference

 

Posting this in case someone else experiences the same problem and uses the search:

My 51m suddenly started boot looping last week. It would turn on, fans spin, keyboard lights turn on and the power button would suddenly go red and fade off as the machine abruptly shut down. It would turn back on immediately and continue this cycle indefinitely unless both the power adapters and the battery were unplugged. Holding the power button had no effect because it would reboot before shutting off. (FWIW, there is also a power button on the motherboard directly that you can easily push to turn the machine on if the motherboard is not installed in the body. This was insanely helpful.)

I tried several fixes including resetting the NVRAM/CMOS with the CLRP1 contacts on the motherboard and removing hardware in stages until it was just a motherboard without CPU/RAM/GPU. When there was no CPU, RAM, GPU and/or CMOS battery installed, I always got the expected blinking error lights identified in the service manual. The order of the lights in the manual also appears indicative of the order the checks proceed in. After putting it all back together, it would eventually bootloop again every time.

When I was about to call Dell for service, thinking the MB or GPU died, I thought to quickly check the MB & GPU for a short to ground or other obvious continuity problem in a few places on the board. I also randomly thought check the main battery and CMOS battery. The CMOS battery read a little low at 2.92 volts compared to 3.18 volts of a new CR2032 coin cell battery. I figured I might as well try replacing it and as soon as I did, the machine immediately booted up without any problems. I've never seen a machine behave in such a way because of a CMOS battery. At least give me an error message... When the CMOS battery is removed completely, the machine won't boot at all and you get a series of blinking light codes. When the battery is bad (as mine was), it just violently reboots every few seconds.

FWIW: I checked two other area 51m machines of colleagues, and both of their CMOS batteries also had much lower voltage than any of the dozen brand new 2032 batteries I tested. They read between 2.95v and 3.05v. The battery assembly looks very similar to those used in other Dell devices so I wonder if there is some old stock being used leading to the extremely short life of the battery.

TL;DR: If your 51m is boot looping in very short intervals after startup, check your CMOS battery. It might be bad.

 

I'm sorry. Let me take a look at Dell docs for more info.

 

We are stuck at 87C which is a fair temp limit. I recommend increasing fan speed.

 

As long you are on old bios

 

lol true. I wouldn't have it any other way. Ain't nobody got time for a 75C throttle limit lol.

 

Video tutorial on GPU temp limit

Actually 75C can be overcome using ASUS GPU Tweak. The issue now is the 80C limit.

I recommend people with 1.6.2 or 1.5.4 trying out the GPU Tweak app and see if they can get to 87C.

 

Awesome! Thanks!

 

Got my hands on a batch of 6 DGFF 2080 GPUs (all second batch with upgraded NCP-303150 mosfets) via a friend in China and was able to cherry pick from them remotely after paying the remote tester a certain fee. Now the 2080 that's in my computer has an impressive 2010 MHz stable core clock at a measly 975mV which gradually clocks down to 1980 MHz as the temp hovers around 74 degrees under full load after half hour of gaming. Very happy with this! I noticed that this card stays hella lot cooler at higher voltages as compared to the previous one that I had. Sold my old DGFF today in a great deal!
Here's my new curve!

 

Why the Cpu clock drops? This happened with both bios versions. Same behaviour as you can see with the Cpu in Aw 17 R5.

 

Not on all R5's. Here my TimeSpy-Log ( source)



or FarCry 5 (30 minutes)




or Final Fantasy Benchmark @ 50x



or CPU-Z Validation @ 52x

https://valid.x86.fr/3bz28m

The drops often depend from your VRM cooling or setting.

 

A dell technician just left my house replacing my keyboard as some of them failed to work.
everything seems to work fine now, but the way he piled up all my laptop parts on eachother like some cheap garbage basically made me so furious honestly.
for him it felt like the total worth of my laptop was like 100$.

at first i asked if he could just let the keyboard here and let me do it but he refused lol. meh


ohwell atleast it works now.

 

Latest LAN & Wireless +Bluetooth Drivers 30-Sep-19

Drivers list:
Aquantia LAN Driver v2.1.18.0
Intel AX200-Killer 1550&1650 WLAN Driver v21.40.2.2
Killer 1435-1535 WLAN Driver v12.0.0.918
Killer E2K Ethernet Driver v10.036.0701.2019
Killer E2X Ethernet Driver v9.0.0.49
Killer E3000 Ethernet Driver v10.036.0701.2019
Intel AX200-Killer 1550&1650 Bluetooth Driver v21.40.0.1
Killer 1535-1525-1435 Bluetooth Driver v10.0.0.825
Killer Uninstaller v1.0.2019.0927

 

I felt the same, had one in last week replacing my panel due to a dead pixel. In my opinion the guy was quite heavy handed and I forgot to mention I had to give him pointers on how to remove the back tron panel as he was trying to undo the clips without taking the screws out.

But got there in the end there is no damage that I c can find and the problems resolved. The issue is these guys don't care about the device they just want the job done as quickly as possible.

 

I am absolutely livid

A while ago I mentioned how I was duped into depot return warranty and how my laptop was overheating and I had no means to send it to a factory for 3 weeks as its literally my workhorse as I work from home.

They refused completely to allow an engineer to come out.

It's still overhearing to this day. Last week a dead white pixel formed, tried to ask them to come out, wouldn't do it.

Today my laptop shut off and when I turned it back on it doesnt even recognise the sound card anymore or any type of sound output, installing any driver does nothing.

I'm livid, absolutely livid that I spent £3,000 on this junk, do I have any grounds to sue them?

 

In the Netherlands you have 3 years factory support. Meaning that the company must provide you a way to repair your machine. Sending it back would be the last resort, but that's only if you do not have the pro support anymore. Which means that if you don't have Pro support, and you're within that 3 years of factory warranty Dell cannot refuse to pick up the laptop to send it to a depot, Since you're in the US (i assume) yo can sue them away, but it's better to google the laws of your state. Don't except help from the government, your local government would be your best bet.

Edit: I thought the land of the brave and the free was the country where everything was sue able. Was wrong i guess

 

No you don't have grounds to sue them. You can probably make a case for a refund though.

 

I'm from the UK. TBH a refund would be fantastic I cant see this thing lasting much longer. I'm going to contact them now and record the call so that when one numpty denies saying something I have proof.

 

Ask to speak to a manager, I cannot say for sure as I do not live in your country, but in the US the warranty is not considered a "depot only" warranty.
Its premium support and should have onsite techs as one of the selling points.

 

I feel the pain, and a bit concerned too, hopefully all the issues that I keep reading here are not at scale of 51M users.
I have mine for 6 weeks now, pushing it almost daily, and I very happy about it. Since I undervolted the CPU, at full load my temp stay low 70s for the CPU, below it for the GPU . That beast is fast and the screen is amazing!
I still have few entries in the Windows reliability but not as much as when I had AWCC installed. Tobii still seems to crash every other day, don't have the use of it anyway.

 

Did they provide a reason on why they wouldn't send an engineer? I'm from the UK as well and an engineer was at my house last Thursday swapping out the screen because of a dead pixel.