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

Me thinks there has been an sneaky update either from a Dell software or windows update. Either that or your undervolt is good.

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Disable the GPU OC on Command center. This way temperature will rise to 74°C and stay there without downclocking.

Really, undervolting the GPU is the way to go, otherwise there is no actual gain.

I'm kind of considering in doing an A51m OC/UV guide, there is alot of hidden performance in this device, and I'm tired of people being disappointed with the device or seeing them struggle.

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That's crazy.... So you are right up to date again, and everything is working?

 

Yes, DDU will still work. Brother @pathfindercod is correct. DDU will remove all traces of drivers, GeFarts Experience and clean out all of the NVIDIA registry entries even if no GPU is installed. It will do that for Intel, AMD, NVIDIA and audio drivers.

I cringe every time I hear about people allowing the Redmond Retards to install a firmware update. That's just a huge no-no. If the BIOS changed any hardware IDs (which can easily happen) and the newest NVIDIA drivers have not been updated (based on communication from Dell/Alienware to NVIDIA that absolutely has to occur) you would have to use older drivers until Dell tells NVIDIA about the new hardware ID and they release the next driver to include that new hardware ID or do an INF mod for it to find your GPU during the driver installation.

I'm guessing the BIOS update is what triggered it. Best to disable that crap feature in the BIOS. Leaving it enabled is foolish, and this might be a good example of why it's not smart to allow automatic firmware updates. If everything is working correctly, applying any firmware update is a crap shoot that almost always isn't worth doing. If you're going to do it, wait and let others roll the dice and see if their stuff gets screwed up first. Don't be a guinea pig for Micro$lop, Dell or any other tech vendor. Life will be better and you'll have fewer messes to deal with. Always best for you to decide what happens next rather than letting someone else decide that for you. They don't care what happens... they just like playing god.

Unfortunately, any and all automatic updates that come from the Micro$lop Catalog need to be manually controlled and approached with great caution because they screw up their own crap often enough even without any firmware involvement. Letting the Redmond Retards automatically push updates to anything willy-nilly is just begging for trouble, and it's not a question of if, just matter of when, something is going to get messed up.

 

So I’m doing a first tear down of this beast, and the wires to the wireless card became unattached in the process. The screw holding the card in is tight as hell and is stripping when so try to take it out. Any thoughts? Did I just ruin the wireless card? Any help with getting this screw out?

 

Try a rubber band.

 

Looks like I lucked out, as far as I can tell this is the magic 1.5.0 BIOS before they started crippling the machine? Gotta make sure I’m on 1.3.2 Vbios I believe. Since I’m new to this I’m glad I might not have to deal with BIOS changes. Thank god.

Now I’m proceeding through software, what apps in particular to uninstall and what I should look to get?

 

That would be nice. Im running - 100 core offset for the 9700k. how much do you undervolt your 2080? Im familiar with programs to clock/underclock gpu aswell

 

No the GPU version DID revert with the system restore despite it gave an error message at the end saying it failed.
So I'm running on not the latest but the previous version of the nvidia drivers.

Is this perhaps related to the new DCH drivers? And somehow the updater in Geforce Experiance messing up?

 

Hey guys now i have really bad thermal throttling since a few days or so. Gpu Z says that's due to Power throttling. Were is this comin from? I noticed that on the alienware command center the GPU power limit is at 0% and i cannot change it..any info on that?


Edit: Even tho i moved the thermal throttle limit at 85°, seems that throttling happens at 78°.

 

I first tried to change it inside Command Center, but that was not they way to go. Even though I can raise it to 80 there it starts throttling right away. So using 3d party software is the only way?

 

please do!

 

Another question that came to my mind. Those of you receiving your laptop the last few weeks, did it come with a RTX bundle? Nvidia promotes all RTX cards comes with bundles but I didnt get one.

 

Power limit throttling can sometimes be eliminated by upgrading to the 200w vBIOS, I get PL Throttling a lot less now since upgrading.

The Thermal limit is likely due to the below.

I haven't used any of the overclocking or undervolting features in AWCC. I believe the BIOS overrides AWCC so there will be throttling of some sort if you are on any BIOS above 1.5.0.

The GPU Tweak application seems to be able to override the BIOS setting but from what I read, it starts to throttle/limit at 80c regardless of what you set the GPU Tweak to.

 

Where do i get that bios? I am actually running the latest bios 1.7 something as it came with that...Will this influence the ability to upgrade to the 200w?

 

Is a firestrike score of 20,777 acceptable? I undervolted the cpu to -125mv and set the profile to oc2... am i doing it right? Haha ive been out of pc gaming since 2013!

 

what are your specs?

 

Im running a 9700k with 2080

i have the 200w vbios and the current bios 1.7.2 or 4 not really sure

 

i think i get 23 000 points from the same spec, not running the 200w vbios. I check later this afternoon

 

I'm still on BIOS 1.7.3 and have the 200w vBIOS. I haven't followed the guide below yet, but @S.K has put quite an indepth step by step process on how to downgrade.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ny-alienware-to-locked-lower-versions.829542/

You can find all the BIOS and vBIOS here from @DeeX below.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/area-51m-bios-vbios-collection-mirrors.829190/

 

Can't find a guide for the vBIOS? or is it simply the same guide for both?

 

Been on it since last night and today. It's a freaking wall of text, but hopefully it's easy to follow.

Hopefully I can publish this this weekend.

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I just followed the Dell instructions for the vBIOS update. Added them below for you.

***DON'T USE THE DOWNLOAD IN THIS LINK***
https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...wt64a&productcode=alienware-17-area51m-laptop

Installation instructions
Dell Update Package Instructions

Download
1. Click Download File to download the file.
2. When the File Download window is displayed, click Save to save the file to your hard drive.

Installation
1. Browse to the location where you downloaded the file and double-click the new file.
2. Read the information in the dialog window.
3. Download and install any prerequisites that are identified in the dialog window before proceeding.
4. Click the Install button.
5. Follow the remaining prompts to perform the update.

 

Okey,

So if I'm running 1.0.0.5 I simply just install the 1.0.0.3 and that is that?

 

Hello guys
Waiting for my area-51m
I want to use two 330w ac adapters. But i wish to have them with blue ligth as Dell included. And I am afraid to get bad ones that will brick motherboard.
Can you advice please how to find good ones? mb direct link?

Does somebody greased cpu with liquid metal?
Does somebody delidded area cpu?
May be someone applied custom heatspreader from rockit cool ?

 

I just did the same GeForce update and now my 2080 is gone too.....
Someone screwed up....

 

Hi guys,

I received my THIRD Area-51m (yeah finally a good one ?! Well, I have 3 dead pixels this time...) and I'm wondering :

I'd like to do a clean Windows 10 installation with my bootable USB key. However, I'm concerned about the pre-installed Windows 10 version which comes with lots of partitions (see picture).
Reinstalling Windows 10 will get rid of those partitions, and is this something we should worry about? Especially concerning system integrity and/or global performances?



Thank you !

 

So once again, I did a system restore, and It got fixed even though the system restore failed partially.
Today I created a new restore point. Did a clean install of the newest nvidia GPU drivers. So far so good.

Will see what happens. I think it's an issue that might have to do with switching to DCH version of the driver.

Honestly, this is yet another issue that made me skeptical about this laptop. Even though I hate large and clunky laptops, I made an exception for this laptop, for being so powerful and looking good.
But I'm honestly considering switching to something else like a razer blade or XPS 15, and instead use an external gpu.

 

You will need to clear all partitions using the Diskpart /clean command.

See: NBR Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide (Part 2: Drive Partitioning)

If you ever want to restore everything back to factory state, you can download the latest Alienware Area-51m Factory Image

Download that image now and keep it safe as I will need to delete it off my Google account soon.

 

I don't mind clearing the partitions in order to clean install Windows.
However, I was wondering if that would change something installing a new Windows without these original partitions being presents?

 

Those partitions contain the factory image for recovery. Once they are deleted/cleared, then when you press F12 during boot up you will no longer have the Dell Support Assist as an option from the boot up options which usually allows you to restore your computer to factory state easily. But again, having that factory image that I linked above and duplicating it on your drive using Macrium Reflect will restore back everything including that SupportAssist boot up option so if you want to clean install, yes, you will wanna clean everything via the dispart /clean command as I mentioned earlier.

 

Alirght !
So, nothing "more important" than that !
I've already backuped the original image with the latest drivers and without any programs with Macrium, I should be good if I ever want to restore it.
Thank you for linking me your original image, I'll save it somewhere

 

I don't want to be held responsible for anything that may go wrong, however, I believe its as simple as running the update. Its all I done and it worked fine for me.

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

Is this driver 440 or something? I done it the other day and have had zero issues? I did choose the 'clean install' option by choosing custom install instead of express via the nvidia experience app.

 

@Ultra Male, I just downloaded your 40GIG of mrimg file why is it so big ? also do you have a tutorial if i ever need it. thanks

 

Dell released new version of Alienware Command Center Application today with lots of fixes but still nothing for Memory settings. @Ultra Male still nothing from Ernie?

 

Dude, stop tagging me!!

 

Why is it so big? Because it's a factory image?

Macrium Reflect Installation/Usage Guide

 

Doubt we'll ever see 2666mhz working on this iteration, we've been had on this occasion.

 

Oof...

I can't make my AWCC to work... and all the bs with it.
I'm now aborting this and installing a fresh Windows version... Does anyone have a link for the latest drivers downloaded in a package?

 

I have two 330W power supplies that were not purchased directly from Dell. They are detected and work with the laptop just fine. To purchase these check your local Amazon.

 

The ones I used were the late September ones shared here by Ultra Male, do a quick search for drivers by Ultra Male in this thread only.

 

Those are now outdated, do not download them. I won't be updating drivers for Alienware anymore.

 

I am trying to change my boot drive from the HDD included to a SSD that I’ve puchased and installed. I’ve tried so many times to install Windows on it, including your method following every step, but I cannot get Windows 10 installed on the SSD. At first I was getting freezing, now freezing and BSOD. I’m not sure why. I unplugged the HDD too.

 

Bro this makes me sad!

Surely they will be or are better than letting Microsoft update them?

 

are they with blue lighting plug ?
can you share their sticker please ?

 

The 330W power supplies don't have the blue light ring on the connector, that's a thing of the 240W ones.

Will update tomorrow with a picture of the label.

UPDATE: picture added.

 

lol neither of mine have a blue light ring on the connector, just a small green light on the bricks themselves.

I have a launch 51m with 9900K and 2080 RTX.

Little light on the connectors is just vanity in my opinion

 

oh no! I was thinking that only some of 330w have blue light trying to find out proper model..
Im so sad about it.
I suppose two 330w will heat up less than two 240w. So my perfectionism will not allow me to use two 240 despite blue led. so sad.
It looks so great with blue light!



But i see some 330w with blue led on photos like this one:

I cant take this risk to order it because of its too low price
aliexpress.com/item/33042980810.html

Also I see that HIDevolution offers single 780w supply for Area51m but I cant find it for reliable price.. I dont think 600usd is good price for it
It looks similar to EUROCOM 780W AC Adapter but it says "Ripple & Noise(*) 200mVp-p" in its specs. As I remember its only 50mv ripple allowed for computers psu so may be its something low quality for very big price.
Does anybody know analog to use it as single power unit with area51m ?

 

If you are talking about the GPU, virtually all Turing (and Pascal) GPUs--mobile and desktop--suffer from power and voltage performance limits because NVIDIA firmware sucks. There's no extra charge for that, it's just one of the services they are happy to provide.

The only real way to fix power and voltage throttling with Pascal and Turing GPUs is to do a shunt mod to make the hardware lie to the firmware about how much power is being used.

 

Ultra made it easy for us lazy people. It is just as easy to download from support.dell.com

 

So since this issue happened to one other person, I am posting this here for other people who potentially have the same issue:
So updating to nvidia driver version 440 with my RTX 2080 caused the GPU to be undetectable by the OS, only a system recovery solved this.

In order to prevent this, when installing the latest nvidia driver. Make sure that on Geforce experience you choose custom installation and choose the Clean Install option.
I'm not 100% sure what the cause of the issue is, but I think it might have to do with the following or combination of the following stuff: Bios update 1.7.3 (mine was forced installed by windows updates, the fact that it was installed by windows update instead of normally might also have been the cause), and there is the fact that my pc now switched to using the nvidia DCH drivers. So the fact that I'm running on windows 10 1903 might also be a factor.