M14x R2 A04 Bios out.

I have it installed, not sure what, if anything it addresses yet. You can download it from Dell's Support Site.

 

sweet, hope it fixes the fan noise.

 

Thanks for this info.

 

Here's the link for BIOS A04

I just requested the release notes, I'll edit the post with the information as soon as I receive it.

 

Huh. I was trying to download this very BIOS yesterday. I'll wait till the changelog is posted then.

 

Thanks for the info! I will try this new BIOS tonight for sure. +REP

 

Good stuff. Waiting for the change log before I apply it.

 

It adds support for the new ivy bridge CPUs such as 3740qm or 3840qm thats all.

 

Flashed today - all working fine; no discernible differences yet (as expected)

 

Did it fix the throttling horror issue and the annoying max speed jet engine hairdryer fan noise?

 

No but i repasted my one a 2nd time now it dosnt switch to max Hairdryer Mode anymore as the temps under 75ish

 

Apparently it was just some minor fixes besides the added support for the new ivy bridge CPUs such as 3740qm or 3840qm as HansTee says.

I was able to get rid of the fan noise by disabling speedstep in the BIOS.

 

Do you mean disabling Turbo?
I did considering disabling Turbo, but reducing my M14x's performance by 23.5% seems silly, considering this is supposed to be an ultra-high-performance, expensive machine.
But if it means my temperatures won't be nigh on boiling, I might resort to this.

If disabling SpeedStep fixes the issue however, I must question this seriously.
SpeedStep reduces the speed of the processor to save energy. Having to disable a power saving feature to get rid of fan noise is just absurd. Normally it's the other way around.

 

I mean SpeedStep , and to be honest, I still don't quite understand why that did it, but I'm certainly looking for an answer as I'd rather have it enabled. I'm already looking into it, but haven't got the answer yet :/

 

It may have something to do with how the EC interacts with SpeedStep technology and not the speed-stepping itself. If the EC is interpreting and reacting to information incorrectly it may be sending signals based the fan tables that are out of sync with the actual CPU temperatures. Might be a very simple fix by changing some code... but then again, it might not.

 

My M14x seems to run fairly quietly when it's not doing any work, but when gaming or having any sort of stress it can get loud, fast.
This isn't too bad, but it still gets blazing hot.


Does disabling SpeedStep actually help with its temperatures at all?

 

Hi Luis -

Do you have more details as to what exactly are these minor fixes? Thanks!

 

I said it ONLY adds support for the new coming CPU revisions with slightly higher clocks than their predecessors. There are no other changes in this BIOS even the VBIOS version number has changed.

I keep to my unlocked A03 which works just perfect.

 

Luis,

Do you have any idea if there are plans to fix the throttling on the M14x R2? The fact that the R2 throttles at 65C and the old unit normally ran at 90C+ really makes for an annoying experience. I have to turn off turbo mode to get as long a play time as possible before my notebook throttles, and it doesnt normally get above 68-69C but it still throttles which frankly really sucks.

In High Regard,

Kaldon

 

I wonder what kind of throttling you are experiencing? My R2 never throttled not even before repaste.

 

The GPU will throttle around 65C i know ive had it playing just cause 2 for a hour made it do it on a hot day, considering this GPU can run alot hotter i dont know why it throttles at this temperature 75C would be better very annoying.

 

With SpeedStep enabled, my iGPU temps were around 85, as soon as I disabled it, temps went down to 60-64 while playing, and no more fan annoying noise.

Send us an email: [email protected], include your service tag and a link to this thread, we'll have a closer look at your case.

 

...well, I hardly care about the integrated GPU.
I want to know how hot the CPU cores get. Mine currently run all the way up to 95 degrees Celsius.

But considering the iGPU is very close to them, I'd assume your CPU core temperatures also dropped significantly? Well, I'll see what happens if I disable SpeedStep too.

 

They did as well, forgot to mention that on the last post

 

Okay, in that case I'll try disabling SpeedStep right now, then hitting the Cinebench again.

Edit: wow, that caused the system to fail to start up and sent it into Windows RE. A second attempt worked though, I think. But the BIOS may have reset its default settings. I'll have to check that.

Another thought just hit me though, is it possible that SpeedStep is actually causing a bug or flaw in temperature readings? That with SpeedStep on, the temperatures recorded are actually 20 degrees higher than they really are, or vice versa?

Edit2: Disabling SpeedStep was NOT the solution for me. Yes, it reduced my temperatures to a maximum of 60 degrees. But it also reduced my system's performance to less than half. I was monitoring CPU-Z simultaneously with HWMonitor, and I immediately had alert bells when I saw CPU-Z reporting that the processor was running at 1.2GHz (well, actually, 1202MHz, 1198.2MHz, etc.) - the minimum idle clocks the i7-3720QM will go to.
Cinebench didn't budge the processor's clocks at all. It was stuck at 1.2GHz, even with high performance mode active. In other words, this solution bummed out. I might have to resort to disabling turbo. That would mean a huge performance loss of 25%, but these thermals...

 

I knew it, why would it throttle as early as 65C? How can Dell/Alienware mess that up when the 3610qm threshold is 105c and the gt 650m threshold is over 90c and other laptops with the similar card can handle it without throttling even in the 80s celcius.

What's the point of a bulky heavy 6.5lbs 14" gaming machine when it throttles and a fan as loud as a max jet engine/hairdryer? You would think a super thick and heavy 14" gaming machine at that w/ a loud fan would provide adequate cooling and you would think the celcius thresholds will be higher but throttling at 65-75c is BS and ridiculous.

Need some explanation on this Dell/Alienware.


Links to support Horror Throttling of the R2 M14x in the 65-75 Centigrade.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/661036-m14x-r2-temperature-cooling-thread-6.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m14x/674262-m14x-r2-crysis-2-problem.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ers-lounge-thread-read-before-posting-58.html

 

I didnt mean to stir up a bunch of irritation bit the more people that are aware of the hardware throttling so hard over 65C may help in getting dell to address and remedy the situation in an upcoming bios update. I will add that disabling speedstep massively helped my fan profile and incidentally lowered my overall temps enough that i renabled turbo. I still throttle after extended gaming sessions which is extrememly frustrating.

Kaldon

 

will be very curious re: the official answer...

 

if i run furmark, my gpu starts throttling at 60 C at 700 mhz... does anybody else's throttle that low???

 

Dell will never let their representative tell you about this directly but the problem is the thermal design even in this bulky 4kg laptop is bs.

The R1 was even worse due to a much hotter running processor.

The thermal design of 1 single heatsink + 1 single fan for both a hot running very performant CPU + a mid hot and performant GPU is simply totally fail.

There had to be 2 fans and 2 seperate heatsinks from beginning inside the M14x R1 and R2. But they followed the design of the M11x without further investigation and tests.

The M11x was ok with the 1 fan 1 heatsink design since it was first designed ONLY for ULV CPUs + mid GPUs. This was absolutely perfect design wise. The later revision with even Sandy Bridges inside this for ULV designed thermal concept and later inside the M14x which is not the small brother of the M15x but the big brothter of the M11x had to fail completly period.

However thats why there are so many mods / workarounds / repaste and heat problem threads about the M14x specially.

Dell rests for a long time now on their oars without putting any effort and evolution into design specific stuff but the optical aspect of their notebook series and i dont see this change as long as their customers dont demand correct thermal design overhauls for the systems which were originally created ONLY for ULV CPUs.

Of course the GPU throttling at 65 C makes sense too me. Dont forget both the CPU and the GPU are on the same heatsink means if one gets warmer the other stacks up on this. Maybe 75 C would work too but they were maybe afraid of too hot running CPUs cause of that and replacements en masse cause of heat like with the M14x R1 are simply too expensive.

 

The thing that blows my mind is that AW does not carefully apply and use the best thermal paste to at least help compensate for the limited cooling. It's like they welcome the trouble.

 

All notebooks from every brand are produced by the same low cost employees in china or other countrys where they can pay them f.e. 5 $ per day max and dont need to give them any rights such as being ill / strike or whatever. Mostly they live where they work and are fully controlled in these factorys like slaves. Alienware or Dell in your country has nothing to do with production circumstances and low cost notebooks same as high cost notebooks are produced by the same slaves and cost reducing factorys so the companys can get the highest profit selling them.

Apart from the hardware components the production costs are so extreme low due to that its no wonder why its all so crappy pasted and so on. In fact the young slaves have no idea what they are doing they are only trained to combine the components in a specific rythm the foreman sets so the machines which are involved too can be controlled for setting the production speed.

This unhuman system is the reason why our out of proportion expensive notebooks are so poorly designed.

I forgot to mention that most of these 5 $ they earn per day they have to pay the same factory for their living room in which they live with many others and for food.

 

I have this same problem it throttles at 65 degree C. If the people who do not encounter this have a low ambient temperate in their area. In Singapore when the ambient temps are 30-31 degrees C is very appranent. The strange thing is the ASUS G75 series with a GTX 460 can heat up to 85 degrees C but no GPU throttling. Please help Alienware I have already sent an email.

 

The M14x's thermal design is pretty mediocre, the intake fan is right next to the exhaust vent, meaning the copper heatsinks inside do not really get much distance to cool off the heat. Plus, that single block is being shared by a high power CPU (45W) and GPU. Then add to the fact that the M14x is pretty tightly squashed in with components in a fairly vertical layout since it's been compressed into a fourteen inch form factor rather than a fifteen inch form factor. It'd be better if it at least had twin fans, but looking at the overall crampedness of components, that would probably be difficult to do. I still rather Alienware have a fifteen inch model that weighs 3.2kg or less.

 

I thought this thread was about the A04 BIOS for the R2?

I guess I clicked the wrong link.

 

You are right but they discuss about it. Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

 

yeah, the throttling at 65 really pisses me off. if any alienware reps see this, this is one issue that needs to be fixed asap.

 

I sent them an email as the Alienware rep as stated @ [email protected]

Again if a one generation ASUS laptop with a GTX 460 can take heat at 85 degrees C without throttling, our GPUs should have some leeway.

 

The G75 Asus youre talking about is a 17" notebook with way better cooling effiency. You cant really compare a 14" 1 fan notebook with a 17" 2 fan notebook.

The biggest difference is the seperated heatsinks and therfor the reason why the throttle limit can be much higher.

But i agree the limit could be at least 70 C that would help to solve the big throttling issue for 90% of the people out there.

 

It's got nothing to do with the form factor. the m14x R1 which i used to own would throttle [the gpu] around 87. I don't see why the R2 can't do the same.

 

Yes! Unless the 650m has a weaker thermal max point (which is unlikely). 87 degrees C is a good point to throttle.

 

Most GPUs can survive 95C for a reasonable length of time. CPUs on the other hand can't!

 

Agreed, unlock the throttling down and let the thing run hotter then we will kill 2 problems at least - Throttling & Fan noise.

 

The funny thing is the Clevo P150/P151 weighs only 0.4lb more than the M14x @ 6.9lbs and it can house the fastest GTX enthusiast cards and they still manage to fit in 2 cooling fan solution.

M14x could have use a lil bit more weight and dimension but instead chose to be super thick and fat for a 14" and too warm and too loud like a jet engine hairdryer n max level with so low thresholds and that's pathetic no offense.

 

I mentioned in another post that Dell did a fail design copy of the for ULV designed M11x. Thats why the cooling design of the M14x doesnt fit for high end CPU´s and / or GPU`s.

Instead it had been wise to use the M15x thermal design in a little smaller form factor for the M14x.

Of course it would have been possile to put 2 fans / heatsinks into this thick machine with a better vertical assembly concept.

 

Honestly if we drop the optical drive I think we can have 2 fan heatsink into the m14 x chassis.

 

I personally wouldn't drop the ODD, but that's probably just because I have DVD/BDs to watch and games to play off discs.

I'd still rather they expanded it into a 15" because that would accommodate a far better thermal design and be more easy to disassemble.

 

I like the idea of including the optical drive inside a custom AW caddy. i know there are still uses (esp if you have the blu ray), but i would rather devote that space to something else. a really cool design might be modular, make it easy to swap the odd with an hdd caddy or other accessory. more of apple's style of innovation, maybe.

 

and get rid of the front "vents" (aka useless lights) to make the front edge of the notebook more ergonomic. or maybe even change them into functional vents! you know, the whole "form follows function" thing ;]

 

haha this would indeed be awesome and i even see a possibility to keep the Led´s. From the Air Flow concept we really had to chop the DVD Bay and lower the HD Bay a bit then so the Air Flow can go straight forward the Board without any part is blocking it on the right side.

There are many possibilitys for a good thermal concept in this big chassis and its not needed to go to a 15" Chassis for this. Hell i even see a plan on my paper where i could put a liquid cooling circulatory inside it by dremel cutting some metal parts, removing the DVD Bay and letting create 2 new liquid cooling heatpipe adapters.

The point is there would have been quite some possibilitys for an awesome and very functional thermal design but itll just never happens and we can either mod it ourself or dream of it.

I for example will go for a 4 step relatively easy mod in the near future which will significantly (hope so) decrease my CPU temp. Im actually only waiting for some copper parts from China then i got all my stuff together and the plans that are made can become real.