*OFFICIAL* Alienware 14 Owner's Lounge Thread

You can see in my sig that use a Dell 30" with my desktop for my main gaming/editing platform. So yea, definitely need the nice big screen for real editing, but on the go I think the AW14 will be a great mobile editing platform.

 

Added to post #2 on first page of this thread.

 

Hello, I've got a uestion regarding the hmdi-port. How do I activate it? Tried plugging in a cable in it for video out but if I activatte more screens(windows key+p) It tries to connect via VGA or something like that. Do I need to be in decrete graphics mode?

 

I don't think it need to be activated? if you're in optimus mode, try set the output in intel graphics options, if you're in discrete mode try it in nvidia control panel
VGA? LOL our machines don't even have a vga port

 

Yeah, that's what I found weird with it sending through vga

But I'll snoop around the settings and see if I can fin something useful

 

First question: Why are there 2 groups of motherboards? Pre and post C1 steeping error?

Second question: Why is there a different motherboard for each operating system?

 

For the second question, I think its b/c the Win8 key is stored in uefi....

As for the first, it may be because of the 2 different gfx cards that are on the board... But taking a stab in the dark on that one...

Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk 4

 

Just got my new AW14 about 2 hours ago. First thing I noticed is the fans are really aggressive compared to my AW17. Even with chrome open, installing new Nvidia drivers, the fans have been on a good 75% of the time so far.
Its running around 58-60C MIN and up to 88C under a quick BlackOp2 and Diablo3 session. I might rip it apart and re-paste. Are these temps normal to what others are seeing?

I just updated from A03 to A04 BIOS... just curious if there is anything else I am missing right off the bat before I check the paste job.

 

I've currently got Chrome running with 9 tabs, the Android SDK (Eclipse) and Origin client running, my temps are between 43 & 51 degrees C.
My fan is not noticeable at all unless I'm gaming, and then the sound of the game is usually louder than the fan.

 

Thats weird. My fans are on LOW, even with nothing open except HWMonitor, and sitting at upper 50s-low 60s . I probably should check the paste, probably way too much on there.

 

Just a thought, but try a different monitor program, possibly SpeedFan.

I ran HWMonitor and got temps just like yours, but with SpeedFan running right alongside HWMonitor I'm seeing normal temps. I'm thinking HWMonitor is NOT reading/reporting the values correctly.

 

In terms of size and weight, this thing is noticeably smaller than the 17. In hand it feels so much smaller and lighter, way easier to move around for sure. The 765 also plays most games on high with good FPS, but nowhere near the 780 in terms of FPS. I'm really liking the overall package, the size/weight/power brick size and 1080p screen is amazing.... just the crazy fans might take a bit getting used to from the 17. I have it lifted up on a U3 cooler as well which dropped it a few but still significant fan noise.

 

Another thing to add, is after a few hours of gaming, the fans are noisy, but it keeps the keyboard very cool which is a big plus. I guess the advantage the 17 has is the two huge fans compared to one but overall it does a respectable job providing a good experience while being portable.

 

Tried SpeedFan in place of HWMonitor and noticed a big change. HWMonitor is way off, I guess there wasn't anything to worry about, the temps seem about normal, even a bit cooler. Thanks for the tip

 

I ordered mine 9/24 and it has an edd of 10/9. I really hope it comes sooner, but I'll have to wait and see.
I ordered the 1080p screen, with the gtx765m. Everything else was just as it appeared originally.
I also ordered an msata ssd from newegg, to use as a boot/ program drive.
I'll let you all know how it goes once I get it.
Thanks for all of the great advice in this thread. I've read through it entirely.

It shipped yesterday without a notice, I spoke to customer service today. They said I would have it 10/2, a full week early.

 

I canceled my original order after reading through this thread. I was able to save 265.00 off of my original order by using a few of the tricks on this site. I'd have never imagined I could get anywhere haggling with a Dell sales person.
I'm really looking forward to its arrival, I may even cancel my ps4 preorder for now. We will see how it goes when it gets here.

 

This is going to be a LONG day. My Alien is sitting at the local hub, which happens to be about 15 miles from me, because it's not scheduled for delivery till tomorrow! I tried to get Fedex to let me pick it up today, but no go.

 

Boy I know how that feels
just hang in there buddy

the wait is worth it
AW 14 is the best laptop I ever got
I love it

 

Could be worse... I'm refreshing the order page too many times a day hoping it ships early!

Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk 4

 

guys if you are both seeing similar higher temps using hwmonitor and then seeing similar lower temps using speedfan, how do you know which of the two utilities are giving more accurate figures?

 

By booting into linux and looking at the temps there as well. Plus, I'm pretty sure the laptop is NOT running at 60-70 C when idle and running on the Intel Graphics.

 

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, but been here for ages...

Anyway! Looking at one of these...have been drooling over Alienware stuff for ages! I'm just wondering though...I checked it out at my local store, and was a bit disappointed with the screen resolution.

It looks like Alienware actually scales the display to make everything appear 'bigger' than it would in standard 1080p. Can anyone confirm?

Sorry...I'm finding it hard to communicate exactly what I mean...but basically an open window on the Alienware 14 takes up more screen real estate than the laptop next to it, where both are meant to be displaying at 1080p.

does that make any sense?

Can anyone confirm?


Thanks!

 

could it be the display unit was set to a lower screen resolution?

 

You could check the scaling settings in windows. It should be on the resolution/display menu.

Sent from my GT-P7310 using Tapatalk 4

 

It would help if you told us what store you saw it at. Some stores do setup machines on the floor differently to attract certain buyers.

 

Can anyone link me to the right battery charger? I need to buy another one for my office.

 

Is it just me or they removed the regular Windows 8 option on the configuration page except for the 8 pro?

 

Well after a fairly long hiatus, I'm back having just pulled the trigger on the M14. Despite all the haters out there I just can't turn away from Alienware. and this will be my 7th (Area 51, two M11x's, M17xR3, M15x, and an Aurora). I used to do a ton of videos on Frooglepete on YouTube about the M11x kinda rubbing in how awesome it was, and still love my R3, but decided the time has come to scale back. I love the power of my M17x to bits, and I adore the portability of the M11x so decided to replace them both with the M14. From what I've read the current machine will match my M17x performance (I got the base M17x to save money), far outpace my M11x and still have some semblence of mobility.

Kinda giddy, but that will wear off when I tell Mrs. Froogle what I did

16Gig, 4800MQ, 1080p IPS Display, with 256Gig Msata and 750Gig steam driven mechanical gizmo .

 

So, I've had my Alienware 14 for over a month now, and really like it alot. I've been drooling over the Alienware systems for years and recently decided to "go for it". I purchased through AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service), mainly due to the tax break. They had a good price on a non-configurable AW M14x2, but I received a new AW 14 (whoo hoo!), very, very pleased.
I would like, however, to have a better display. (Mine is the lower end 1366x768 display)
Question is, is it possible to just purchase a new LCD and replace the current display?
(are the connectors the same, or are there other differences between the 1366x768 display and the 1920x1080 display)
Thanks for the feedback!

Alienware 14, Intel 4700MQ, 16GB Ram (upgraded form the 8), 500GB SSD (replaced the 750GB HD), 256GB mSATA, 750M Nvidia.

 

My Alienware 14 was delivered with the display setting set to 125%. It can be put back to 100%.

 

better option is Sell this Iaptop on E bay - Like New
& you will loose less money
Can also try Craigslist, you save some money
cos this is a new laptop & very few sellers on craigslist

& get a new system from Alienware

 

That seems kinda drastic. If switching out the LCD panel is not an option (which I don't have an answer to yet), then I'm happy to keep the laptop as is.
I'm comfortable "digging into" a laptop. I've repaired many over the years, including damaged LCD's, so that's not an issue. Just wanted to find out if it is possible, and if anyone has done it before.

 

Replacing the panel should be easier then the old m14x... There isn't a sheet of clear plastic to mess with. Shouldn't be too difficult, but the cost of the panel by itself is another issue. It is a 14 inch 1080p IPS panel after all.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 4

 

Thanks bluefalcon13, that's what I figured, and it's not something that I plan on doing immediately, just a potential future upgrade. But it's good to know that it can be done.

 

Hi,

so about my screen concerns, I saw the display machine in jb hifi over here...i can confirm that when I went into the display settings on the desktop mode, it was set to 1080p.

however, it was clear compared to the Acer s7 next to it, that it was scaled, or the menu open showed bigger than on the s7 in terms of the amount of screen taken up.

I tried to look everywhere I could, but there was no way of turning off scaling...can someone just confirm that it least can be done and that will settle my concerns with this...


thanks again!

 

It should be under screen resolution, and Make text bigger or smaller:

 

Simple questions...

Is it possible to connect 2 desktop monitors to the m14 and to use it as a desktop replacement ?
So far you guyz are you happy with your m14 ?
No hinge issues or other issues like the ones we had with the m11x ?

 

Yes, I have mine connected to a 23" monitor and a 42" TV right now, with the "Extend desktop to this display" option set on all 3 displays (laptop, Monitor, TV), works just fine.

The 23" monitor is connected via mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and the TV is a straight HDMI cable (HDMI out on the AW 14) :thumbsup:

 

My Alienware 14 arrived today, and I'm thrilled with it so far. I've yet to play any games on it, Steam is currently downloading some of my collection. The "Fn+F12" combo to turn off the "Alien FX" turns off all of the lights except the trackpad. Is there a way to turn off the trackpad light? I find it a very cool feature, but there's times in class I'd like to be able to black out the lights as to not draw too much attention (it'll draw attention anyways).

EDIT: Figured it out. Right click the Alien in the system tray and disable "Keep Status Zones On During Go Dark".

 

Would be nice if someone made a Video or Tread of Tips & Tricks of AW 14

 

Hey, just got a quick question regarding the cooling. Installed HWmonitor and it doesn't shw any temps for the GPU which sghould indicate that otimus is working as it should and the 765 is deactivated.

The problem I have is that the fan keeps spinning up every 20 seconds or so, run for 10 seconds and then spin dwn again. Watching a twitch-stream clocks the CPU core speed form everything between 800 and 2k+ Mhz and it varies A LOT. HWmonitor puts the CPU-temp at just below 60C, this with a CPU-load of less than 15%. Is it jsut me or does that seem like too high?

Room is pretty cool.

 

sounds quite normal to me
CPU load is not constant as your computer is running a ton of stuff in background...unless you're running stressing utility which will push it to 100% all the time
so the clock speed fluctuation is normal
and about the fan....unlike many other laptops, alienwares turn off the fans completely when the temp is below certain threshold(i believe it's something between 50C-60C) When it spins, the temp drops down below the threshold so it stops. While it is stopped, the temp rises above the threshold in seconds(being haswell) and the fan starts to spin. It's ridiculous and we've been wanting a customizable fan control for quite a while.

 

Makes sense I set the system to energy-saving mode which locked the CPU to 33% of maxclock and it helped a bit atleast

 

Ok, So the Msta I bought and tried install is a no go, I even brought it to a friends computer place and had their techs look at it. It wouldn't even let them install the OS on the Msata. They used everything from the recovery USB to OEM Windows 8 cd's, took out the 750gb HDD and still nothing. Said the bios wouldn't allow it.

I called Alienware support, but they were no help. I don't know what to do.

 

What mSata did you purchase? If your friends tech also have the same result then I would say the mSata you purchased is possibly bad?

 

Plextor. I don't think it's bad because I can use the MSATA, just not as the Bootable HDD.

So I asked him to try Windows 7 and that works perfect. I guess I'm going to go Win 7 instead of Win 8.

 

Did someone know what the fn+f10 do on windows 8? (AW PERF), it shows a little window and says "performance supervisor" Start recording / Stop recording what does it supervise? and where storage it?

 

Can we connect the AW14 with DNLA to TV ?

Does the AW14 have WiDi to connect to Tv ?

Thanks

 

Oh I believe I had that problem as well. If it's being recognized in your bios menu (it's working) but not during installation of windows 8 then it's a driver problem. Windows 8 is fine. You just need to go to Intel's Website and download the latest Intel rapid storage (zip version) . Which will contain iaahcic, iaAHCIC, iaStorA.sys, iastorac, iaStoraAZ, iaStorF.sys.

Now put these files in a flash drive something. When you get to the part where you install windows to a partition, go ahead and load drivers. after it's done you'll see your MSATA Partition. Let me know if it works!

_Joel

 

hey i have a question, is there any way to change the sound card or speaker in the notebook ?