*OFFICIAL* Alienware 14 Owner's Lounge Thread

Im having a lot of problems with the Dolby Home Theater, I have reinstalled lot of times, even I reinstall the O.S, it looks like after some time it get stuck and after a lot of time it work again and the audio raise the volume bruptally, anyone happen this?

<--- it look like these (nothing has been playing, and if I put some music or a video stays in that way)

BTW I Think steam have the fault... but Im not sure

 

Why do you think it's Steam's fault? Have you tried uninstalling it ?

 

Because for example, I play a song with Windows media player (or with anything in fact), and the dolby get stuck as I already say, if I close steam, the dolby feature starts to work normally without problems, but I remember that some time ago I don't have steam and this happen (but it was a few times)

Also on skype in Windows 8 steam seems to cause some problems, for example in a call if you exit of the metro interface you stop listen the other person (but the call it's still active) if you go back to the app you will listen again, if you go back to desktop and restart steam, it starts to work normally, so yes it looks like a steam problem (I have the option that it start with the system)

Sent via Tapatalk 2 via Sony Xperia S

 

Well, you could try reinstalling steam. You can also create a 2nd profile only for gaming.

 

Besides Windows update
how do I check if my Drivers & Alienware software is uptodate ?

 

Product Selection | Dell UK

 

I am looking to downgrade from an Alienware 17. Really only play a few games on the go and maybe 1 or 2 LAN parties a year. I plan to play BF4, Civ 5, World of Tanks, CS: GO, and probably Titanfall when it comes out. Just wondering how good is the overall performance of the Alienware 14?

 

It'll be good enough for those games, you can run pretty much any game (as of now) on High Settings on it.

You can check that manually, look for the driver version and compare it with the one on DELL.com

 

Thanks snagged a great deal on Dell outlet.

 

Yup my 14 has many hours in the battlefield (3 and 4). Pretty much runs them
Both with all settings on high playing 64 man servers and it never skips a beat...

 

How do I update to Windows 8.1 ?

I have tried literally everything could you help us out please

 

You must have Windows 8, then go to Microsoft Store and update it. Here is the full Microsoft's tutorial.

 

So, the Alienware 14 sub-forum is pretty dead compared to the AW 17 and AW 18 forums. Why is that? I'd like to hear what people think about the new Alienware 14. Nobody has tried flashing a modded vBIOS and overclocking the 765M? Let's hear some stories/experiences/feedback.

 

HERE'S a link to 3DMark11 benches I did at various OC settings.

Is there anything specifically you'd like benchmarked? HERE'S a link my Steam games. If there's anything you want benchmarked, I'll check to see if they have a built in utility and then benchmark stock vs my OC settings if you'd like.

 

What are the settings you are using?

 

Hahaha Oops?!

Ordered mine on Dec 3, Recieved Dec 24th... Just in the Saint nick of time

Originally i purchased this system for my little bro, but i couldn't resist throwing some games on and doing a bit of OC benches Etc. Me and my Brother sat up one night "stressing" the GPU and rocking out some Skyrim(as stated in my tag).

You can bet by the time the sun came up in the morning it had set on the CPU. a small surge, A bright flash and a hell of a lot of smoke. O yeah and one really surprised brother. And she was cooked... So i went back to dell and had them look into it. apparently they are calling the malfunction a bad paste job and are not only completly re-placing the system but are offering a $650.00 slash on the price. So for an extra $400 i get a brand new 18 with dual 770's. I know its not the 780 nor did i opt in for a 4930 processor but its nothing to shake a stick at.

I was kind of upset that the service department did not allow me to have a copy of the HWmonitor log of the moment of destruction I wonder how hot it got??? LOL And come to think of it, should a processor not run at around 40-60% while gaming on the most active core? it should never have gotten higher than maybe 80ºC within the chipset.

EDD=02/10

Thanks Dell, Happy christmas you lucky S*** brother.

Feed back on this or even a reason as to how i personally may have ruined this machine is more than welcomed.(FYI GPU clocks were 135Mhz Core and 300Mhz Mem, No additional clocking for the CPU was used, and i didn't flash VBIOS)

 

Completely stock:
3DMark11 4223

+135 core and +300 mem (highest OC on stock vBios): 11% increase over stock
3DMark11 4698

+250 core, +300 mem (highest OC with modded vBios): 17% increase over stock
3DMark11 4966

The memory maxes at +300MHz, any higher and it gets unstable. I haven't pushed the core past +250MHz, I don't want to raise voltage above 1.1V. With some more voltage, +300MHz core might be possible, but I don't want to test my luck and push the voltage any higher. I usually game at +200/+300 using 1.05V since I'm not comfortable with 1.1V long term.

 

Nice!! I really like my little 14. It's holding me over while 18 is being fixed.

 

@Wattser: Not bad, I didn't see those before. Nice overclocking.

 

I'm trying to break the 5K 3DMark11 barrier but can't seem to do it. If I could OC the RAM the bump in physics score would take it over 5K easy. I already undervolted it 100mV and am very happy with the performance. It runs cooler and much quieter than it did at stock voltage, rarely does the fan go into "hair dryer" mode anymore.

My desktop pulls 11K in 3DMark11 and is the rig I learned to overclock with. I abused it while learning to OC and it still runs like a champ. I'd like to go 1440P soon.

 

My little 14 can't handle bf3/4 in 1440p very well even with settings on medium. But I'm
Cool with it, never expected it to when I bought it. Great little machine though, love it.

 

Hello all. Ordered my Alienware 14 and should be getting it this week. Can't wait. My Steam account is going to be quite busy downloading / installing once it's set up. Glad I was able to get some great deals during their Christmas deal. Anyways, I'll have to look into overclocking it once I've had it running for a few weeks.

I ordered:
Alienware 14
4th Generation Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4700MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz w/ Intel(R)Turbo Boost)
Memory : 16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M with 2GB GDDR5
750GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s + 80GB mSATA SSD Caching
Optical Drive : Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVD/RW, CD-RW)

I'd also ordered an Alienware TactX mouse, but might have to return it if all the reviews I've been reading lately are right. I'll miss my Dell XPS 17, but this new beast will be very welcome. Now I have 112 pages of this forum to go through.

EDIT: IT'S HERE!!!

 

Nice. hope you got an LG panel

 

Congrats! Awesome little machine, love it.

 

AWESOME! enjoy your new lappy!

 

Well.. looks like I goofed up something. I had the system up and running. I then decided to plug in the Alienware TactX mouse. I popped in the CD to install the software, and it appears to have corrupted the previously installed Alienware Command Center. I've uninstalled it, popping in the Resource DVD in hopes of installing the software again. When I try however, I get the following error:

Error 1316a. A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file C:\Windows\Installer\Command Center.msi

Followed by an error: -1603 message. Heeellpp!

 

Don't panic go to dell web site and download the last version of CC just that your are at it. Uninstall previous version and install previously downoloaded one.

it should work and fix the issue

Edt: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ersion-3-5-released-alienware-14-17-18-a.html

 

Thank you for the link. I could not find that to save my life. I've tried it, and I'm getting the same thing. I've tried the 'run as administrator' route also, but no luck.

What I'm seeing:
Alienware TactX(TM) Mouse CI 1.10

Since installing this software screwed everything up, should I uninstall it also and then try again?

EDIT: Uninstalled the TactX software, and still getting the same error.

 

where are you located? aw themselves have great phone support

 

I'm in Texas, so I'll give them a call today. Just can't believe that I've goofed this up already. Bad enough I was thinking that the 80 GB SSD was an actual drive I'd have access to, but they explained it was just a caching drive to speed things up on the system.

Does that mean I still have room to install another drive if I wanted? K, will update once I've spoken with their support. Man I love this keyboard. :thumbsup:

Thx for the help guys.

 

Just restore the system using AlienRespawn. It will put everything back to factory state. That's why Alienware gave us this software, to help us undo mistakes we've made.

Congrats on the system, btw.

 

How did it go with phone support?

 

You can install a third drive by removing the optical drive and using a HD kit in place. For instance I have three 250gb samsung evo drives one mSata and two standard 2.5 drives but all three running in raid 0.

 

True, you can use the ODD bay for an HDD.

 

Where did you find the kit to convert the ODD to an HDD bay? I contacted Dell's support and they didn't know anything about it, and I couldn't find anything with google.

 

I used one that I had bought for my Precision m4400. It fit fine once I removed the drive bezel.

 

I got the AW14 specific OOD replacement kit form AW directly so whoever you talked to didn't know what they were talking about. I will rustle up the part#'s for you and you can call them back with the part numbers you need. I prefer to use the AW designed specific kit over a generic personally.

 

Awesome. The employee had no idea what I was talking about, so I didn't try a second.

How much did it cost?

 

The part numbers should be the same as the Alienware 17's. You can find them in the Owner's Lounge.

The ODD kit I have on my Alienware 17 is basically a regular 2.5" HDD caddy with a cable and some screws. This came directly from the factory, and should fit in the 14.

 

You could try calling 1-800-alienware instead of the regular sales queue. But, with the part number you can call 1-800-WWW-DELL and ask them for it.

 

I just got my alienware yesterday bought it 2nd hand for $1200.
Specs: i7 4900, 512SSD, 1080p, 12gb ram, 765 Graphics

I got it with windows 8.1. I'm thinking of going back to Win7 as many system wide fonts are blurry hazy and i don't like it. Any fellow users to went from win8 to win7? Is it an easy process to go to win7. I have the dell orginal win7 CD also. would be glad if someone could advice.

 

I'm using Windows 8 and don't have any issues with blurry fonts.

Have you checked the font scaling and resolution settings? I use font scaling at 125% and don't have any issues with blur. It could be that the previous owner set the resolution to 1600x900 or something like that to increase font size instead of adjusting the font scaling.

 

If you want Windows 8.1 to look like Windows 7, change the font scaling to 100%. You need to have pretty good eyesight. I also have a Dell XP3 13 with a 1080p screen (for work). I prefer it at 100% scaling, but it gives my co-worker a headache (he has the same laptop).

 

Windows 8.1 is now offered on the AW 14 and other systems directly from Alienware.

I just attempted to order a system and spoke with a representative through the chat, and she tried to remove the optical drive to save money on the order, lol. I asked for a discount and this was her idea of one...

 

A question guys, I had the Alienware 14 back in July and I had the 1080p AUO panel model and it was grainy and had that yellowish tint on it. I heard that Alienware is now using a new FHD LG panel on the AW14, is it a lot better and no longer grainy than the AUO or what?


Thanks

 

Anyone else having light bleeding issues? I bought two of these and one has zero light bleeding and the other has really bad bleeding. It sucks that I am going to have to replace the screen it being so new and all. Any input Alienware/Dell rep?

 

I actually had a pretty bad experience with Dell accessories sales. They wouldn't sell me anything to replace the ODD with a secondary HDD because "it would void your warranty" and "we don't recommend doing that." (paraphrasing a bit, but not much).

Then I called Alienware and got someone in tech support. They sourced a couple of the items a la cart but I had to go a few rounds with them to get enough of them to make it functional. In fact, I'm still waiting on the larger non-ODD frame to arrive and should be the last piece of this minimalist puzzle.

When you get a chance, could you look up the part number(s) for the kit you ordered so I can compare against what I'm getting?

 

That upgrade will not void the warranty if it is properly done.

These are the part numbers you should both be getting:

12YRG - 2ND HDD FPC (FOR ODD BAY), ANW14R1
673WT - ODD BAY HDD BRAKET( FOR SECOND HDD, 7MM) , AW14R1


Good luck!

 

Thanks Natalia... I just saw his post and was getting the lacking slips together when I get home wight he numbers. I think those two are the new cable that is needed and the bracket? Keep in mind most HD's and ssd's don't have screws so they will be needed. I have the official dell screw part numbers also if needed. The screws that hold the optical drive in can be re-puposed to hold the HD bracket in. Just make sure you have HD screws..

Yeah funny you get strange answers like that sometimes when calling in about voiding warranty from different reps. Just don't be silly and break something.. if you can use a screw driver I think your golden..

 

I spoke with a representative on the live chat and he said they're both out of stock. I can't seem to find the parts at a third party vendor. Has anybody found a source for these parts other than Dell?