*OFFICIAL* Alienware 14 Owner's Lounge Thread

You can make all 3 or any combination of two in raid 0. I have 3 evo's in raid 0 in my 14 including the mSata however you can make any of them raid 0 and use the third as ape storage.

 

Wow still no Maxwell 860/870m??

 

Had to take the 14 apart, the screen felt a little loose on the right side and it turned out one of the hinges came loose from the base. Nothing really serious and tightening the screws was enough but keep an eye out for it. On the good side it feels even more solid.... and even with the loose hinge it didn't feel flimsy.

The ones with the red circle were loose:

 

Did your replacement have the same problem?

 

I thought the engineers didn't bother to implement the switchable feature on the 750m in the first place
Since the launch of the 14, I haven't heard a single person said the switchable function ever worked on the 750m
switchable graphics should be a bios thing i guess? I was on discrete nvidia mode before I clean install a windows on a new drive, and I'm in disrete mode after the install. So I just installed the nvidia driver and didn't bother installing the intel hd driver
(fact is I couldn't get it installed...always says incompatible or something)

 

Might well be the case - might have something to do with the 750m being GT and not GTX and how they handle Optimus etc....Fn/F5 simply does not work on 750m machines.

To install the HD4600 driver, you need to be in Optimus/iGFX mode by making the Fn/F5 switch call from discrete graphics. Once running non-discrete, the HD4600 will install. Actually, my install method (which worked fine) was to install the HD4600 driver first, make the switch call, Install Nvidia driver, switch back....then it's all up and running. I tend to use Optimus mode when browsing as I don't see the need to run the 765m for that - just chews up battery life.

Reference for install order: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

 

oh yeah! I forgot to get in optimus mode in the first place!
Since most of the time I have my machine in discrete mode, I didn't attempted to solve this problem
thanks for the tip bro!

 

Hi, I just have one question about the 14. I have the m14x r2 and like it very much except for one thing. The sharp corners on the front of the wrist rest dig into my palms. On the new 14 have they rounded the front edge of the laptop? Thanks!

 

Well, it's certainly different to the R2 as the leading edge of the palm rest is angled the other way. My old M18x R1 was styled the same. When you say 'corners' I assume you mean the sculpted areas near the track pad? - obviously the new 14 is not sculpted as it is plain straight from corner to corner. I do not notice any discomfort whilst typing - others may disagree. Some might say that the new design means that your palms are more elevated as opposed to the previous design. The sloped front of the older design meant your palms were closer to the desktop - with the new design, your wrists will rest on the leading edge. The edge of the new 14 is not sharp - it does not dig into my palms. It is ever so slightly rounded, though. Actually, I thought the older design was more ergonomically friendly towards the typist......

 

Yes, it's not very comfortable to use the keyboard when the machine lies flat on a table. It's better when the rear end is elevated with something like a tilted cooling pad. Though the only button I use on mine is the power button so it doesn't bother me. I use all kinds of external peripherals.

 

Hi steviejones133, actually the m14x r2 is sloped in front of the trackpad, but has sharpish edges to the left and right of the trackpad. Thanks for the info!

 

Yeah, that's what I meant LOL.

 

Hi, I've got one quick question about the new 14. I've found one used in excellent condition. Its the base model: core i7 4700mq, 8gb ram, 750gb 7200 rpm hdd, 14" 1080p screen. My question is will this model have the msata slot open on the mb? So I can add an msata ssd and re-install win7? Thanks!

 

Yup - with all new model 14's, if the mSata port is not already populated with an mSata, you can drop one into the empty port very easily and re-install the OS - depending on size of the mSata you are getting, you can use it for cache/OS only or cache the 750gb and have the OS on the mSata. A 128gb mSata would be sufficient to have the OS on it and use a 64gb partition of the mSata to speed up your 750gb to near-SSD like speeds = best of both worlds for speed and storage capacity.

 

Hi steviejones133, thanks for the info. This used alienware 14 i found looks brand new and the price is really good. Think I'll go for it! Thanks for your response!

 

My M14x burnt up so they decided to do a system exchange for me and it ended up being a brand new build as well.

Should have it Tuesday if the order status is correct.

4th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.5GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB GDDR5
8GB DDR3L 1600MHz
14.0 inch (355.6 mm) WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS Anti-Glare Display
1TB/5400 RPM + 80G caching mSATA
Slot-Loading 8x SuperMulti Drive (DVD/R/RW)

Would have loved to upgrade to the 765 but I'm happy with what I'm being given, especially as they still have M14X R2's in the outlet shop and I'm getting a new build.

Perhaps it's because they have had me in limbo and without that laptop for over 2 months
Regardless, excited to get it

 

Is it better to use the MSATA SSD as cashing or as a separate OS drive?

I'm not familiar.

 

That's how I bought mine - a used Ebay purchase that was mint with everything original, even the box. Had warranty on it as well which I felt was important. What GPU and screen options does it have? - GTX765m and 1080p would seal it for me....

That's pretty sweet coming from your old machine - congrats. :thumbsup: - as for mSata use, if it is a small 64gb mSata, personally I feel it's better suited to caching the much larger HDD - that way, your OS and everything on the HDD will benefit for that 'SSD-like' speed.....

 

Thanks Steve, I have a fleet of Alienware laptops and they have always been great to me and replaced several of my systems, the best being when my old Aurora desktop died and they replaced it with a maxed out Area 51 ALX because it was all they had in the outlet store.

People may complain, but if you remain calm and patient and sometimes call back to get a better rep, you can always get your issue resolved.

As to the MSATA, I pulled the trigger on a new 512gb 840 pro (I like the longer warranty) so I'm just gonna cut out the cache middle man and go for the gusto.

Looked at a GPU upgrade on Ebay but it is still around $600 and not worth it to me at this point.
I'd rather sell my 14 and buy a better configured 17 with better upgrade options

 

just want to ask i want to extend my alienware 14 warranty for another year. how much it will cost me? i'm form asia

 

Go to the dell support site, enter your service code and click on the warranty tab.
From there you will see the option to upgrade it.

 

hi guys I have been reading a lot on this tread over various computers in the end I went with alienware 14 I got a good price on this machine

Alienware 14 Standard Base
-8GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (2x4GB)
-NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 1GB GDDR5
-Optical Drive : Slot-Loading 8x SuperMulti Drive (DVD/R/RW)
-US 110V Power Cord
-Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, English
-Software Alienware Command Center 3.0
-4th Generation Intel Core i5-4200M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.1GHz)
-Display : 14.0 inch (355.6 mm) WLED HD (1366 x 768) Anti-Glare Display

computer is flawless looks like dell shipped to me. mostly just play league of legends and this thing is giving me max settings at 60 fps so Im happy I came from MacBook air 11 inch 2010 model.
the quality of this thing is amazing.

 

Sweet! Welcome to the club. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask. There are even Alienware Technical Support representatives on this forum ready to assist members.

 

Greetings!

I just joined the AW owners club. Not fully yet though. Currently awaiting shipment. I have a few questions regarding your experience with this whole process. The beast has currently departed the manufacturing facility as stated in the tracking link I was provided. It happened on Thursday and since then there has been no updates. I guess it is just prowling in the wilds of China and I should not worry about it too much. There is an issue though.

Since I did not order pizza, I would like to be present when the delivery occurs. I wouldn't like to miss it while happily prancing around the city with new gaming machine on my mind.

What was your delivery experience? Was in on time, more less in accordance with the ETA? Did you get any SMS notifications? Did more information show up in the tracking prior to delivery?

Thanks in advance

 

Why do the Alienware representatives lie? I was promised compensation by one of them when everything got sorted with my notebook (Which I have all the emails where he promised.) and now he will not even email me back to tell me no or anything. If I am not going to get it... fine, but don't leave me hanging thinking I am going to get something when I am not. I would prefer a no over waiting for nothing

 

Hey guys! Just joined the forums here as my new Alienware 14 came in today. I can't even being to talk about what i love in this laptop. The speed, the build quality and the cosmetics are just amazing. I just put in an mSATA SSD 256GB from frys for $150 which i think is a fair deal and now ive made this laptop even faster. I don't think i have ever felt so satisfied with my purchase. I had a macbook pro 13" before which I still have. Don't get me wrong, thats a great laptop but im going to school atm and i needed a windows laptop to run some of my software. But i do like my alienware way more....Anyways its nice to know there is a thread dedicated to owners of this computer. Peace!

 

hello guys i install a plextor msata 128 as my boot drive and im having a BSOD error 0x000000f4

bug check parameters 0x0000000000000003, 0xfffffa800ad7bb30,0xfffffa800ad7be10, 0xfffff800033a2db0

is there any solution to fix this? i already updated the firmware of my msata

 

Gentleman,
First of all, thank you for all of the insights and tips I have learned from this thread, amazing and by far the most complete I could find anywhere! My new "Little Evil" just arrived and it is absolutely flawless, so stoked! I was hoping someone could send me the link to replacing the MSATA with a SSD link as I would like to replace it and have a 250G drive as the primary and the 750 as the storage drive. It's pretty zippy right now but I think I can squeeze a little more out of it. Once again, thanks to everyone that contributed to the previous 140+ pages of knowledge as it made the wait that much more exciting, and it was worth it! I have the non-LG screen for what its worth and its a little grainy in IE, but in game it looks flawless and honestly, the keyboard, trackpad , etc...are so quality that its a second thought : ) I'm blown away!

Thanks in advance!

 

Glad you like it. It's a great little laptop.

Steve made this thread and video tutorial: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...n-video-alienware-14-haswell-based-model.html. The part you want starts around 12 minutes (12:05~). However, you may need to start from the beginning, if you don't know how to access the area at that time stamp. This doesn't show exactly how to replace the mSATA, but it will show you how to access it. Replacing it just takes a bit of common sense.

 

Perfect! Thanks for the reply, Just what I was looking for!

 

Oops, didn't see your post. No problem.

This section is pretty dead compared to the others. I'm surprised. Not many AW 14 issues? I know there are a lot of AW 14 owners.

 

Hey Guys,

Does the Alienware 14 have a toslink/spdif output?

 

Nope. Dell did away with that troublesome port, probably because on the last revision of Alienwares, it caused so many motherboard replacements......it was very temperamental.

 

Bah, they need to hurry up and refresh the 14 with 860M or 870M. I was considering the 15 inch Gigabyte P35G or P35W, but they each cost around $1600 for a well configured one. I might as well say screw the thinness and get the better built Alienware.

I was totally sold on the Alienware 13, but just like everyone else, I'm not interested if it doesn't have a powerful CPU.

Most of the battery tests for the ALW 14 are with brightness at like 70% and a few other things set. When I'm on the go and not gaming, I'm sure 20-30% brightness will be more than enough.

 

Yeah, I'm looking pretty hard at the 14 myself but am holding off a bit hoping for an 870M, then a guaranteed purchase

 

I reckon you'll have a bit of waiting.....maybe like for hell to freeze over.....especially with the new 13 on the horizon.

 

Such negativity! It's almost as though you've given up hope, Steve. NO!!!

 

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 14 today. Got the upgraded screen, video card and hdd w/ ssd caching. Went with the i5 because I didnt see an upgrade option to the i7 but I am generally excited about receiving it.

 

Congrats. I'm sure you will love it.

 

Ordered my 14 from the dell website. Anyone do the same? What was your wait time like? How soon did you get tracking info?

 

well I thought i'd pop in and say hello, already a member of the m15x club and the 17 club but now also joining the 14 club
have ordered my new alienware 14 for uni yesterday as it would be awkward walking around with a 17.
opted for the NVidia 765 and the 1920x1080 monitor, looking forward to its arrival

 

First time here and I thought I would add my voice to this Lounge. :hi2:

I own an Alienware 14 (mid 2013 model), and so far, honestly it has been a lot of headaches. It's not a bad laptop at all, but it has already gone through 2 motherboard replacements and it's waiting for the third (which includes a new graphic card). And in the end I still keep using my Alienware M11x for gaming.

I guess I just got bad luck with this one, but I never got past the "Nvidia Kernel recovered" issue. It happens even when I check the Nvidia settings.

Hopefully the third one will be the one to solve the issue. (otherwise I think an MSI one may work if I find a way to bring it to Mexico)

 

That error is most likely video driver related and not hardware related - did you try using Dell's drivers for the Nvidia GPU?

 

I recently bought a smashed alienware 14 for 200.00. Ordering the parts to fix it on the 2nd October.

Specs are:
i7-4700MQ
16GB DDR3
765M
750GB Scorpio black
Killerwireless 1202
1080p display

 

That's what I thought (after reading this forums), so I tried with all stock dell drivers to no avail, then cleaning all Nvidia drivers and tried with those straight from Nvidia, and nothing. So I decided to call support, they did exactly the same thing, we even restored the computer to factory settings in between driver installs.

In the end they decided to just replace my motherboard and graphic card again. pretty sad because in all the time I have this Alienware I have not been able to play anything on it, I just use the intel graphics.

 

I am growing impatient with Dell on my laptop. Since Monday it has been in the "final" stages of production. Must be a ploy to make them look good on the phone.

 

Ok so the tech guy came today and changed my motherboard. And he showed me something creepy.

I'm not sure if this happens everywhere (actually I would love to know) but my graphic chip is just put in place with silicone. So under super high temperatures, like a hot summer in mexico City, it can start to degrade, and the chip starts to fail.

Not sure if this happens only in Mexico, can someone who opened his alienware 14 tell me if it's true?

Also what app can I use to check on the temperature of my graphic chip?

Thanks for all the help this is one of the most responsive forums!

 

gpuz will help you read all info about the gpu. I doubt they are held in place by just silicone. For an example 60c is 140 degrees fahrenheit. I doubt it gets to the 140f in mexico city.

 

I actually saw it, it's held with 4 tiny drops of silicone at the borders. That was super creepy to be honest.

Perhaps it's just the quality Dell is building stuff here in Mexico?

I dunno, but I think I will start saving for a new computer along with the trip to the US.

Also gpu-z shows this on my nvidia gpu, is it normal?



When it does show the temperature, the GPU is at 63°C on iddle. I think that's too much for what others are reporting on their system.

 

The chip is soldered to the board and held by that, those 4 blobs:


Are there to hold the chip in place when it's get's soldered to the board in the factory and they give a tiny amount of protection against cracking of the solder due to vibrations (although that never happens)