Bought an Alienware m17x R2, having some issues

Well, I found a deal on a M17x R2 in great cosmetic shape for 500$ on Craigslist, talked them down to 375$ and drove 400 miles round trip to grab it. Wasnt sure what hardware was in this one until I got there. Has the 1200p 3D screen, 2x 500gig HDs in Raid 0, dual AMD 5870M in Crossfire, Bluray Drive and original manual + recovery CDs. They thought the AC cord was bad, as it would only work plugged in certain ways, when I got there I realized it was the AD Jack instead, so talked them down on the price.

Got it home, did a clean windows install and it benchmarked around 12.7k in 3dmark 06, all stock, but was getting extremely hot. CPU and GPU's were around 95c. I figured it never had a repaste and removed the thermal gunk between the vram also, repasted everything. I also desoldered as much of the AC Jack as I could, got clean access to all the pins, cleaned up the contacts with a knife tip, and soldered them up. In my mind, soldering was good enough to work like new I figured, AC jack was rock solid also now.

When I turn on the laptop, I get greeted now with a "Unsupported AC Adapter" message, and windows loads very slow. Though sometimes its faster and sometimes its slower. I can feel the speed just surfing the web, slows down a bit. Temps are all great though, CPU is under 50c just working in windows for an hour or two, and GPU idles around 44-45c. Not sure why the speed changes so much everytime I boot, sometimes I can get 35-40 fps in the opening frames of 3dmark06, and sometimes its as low as 19. Definitely lower then the 100 or so I was getting before I soldered the AD Jack.

I ordered a new battery, and a new AC Jack. I'm wondering if I should order a new AC Adapter also? Could that be the issues? I looked inside the AC Jack and AC Adapter end and looked normal, center pins there but seems really short, only half the length of the outer tube. Maybe that's normal? No clue, but I do love this laptop. I sold my Asus G74 BestBuy edition for 700$ to buy an Alienware m17x or m18x, so I can actually upgrade GPU's and what not in the future. Currently stuck though, not sure if its possible for the AC Jacks to break on the inside, and not the pins? Never heard of that problem.

 

I would order another AC adapter too, you'll need the Flextronics/Delta 240W PSU. Also the 1200p screen is not 3D.

 

Congrats on your new machine and welcome to the NBR forum.

The issues you are facing with the frames dropping down constantly and then going back up it could be because of lose contacts and maybe your power adapter (after being soldered) keeps connecting and disconnecting. Yes, your only solution is to try another adapter and see if that helps. Unfortunately its not good what is going on now because your GPU's keep dropping down and up (you already know that in battery mode the GPU downclocks and when in power mode it should work just fine). As far as I remember, if your power adapter disconnects from your system while it is on, the graphic cards use to downclock (which is normal) but when you plug it back on, never used to go back to the normal speed. The only way you could have this rectified is by restarting your system. Make sure those things don't happen.

Btw, your screen is amazing, one of the best Alienware came up with and yes it is 1200p but it is not 3D I hope you will have it fixed soon enough and enjoy it completely!

 

You beat me to it!

 

don't forget to remove the video cards and check the heatsink! when I bought mine, there was a ton of dust and hair clogging between where the fan and heatsink meet. Can only be seen when I removed the gpu\heatsink combo

 

I cleaned up both video cards, removed thermal pads below vram so heatsinks sit flat, no dust at all anywhere in this laptop now since I pulled the motherboard and everything, cleaned everything inside. The AC adapter is that flat Flextronics GA240PE1-00, guessing the 240 means 240 watt. I'll probably wait to see if the new AC Jack fixes it, if not then new power supply I guess? Doing 3dmark06 right now I get 6665 marks, cpu tests all scored same, GPU tests scored half the speed. So guessing low power mode means it restricts power to GPU's only. Also my ram speed is running @ 667 mhz? Isnt that a little low? lol

 

Ram speed at 667 mhz? Yes, that is extremely low, you should check the ram sticks themselves and see what their default speed is, and in the Bios under overclock settings you can set the ram speed there.

 

Didn't find anywhere to set ram speed in bios.

 

Welcome to NBR and congrats on the purchase!

The unsupported AC adapter message normally indicates the ID line/chip is damaged. I would check if your AC jack center pin at the back has proper contact. Have a look at the 330W mod link in my signature there's an image with the AC jack with labels on each pin.

Also be careful which replacement AC jack you are buying since there are a lot of generic cheaply made ones which don't look like they are able to handle +-200W continuously. There is also a link to the proper R2 OEM AC jack in the 330W mod guide. Make sure the jack is a Foxconn branded version and matches the shape of the holes on the face of the jack. Double check with the seller before buying.

The centre ID pin on the connector is shorter so that's normal. What CPU do you have?

The RAM speed is normal at 667Mhz (DDR = 1333mhz). 1333Mhz is the max supported frequency on the R2.

 

You cleaned the vias and pads on the pcb with your knife?!?! That's your problem there.

The AC adapter not supported error and the slow boot time is a result of the PSU ID signal not being sent to the motherboard. As a result the maximum multiplier on the cpu will be set to around 4x.

There are 3 traces going to the power connector on the R2 motherboard. I believe the ID cable is on one of the middle layers of the PCB. If you were digging around that via with your knife, then you probably severed that trace. You're probably going to need a new motherboard as well if this is the case.

The AC adapter female jacks don't go that often on these machines because they are quite robust. More often the male jack on the end of the cable goes because in most scenarios its forced to a 90 degree angle as soon as it leaves the back of the computer. You should order a new PSU as well/run some tests to see if your current connector really is bad or not.

 

It could also be that he soldered the ID pin to the positive pin since its possible to mix this if you dont know about ID pin on the socket.

If its the trace. Follow it and solder in a wire to next connection. It should be visual to the ID chip.

I did this with mine, also added wires to next spot for the positive in case there wasnt good connection between pins and pads.

 

Anyone able to post a visual pic of the pins that are the ID signal and where I would solder a wire to on the motherboard? I soldered in a new AC Jack today, and still same issues. The old AC jack was wiggling around on the motherboard when I first got this laptop, yet it wouldnt have any issues benchmarking full power if I positioned the AC adapter just right in the jack. After soldering it the first time, no longer received dell signal for the power supply. The charger couldnt have gone bad just like that? Must be a motherboard issue. I'll probably just have to order a new motherboard I guess, though they are outrageously priced. As much as I paid for the whole laptop.

 

Okay pulled the mother board again. Just need to figure out which wire on the ac jack is the signal wire. What does that signal wire do anyways? Put out a specific voltage so the laptop knows? Anyway to test it?

 

It sends signal from the ID chip in the PSU to verify its the "correct type" PSU.

Its not easy to send you pics, since it makes me have to pull apart my laptop to do this but a multimeter pluss visual should do the trick.

As others mention if you make this resolder and it doesnt help, im afraid new PSU is next step, but this is first and cheapest test. Position the jack could be both bad solder and bad cable from psu with bad connection.
Also hopefully your new jack is the right one?

 

This is the guide they were referring to:

[GUIDE] Dell 330W Power Adapter Mod for the M17X

From Nospheratu's signature that he mentions

As you probably see, you should not solder the ID pin to ground on your MOBO but it shows you what pin it is.
Connecting it to ground is for the MOD, removing the "old" ID wire.

 

Thanks, fixed it by soldering a wire from the ac jack signal to the motherboard, works great now! Thanks again for all the help.

 

Fantastic. Its the same way i did it

 

BTW a "known" problem on R2, this jack sh**.