*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 Ranger (2013) Owner's Lounge Thread

Spoiler

Now that WD purchased SanDisk & the X400 sandisk drives which are M.2 are not yet NVMe & the HGST is still the best reliable traditional HDD drives even after the WD purchase I hope they push forward now !! Regarding endurance I think the highest is from Samsung after Intel's DC S3xxx drives ( 2PB to a whopping 25PB) but I don't take that Firmware updates messing alongside the bloated magician software, keep it plain and simple like SanDisk I'll buy them in an instant.

I'm waiting for a 4TB drive so that the 1TB drives get a price drop..

 

YES! My 3rd Samsung 850 PRO 512GB SSD arrived from Amazon France!

 

For those who are interested in new laptop now or later. Newer AWBOOK*s is not a topic... I know, but this is from the BGA KILLER aka P870.
http://hwbot.org/submission/3199816_papusan_wprime___32m_core_i7_6700k_4sec_222ms?recalculate=true

More Bench results in the sig

 

Hi Guys,

Can anyone give me a vbios of the default 980m for Dell?

Regards,
Mark

 

errr... you mean the stock clevo bios.

 

Oops, have not worded the request correctly. Yup, that's the one I meant. My core clock does not go above 301Mhz when gaming, but the memory clock does.

 

Wait a sec ! Please don't mind but here's some basic info that you will have to let us know..
Which mode you are using the 980M ? What's the driver you are running ? Which OS ? 60 or 120Hz ?

Next, I think there's one at Alienware 18 forum, the SLI machine was shipped with Dell cards and It has OEM vBIOS, I think all Alienware 17 users have installed only Clevo cards, most of em are from woodzstack and run Prema vBIOS 2.0 (flashed by user, the woodzstack's cards also ship with a custom vBIOS for the AW17) with 362.00 driver and either Win8.x or Win10 in full UEFI boot in PEG mode only without any throttle.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I'm using Win 8.1 in full UEFI running @60Hz with Mr.Fox's 344.75 desktop driver. It is running in dedicated only. I'll also search in the AW 18 forums

Regards,
Mark

 

Give a spin with the 362.00 It's fine, the 344.75 is pretty old driver but I don't get why the throttling is happening. Good luck !

And which vBIOS are you running ?

 

i swear that prema had the stock vbios that they did their v2.0 mods to.

 

Hi guys need help on my recent gpu upgrade, here are my specs:

Alienware 17 R1 120Hz
Windows 10 Home 64 bIt
GTX 980m 8gb currently flashed with SVL7 vbios
GeForce Driver 364.72
16gb RAM

I used to have the 780m installed and OS was upgraded from win7 to win10. I bought a 980m read all the prerequisites with installing the card on an AW17 R1 120Hz model. First I converted my BOOT from legacy to full UEFI. I was able to install the card and install the latest GeForce Driver with no problems. Then when I checked in-game performance of the card the core clocks only go up to 301Mhz though GPU-z sensors read that the card's core clock is 1206Mhz. I check the clocks using MSI Afterburner and I guess this is true since I only get 30fps average on Shadow of Mordor benchmark and playing AC Liberation HD I get fps below 20. When I open NVidia Inspector, it detects my card's core and memory clocks but there is a row that says current clocks and at the right most a box that says Estimated Max that displays 301Mhz. It never really goes up beyond that. I have tried installing older drivers like Mr.Fox's Desktop modified drivers and I've tried flashing Prema's vbios. When I flash prema's vbios GPU-z reads my core clocks at 500+Mhz only but if i game or bench the core clocks only reach 282Mhz with Prema's vbioses. Any input is greatly apreciated. Should I change my OS to Win8.1? Not really sure what to do next. Thanks in advance guys. Sorry for the long post.

 

Strange indeed that GPUz sensors show a different value in contrast to that seen in NVidia Inspector. I would try using DDU ( http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html) to remove any traces of NVidia drivers and then I would install the latest NVidia driver from the NVidia website using a modified inf. You can get a modified inf file from LaptopVideo2Go for the latest Nvidia driver here: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/31410-geforce-36472-nvidia-driver/

The above process could help rule out any display driver issues, and in my experience the modified inf files from Laptopvideo2go give slightly (only slightly!) better results than when I modify my own inf files - I don't why! (You have to use the International version of the driver to use the modded inf file from LaptopVideo2Go)

 

I always use DDU when uninstalling drivers. I modified my own first and to rule out the drivers I got the modded inf from j95. Here are my gpu-z and inspector ss.

Prema vbios gpu-z:



Prema vbios Inspector max core clocks of 282Mhz:



SVL7 vbios gpu-z but when gaming and in inspector max core clock only reaches 301Mhz:

 

prema's v2 vbios doesn't play well with gpuz since the vbios is so new that gpuz can't read it properly.

have you tried nvidia's 362.00 drivers?

 

I personally think you should try the latest NVidia drivers and the modified inf from LaptopVideo2Go - this is a more 'vanilla' experience because I believe that j95 might add some secret sauce to his drivers & modified inf's, so I think you should try the more vanilla experience to rule out any potential issues.

 

@Gh0sts
I'll try and install the 362.00 drivers.

@Robbo99999
I'll give those a go as well. Update once i tried them both. Thanks both of you!

 

@Robbo99999 @geejign

I strongly recommend you use WinMerge to see exactly what J95 does the inf files.
For Optimus, he only adds the HWID of the mxm 980m/970m. As for the PEG inf, it's more complicated and he DOES seem to add his special sauce to them

 

It's alright, I'll take your word for it!

 

looking forward to getting some cash flow and then i can grab one of these:

http://metabox.com.au/store/b189/Metabox-Prime-X-P775DM-G-Laptop

will definitely strip out the samsung SSDs from the Alienware and stick it into the metabox / clevo. still don't know what i would do with the alienware actually: maybe use it as a downloading machine or a video editing laptop?

or perhaps i should just sell it.

 

The Clevo's have only have 2 SATA slots and 2 M.2 slots plus no Bluray drive, I guess It's a bit early to switch & keep the machine, It's a well made real last Alienware machine & the resale value is less too.

That's my pov though..

 

Update: The tech replaced the motherboard around two weeks ago. But there are no more lights, not even the power button, but the keyboard is fine. We thought that there was a hardware problem until yesterday. There was another tech that was sent to diagnose the unit, when the command center was installed, the lights suddenly turned on and after a sec or two, turned off again. After a few more googling, it turned out that the setting "Dim lights when going dark" was unchecked. After checking it, all the light indicators are now on.

Thank you guys for all the help

 

now i have a use for the 3rd 512GB SSD I bought: game captures from an elgato game capture hd60s i just bought and i've been testing captures too. this is gonna be good.

 

Any update @Nomad , I'm also interested in upgrading, got the HDD caddy for the ODD bay.

 

Caddy part no is 6CTX5 and looks like this, I think I have to open that ODD bay and remove the ODD from the caddy and replace with the HDD mounted inside this one.

I don't think it can fit the 4TB SpinPoint, Better I may go for the 2TB one or wait for the blackfriday deals, maybe an Evo 850 2TB if 4TB Samsung SSD comes...fingers crossed.

 

Yes going 2TB HD will be trouble free for sure but assure you that there is space, without the hd caddy, to store a 15mm

Changing the subject. I have like most of you my A17 R1 + 120Hz panel + 980M with Prema vBIOS v2.0 and J95 modded INFs but doesn't matter which driver version I try I always get a freeze with the 1st boot from a cold boot start. I get it right away during the windows start and some other times already in windows desktop. In all cases forcing me to push down the turn on button for some seconds so I have to turn the system off. Then after that I can re-start the system and boots properly.

Do somebody encounters the same scenario?
Should we all collect some extra beers so Prema can write a proper vBios for the 980M for our A17 R1 120Hz panels?

 

nah, forget that one and get this instead!

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=387&area=en

i have this in my laptop and it works a treat.

 

Regarding this boot start issue I have

Does everybody uses RAID mode or AHCI mode with their 980M?

 

RAID only since I got my machine.

 

I have mine in AHCI the whole time I've had it. I think it's a driver bug since it's fine when there's no driver installed. The early win 10 drivers caused this issue a lot.

Have you tried setting it to 60hz? I know it's not ideal but just test and see how it goes.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

So I'm the only one having this rare bug it seems...? I was almost sure that this started happening after using Prema v.2 for 980M (I don't remember this happening with Prema 1.1.1 or with Woodzstack stock vBios) Assuming we're all using the same vBios now I'm starting to think in other sources for this bug.

That could be going back to 60Hz to see if replicates the bug.. if not wait and do a new Windows install under AHCI protocol and no RAID. I was not using any of the RAID functions anyways, I just had it enable to have to option to eventually use Intel Smart Response Technology in the future.

Changing the subject a bit... did you all fix micro stuttering or micro gpu throttle under gaming just using the Delta 330W PSU?

 

please help me of this problem.

Only using DGPU will have no problem.

But when i push fn + f5 and change into the optimus mode,

the screen is flickering and glitching....



like this video

even i pulled out the dgpu and power on with integrated gpu,, it has the same situation.

i flash the bios a14 and a13 but it isnt solved.

i dont know why... i think it is related to the intel GPU...

Is there anybody who know the source of the problem?

 

Did you try HDMI out ?
Mostly this issue is very hard to crack down, I have mine too, refer to these threads...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/weird-problem-with-screen.789933/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/not-sure-whats-going-on-here-artifacts-m18x-r3.789870/
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/gpu-render-related-or-panel-w-r-to-gpu.789391/

I feel sorry for yah bruh. Good Luck.

 

so weird problem.

i did these things

1. Bios update and reinstall -> no change
2. boot without GPU -> no change
3. reinstall the intel gpu driver -> no change
4. reinstall the OSD -> no change
5. reinstall the LVDS cable -> no change
6. repaste the thermal on CPU -> no change
7. put the orignal GPU (765m) and boot with optimus -> no change.

the only solution is using NON-optimus mode.

what the.....

do i have to use forced non-optimus mode??

and i am wondering if the IGPU is faulty, what should i replace? mobo or haswell cpu?

 

if intel gpu is faulty you would need to replace the cpu since intel is integrated in the cpu these days

 

I doubt it's mobo since the optimus output only is messed up, It's highly likely that It's CPU.

 

i wonder where i can put in led strip lighting

 

With my Alienware 17R1 overheating on GPU to about 93"c on the 880m. I am looking for that Fan upgrade anyone has a link that I can just click and order it from so I have the right fan ? I am looking for it but I keep finding the wrong ones I guess. I need one with international shipping. Also I need a guide how to repaste or do something because my CPU is going to 85'c and GPU to 93'c

 

Get a new GPU - the 800m series is terrible.

 

Cans of compressed air to blow out the heatsink and fans of dust. Many many guides on internet on how to paste up CPU/GPU - different methods largely decided by personal preference as well as thickness of paste. Very thick pastes (e.g. Arctic Silver 5) then spread method (instructions on Arctic Silver website) - this is the method I use (even for thin pastes). Thin pastes - a lot of people use a pea sized dot method on the square GPU chip, and quite often the line method on a rectangular Intel CPU. I recommend Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut paste from my testing, 2 degC colder than Arctic Silver 5 on my laptop. Find the service manual for your laptop from the Dell website so you know how to dismantle your laptop. Remove battery and power drain laptop before working on it.

 

I know m8 but but I don't want to buy a new GPU because I want to build a PC soon. GPU's for the Alienware are almost unpayable. So I want to repaste this one and cool it better with a better fan.

 

I think there is no problem with your fan. How about cleaning your laptop?

dusting and repasting thermal will be the good solution.

 

put a notebook cooler under there too make sure back vents are clear. Mine runs at like 97 on cpu but i'm running a 4910 clocked at 4ghz. I'm in middle of building a custom cooling plate for mine I('ll keep u guys posted.

 

hmmm....stil wondering if it's worth getting a 4910MQ still or just wait for kaby lake to get here?

 

Kaby Lake may not come before January http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ru...resent-kaby-lake-and-zen-in-january-2017.html

 

So i guess the same rule applies: get what you can, when you can.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

finally got the vulkan demos to work.

 

Very tempted to order a clevo p775dm-g and sell off the alienware. Tempted to do it very soon too.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

I already jumped ship but I chose the Clevo P870DM-G

 

That's out of my price range.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

 

Clevo p775dm-g is a nice machine...!!