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

I've just finished installing windows 10 pro on a AW17 and though I'd share my experience and issues encountered.
Laptop Specs are:
AW17 3D 120Hz Panel
i7 4910 (Stock - No OC)
8GB GTX 880M (Stock - No OC)
32GB 1600Mhz Samsung Memory
512GB Samsung Evo 840 mSATA (Boot Drive) 2 x 1TB Samsung Evo 840 SSD's
Killer 1202 WiFi

BIOS Revision: A14

BIOS Setting: UEFI with Legacy OPRom enabled - No Fastboot - RAID

I only installed the GTX880 2 days before I upgraded to windows 10, I thought I was either going to have to replace both the thermal paste and pads or perhaps the entire GPU as it was reaching skyhigh temps - 89 degree celsius during 3DMark Vantage (Score 29831) and 93 degrees celsius after playing COD advanced warfare for only 30 minutes. I'll come back to temps shortly....

The upgrade process was virtually painless, I decided to select the option of not keeping anything, hoping windows would do a clean install by selecting this.
I was right and windows wiped everything, only creating 3 partitions on my boot drive (previous upgrades like 7 to 8 have created many more than this)

The upgrade process roughly took 15 minutes from hitting start upgrade now to booting to desktop.
And Windows 10 loads fast, windows 8 used to boot to desktop on this laptop in around 8 seconds, Windows 10 takes about 5-6 seconds.

The Windows 10 automatic driver tool seems to work a lot better than previous, within 5 minutes of connecting to the net Windows 10 had found all driver but two, after 10 minutes it had found all drivers but one (Alienware OSD)

I checked "Installed Programs" and only found synaptics touchpad and realtek sound drivers installed, but only one "Unidentified Device" in device manager (Alienware OSD)

I decided to try installing all the windows 8 drivers for the AW17, most of them work fine, here is a list of the drivers that either would not install or presented error messages after installation.
RealTek RTS5209 PCIE Card Reader Driver.
ST Microelectronics Freefall Sensor.
Qualcomm Killer WLAN E2201 - This will install correctly, but it presents errors during installation.
Alienware 17 Air Plane Mode Switch - Not sure if this is even needed in Win 10.
Every other AW17 Win 8 driver installs without issues - Including the win 7/8 version of Command Center v3.0.29.0 (which needs DotNet Framework 3.5 before installation)


Now to the good part - Windows 10 has dropped both my CPU and GPU temps by over 10%

The GTX880 now max's out at 79 degrees Celsius and scores 31978 in 3DMark Vantage.
Idle is in high 40's,

Looks like Microsoft may have FINALLY got it right and released something nice

 

the freefall sensor will install you just need to install it manually by extracting the install files and running the ini file.

 

Yeah they don't look too shabby at all now that I've looked at them again. I got my panel and cable waiting for me at home now. My only remaining concern now is the glossy finish. I typically can't stand glossy finishes, but apparently this TrueLife semi-gloss isn't bad at all.

 

Yeah I was really nervous about that as well but the Truelife is very bright and the glossy has never been a problem for me. I actually dislike matte displays now.

 

oh now the stupid win 10 icon decides to show it's butt!

 

Thanks man I just uninstalled it and seems that worked bad driver for sure

 

anyone still having issues with the AW17 R1 + aftermarket 980M?

 

Did you have any issues with your screen? I'm having problems getting my drivers installed, the screen going blank, just doesn't seem to want to work. Dunno if it's because of the 970M, or other issues.

 

No, mine has been fine even with the switch to the 980M. The screen is fine before drivers right? How long have you let it sit when it goes blank? I had one instance where the driver wouldn't install and I had to reboot but it worked after that. What OS are you on?

 

feel free to share your steps cos i am using the same model and GPU.

 

The diver installation would start, then the screen would go blank. I did a hard-reboot, but even though drivers looked like they were installed, the 970M in device manager showed up as disabled.

The screen, even without drivers installed, is causing issues. Sometimes a reboot will work, other times it leads me to a blank screen.

Other times I get a series of beeps when booting.

 

Steps for driver installation or?

Hmm... you definitely shouldn't be having screen issues. Are you sure the connectors are fully hooked up? How many beeps are you getting? You're installing using the modded .inf in the drivers right? Is the 970M actually showing as disabled (little arrow pointing down) or no driver (yellow caution thing)? Do you have the stock vBIOS on the card? Sorry for all the questions.

 

i mean...

- what was your PC set to before installation (was it in optimus or dedicated mode? any specific BIOS/UEFI settings)
- any steps before display installation
- install steps

 

No worries.

I'm using a modded driver (my 970M was working just fine before installing the screen). Stock vbios.

The screen usually works just fine, but every few reboots will lead to a blank screen. I'll double-check the connectors to be sure it's all good.

It showed up as disabled, drivers were apparently installed (they show up in programs and the control panel).

Just for giggles, I'll also try re-seating the video card. Maybe it go slightly dislodged while I was installing the display panel.

 

i was gonna ask if i can borrow the cable since i am in the same city but i don't think that's fair.

 

Gotcha. My factory setup was the 120Hz display and a 780M. Upgrading to the 980M was plug and play followed by removing all driver with DDU and installing the drivers with a modded .inf. It just worked after that, I can't say anything about the screen swaps as I didn't do one but it should all be plug and play.

That's really odd you sometimes don't get any display. Mine will occasionally (like every 25-50 power ons) stay black for about 10 seconds longer than usual but then it boots just fine. Try removing all your drivers with DDU in safe mode followed by installing the new ones in normal mode. You might also need to set the card to enabled in Device Manager by right clicking it. You might want to reset your BIOS options as well even though I doubt it will do anything but there could be an option in there from when you had the normal screen.

 

i am hoping that changing the screen after changing the GPU would be a non-issue.

would love to know if it's possible to run the 60hz panel via the EDP port.

 

You would need something like this but for your LCD model.

 

bummer.

 

@DaveFromGameaVision

So the screen itself works flawlessly, seems to boot up fine. It's when I go to install the modded nvidia driver that things go south.

Before installing that, the GTX 970M isn't detected (I've used DDU to clean the system of nvidia drivers, and I checked the cables and re-seated the GPU just to be sure).

I boot up with driver signature enforcement disabled. When I start installing the driver, the screen goes dark (blank) after the system pop-up (do you want to install an unknown driver).

I'm in UEFI bios, legacy rom disabled, secure boot disabled.

My GPU was working fine before the screen upgrade.

Not sure what is causing the issue.

 

Have you reset the BIOS to factory settings? There could be hidden options that are conflicting with the new screen. How long have you let it sit before forcing the power down? It could take a few minutes for the driver to take and the screen to come back on. What Nvidia driver are you trying to install? Have you tried other versions? Are you on the latest A13 BIOS?

In addition have you set the GPU to enabled in device manager?

 

shouldn't you be using the latest A14 BIOS? i am and i even updated my IMEI firmware to the latest version i can find.

last ditch: get a spare drive and install windows again.

 

Reset BIOS, bios version is A14. The screen has currently been blank for at least 20 min (goes blank after trying to install drivers). Using driver 353.06 - these were working just fine before with my 60Hz screen.

The GPU is not detected in device manager (though HWInfo sees it).

 

last ditch: reinstall windows.

EDIT: it's probably in the bible somewhere but i think that if you're going to win 10 that you should at least update your IMEI firmware to the latest version of the branch that's compatible with your chipset. so in this case it will be 9.0.x for the AW17 R1 as we are using the series 8 chipset. this should have been done with a BIOS update but the A14 BIOS does not have this so you must independently flash this.

http://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html

 

looks like dell has added win 10 drivers for the AW17 R1!

 

Installed a second 850 pro today and put them both in raid 0. Performs pretty good if I may say so.

 

anyone know how to stop audio popping?

 

DPC latency issues?
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
Windows 10 compatible version at link above.

 

gave it a try and looks like that's the case. any solutions?

 

Yep, it's mainly one of the drivers that can cause DPC latency issues. Anything from WiFi drivers to even Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers - it can be practically any driver that causes it, but most common offenders seem to be WiFi and Graphics drivers. That program I linked you describes the offending process that's causing the high latency (it lists the process that's creating the highest latency peak). You then try disabling that device & then re-record DPC latency to see if the problem is solved - if it is, then you need to find a better driver for the offending device.

 

thing is one kinda needs both LOL

 

Haha, well you can just try different drivers rather than disabling the device, if you feel that you can't disable that device. I think I read somewhere though that you can disable the GPU in Device Manager even if you're configured just to run off that one GPU - apparently it temporarily disables the NVidia drivers, but will continue to use the GPU in it's 'basic form' (maybe the microsoft drivers). Have a google about that if you're gonna try. (The disabling of devices is just for diagnostic purposes of course, you wouldn't leave them permanently disabled - the goal is to find drivers that work without DPC latency issues).

 

anyone tried the R9 M295X? Can it be overclocked?

 

So whenever I switch to dedicated mode on my R1 (Fn+F5) it looks like the NVIDIA drivers aren't installed.

This is what I get after rebooting into dedicated mode.



However, HWinfo64 correctly detects my 970M.

Am I doing something wrong? The drivers are properly installed and everything works fine in Optimus mode.

 

it means you didn't have the right modded INF.

I have sent you the correct INF for your driver set.

 

Yup all is well, all along it was just a bad driver. What a waste of time (removing and re-installing panels...sheesh).

 

so for me it should be as easy as a simple swap since i am already running in dedicated mode with the right drivers.

 

I think so. At worst you may just have to re-install the drivers.

 

still no cable the ship must have sunk somewhere in the pacific!

 

I guess I got lucky. Both the cable and panel were delivered in about 3 business days. Then I just spent a few days screwing around before realizing my drivers were bad.

So long as you don't have bright light directly pointing at the screen, the reflections are entirely manageable.

 

Add a week or two due to economic downturn; there's not enough cargo to go around, so all ships are going snail's pace to save costs (more fuel efficient). Last minute container from China is now ~$300-400 (lowest ever), so ... if you want to move some stuff; now's your chance.

 

The strange thing is the GPU fan ship a week later yet it arrives in the country first. How does that work?

FML I tell ya! FML

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

It really isn't the end of the world. While I agree the screen is better, I wasn't blown away by it either.

If I had to do it again, I probably wouldn't. To me, the difference isn't enough to warrant the cost, time and increased reflections/glare.

To each his own.

 

It's more about the money spent on the item.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

So I bought another 17, with a stinky 880m but it was even cheaper than my current m290x model but it needs some tlc and was put together by a monkey.At first I though the round textured screws on the bottom were gone (instead the bottom cover was screwed to the chassis with some generic black screws instead) but no..... some idiot used them to mount the heatsink to the gpu..

No really i'm not joking... 17 owners will recognize them:



Luckely I still had the correct one's from a old R4

And before I even touched any benchmark or game I did a repaste with mx4, seems to run ok at around 75-78 degrees running 3dmark11. Though I will bet I will be able to throttle it wihout a decent vbios, probably will keep the 880m though since it still is somewhat faster than a m290x.

So I now have a mint 17, R4 and an abused 17 (still haven't sold the R4 really want to make sure I like the 17 and want to find a decent owner for it).

 

should just ditch the 880m and go for a 980m easy

 

Yeah would want to but can't afford it (the whole system was a lot cheaper than a 980m ).

 

or a 780m and overclock. still better than the 880m.

 

If I just needed one laptop though, I would have stuck with the R4, and then upgraded that to a 980M - R4 is arguably better than the A17 anyway - better cooling capability & not gimped in any way.

 

Agreed but the extreme reflections of the screen drive me nuts.