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

I like your idea best. I think I will keep both. The worst thing that could happen is they say you forgot to send power supply back but your right I dought they even care about that as long as they get the laptop back .
Thanks for suggestion . Thumbs up .

 

The 240W could benefit you in the future as well if you plan on upgrading your GFX card.

Suprised it only requires 180W now. My R3 was 240W as well. I guess the new chips are less power draining.

 

It would be really great J DRE if you make a video of the cpu and gpu repaste.i would also like to repaste but i have never done before.plz

 

I'm sure someone has made a video of this process before. I know I've seen videos of the m17x r3 complete disassembly/reassembly process before (And that was only a month or two after it came out). Point being, search for yourself before asking someone else to make a video for you.

 

Maybe I will, but it will be bad quality. I've only got my iPhone as a camera. I'll see if I can find my tripod... Hope I still have it.

 

Can you get the 17 without the matte screen or is it that or the 3D bundle? Also does the 17 with a 4900mq support HyperX 1866MHz.P&P 1.35v?

 

holy crap guys...i updated today to windows 8.1. Is a disaster.
I'll try to reinstall bluetooth driver 'cause it not works, my printer driver, and...alien autopsy failed too.

Company of heroes 2 bugged too, but is a knowed bug and it will be updated.

Others drivers appears ok..nvidia, razer..intel rapid start doesn't works like with windows 8.

And you guys? all ok?

@northstar: Is in the 3d bundle. And...like intel says..4900mq support ddr3l 1333 or 1600. They will work downgraded i think.

 

If you order the 3D bundle, you get a glossy screen, all others are matte.

 

Just had to comment again on the re-paste I did earlier with the CPU - the single best thing I could have done for the AW 17. The fans literally do not ever turn on now while just browsing the web or YouTube, it's completely silent. And while gaming, it is also a lot quieter than before and temperatures never get into the 80's with the CPU.

Hopefully I can get up a tutorial video for you guys tomorrow, but I can't find the tripod for my iPhone.

I definitely recommend upgrading to the 120Hz screen.

 

That is strange all my stuff seems to work on 8.1

 

Cheers J.Dre.

It's mostly the cleaning part that's scary, can't you ruin something with the solvent? Seems like it's all really worth the hassle, though!

 

I bought this stuff: Amazon.com : Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams with ArctiClean 60 ML Kit : Computers & Accessories, and it worked like a charm.

I did not buy Arctic Silver 5, but that's pretty good paste. I always use IC Diamond.

 

Still running on the original Windows 8 Pro installation that came with my AW17 - and it seems to take a long time to boot - staying in the startup screen showing the Alienware line with the swirling status circle.

When I do a "safe mode" reboot - it boots very quickly. Using MSCONFIG to disable the startup and services - doesn't seem to help.

Anyone else seeing this? If so, has anyone found what's causing this???

If I can't figure this out - I may do a clean install - though AW had so little crapware installed when I got it, there hasn't been a reason to do so (yet)...

 

When I got my first 17 15 days ago the first thing I did was go to dell website and download and install the latest a05 bios and everything was good . Installed some games like crysis 3 and swtor. Played for 2 days and was happy as hell. No issues at all. Then second day computer died completely . They are building me a new one and should be here nov 4 . Now I'm scared when it comes to update bios or change anything. My last one came with a03 from factory. Should I leave everything as is and don't worry about it or should I update bios as it might be more benificiall for me to do so . I left all other drivers alone besides bios because everything worked fine without issues so had no reason to change anything. Only reason I updated bios was thinking maybe improved cooling or fan controll over processors.
Thanks for any suggestions.

Oh almost forgot .
If someone updates the bios to latest verson and then desides to to a system recovery to original factory install will the bios go back to what it was originally or will it stay the same as last you had it before doing recovery.
Thanks again.

 

No, the BIOS will stay the same...
I updated my Alienware 17 to A05 the first day I got it and installed windows 8, now running 8.1.
No problems thus far, laptop is running smoothly, Kind of bummed now I see Dell is offering the option to choose the 1920x1080 on the 1499.00 base model
The option to upgrade was unavailable 3 weeks ago when I ordered mine,I could not swing the extra cash for the next option which was 1999.00, wish they would have offered it back then I could have managed the extra 150 bucks...

 

Finally I have a reason to be cautiously optimistic!

Apparently my laptop has been built and is on the way to the depot for shipping. Should get there and ship out Monday/Tuesday. I've requested multiple times that they overnight it to me at this point, but have no idea if this is actually how it will be done as those requests were completely ignored.

So, hopefully by the end of the week next week, I'll have my laptop in my hands.

To those of you that provided me with order numbers, thank you. I don't know if that is what made the difference, but after me giving them the order numbers, all of a sudden my laptop was ready to go. Could have just been a coincidence, but I don't tend to believe in those, so thank you very much!!!

 

Thanks for response .
My old computer was 1366 x 768 and I was playing swtor and was happy with that. Yours I believe comes with 1600 x 900 wich is better yet . I haven't had a screen with 1600 x 900 . My new 17 has 1920 x 1080 and I couldn't see a super great difference from my old 1366x768 but could be the game too . Anyways I don't think would notice a whole lot of difference between yours and the 1920 x 1080 screen anyways . And the screen you got would give better performance on whatever graphics card you have than the 1920 x 1080 anyway. There's always a bright side to look at with whatever choices you make or are stuck with. Your performance will be better with the screen you got with out a whole lot of difference.

Just my 2 cents or opinion .

Edit . My old 1366 x 768 screen was 15.6 inch also so maybe that's why I didn't see a super great difference.

 

When dell sends you a replacement computer because your first one failed within the 21 day window do you get a new 21 day window with the arrival of the new one . Only reason I ask is because they took there sweet time replacing mine pretty much eating up my 21 day window to the day .
And it messed up on the second day of owning it . With the tech trying to fix it once and the time it took them to do the replacement my 21 days is pretty much gone.

 

Your laptop dying probably had nothing to do with updating the BIOS to the latest version on the Dell website. In fact, what you did would have been the recommended action. I think you were unlucky & just got a dud laptop, nothing to do with what you did to it.

 

I did not like the temps my computer was running so i decided to do the GPU and CPU.
SO ARE YOU READY FOR THIS S#$T...
When i took off the heat sink on my GPU there was a screw stuck to the bottom in between the GPU and heat sink. So the lazy idiot who built it could not get the heat sink to sit flush with the GPU and broke the post on the GPU and left it that way....
There is quality i will tell ya....

 

LMAO, you're lucky that your laptop would even work at all with it like that.

I wonder what Dell tech support will say. Does it violate your warranty doing a repaste?

 

You do not void your warranty doing a repaste.. or any work on your machine, as long as you break nothing.

 

And as long as you follow the manual provided by Alienware, you should run into no issues. In doing so, you basically follow their instructions on how to work on your laptop.

 

Is this jsut conjecture or is this fact? I don't mean to sound like a jerk, so if I am, I apologize, it is not intentional. I guess a better way to put this is has anyone confirmed this with Dell and has it in writing?

I suppose one could argue that, with the manual they provide, they are inviting you to be a DIY repair guy, however their warranty clearly states, even in this manual, that only a Dell certified technician is allowed to do this work, otherwise your warranty is void.....

 

Put it this way - opening your machine and working on it does not void warranty, if you damage something whilst doing it, then the "you break it, you buy it" rule comes into play. Obviously if a Dell tech breaks it, it's covered....break something yourself and it won't be....

Just look at Brother Porras' signature......tell's you pretty much the same (snipped from one of his posts here on NBR):

 

You are safe working with it. According to dell warranty (if any of you ever did read the warranty) you can "work with your Laptop as long as you follow the documentation or instructions provided by dell. Always follow installation and service instructions closely"

 

This is straight from the owners manual:



I notice it doesn't say a "Dell Certified Service Technician" though and I just happen to be a certified PC Technician, wonder if that counts?

At any rate, this is why I asked about voiding the warranty....

 

Sent a Email to Dell regarding the upgrade option now available on their website, ask If anything could be done for purchasing a screen replacement upgrade, due to the option being now available just barely two weeks after receiving my Laptop..
Doubt anything will come of it, but it doesn't hurt to ask...

 

I think you're within the timeframe that you can just return the laptop, effectively cancelling your order and order a new one. Though this means you'll be without a laptop for most likely a month or so....

 

Sorry double post...Now Removed..

 

Spent time today trying to determine if there's anything wrong with my Windows 8 Pro installation on my new AW 17 - and couldn't find any obvious problems.

When the system boots, it spends over 50 seconds displaying the ALIENWARE line plus logo, with the swirling circle - before entering going into the Windows login screen.

Can someone else with Windows 8 on an AW 17 confirm the amount of time you're seeing during boot? Is everyone seeing this long delay during boot? Or is this unusual - and others are seeing much shorter boot times (which I'm seeing on my other Windows 8 systems).

Thanks...

 

Encountered another problem today... Was trying to do a backup to a USB 3.0 enclosure with a 2.5" HDD. This enclosure works fine on my other computers.

On the AW 17 - doesn't work. With the left side USB ports - the drive keeps connecting-reconnecting in Windows. The drive appears to connect to the right side ports - but stops responding after a few seconds.

This happens in Windows and in running standalone Acronis True Image (I was trying to do a backup to an external HDD).

Has anyone successfully used an external USB drive with their AW 17? If so - was it USB 2.0 or 3.0? And did it use the laptop power (over USB) or have its own power adapter?

And if anyone else has encountered this problem - were you able to solve it?

 

I've been using an external 3.5", powered 3TB USB 3.0 drive for backups, both on my r3 and my current 17 - no issues either backing up or restoring with that drive. Same goes for making bootable USB sticks.

As for issues... After updating to 8.1, I get the "Secure boot is not enabled" watermark if, you guessed it, I don't have secure boot enabled. Guess I get to find a shim to boot Grub . Aside from that, I've been having trouble with a Pandora client called Elpis since my update, but I doubt that's Alienware's fault. (I plan to debug it in VS once I find time)

 

Got mine yesterday Upgrade from M15x. I started missing using M15x but worth an upgrade !!

 

Where'd ya get the skin? I had asked a little while ago in this thread if anyone had used them. What's the durability like on the skins? My worry is that they will flake and peel and look like crap after a while....

 

Yeah that's one option, However there will be a restocking fee added on the cost of reordering another laptop which will make the upgrade far more expensive..
Please note the current display is not bad by any means and I have a spare 23" 1080 Display that I currently hook it up to when I am at home...

 

You are the one that brought it up...

I highly doubt that Dell will do anything on their own, other than drag it out long enough so that you are over the 21 day period so you have a decision to make.

 

Suspect the problem could be with the portable HDD enclosure. Installed the HDD into the extra caddy inside the AW 17 and was able to run the stand alone backup fine. And this configuration is faster because it avoids USB anyway... Going to try 8.1 now - and see if that help my booting problem - otherwise will likely do a clean install.

 

So finally I finally received my Alienware 17 a couple weeks ago. It is quite a beast,780m, 4900mq, 32GB ram, 256msata SSD, 750GB HDD, blue ray and 120Hz screen. It was pricey too, 2790 euros after some discounts. First impressions were good, it's smaller that my previous laptop (Clevo d900f) the build quality is good. I'm not a big fan of whole lighting thing and the screen while clear is not great. Once it arrived I went through a few days of installation hell to get Debian working (with all the drivers) on the 256GB mstata and placing my 512GB SSD in the computer with Windows 8 pro (the laptop came with windows 8, since I already had windows 8 pro on my previous laptop). After all that I upgraded to windows 8.1 pro when it was released which again caused some further havoc (usb ports would only recognize my external keyboard after replugging it in).

Finally had everything running smoothly and boom in the middle of some heavy calculations the laptop turns off! No warning, nothing. First I suspected something was up with the Nvidia driver since I had just updated to windows 8.1. I rolled back from 331 to 327 and then to 310 (the dell driver), no change the problem was reproducable. I tried reinstalling the program it crashed in, also no joy. I had done similar work on the laptop before so I was sure it was a software issue. I thought about rolling back to windows 8 pro but decided to first run a bunch of diagnostics and read through the event logger, no clues.

Then I tried prime and found I could reproduce the problem. I checked the temps and sure enough, where they had been topping off at 95C they were now hitting 100C and causing the system to shutdown aargh! Having read that others were able to resolve their temperature issues by repasting I decided to give it a try and while the repaste was probably not perfect I did hope to see some improvement. The idle temps seem slightly lower by about 3-5C, but at peak use the cpu still hits 100C causing a shutdown... The graphics card cooler seems fine (67-75C in Heaven benchmark) and I didn't repaste that.

Unfortunately it's Sunday so I can't call, but tomorrow I'll be calling tech support and hopefully they will sort this out asap. At least I am able to work, as long as I don't do anything too cpu heavy, but this has been a real downer and cost hours of attempted debugging and stress. I guess I just got a faulty cooler or something, but the problem seems a bit too common for a laptop costing this much, how about some quality control Dell.

 

Did you 'Defragment & Optimise' your drives, that's what it's called in Windows 8? That's only applicable if your system drive is on a spinning hard drive - not applicable for an SSD.

 

The defragment part may not be, but the optimize part is a trim command in Windows 8. There is no reason to turn this off as Windows will not attempt to defragment an SSD and it certainly shouldn't be slowing the boot time into windows.

Have a look at the start-up page on task manager and disable anything that appears unnecessary. That may help. A delay during the windows boot sequence is often caused by loading devices, so you could try uninstalling some devices you've added to your system (keyboards, printers, etc) and keeping them unplugged to see what happens. You could also try a boot in safe mode and see what happens then.

 

Ok, fair enough, I don't actually have Windows 8, so didn't know the optimize part was TRIM for SSD. He should still defragment his system drive if it's a spinning disk though.

 

Has the laptop been added to a domain of any kind, with network shares? I know that this causes boot delays, severe in some cases, when booting off of the domain as it's constantly searching and trying to reconnect network drives on boot.

 

That's very...unique. I don't know if I like it or hate it.

I suppose it's pretty cool to see this sort of customization is available, though.

 

No - I have the mSATA SSD for the system drive. Don't think that's the reason for the slow boot. May try to do a clean install and see if that helps.

What I'm wondering is if uninstalling the McAfee left something behind - though I haven't spotted any problems in the Event Viewer during system startup.

But something must be wrong - because the AW 17 boots slower than my other 3 Windows 8 systems...

 

Yes, not sure what else to suggest beyond what other users have suggested too. As long as you're confident with the reinstall process, and don't mind spending the time on it, then I'd say that's a good idea!

 

Can someone post their Windows 8 boot times on the Alienware screen (for an AW 17)? Is everyone else seeing 40 to 50 seconds on this screen, or much shorter times?

 

I wouldn't mind seeing some very simple skins, i'm all about protecting my investment ! My last two macbook's had shells on them the second they came out of the box, look like brand new when you take them off.

 

At the risk of sounding very stupid... in terms of lining up backup solutions for the OS, I was wondering what the difference is between the recovery partition that's on the HDD (and which I presume can be used to restore Win8's factory installation) and a user-made image with Alienrespawn.

If the Alien respawn image is created right out of the box, isn't it the same thing as using the recovery partition? What am I not thinking of?

Thanks.

 

Mine is quite fast. It's about 10 seconds or less.