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

When you make a backup using AlienRespawn, you're making an exact copy of the entire drive, including the recovery partition.

When you "restore" the system using AlienRespawn, you're just putting it back to the factory, "out of box" state.

 

Talked to tech support today and they will be by tomorrow to sort out the processor and heat sink. They asked about the video card temps and I had only used Heaven to test this, which maxed out at 78C which was fine. However after the call I tried FurMark and was less pleased, not only did the 780m reach 84C (at about 10 minutes in and stabilized at around 82C) it also throttled heavily. I didn't overclock the videocard and this is slightly higher than I've seen on others. I phoned back and they said they couldn't add the graphics card to the job, but I should see how it goes once they sort out the processor as this may make a difference. If not I should call back for another service session.

What temperatures and scores are people reaching with the 15 minute burn in benchmark in FurMark, mine were 84C and 2610 points. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

specs: 280m, 4900mq, 32GB ram, SSD, 120hz (set to 60Hz)

 

Yes, I'm aware of that. My question is, when your goal is to get the system back to factory state, the result is exactly the same? (assuming the image is created without touching or adding anything).
In other words, backup via AlienRespawn image is pointless if you haven't modified or installed anything?

 

Um, pointless, no. I'd say unnecessary is more like it. If you do not change anything with your system, and never plan to, you don't need to make a system image (backup). I'd still advise anyone to do so, just in case. You never know what might go wrong or something...and the process is quite simple.

It's definitely worth the five to ten minutes it takes to do so. DVD's are the best, in my opinion, as USB's can have corrupted files or incompatibility issues with the ports/software/drivers.

 

No doubt, better safe than sorry.

I'm not lazy or anything - in my case I want to use the original HDD as storage, so I would only be interested in getting it back to factory state. At first I thought I'd create a system image right away, but then I realized there's already a recovery partition on the HDD for that. Which means the image I'd create would be redundant and I can just boot from the recovery partition if something ever goes wrong.

On the SSD that I'm going to use as primary drive, you bet I'll do as you say and always have an up to date system image ready to roll back to.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the high temperature & throttling when running Furmark. 84 degC is not too hot really, and Furmark places an unnatural artificial load on the GPU that won't be seen in games or other usage. NVidia have devised their cards to recognise Furmark, and to artificially throttle their cards when you run it, because they know it places this extremely high load on the card. 78 degC for your Heaven Benchmark sounds perhaps a little high, but nothing to worry about I think. Are other users getting lower than 78 degC when running Heaven Benchmark?

EDIT: In this latest review of the 17 on notebookcheck you can see it throttling when running Furmark:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Alienware-17-Haswell-Notebook.103755.0.html

 

For anyone that upgraded from a m17x to the new 17 is the keyboard any different?

I hear its a fully mechanical keyboard is that true or is it the same as the m17x R3?

 

I don't own one, but I don't think there has ever been a laptop in recent history that has been made using a mechanical keyboard! In that link that I posted just above in post #2606, you'll see a review for that laptop, it talks about the keyboard in the review (they liked it). Mechanical keyboards are those really really clicky & noisy keyboards that actually use a mechanical switch & spring mechanism, they're great for typing on if your neighbours don't care, but they're only on some desktops as I understand.

 

By the way, good choice of the 1600x900 screen, matches well with the 770M to get good fps in games. I'm curious, have you tried overclocking your 770M yet, how high will it go stable and what are your maximum temperatures? I ask because my GPU is similar to your 770M.

 

Yea I'm a believer in the lower resolution for increased FPS. I have not received mine yet. Eagerly awaiting it and hoping it will arrive before BF4 next week.

I've heard the 770m can run stable and relatively cool at +135 core clock. I'm not sure if I will try to OC it, not sure how that messes with the warranty.

 

You'll be fine overclocking it, as long as you check your GPU temperatures while you're doing it. It doesn't affect your warranty, unless you flash a modded VBIOS to it, which will enable you to overclock more than the +135Mhz. You should be able to get +135Mhz easy, it would be the first thing I would try when I got the laptop (but that's just me!); well, after checking the temperatures at stock first.

 

Overclocking through Inspector / EVGA Precision / Afterburner doesn't do a thing for me sadly. Results are actually worse! No repaste and standard VBIOS for me though.. so far, but won't be able to keep my hands away most likely

Had some very positive results with the "GeForce R331 Game Ready Driver" released today. 3DMarks remains about the same, 7210. BUT I just ran the Tomb Raider benchmark:

With the last previous beta (331.xx - Can't remember the exact number) :

Ultra (with TressFX turned on) : 35 FPS avg.
Ultra (without TressFX): 55 FPS avg.

Now with the latest patch released today:

Ultra (with TressFX turned on) : 41 FPS avg.
Ultra (without TressFX): 61 FPS avg.

Can't comment on stability or such yet, but you guys are probably like me who views another 6 fps as gold, so it might be interesting to look into

 

That's interesting the latest driver (331.58) didn't give me anymore fps than the previous beta (331.40): both 60fps without Tress FX on Ultimate Settings.

 

Hmm.. That is odd. I'm sure I ran the same benchmark just a couple of days ago.

What's your 3dMarks11 score, just out of curiosity?

 

No, it's OK, I'm not saying you didn't get those figures you quoted; the difference might be due to us having different GPUs & maybe NVidia did an optimisation in the latest drivers that suits the 780M more than the 670MX - who knows! My 3DMark11 is in my sig: 6082 GPU score when I run it at 1006Mhz, when I run it at 1124Mhz then it's 6600 GPU score. The reason I get 60fps in Tomb Raider on max settings minus TressFX is because I only have the 1600x900 screen.

 

With quickboot enabled, less than 5 seconds. (Crucial M4 256GB boot drive)

 

Oh, I see! Impressive amount of power you've managed to get out of your rig!

 

Yes, I was quite surprised to get so much out of it! I think it's because it 'only' has 960 stream processors, so when pushed with a bit of voltage it can reach desktop style clocks without worrying power or thermal constraints.

 

I ran Heaven again for two benchmarks in a row last night and the video card hit 80C. Still not extreme, but Furmark pushes the videocard harder. I'm not sure how hot other people's cards are getting. I'm going to try running Crysis 3 a while and see if I can expect issues under gaming and to see how the fps compares.

The guy from technical support came by and replaced the processor heatsink and fan. He took off the old heat sink, touched the paste and just started putting on the new heat sink?!?! I said, aren't you going to remove the old paste? He said, I checked it's fine and the heatsink has cooling paste underneath it... I didn't even see any cover come off the heat sink bottom to reveal this prepaste. Hmm... I figured he must have experience and he wouldn't do this if it wouldn't work. He put the laptop back together and told me those were the only two parts he had been given so someone would call to run the tests, but he was leaving. I asked if I needed to wait before running any heavy jobs and he said no no it's ready to go. So I ran a couple soft jobs and temperatures didn't look great quickly hitting 90C and then I ran a tough job and sure enough 100C and the laptop turned off. Great... Maybe it's the processor itself or maybe the new cooling paste job was so bad it negated any benefit of having a new heat sink and fan. I have been waiting for the call from tech support now for an hour now. I guess I'll call them. What an anticlimax. I thought I would be able to get on with some work finally.

 

So let me get this straight--he took it completely apart and didn't replace the thermal paste?

Completely unacceptable. I would have insisted that he'd done so or leave the laptop disassembled as someone would be coming back to do so.....

 

I'm guessing they followed page 40 of the instruction manual of the Alienware 17 which says "NOTE: The original thermal grease can be reused, if the original system board and heat sink are reinstalled together. If either the video card or the heat sink is replaced, use the thermal pad provided in the kit to make sure that thermal conductivity is achieved."

Though he did replace the heat sink as Chimed said. this is just simply bad practice on the technician's side.
Chimed, I would suggest that you just repaste it yourself. it would be less of a headache for you if you just repaste.

 

That's not good, not good at all... Don't ever believe anyone when they say it's good enough, because it isn't. The paste dries overtime and when you remove the heat sink it separates leaving holes and gaps which then leads to what you're now experiencing. You're lucky it didn't get fried... Always re-paste when you separate the heat sink from the CPU or GPU. If they ever come back, even if they say it's good enough, just tell them, "If you separate the heat sink from the GPU, I'd like you to re-paste it." And be sure to keep an eye on them to make sure they're doing so correctly.

As for the GPU reaching 80C during benchmarks, that is not unheard of and isn't something you need to be worried about. As long as it never exceeds 85C, you're fine. The factory paste seems to be made to last, as opposed to keeping temperatures low. Aftermarket paste generally lasts 12 - 18 months before it needs to be replaced. But anytime you notice a substantial increase in temperatures, it's always good idea to re-paste, no matter what paste you use.

EDIT: I re-pasted the CPU in my AW 17 two weeks after it arrived because it was reaching 91C during the Windows Experience Index test, which is high, and 93C during 3DMark 11. I decided to re-paste the CPU myself and the maximum temperature I saw during Windows Experience Index testing was 75C (most of the time it was less) and 80C during 3DMark 11, which is quite impressive.

 

Anyone having issues on the Broadcom adapter after windows 8.1 update? I was playing Bad company 2(Does the same in Battlefield 3,COD:BO2, in warthunder I just get disconnected from the server) and it was fine but after 5-10 minutes players would just stop like I got disconnected then I would teleport back to where I was when it started, it's getting very annoying. If I can't fix I think a call to dell wont hurt.

 

From earlier post- (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... )




Guess what guys,
Just received a call from Dell regarding the Email I sent Saturday ....
They are going to build me a new system with the upgrade to a 1920x1080 screen..
They are going to let me keep my present laptop until the new one is built and shipped, and then they will provide me with a return box to return the old one..
I am very pleased with the service from dell..

 

Haha, that's ridiculous, I don't even know what that technician was thinking, it's laughable, how he could not know that his botched replacement wouldn't give good results & then not even test it before leaving - it's unthinkable, it's negligent. Everyone knows who has ever done a repaste of their CPU that you have to clean off all the old paste first using isopropyl alcohol that doesn't leave any residue, then you repaste & install - I suggest you make sure Dell knows exactly what this guy did to your laptop.

 

After calling the helpdesk they told me they needed the technician's report before deciding on the next step and I would be called back later today to run some tests. So at 16:00 I got worried this would not happen today and I called the helpdesk. The person told me that I should just wait and they would call, probably tomorrow but it could take a week. I can't run tests at work while on the phone because my mobile has no reception and I work in a busy office, so I'd need to be home when they call. As I'm asking him what next day service means when it can take a week to get a phone call the line is cut. I was fuming, so much for service. I decided to call back and find out if they would need to run the tests while I was on the phone. This time I actually got someone helpful on the line and over the course of 45 minutes he made an appointment to replace the motherboard tomorrow. I tried to ask him to get the technician to bring a new processor too, in case the new motherboard didn't help, but he said he they couldn't arrange that. If the new motherboard doesn't help they'll take the whole laptop for diagnosis. It's not perfect, but at least my impression of Dell technical support has improved again.

I could try repasting the processor, but having already tried this once without solving the problem I'm not eager to try again. Lets see what a new motherboard brings... I will however be insisting that he repastes this time, thank you all for confirming that it really is crazy to leave the old past on when replacing a heat sink

I wonder if I should be concerned about the times the processor has hit 100C in terms of wear and tear. I would guess this has happened about 15 times by now (it took a while for me to figure out what was causing the problem). I'm also starting to wonder if I have any options in terms of demanding a replacement if the motherboard thing doesn't work out. I'm not eager to be without the laptop for a couple weeks or more while they run their diagnostics and try to fix the problem or to get the laptop back and find the problem still there. I've owned the machine for less than a month.

 

Really don't know why they want to replace the motherboard if all you were having was CPU temperature issues (as well as slight concern over GPU temps). Were you having other issues too apart from those two I just mentioned? If you're just having CPU temp issues, then it's hopeless them replacing the motherboard, I can't see it helping!

 

Well, the tech will probably also repaste the CPU when they replace the motherboard - and in doing so fix the problem. And seeing the skill of this particular tech... probably mess up something else. These things have more than a couple of parts to remove in the process of doing a motherboard replacement!

Chimed - make sure that your warranty is paid up for the next couple of years - I had run into a series of cooling problems (nonresponsive GPU fan, wrong replacement heatsink, bad paste job etc), repeatedly driving that poor thing over 100C. Several part replacements and too many hours on the phone later, I now have an Alienware 17 instead of a r3. Keep that in mind

 

Replacing the Mobo is one of those things that Dell seem to do on any given opportunity. I guess that they think that if they replace that, it will cut down on future service calls which obviously can stack up in terms of cost to Dell - even though it sounds ludicrous, to Dell, it may be seen as cost effective to replace the board to prevent future issues that could relate to the MB. I highly doubt that the problem relates to a failing cpu.....hence perhaps the board swap.

Odd? - certainly sounds like they could do other troubleshooting first.....whatever they replace, as long as the issue gets resolved is all that matters I guess.....

 

Yep, hopefully the motherboard & repasting of the CPU by the tech will work for him. I think I would repaste the CPU myself, quicker, easier, and possibly more effective! But, I've done CPU pasting before, so I can understand someone not wanting to do it if they're not familiar with these DIY jobs, and instead using the warranty service that you've rightly paid for.

 

I had a similar problem where my cpu temp would reach 94c, didnt' want to risk it a void warranty and repaste myself, so i called dell and they sent a tech he repasted the cpu with mx-4 and replaced fan. didn't really solve my problems, temp would still rise up too high. so recently i redid the whole thing myself but cleaned every surface with arctic cleaner and purifier and repasted with ic diamond, and my cpu temp desn't go over 78c anymore. incase i would have messed up screwed up myself i would have blamed it on the tech!!!

 

I did try to repaste before, however that didn't solve the problem. Unfortunately I couldn't find the best cooling paste as I wanted to get it done in the weekend and didn't have time to wait for mail order. Also my pasting job may not have been perfect (though I was quite pleased with how it looked today when the heat sink was removed). So it is possible that the cooling could be improved by a better pasting job, but I am not convinced that would solve this problem entirely. I can get the CPU to 100C in under 10 seconds, that is just not normal (with functional cooling).

I thought perhaps the CPU fan is not spinning fast enough and this might be something that could be resolved by replacing the motherboard. However I just tried Heaven while running HWiNFO64 and plotted my temps and fan speeds and they seem to be alright. The CPU fan actually spins 4500rpm while the CPU temp varies between 65C and 81C, over the same period the GPU fan spins at 3400 while the GPU temp varies between 73C and 78C. Considering this is a GPU heavy test this suggests that the CPU is running quite hot (for being stressed less) and the GPU temps are being kept under control rather well with lower fan speeds. Basically I agree with the consensus here, replacing the motherboard is unlikely to solve the problem. The repasting should help, but I would be surprised if that does it on it's own. My feeling is it's the processor. But I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow, I hope I'm wrong and the processor is fine and everything works, but I'm not too optimistic.

 

It's always better to do things yourself, and no, it won't void the warranty.

 

Wow, that's very interesting. Maybe I'm underestimating the power of good cooling paste. I may try another repaste if things don't work out tomorrow.

 

Before I have my little complaint about my new M17 I first want to say it is a great computer and I am really happy with it ........ but there are a couple of little design issues where I think Dell have gone backwards compared to the R4.

Firstly there is an issue with picking the computer up with one hand. The design of the hard plastic (I would be very surprised if it is aluminium) display backing is slippery and combined with the curves on the base means it is a bit unsecure picking the computer up one handed from the side. Like you would when you want to put it in a backpack.

Secondly the keyboard. The keyboard works great, feels good to use but the large surface area of each key means the adjacent key is really close. Now this is probably not an issue for those people who can type but for people like me who use the 'hunt and peck' method of typing I find I hit multiple keys a lot more often than I did with the R4.

And lastly the media keys and alien head power button have been replaced by 4 programmable keys and a vanilla power button that looks like ...... well I not sure what it looks like. It certainly does not look like an alienware power button. Now I know that some people will prefer the new set up but I don't. I really liked the media keys and the old alien head power button. It made the computer stand out from the crowd.

Ok. My grizzle is over

 

I don't like how they got rid of the media keys and changed the power button either. I'm fine with the keyboard, but I thought the previous one was great too.

 

Is it okay that we update nvidia driver when we get new driver available notifications or its good to stick with dell website nvidia driver only.i have heard that nvidia site drivers may create issues.is it true.i need your help guys

 

The type of thermal paste you use is not of the most importance, online reviews of many thermal compounds have shown that there is a spread of results over 3-5degC, so those would be the greatest temperature differences you could expect by going with an ultra high quality paste. The most important factor is how well you paste it up, the quality of the job you do. There are other factors though, it's possible that you could do a good paste job, but still get high temperatures if there's something wrong with the heatsink or mountings - it might be damaged or bent up in some way so it doesn't sit flush against the CPU.

 

It's ok to do so, but I recommend staying away from Beta drivers, as these tend to have more issues.

 

I'm curious: have you guys attempted a screen calibration? Or are you happy with the default colors of the screen? It seems to me like it's too cold and blue-ish. I searched the forum but I've only come up with a Hungarian (lol) profile downloaded from a AW17 review.

 

Update on the two problems I've been having - both have been resolved.

The problem with using my external HDD was likely due to the external SATA-to-USB controller. I moved the drive into the empty internal bay and was able to successfully do standalone backups.

The other problem was with slow boot times - 40 to 50 seconds on the Alienware screen. This was caused by ArcSoft's Total Media Theater 6 - uninstalling and installing the latest release appears to have fixed this problem - and I'm back to a few seconds on the boot screen.

I'm up and running on 8.1 with the latest NVidia driver - and all is well...

 

There's a calibrated screen ICC Profile for the Alienware 17 at this link:

Review Alienware 17 (Haswell) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

If you go down to the section of the review titled 'Display', then look for the graphic where they are showing the Distribution of Brightness, to the right of that graphic there's a tiny red hyperlink called 'ICC Profile'. If you click on that link you can download it, that's that's the calibrated ICC Profile. Then you can copy that file to the correct location in Windows & you can select that ICC profile - your screen will then be calibrated! Although, not every screen is the same, but it will give you a start, you could try it and see what you think. Where to paste the ICC profile & how to select that ICC Profile within Windows is explained at this link:

https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-color-manager/stable/color-import-windows.html.en

 

Uh! Thank you. As everyone here - I presume - I read that review but didn't notice the link to the profile. Seems ok, though I have to say I know nothing at all about the subject, so I can't judge with any degree of competence.

Same thing happened with my previous Dell 15R SE, the screen was equally blue and I used a profile found on the web. Too bad it sometimes reset automatically to the default one. Let's hope this one stays like this.

 

My screen was also way too blue before calibrating. The most noticeable thing for me was that greys were suddenly grey, rather than having a blue tinge to them. The most obivious way I noticed the difference was just looking at the toolbar in Google Chrome, I had never known that it was supposed to be truly grey without any blue in it! Colours look more realistic now, and there seems to be more depth in photographs (but I'm not a photographer!).

 

I'm glad you got them sorted out! let's cross our fingers so that it doesn't happen again

 

Today the technician came and replaced the motherboard. It was pretty intense to watch and I thought there would be a good chance something would go wrong with all the connectors and screws. He managed it though and this time he did repaste using pretty low grade shin etsu thermal silicone compound. Booting up caused some issues, the computer was caught in a boot cycle, crashing in the windows boot. He said I would need to reinstal windows and we made an appointment for tech support to call in a couple hours so I could get things running. They still haven't called (I guess it will be tomorrow, bad service), luckily I did manage to get windows working again, (after swiching the drive setting from ACHI to RAID). Since then I've been running all kinds of tests and the temperatures really have come way down and I can run the ray tracing application I need to for work. However I am not getting very good benchmark scores. 6731 in 3Dmark11.

I decided to systematically reinstall all the Alienware drivers to see if that would help and when trying to install: Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver I get the error: This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing this software. This could have to do me running windows 8.1 pro, has anyone else upgraded to windows 8.1 and can they confirm that this driver can still be installed after upgrading?. I'll talk to tech support tomorrow.

 

I updated my nvidia driver today from nvidia site.after installation when my laptop reeboted all horizontal lines over the screen hence i switched back to dell driver & its fine.whenever i updated from nvidia i get this kind of hotizontal lines issue.have anyone experienced this kind of issue.i doubt my gpu is functioning properly.am using alinware 17.4700mq,gtx780m.please share some reviews guys

 

Finally!!! My laptop should arrive today! It's been a very long wait and a very trying experience, one that I doubt I'll put myself through again, hopefully it's worth it. Took the day off work so I don't miss the delivery.....hopefully they come first thing in the morning and don't leave me sitting here all day waiting!

Right now it's only 12 Km's away from me--wonder if Purolator will let me just go pick it up.....

EDIT: Looks like I just missed it. It's already on the truck for delivery.....so any time between now and 6pm, I should have it!!

 

Tearing the system to the motherboard in five minutes:

Alienware 17 17x - how to get under keyboard, ram, msata ssd slot - YouTube

 

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

That's good. It's about time!