Guinea Pig for Alienware 18 LCD Bricking (Win10)

Folks, I just bought an Alienware 18 (i7-4700MQ, 32GB RAM, etc).

It is new but comes with no warranty (that is how it is where I live).

Win7 works fine. I am going to install my cloned SSD (Win10).

The following are physically removed by me (to save weight):

* 2 x Nvidia (I use only igfx) and accompanying heatsinks
* 3 x Fans
* Optical drive

I found the fans not quiet enough to my liking. So they are gone. Temps are 45C idle and about 70C with moderate load and that is fine by me. Machine mostly idles.

Did anyone here test Win 10 + Intel 4600? If not, I am going to do that for you today.

In return, I will have few questions:

1) Which is the smallest-sized PSU I can use from Dell for this laptop? The monstrosity that comes with it is about 2 kgs, 330 Watts.
My peak total consumption is not even 60 Watts. Is Alienware 15 or 17 pin and amperage compatible?

2) Alienware 17: When was the one with 3.4 cms thickness released?

3) Alienware 18: 4K screen will be released as in 17?

Thanks,

Jim

 

That's a bad idea, atleast put the CPU fan back in. nothing good can come from running the 18 without fans in it since the CPU runs pretty hot even with the fan installed. But if you want to burn up the CPU and blow out the screen that's your business.
1. The computer itself is big so it has a big psu to power it. The smallest physically sized one is probably the 180w psu, they might have smaller but the plug might not fit into the machine. Anyway the 180w psu isn't that much smaller and lighter than the 330w. It'll still weight atleast 1 kg and won't make much difference since the 18 weighs something like 5 kg to begin with.
2. The slim 17 is the 2015 model, the ones before that were about 2 inches thick, so 5 cm give or take.
3. Unless dell releases a 18 inch panel with 4k there is none


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Thanks for your response scarastisis.

I am running 0db liquid-cooled computers almost 15 years. Noise is an important part of my computing experience. I am neither hearing-impaired nor being subjected to gradual hearing loss, so rocket-launchpads are not my cup of tea. The CPU is fine without a fan. My thermal requirements are not high, it is a 47W TDP cpu.
The only reason that laptop requires 330W 2kb power brick and 3 fans is because of the Nvidia GPUs (each has 140 Watt TDP I believe). And I don't have those GPUs.

Not to mention that removal of GPUs shaved off 1.5 kgs from the weight of my laptop.

Is there a way to differentiate slim 17 from previous models (I believe power button is in the middle)?

 

I believe it won't boot without the CPU fan connected... Whichever way keep the fan... Just because it is a 47W CPU doesn't mean it doesn't need any cooling.... Also there is no need to test this... Intel HD4600 + Windows 10 works fine.. it's the NVIDIA GPU's that cause the problem..

 

TomJGC if you read my post you can see that it boots fine and it works fine. I even posted the temps. Can we leave this fan issue aside?

Is there any reference to HD4600 + Win10 working? I read many threads and I saw no references that it was tested.

 

Won't you test it out and let us know. After all, this thread is all about you being the guinea pig.

 

Yeah if you wanna be a guinea pig that's fine, it's your computer, do with it what you please. But Alienware doesn't really suit you if you wanna run no gpus and no fans because of the noise. Might as well return it or sell it save your money and get something else. No gpus, low weight, small psu and silent fans is more MacBook territory.
I have both the 17 and 18 and the 17 is a lot smaller even though the screen is only 1 inch smaller. The machine is a lot bigger to cool the two gpus and the bezel is a lot thicker around the screen of the 18. But it's also about 4 kg plus psu and no where near quiet. The new 17 is the 2015 model and that's the one they slimmed down. I wouldn't recommend you buy that catastrophe of a laptop. I don't own the 2015 models but I've seen them at b&h and microcenter and quality wise it's a huge downgrade over the 2013 and 2014 models. Plus people can't stop complaining about them. But either way they won't be silent or much lighter, just slimmer and hotter if anything


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There is no urgency or point to do it now since it is confirmed not to cause any issues already. The threads I read did not verify this, so I thought it would be a good service to community to test it out quickly. Now I will due it in due course of time -- I am travelling.

 

why da heck would you buy AW18 if you dont need anything of it just go buy a normal laptop or apple laptop and its all what u want ....

 

People, you need to chill out. I did not come here to tell you my life story. I was using 17" flatscreens when 13" green CRTs were the norm.

My Qosmio 18" is showing its age and needs a replacement. Alienware 18 is the only alternative on the market. I do stocks, data processing and all and a large screen makes my life easier. I did not really chose this monstrosity, but I sure am going to make it as close to as I want.

As much as I hate everything Apple stands for, if Apple made a 17" now, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. (Old 17) That casing has excellent thermal control, never gets hot during normal use, you never get to hear the fans, you have fabulously long battery life, very lightweight, excellent screen clarity and it has a brilliant magnetic power connector. This is an ideal laptop for those that needs to use their equipment productively. It of course has no use for those with permanent or gradual hearing loss, though. Despite targeting the demographics of clueless illiterates, peasants, elderly or plain idiots; those with expertise in IT can appreciate Apple laptops.

 

Now back to the topic. Win 10 with Intel 4600 running few hours now. I will leave the laptop running for a day and report if it is bricked.

 

If you buy an AW18 and then proceed to:

-Remove the fans so the the factory OC CPU will become so thermally throttled under actual load that you might as well have a 1.6ghz atom processor
-Reduce the power supply size to almost half of the factory supplied unit so that should it somehow actually overcome the thermal limitations, it can easily potentially use more power than the charger can output
-Remove the Nvidia cards that allow this machine to be classified as a gaming beast (its primary purpose)

Then I am unsure why you would buy an AW18. It certainly appears you have misspent your money. The only reason I could imagine that you actually bought an AW18 is for the screen size?

Perhaps a macbook might have been a better choice for you?

As for your question of the bricked screen, with the Nvidia cards removed, you should be fine.

 

That would be great, thanks . Which panel is it?

Please run MonInfo and use the 'Create INF' option.

See König Universal 70W with USB port.

These things are cramped!!! Incredible, hardly any wasted space. Will run just fine, only thing is that it won't id as ' Genuine Dell', so it will downthrottle automatically. But hey, you're already doing that ...

Lovely build, btw, rather like it . But why not a HDX 9000?

 

I doubt you will encounter any issues running IGFX. So far, the only systems affected are running NVIDIA graphics. My Alienware 18 worked fine with Windoze OSX on it and the LCD only bricked after I switched over from IGFX to 780M SLI.

 

It appears that people do not read beyond the first post in this forum before replying.

skindoe, your questions were answered many times over.

 

SDC SDC4C48. No issues 1 day full run.

Many thanks t456, you have very helpful with Konig tip. Honestly, that is great!

But what do you mean about "Genuine Dell" throttling? My CPU is not throttling at all. On moderate load my temps are about 70C. I like to have a snappy system and I don't mind to plug in the CPU fan if temps become unmanageable. So what will an aftermarket PSU do in Alien?

And I know that my CPUs life won't be that long due to high temps.... But I would rather replace my computer every 2 years than getting irritated from noise 10 hours a day, each day, every day.

HDX9000 is as old as my Qosmio 18. I would rather have a newer motherboard. Almost all of them are also coming with Apples chicklet crap. Alienware has the best keyboards (even better than my Qosmio, work with). However, I am finding myself unable to type, because bloody thing is 5 cms high. This would injure my wrists for sure.

 

I am sorry about your laptop Fox. Yes I did read all your warnings, but unfortunately I seemed to have skimmed over this part and thought it was igfx that died:

"So, I installed Windows 10 yesterday running on Intel Graphics and all is well... about 16 hours later (today) I switched over to GTX 780M SLI, installed NVIDIA GeForce drivers and about 1 hour later, maybe slightly more, Alienware 18 makes a click sound and turns off while web surfing."
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My igfx working fine with win10. We can close this thread since you already verified that.

I have a question though. What would have happened if igfx was on but Nvidia drivers were installed and Nvidia GPUs were installed as well.

 

It will limit clocks to battery-mode, even if you had it hooked to a 1,200W adapter ***. Doesn't matter; you can use ThrottleStop to bypass that.

Highly doubtful you're not throttling without a fan and, especially, a heatsink (delay of the inevitable). But just run TS, and check whether you can force full performance:

Spoiler: ThrottleStop - 4900MQ

Of course, that is moot if you don't put a load on that thing; sleep states will prevent overheating when you're not actually using the cpu. The fan on my W230SS doesn't run while idling/browsing and that's with an i7-4900MQ. Thing is that it's mostly in C6/C7. Hit the 'TS Bench' thingy and then check whether it's throttling (answer: yes, it will ).

*** Perhaps it's because Dell thinks that's not sufficient ... or was it to force their customers buying 'Genuine Dell' (at a premium)? Either of those two, at any rate . Sad thing is that it uses the flimsy centre pin for the id process and with extended use it'll wear out and connect haphazardly or not at all. Hence forcing their customers to buy a new adapter, even if the old one was perfectly fine .