*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

No offense but that is the most useless manual I have ever read through for several reasons,

#1 - you don't need to remove the entire monitor assembly to replace the LCD.
#2 - the screws they show that need to be removed do not tell you what color/size they are, and there are many different colors and sizes... so it gets confusing quick if you're following the manual
#3 - The instructions for removing and replacing screws are split up among several different sections of the manual, making it very difficult and time-consuming to do.

Needless to say, this will be the last time I ever buy an Alienware =] They are pieces of trash, their support people are rude and purposely give you the runaround and waste your time to try and discourage you from getting help from them without paying extra money or to avoid taking responsibility for their mishaps. Last but not least Alienware manuals and instructions are obfuscated!

Does anyone else have any experience with this that could help me out, or perhaps that wouldn't mind uploading a quick video of taking it apart - screw by screw - so others like me can easily see?

Best Regards fellow NotebookReview fans =]

 

How can i get some bass coming out from my AW18? I tried to install the latest driver from Realtek site and use EqualizerAPO, as described http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-18-updated-drivers.767873/page-3 here, but the bass is barely noticeable. I also noticed that dolby's built-in equalizer doesn't change anything at all.

 

I am going to upgrade my A18 with either a 250 gb 850 EVO msata or a 500 gb EVO msata as my boot drive. I still have my 3 year warranty until July and was going to buy the drive from Dell.
Any recommendations on this upgrade? I have an 850 EVO 250gb ssd in my desktop and I really like it.
Currently I boot to my Raid0 2x750 black accelerated by the liteon 64gb. I am on legacy boot, don't know much about UEFI.
I looked through the bios and am not quite sure how to boot to the msata. I would like to install to the msata and put my drives back in later so I do not have to reconfigure my raid0 and retain my data.

 

I have the 3 Samsung 841 (dell oem?) And Samsung 841 mSATA , I made the 3 raid 0. Works out pretty good.

 

is a 3-drive RAID 0 faster than a 2-Drive RAID 0?

 

Yeees

 

and 33% more risks of having a RAID problem also

 

@Mr. Fox

A18 R1 with 4700mq and 980M 1x is considered good? I plan on making an offer to an ebay seller.

I heard that with recent bios update from dell (aw18 re-introduction), the problems of the old bios is mainly fixed. So you don't need svl7's mod bios chip for oc purposes.



So a question.
1. Does optimus/peg switching work with new bios update. Which version of windows (uefi gpt) works with it?
2. Fan issue fixed? CPU performance option fixed/have proper ability to oc? A12.
3. 330w single adapter is enough for 4920xm / single 100w card in the future?
4. Can buy 330x2 adapter for Alienware 18?



Thanks in advance.

 

Yes, that is a good machine.

1. Does optimus/peg switching work with new bios update. Which version of windows (uefi gpt) works with it?

yes - any Windows version works for PEG/IGFX switch (but, no on the Optimus crap... but, I don't think you want Optimus anyway)​

2. Fan issue fixed? CPU performance option fixed/have proper ability to oc? A12.

4700MQ CPUs are incapable of meaningful overclocking, but some minor OC is possible. You can upgrade to 4930MX later.
With single 980M fans are probably fine. It is the secondary fan with 980M SLI that has issues for some folks​

3. 330w single adapter is enough for 4920xm / single 100w card in the future?

Yes, 330W will be good for single GPU​

4. Can buy 330x2 adapter for Alienware 18?

Alienware 18 cannot use power supplied beyond 330W so the extra power provided will be ignored. For stock 980M SLI or overclocking single 980M 330W is enough.​

 

The main point is that Optimus works, but I won't use it most of the time. I know why it shouldn't be used for gaming, but it's useful when you are only using the laptop for daily tasks.

i7 4700, sli 770, 16gb ram. What would be a good price for this?

And just maybe, would you have a unit for sale?

 

You don't need it. If you switch to Intel HD Graphics the NVIDIA GPU is disabled and won't be used at all with the type of switchable graphics in the 18 inch machines. It will be one or the other. As far as I know it will not work in hybrid mode., but it shouldn't matter.

I don't know. With single 980M and 4700MQ I would say somewhere between $900 and $1200, but that is just a guess.

 

Just sent tacosauce an offer outside of ebay. Hope he'll respond in time.

 

1430 incl paypal tax, not too bad I reckon.

 

update: he'll be sending it tomorrow.

I'll get a 4930MX ready in a month time or so. Have to work overtime on the summer but I think it'll be worth it.

 

Hold on, 980M works in the A18 with win7 uefi gpt?

I thought only win8.1/10?

 

Yes, it works perfectly. But, only so long as you have Alienware 18 BIOS A12. It has the same problems as the M18xR2, and more, without the @Swick1981 R2 BIOS mod if you use anything before A12. In fact, @Swick1981 used pieces of A12 to fix what was broken for the M18xR2 if my understanding is correct. It's really a shame that Alienware didn't step up to the plate and fix it.

 

A12 + 980M + Win7 have problems? What are they (aside from fan tables)?

 

No. I have this exact setup from the factory, no problems

 

Agree... seems everything is good. Some report secondary fan issues with 980M SLI, but if @Mobius 1 has a single 980M this should be irrelevant. There could be some differences in fan behavior between machines running UEFI versus Legacy, and third-party hardware monitoring tools can affect EC behavior as well. For those that do have laggy fans (which has always been a problem for the Alienware 18 since day one) you can use HWiNFO64 for manual fan controls.

 

The fan issues all came from people using incorrect vBIOS from Prema (clevo vBIOS), which doesn't interact well with the Alienware 18 EC on the secondary fan. This was fixed permanently with a special re-working of the factory 980M vBIOS, with Prema edits done to it.

 

So the v2 firmware fixed no-run problem? Awesome. Time permitting, I may be experimenting with 980M SLI in the 18 in the not-too-distant future. I'm sure I will still need to use HWiNFO64 to max out the fans during stressful use scenarios. It will be interesting to see what limits there are with a single 330W AC adapter. I still hope to get a socket-mounted unlocked BIOS in place for it sometime between now and the end of the year.

 

Yes, both fans work no issue. I haven't tried overclocking because I have to get my temps under control first. I think my thermal pad placement needs to be fixed or something. I would also be interested in a hardware chip flashed with an unlocked BIOS. I would even do it myself but I need the BIOS file itself first...

 

980M vbios special for aw18?
https://biosmods.wordpress.com/aw18/

So this vbios should be used in both 980M single and sli on the aw18?


Can 980M do 1.2v overvolt + oc 24/7 without damage in alienware 18?

 

That's why I haven't already done it. That's all I need. Already have new BIOS chips and mobo sockets, but there is no point in doing the hardware mod with stock firmware on it.

Maybe once @Prema gets past the work on the latest Clevo mods he can help us with this. I am unable to get a reply from @svl7 on this, as he is no longer accessible.

Yes, v2... I think that is the right one. You may find 1.200V way too much for a usable 24/7 overclock. Not only will it be hard to keep cool for things like gaming, an overclock high enough to need 1.200V would be stable for most games. Many games are very unstable with extreme GPU overclocking.

For a +120-130 offset, you should not need that much voltage. Maybe +25 or +50mV offset will be enough.

The only real damage that should be a concern is from overheating, and it would be the GPU itself rather than the laptop that is harmed. As long as you keep it cool, it should not hurt anything.

 

+50mv in afterburner or nvinspector?

iirc one or the other doesn't have the ability to control voltage even in an unlocked mxm card

 

MSI Afterburner does not have working voltage control for notebooks, so it's pretty much worthless for any kind of meaningful notebook GPU overclocking.

An older version of EVGA Precision X that does not brick displays (built on MSI Afterburner) or NVIDIA Inspector, or ASUS GPU Tweak have voltage control. ASUS GPU Tweak is a little bit weird sometimes. It works OK, but sometimes you have to close and restart it before it will allow changes to clocks and voltage.

Here is an old version of EVGA Precision X that does not mess up laptop LCD panels from my G-Drive: EVGA_PrecisionX_4.21.zip and here is a very awesome Alienware skin for it, courtesy of one of @pathfindercod buddies. To use it, just drop it in the folder with the other skins, then it will be available for selection. The old version requires setting voltage for each GPU (does not simultaneous sync voltage the same for all GPUs in an SLI system).

Be aware that when you apply settings from a saved EVGA Precision X profile using the @Prema vBIOS you have to move the slider for temp target back to the right all of the way again and click the "Apply" button. For some reason the profiles lose that setting and it defaults to zero (which doesn't allow the GPU to run well).

 

Does 4.21 have RTSS like afterburner?

 

No, I don't think so. Doesn't matter though... Just download the latest RTSS from here: http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/rtss-rivatuner-statistics-server-download.html

 

Does rtss sync with precision osd?

 

Yes, but HWiNFO64 is far more useful than Precision or MSI AB OSD. I haven't use the MSI AB or Precision OSD feature in several years because it is not nearly as robust as the flexibility you get with HWiNFO64.

 

Do you mean to use hwinfo with the precisionx osd?

This guide has it, but is severely outdated: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...e-in-benchmark-with-on-screen-display.655138/

 

Does anyone know where to get part number
18N13


"Alienware 18 R1 18.4" LCD Lid Back Cover Assembly - 18N13"


For the lid?

Mine is pretty scratched up, and it's going to be worse since it's now my daily driver.

Would like one as a spare. But parts-people out of stock.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-De...144192?hash=item41a9b5e440:g:6IcAAOSw2GlXIi6a

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Alienw...616295?hash=item1c64c378a7:g:HEgAAOSwZQxW4FO6

 

I'm looking for a new one unfortunately.


Also, I noticed that there's a gap between fan and heatsink? I tried to cover some of it with masking tape and got -4c GPU (+160/+140, 1.1v) and -3c cpu temp.

 

Have 1.4Ghz/5.7Ghz working well in GTA IV. CPU only needs 40w with massive undervolt.

1126Mhz to 1400Mhz means the difference between 50 and 60FPS in W3. 18%+ performance boost.

 

I just got a pair of MSI GTX 980m installed ...

 

Alienware 18 boot issue !!
This is my very 1st post in the forum so please pardon my ignorance.

Screen flashes 3 times, turns on and off before it begins to boot when UEFI fast boot is enabled.This has been driving me crazy,when I boot only from msata, boot time is around 10 seconds or when I connect only 1 hd in caddy and 1 in normal bay, laptop boots fine but when all three connected, ssd, msata, 2 hd 7200rpm, the screen keeps on flashing several times before it boots relatively slow. I think it starts going nuts when I connect samsung ssd combined with normal hd. I ran Microsoft assessment and got few error about BIOS initialization​

I would appreciate any kind of input .... cheers

My setup.
Aleinware 18
i7 4900mq
Nvidia 780m SLI
Windows 10
256gb msata ssd (boot drive)
256gb samsung evo 840(hd 1)
1tb 7200rpm hard drive (hd 2)
750gb wd black 7200rpm (hd 3 in Blu-ray slot)
Fast boot enabled, uefi enabled
Bios(latest) Ahci

Things i have done
Removed/updated free fall sensor
Uninstalled intel RST
Updated bios
Updated ssd firmware
Swap hd bays
turned off fast boot in windows
Fresh OS installed
Driver updates

 

i really dont know what could case that, try to make sure the boot record, efi file system is on the primary harddrive, and no other drive has a boot record of any sort.

i have had a samsung 840msata, paired with a 850 evo (OS drive) and two 1tb drives in my 17 without a problem.

and not in my m18x r2, i have a 850 evo (os drive) along with 1 hyperx ssd, and 2 1tb drives, never faced any problems.

P.s, try hitting f12 at boot to see the boot option, and make sure no other drive shows up except for the primary hardrive at the boot screen.

 

Thank you for your response.So I checked boot partitions style, the main OS boot drive has GPT partition while the other two has MBR, is that a problem?

 

This is how it looks when fastboot is on in bios ...

 

nope, as long as you installed Windows in UEFI mode, then only the OS drive must be in GPT as it is the standard for UEFI in addition to having a faster boot since it requires less time (by around 0.5s faster) to initialize a GPT partition vs an MBR one. For the other partitions, you can choose MBR or GPT just fine.

What has probably happened is that when installing Windows you did not disconnect the other drives. You MUST have only 1 drive connected while installing Windows otherwise Windows installer will place the boot files on the second drive it sees (very stupid I know)

 

Well the problem only shows up when samsung evo 840 ssd is connected but I even secure erased the SSD with samsung magician and with another software from boot (twice) which should actually erase any boot files/partitions !!!! I really dont know what else to do

 

Having some more 'fun' my with AW18.

Dell came out two weeks ago, changed screen, motherboard and CPU, that cleared the random lines, and the motherboard change cleard the RAM module problem too (previously any RAM in slot 2 prevented POST).

And it all worked, until a week ago today, when I woke up to random lines across the screen.

I switched to IGP, and the lines cleared. Later I swtiched back to the 880Ms and it was still clear.

Next morning (oddly it was morning each time this issue EVER appeared to begin with), I was back to random lines across the screen again.

Since Dell are likely going to struggling to fix this, can anybody here throw a guess my way, so that I may relate it to them when they call me to discuss?

I'm suspecting GPU issue(s), (but I never overclock my GPUs).

Please see attachments and post what you like, as I don't think Dell will move a muscle until Monday now anyway. Note in one of the pics, it is clear again (as it is now).

Thanks and regards.

 

Might be worth checking the SLI cable as it could be loose or faulty....other than that, like you, I'd suspect GPU problems.

 

I had the same problem about a year ago when I was running 680M SLI, it was the SLI cable believe it or not!

Where have you been? When are you gonna shoehorn 980M into your AW18?

 

I've not been posting much since Dell decided to go all BGA on us, discontinuing the 'big & bad' dual GPU machines that made them the best - now they are nothing more than any other mainstream manufacturer and are no longer 'boutique' IMHO. I'd also noticed that a lot of the 'regulars' here have kinda dwindled away a bit as well........guess I'd just lost a bit of interest, although I still use my 18 - just not to the level I used to. I still read the forums fairly regularly, mind you.....

As for 980m SLI, I might just wait and see if Nvidia come up with a desktop 1080 that will work in a notebook like they did with the 980 & Sager combo......

 

Yeah I hear you, part of the reason I finally went 980M was I was waiting to see if Nvidia was going to make 1080M but they've recently announced that they are discontinuing the mobile line, as to what kind of form factor the 1080 will be that does wind up in notebooks I think it will be something like sager and Clevo have done with their uncut 980. Meaning, 980M will be the fastest card to go in the m18x R2. And it is still very fast, it's already 45% faster than Firestrike combined than my 680M SLI (overclocked) and it's only at 1.062v! Love the 8gb vram as well.

 

Yeah, 980m SLI is still very strong, regardless of 1080. Maybe prices will fall soon. Actually, just had a look on eBay and there's only one on there that I can see and its $700..............guess any plans to upgrade have just bitten the dust!

 

Dell are due here in 20 mins.

I suspect they will be delighted to learn of your post.

Thanks to you all.

 

Well, Dell turned up with new mainboard & screen. And I told them this issue had been seen before and that it wasn't necessary to fit them.

They did, take detailed pics of the GPUs and the SLi cable, and will return with new parts of each in about 8 days.

So, again, thanks.