Alienware m17x r4 Extreme

Hello I got suggested to share all my alienware mods.

Specs:
Alienware m17x r4
BIOS - A11 Unlocked
GPU - MSI GTX 1070 with 200w vbios
CPU - i7 3920xm
Harddisk1: msata 120gb SSD
Harddisk2: 750gb 7200rpm
Harddisk3: 750gb 7200rpm
Wifi: intel centrino advanced-n 6300
RAM: 3x Samsung 4gb 800mhz DDR3-1600 pc3-12800 (M471B5273DH0-CK0)

Mods performed:
Unlocked bios
Gtx 1070 vbios mod
Dual PSU mod
Watercooling
Extra fan for Vram
Extra copper on heatsinks
PCH temperature enhancement
Wifi card upgrade
GPU overclock
CPU overclock
Ram overclock

Special thanks to:
RMSMajestic
Mr. Fox
svl7
Johndill
cicichen https://www.ebay.com/usr/cicichen594


Before I get to the exciting stuff, I will share the guide to get an unlocked BIOS, which you will need later on.
Some of the important links does not work but I found some working ones elsewhere.

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/1516-m17x-r4-unlocked-bios-versions/&

Here are the files needed. Notice the prr is called prr2, you might have to rename it to prr to make it work.
FPT_DOS.zip
prr2.zip

This is the download link. If you can not use it, it is because you have not made enough quality posts yet. (Read the techinferno rules)
https://www.techinferno.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=11973

 

Dual PSU mod


This is the items I used. I ordered all the parts in my own country, for around $24 except the 2 alienware DC power jack connectors.

https://el-supply.dk/raaprint-160x100mm-35um-enkelsidet-epoxy/varenummer/0-7610.160100
https://el-supply.dk/aluboks-hammond-stoebt-111x60x31mm-ip65-115x65x30mm/varenummer/0-7251H
https://el-supply.dk/mbr4060pt-schottky-diode-60v-40a2x20-to247/varenummer/0-25MBR4060PT
https://el-supply.dk/glimmersaet-top-3/varenummer/0-6549
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DC-Pow...281626?hash=item2364efa25a:g:JuEAAOSwBvNTo~za

I had a lot of trouble making this mod work. But in reality it was working all along. The whole issue was my wattage meter only showing half of the value.
So when the cpu in my m18x r2 throttled to 800mhz from 4.8ghz, but my meter only showed 360w it was because my m18x r2 really was drawing 720w and my PSU start to power throttle.

If you want to see how other people did you can read this thread:
https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/3207-tutorial-dual-330w-ac-adapter-mod/&page=5






I made some small changes here. I changed the brown wires to some thicker wires.

 

How did your 200w 1070 perform?

We have witnessed throttling with the 1080 installed and most of us abandoned the idea as it looked like it was lack of power delivery from the MXM slot.

Thanks for sharing your experience thus far!

 

MSI GTX 1070

Okay, this upgrade needs some modification to the chassis and motherboard because of the cards physical size.

I bought the card from RMSMajestic. If you want this card, then order it from him. He is very helpful too.

The original threads can be found here:

https://www.techinferno.com/index.p...x-r4-another-socket-victory-against-bga-crap/

and here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/1070-gtx-in-an-m17x-r4.813593/page-2

Also, this card only supports EDP output which means a 60hz screen will not work.
Also before mounting the card you need to disable legacy support and run purely in UEFI mode, otherwise it will give you 8 beeps.
There is one exeption, you can make 60hz and legacy work IF you only use SW/switchable graphics/Nvidia Optimus

WARNING, IF YOU ONLY HAVE A 120HZ/EDP SCREEN DO NOT GET RID OFF YOUR OLD NVIDIA CARD
IF YOU RESET THE BIOS YOUR LAPTOP WILL GO BACK TO LEGACY AND BE STUCK AT 8 BEEPS
THE SOLUTION IS TO PUT THE OLD NVIDA CARD IN AND CORRET THE SETTINGS

Alienwares that has an AMD GPU is having a 60hz screen
Alienwares that was born with gtx 660m or lower has 60hz
Alienwares with Nvidia 3D Vision support has 120hz which means it uses EDP

You can also see the difference by removing the keyboard and look at the screen connector.
EDP has two screws on them and LVDS has no screws.

I bought my screen from here:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-17-3-D...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

You can also search for these two part numbers:
C30PY
XM2J5




What you see in the picture is the MXM connector protected with black tape, because you need to remove the small tap which is not covered with tape.
The small metal tap can be pull straight up with some force.
Next, you need to remove the plastic piece, it is pretty soft plastic. I used a nose plier to brake it off. A dremel causes a alot saw dust and is hard to control in such crammed space. (I have tried the mod two times so I know)





Now you can see there is space for the card.

Also you need to mod the chassis too. Remember it is aluminum, so be sure to keep your components far away so you dont get metal dust in them and ending up fry them.

 

It perform fantasic. With no overclock it has no throttle at all.
With the stuck vbios it was set to 115w and it kept throttling.
Now I run it overclocked at 2100 mhz but I have set the powerdraw to max 86% otherwise the CPU and GPU will throttle each other.

 

Looks like I really should get started on tuning mine via the flasher. Under light loads I can get 1886mhz on stock vbios.

Under heavy loads like monster hunter: world I get around 1600mhz.

I have the programmer just never got around to getting it flashed. I guess I've just been timid, lot of work getting my ranger to where it is now.

I don't think 200w is possible but maybe 150w or 145w might be doable.

 

Water cooling



Both my GPU and CPU is having their own loop. I made it so I can disconnect everything without having to bleed the whole system. There will be a little drop of water but it is almost nothing. That way I can carry the whole setup around to my friends.
The fittings on the laptop can also easily be removed, and replaced with some very tiny plugs if I want to use it as a normal laptop, and don't have to worry about the fittings being bend.













The heatsinks is costume made. The guy who made it for me is cicichen https://www.ebay.com/usr/cicichen594
He is also the guy behind the all copper 5 piped heatsink for the GPU and the 3 piped heatsink for the CPU
He is a very good guy who wants to help and is up for a challenge.

Also the CPU fan is modded by him. Instead of the original 2 cfm fan, this fan is 10.4 cfm.
You can read about this mod here:
https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/2699-m17x-cpu-fan-upgrademod-2cfm-104cfm/




This Koolance EXOS LT Water cooler is a whole chapter for itself. I had to do some changes to make it work without a desktop computer.
I build the thermal sensor so it is inside the unit, instead of inside the computer. I made it so it get the power from the wall and not from the computer. I mounted quick fittings at the back. I switched out the fans with some completely silent fans, and made it blow the hot air out of the top instead of the sites.

 

Your throttle might be caused by the nvidia driver bug.

I just made a video for you with how to fix it.

But remember it has to be Hibernate not Sleep otherwise it will not work.

 

Flashing 200w Vbio
Original Thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...er-update-and-feedback-thread.806161/page-189

Okay here is what I did.

First of, I made a folder with all the tools for a ch341a.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AukTois8CyjMyUWESYZO-1RlGokz

This is my setup:


Okay first, here is a small guide to get the ch341a working.

First, download and extract my "Ch341a_tools.zip" folder.

Drivers:
1:1. open "CH341A tools" folder
1:2. open "Driver-Install-First-Alway" folder
1:3. run and install "CH341PAR"

Now you are ready for the next part.

Hooking everything up:
2:1. Study the photo of my setup so you connect everything correctly.
2:2. Before connecting it to the USB port, first, connect the clip to the bios chip.
2:3. A trick to make sure you have connected everything correctly before applying power is to take a multimeter and check for ground. Touch the USB with the red wire, and a screw hole on the graphics card with the black wire. If the multimeter beeps you have connected everything correctly.
3:4. Plug your programmer into the USB port.

The software part:
4:1. Navigate to the folder "CH341A Programmer 1.18"
4:2. Run CH341A.exe
4:3. Navigate to the folder "AsProgrammer_1.4.0"
4:4. Run AsProgrammer.exe
4:5. Navigate to the folder HxDSetup
4:6. Run and install HxDSetup.exe

The complicated part:

5:1. Next, to the "unprotect" button I put a red ring around is a button for reading ID, press it.
5:2. It should detect it as "W25Q80EW_1.8v"
5:3. Press the unprotect button. In the textbox at the bottom, it should say
"Old SREG: 00000011(0x03), 00001000(0x08)" or something. Then press the stop button.

6:4. Open CH341A.exe from earlier.
6:5. Press the "Read" button
6:6. Press the "Save" button save it as backup1
6:7. Repeat step 6:5 and 6:6 and save it as backup2

7:1. Open HxD you installed earlier.
7:2. Press the CTRL+K
7:3. Select backup1 as "1. Data source:" and backup2 as "2. Data source"
7:4. It should say that backup1 and backup2 are identical. If not, reseat the clip and repeat step 6:5 and 6:6


8:1 Open CH341A.exe from earlier
8:2 Press Detect

8:3 It will detect it as W25Q80V (It is a problem because it says the size is 1Mbyte, it is too small) We'll come back to that.
8:4 Press Erase
8:5 Press Blank (if it says "Chip are not null" repeat step 5:1, 5:2 and 5:3, also you might try reconnect your programmer. Then press Blank again)
8:6 Press Read, now it should say "FF" everywhere.
Your chip is now Blank

9:1 Select the chip name W25Q64BV

9:2 Press "Open" and choose the modded vbios you want to program onto the chip.
9:3 I will say "chip with the contents are in disagreement" that is because the ch341a program does not support W25Q80EW. If you did not change the chip name and kept W25Q64BV, the HEX disagreement will already start at line 00020000

It will cause the graphics card to not boot up.

Now because you choose a chip with a bigger size the HEX disagreement starts at line 00040000, almost at the end where there is no important data. It means the graphics card will still work.


A side note. You will meet a lot of errors and it will most likely not work the first time, be patient, stay calm, try playing around with steps I gave you, reconnect the setup, clean the contacts, also you can try some of the other versions in the "Ch341a tools" folder.

The conclusion
You can use the ch341a programmer without the 1.8v. I did test it and it worked BUT it gets EXTREMELY hot as soon you press Erase and slows down the process. I do not recommend doing it without the 1.8v because you're risking burning the chip. If you are doing it anyway find a way to keep it cool.
A fan is not enough, you will need a heatsink!!! I was lucky doing it without, but you might not be.

Also, I do not recommend using the Ch341a programmer, it is too much hassle. Buy a good programmer, it will make your life easier.

 

I dont have a battery anymore so I dont think I can hibernate. I removed it for more storage. I run about 15TB in my system.

I think that bug was only present in 3rd gen stuff, I havent had the issue as its mostly power limit stuff and I still get 120+ FPS in most titles.

The programming how-to will be very useful though, I think I have the very same programmer lol

 

U

Maybe it is gone in the ranger, i don't know?
But I am pretty sure you can hibernate without battery. You might just need to activate it first.

https://windowsreport.com/hibernate-start-menu-windows-10/

 

With HWInfo64, Im just simply hitting the power limit, but thanks for the tip

 

With my vbios you can see where I hit the limit.

 

Yeah my max is 115w, stock vBIOS. If I shoot for 200w I'll just end up with a likely EC related throttle. As even with the 330w AC adapter I dont think the system will allow for more than 145w-150w

 

Wow excellent thread. I have an external 1.8v programmer so I would like to bump up my 1070M TDP. I will likely just desolder the chip from the card and externally program and then place back.

Does your HDMI-In work?

My stock via gpuz says dell 86.04.42.00.03

 

I need to test it again,I can't remember if it does. But I think.
When you bump up the wattage don't make it go further than 215w, you risk frying the mxm slot.

About desolder the chip, try to do it without first. I have tried desolder a BIOS chip but when I put back it was not working anymore.
Maybe I applied too much heat.

Okay HDMI-in does not work. It says the hdmi is connected but the screen just goes black. Sadly.

 

I think you have to make sure that the software is present or that may well be the case.

Though it seems to be hit and miss, I havent tested this myself on my Ranger yet.

 

HDMI IN worked for me in my M18xR2 with 1060 but I used SG mode not PEG so not sure if that was the reason.

 

Bummer I was hoping for a 1070 Vbios fix for black screen on HDMI-In

 

Sadly no. I only think it works if you use switchable graphics or Windows 7.

 

@Henrik9979 Nice work! I'd love to see your take on my Extra fan for Vram mod. Also, what are the temperatures like with the all copper heatsinks? I've seen them around on ebay but haven't seen temp results.

 

I can say it is much much better than the original heatsink, but showing my temps without water-cooling will be misleading cause my gtx 1070 has a 215w vbios instead of 115w. Also my heatsink is not with 5 heat pipes, it is with 3 heatpipes and a water-cooling pipe.
But what I can tell you is, if I tried running my 215w gtx 1070 without water-cooling, without your fan mod, and without extra copper pieces, it would rise to 80c and the vram would overheat and give artifacts.
When it is running 115w it has no problem I think I remember the temperature to be between 60c and 70c.

Yesterday I finally finished you extra fan mod and made it run in sync with the gpu fan. I will post it later. Also I have changed the thermal pads with pads from artic.
I have also added extra copper heatsink pieces. With all those changes I can now run my 1070 with 2100mhz core clock and 520 MHz on memory clock without artifacts.

 

Okay here is my vram fan mod.
I got my inspiration from Johndill.
His original post can be found here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-m17x-r4-gpu-vrm-cooling-solution.828994/

I started of changing all the thermal pads with some thinner ones from artic.

Arctic Thermal pad 6.0 W/mk 1mm
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/4vN6Fe0g

Next I bought some extra heatsink pieces.

Copper Heat Sink Back Cooler 13x13x2MM
https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/2Vm4vnde

I have some extra Alienware fans so I thought I could use one of them as an extra fan.
The only fan small enough was the Alienware m17x r4 CPU fan. But it was still too big.
I have done a lot of work to make it fit. A LOT!
I would not recommend to use that fan, even though I made it shorter and slimmer it is still too fat. I can just barely put the cover on. Also the blades starts to touch the housing so I needed to grind the metal part thinner on the inside.

But I made it!

The next part was connecting the wires from the gpu fan and vram fan so they run in sync.

It works amazing, the last finish I need to do is to cut a proper air intake.

With the extra fan I can run my gtx 1070 with 215w and high overclock on both core and memory without water-cooling and without overheating.

 

Also another mod I will add in the future is make some sort of FireWire 800 port. The m17x r4 has a pcie that is not in use and I want to use it for my FireWire mixer.
I just don't know how to approach it.
I would love to hear some ideas.

Also does anyone have an idea how to remove the TDP limit for the CPU?
Could there be some power management chip where cutting a pin will remove the limitation?
Something like the pin mod for overclocking the Alienware m11x r1.

 

Nice, thanks for the temps. I've only seen the water pipe heatsink once before on a 17 R1 Ranger on ebay. :-D

Nice, connecting to the GPU fan looks to be a good idea that another member also suggested. I would recommend insulating the exposed wireing with heatshrink or electrical tape to avoid shorting out the fan controller.

Sweet! That's great to hear it works well in an overclocked setup. :-D

 

Hehe the other member who suggested it was me.

 

Haha! lol, oops, I should have double checked. Good idea!

 

Thank you.

 

So I epoxied a thermal couple protection to the 1070M. Normally closed 85* thermal switch on the PWM signal. So worst case if HWInfo locks up (i.e. everyday) or in BIOS/non-OS the GPU has a mechanical safety.

Will run 100% when higher than 85*C since the 5 pipe copper cooler is nearly useless without the fan running.

 

That was very clever where exactly does the wire connect?
Also I need a proper guide for setting up costume fan settings in hwinfo64. I mean I know how to make the fan spin at different speeds at different temperatures, but it will always result in system lockups (which can be unlocked by changing the screen light, don't know why) or the fans will be stuck at one speed, mostly idle speed which causes overheating and emergency shutdown.

I have seen a guide disabling support of something to make it stabel, but then you only would have 3 fan speeds. Low, medium and full speed. I don't find that satisfying at all.

 

You could also go the route of fabbing a fan bypass switch so you have EC control and then full speed for when you want it.

 

The thermal switch just goes on the blue PWM line from the GPU fan. So when it gets too hot it disconnects the line and causes the fan to go max speed.

I also have HWInfo problems and it constantly freezes. That is why I put in the backup thermal couple and epoxied it to the GPU copper heatsink.

For settings of HWInfo I have Polling as follows:
Global 2000ms
SMART 500 cycles
Emb Controller 10000 cycles

Then for settings I have disabled Wake disabled GPUs and disabled poll sleeping GPUs

I find that the fans only actually work when the Hwinfo is open and then I also click the Fan icon to bring up the second fan window. Kind of stupid that it just does not work in the background.

 

You can make fan control autostart along with hwinfo by editing the .ini file and adding this line:

OpenFanCtrlMin=1

You are welcome

 

Ah cool. Saves a step =)

 

But Hwinfo64 will still freeze correct?

 

I haven't found a setup that does not eventually freeze. It seems the program cannot handle a bad reply from polling or PECI request. I could of sworn that the really really old hwinfo ver I had originally never froze. But now I am running the latest one but adjusted the polling to have it happen less often.

I cannot recall what ver the old one was that worked. I find myself just manually running 100% fans when gaming. Then it will just freeze at 100%. (Click system auto then set manual and drag to 100%)

 

Have you tried disabling the "Periodic polling" in settings or the below? The latter I haven't tried yet.

https://www.hwinfo.com/forum/threads/hwinfo64-freezing-fixed.5861/

 

So no fix unless you remove the battery. That's a bad work around.

 

It would be nice if their is some sort of timeout function, so when a collision happens and the program gets stuck it will automatically cancel the request and try again.

Of course when you are using water-cooling like me the fans will never kick in but I found out, it is not good.
The chipset (PCH) uses the body too be cooled down so the fan needs to spin to cool the body down.
So when I am using water-cooling I set the fans to run at 2900 rpm then they are quite but still blowing air.

So I use Hwinfo64 to set a custom fan curve based of the PCH temperature.
But as long it keeps freezing it is useless.

 

Ah glad you figured that out.

When you dumped your stock 1070M vbios and opened it up with the TDP tool did the stock values load? Or were they blank and you specified 215w?

 

Have you taken any steps to try and bump up yet? Thinking of dumping my stock vBIOS soon.

 

I just dont have the time to mess with my Ranger at the moment. I want to though lol, I have been focusing on physical fitness lately.

I have a list of things i need to do to it.

Modify CPU heatsink (have materials, processing bit by bit over the weekends) 8 heatpipes and frankentop heatsink
Ditching my powered USB hub for a single USB device, which requires a bit of conversion (powering my 5TB HDD)
Upgrade wifi to AX1650 (have parts)
Retrofit EC bypass for max fan speed
Reinstall N173HHE-G32 panel

May consider the 3rd fan idea to cool the vrms on my 1070, may actually need it after TDP mod. Though I refuse to lose my storage, so I will have to find a compromise somewhere in the system.

Im waiting until I am ready to do everything at once since basically I would have to tear down the laptop for the weekend.

 

You could replace the disc drive with a harddisk Caddy.
I did it to mine to make room for the 3rd fan.

 

I already have a 5tb drive there

 

By the way I forgot to mention, with my gtx 1070 at 215w and my CPU running 4.3 GHz a single 330w is not enough, it will stall after few seconds of gaming.
If you have a Alienware 17 R1 (Ranger) you will be stuck with a single 330w PSU. The Ranger will not draw more than 330w, making a dual PSU mod useless.

 

Fine by me, 330w is more than enough for my use case.

 

I have a second 330w PSU laying around now. I want to see where I can get with a VBIOS flash to like 130w.

I still have hopes that somehow a VBIOS or driver will bring back HDMI-In on R4 w 1070M

 

So polling period of 1 on the EC will cause HWInfo to freeze within a few hours. I have bumped it to poll once in 99,000 cycles and went 140 hours without a freeze.

You can't fully disable the EC in settings or the fans will not respond and spin up at all.