[Alienware 17R4 / 15R3] - Disassembly + Repaste Guide + Results

I recommend just set everything to 0 on bios customization and use throttlestop to oc, the bios overclock profile isn't very good

return, get another one

 

@iunlock -

I noticed in one of your recent videos with OWNORDISOWN that you mentioned Alienware using a thinner thermal "tape" near the die of the processor to improve heatsink contact with the die. I recently ordered this on Amazon:

Spoiler

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYO3PK9/ref=ya_st_dp_summary

It's .1mm thick as you suspected the new thermal interface may be. Would this be ok to use on this area to increase contact with the heatsink?

EDIT: after repasting, the temperatures are acceptable, and everything else is pretty solid with my unit, despite it arriving in late November. I'd like to keep this one, I'd just like to try evening out the temperatures of the cores a little bit more. If I can't, I can still live with the temps I'm getting now.

 

Hi,

So I followed all the step mentioned and repaste my 15 R3 with Artic MX 4 unfortunately the cpu is still going in 90c territory.. GPU 72c no gain whatsoever in temps while playing the division. I m thinking to bring it back to the store today. Just wanted to make sure that I m making the right decision. Thanks for the help.


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15 R 3 6700 / 1070


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@Mobius1 can u dm me? I don't have the right to dm u. I live in Ny and was hopping u could help


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So I went back and bent the arm just a tad bit more and the results were a little better. My before was 93,76, 90, 71 and now its down to 64, 57, 61, 51. Its still not the best, but its better than before. Hopefully iunlock will soon test the 1080 GTX heatsink on the 1070 GTX motherboard and see if it will be able to fit and hopefully drop the temp more. If it does, I might purchase one in hopes that it sits better on my motherboard compared to my heatsink lol.

 

Hi Mobius need help to repaste my 15 R3 can not DM you. Can you DM me? Thanks so much for the help!


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@iunlock

I just ordered a 17r4 with the gtx1080 and the i7-6820HK. Are you still recommending we get these repasted? I am completely new to computers and don't know a thing about repasting. How much do you charge to repaste? I am located in California. Thanks

 

Message sent.

 

I had my laptop replaced due to the lights not working properly and the screen bezel separating.

I just received the replacement and it runs much cooler than my initial order from 11/21. Max temps have reduced to the low to mid 70s and the differential is 5 degrees. Very pleased.

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Have they fix the overheating issues with their new batch of shipments?

 

My replacement was ordered on 12/16 (original order 11/21), and arrived yesterday. Temperatures are not higher than the mid 70s and core differential is 5 degrees vs high 90s and a 21 degree differential on the one being sent back. It could be luck of the draw, but it seems the issue is fixed.

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Be carrefull. In France somme people receive AW refurd with overheating issues

 

So here are some before and after pics:

Previous 15 R3 Ordered on 11/21 Delivered 11/30: Being sent back.
Stock:


Stock with an UV:


Stock with an UV on 1.08 BIOS:


Overclocked with an UV:


CDM Score Hynix 512GB NVME SSD:


New Replacement Order date 12/16 Delivered 12/27

Stress tests: (All of these images are stock with no undervolt)


CDM Score 1TB Toshiba:


Screen Calibration (4K IGZO Panel): (Very Disappointing. )
Adobe RGB:


sRGB:


Final Thoughts:

I couldn't even run OCCT on my previous system. Those temps were just with an XTU stress test for 5-10 minutes. These were all from a 30 minute stress test via OCCT. These temps are pretty damn good and the differentials look to be a non issue as well.

I am very glad that Alienware fixed this issue because it should have been this way from the start. That is so good and I don't even think I need to rip it open to repaste/pad at the moment, but I most likely will at some point because I have like $200 worth of fujipoly Xtreme pads in my drawer.

I am honestly very pleased with this replacement, and they even upgraded me to a 1TB SSD + 1 TB HDD from 512GB SSD + 1TB HDD. The only thing that I changed where the power limits in the bios from 45W/56W to 100W/100W, only because it was power limit throttling.

 

No...their just sending out 1060's even if 1070's were ordered.

 

That's not even remotely true. My replacement system configuration was never changed and was even upgraded due to some part being back ordered and it still came with a 1070. Alienware is obviously listening to the community and have improved their systems temperature issues. Let's not spread misinformation and speculation. If that happened to someone I'm sure it was an honest mistake.

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Does anyone know if the repaste jobs that I've heard about being done by Dell/AW are worth a darn? I would love to do this project, but my arms wouldn't be able to (quad/in a wheelchair).

Are there any fast and hard numbers for when a repaste is needed?
I'm running a 17r4, 6700hq, gtx 1070... 20°c difference on cores 0 & 3 (91 & 71 respectively). Not overclocked or anything, those numbers came from a Prime95 heat stress test.

Thanks

 

Decided to overclock and see what temps looked like. Jumped into the deep end and set OC preset 3 customized with 100/100 PLs. Did a 30 minute OCCT run with/without an undervolt. Here are the results!

Stock No UV:


Stock -.040mv UV


Not too bad compared to what it was on the old one!

 

Thanks for the report @Mechanized Menace! You have done well in helping to reduce fears. My 1080 order of 12/5 is still to be sent. I hope they are doing their best to fix the heatsink fit issue.

I just hope the 1440 screen is usable.

 

hey just repasted my 15r3 temps are much better but i killed my wifi card

 

My 6820 1070 delivered Dec 20 is still having heat issues on two cores, so it looks like it might be hit and miss. Dealing with getting a repacement now.

 

the only repaste that will make a difference is liquid metal

how do people keep breaking wifi cards, this doesn't make sense!

 

I've taken my wifi card out now 4 times and I'm still good lol. Oh and munchkin Gelid Extreme paste dropped the temps by 25 deg C on mine. So I would say it worked great as well. I couldn't tell you though if liquid metal would have made my cores even. They dropped from almost a 20 deg difference to about 8 deg difference.

 

Yeah I think I have removed my Wi-Fi card 5 or 6 times and now the only hard part is getting the connector to stay on lol. It only wants to come unplugged.

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Man that sucks! I was hoping it wasn't just me winning the Alienware lottery. What was your actual order date?

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Wish that were my story! I'm on my third unit now. 1060, even though purchased and ordered 1070. Was just informed that the 1070 is no longer configured with gysnc, so they just sent a 1060 instead. Plenty of threads over on reddit suggesting the same has happened to many others. Valid...my remark was sarcastic, but this misconfiguration is by no means isolated to me.

 

That's not legal. They cannot just downgrade you with out reimbursement or the option of a refund. Dell would not do that, however, if the agent you're working with did do that. I would call and ask for a supervisor.

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Not the agents fault, the replacement orders clearly show the correct configurations.

I guess the factory made the decision to fulfill with the components and configurations currently offered.

They are now giving me the option to repair or refund only, even though when this whole process started almost two months ago I clearly indicated that repair was off the table due to the numourous horror story's of botched repair jobs. Really don't want to refund, as I got a stellar deal, so I may be looking into repasting the 1070 I originally received and just living with it. It runs up to 100c, has mild thermal throttle, but doesn't shutdown.

 

The problem was an error in the config backend from dell. Not that someone decided this on purpose.

 

Good news guys, I'm getting some pretty decent temps stock whilst OCing. Don't know if I've won the silicon lottery but I've got a stable system here.

Can't get prime 95 stable at 4Ghz yet (either crashing or >90C temps) still working on that, but happily running everything ok at 3.9Ghz with -50mV. OCCT passed 30 mins test with max temp of 82C. Average temp difference is 6C...

Still going to repaste though to push for 4.2.

Btw does anyone know of another thread for overclocking the GPU?

 

I hope so on both accounts bud!

 

So guys take a look at my results from 3 days of benchmarks to get the best results that work for me:


Next I'll be doing the repaste and the same again to max out the laptop. Pretty happy with 21626 Firestrike Graphics score with a CPU and GPU overclock. I had loads of stuff running in the background when running these tests anyway so loads of room for further optimisation but I'm not bothered about that.

Gotta be said, really happy with the laptop so far. I'm sure the thermal temps would be fine for most people and the build quality is absolutely brilliant. I'm not that fussy but I cannot see any lightbleed or horizontal lines at all on my screen either. Has anyone got a webpage or video to test for this as a difficult colour backdrop?

Gunna look forward to hooking this baby up with Asseto Corsa to my Logitech G920 race seat and my LG OLED55C6!

Anyone know how I can check the wattage being used by my GPU? The field in HWinfo64 doesn't seem to work

 

How were you able to change the GPU voltage offset?

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Hey mate I used XTU and set it to +0.150V but that's not optimised. The middle ground is somewhere between +0.150 - 0.200

 

Results from repasting with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut



Will be repasting this with liquid metal + replacing thermal pads in the next video

 

I got mine repasted after watching ur video and my average temperature at 77c at xtu and occt stress teas but reach 80-86c at 1 hour BF1 game (evenly temp). I'm currently thinking of repaste it with LM. Waiting for your next video. Cheers

 

Yep...broken systems for sure!

 

Thanks!! I am hoping to get my liquid metal in the mail next week so hopefully in a week or so I'll have a new video. I'm happy to have helped you out, keep watch for more videos!

 

It's worth doing believe me!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-alienware-17-r4-2016-owners-lounge.797457/page-262

 

Hey guys, sorry jumping in I just found this site and I take my hat off to you. I just bought a AW 17R4 GTX1070 UHD and I turned it up thin it started heating up so yes I'm going to repaste but how hard would it be to get a copy.

 

What do you mean by get a copy?

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Good morning. I'm new to all this, I been reading all this post because I started overclocking and my alienware 17 1070 started heating up I seen wear you wrote a guide book to repaste. That Ronnie

 

Hi!


Happy to show my score : No O/C CPU | No O/C GPU | Repast with Grizzly Thermal Paste | No bend cpu arm3 | 50% thermal pads change for Fujipoly 14W/m

Ambiant Temp : 24,5°c

3Dmark run 5 or 6 time with demo before final test.




I would like to thanks Iunlock / Mobius 1 and others pepole for testing reviewed and shared experience. This is a gift for people like me, real neophyte in hardware.

Next step for me is down loud

 

Thanks for your help I'm doing this repaste soon as my stuff gets it. I can't wait to see how much it helps.

Thanks

 

First part of December. First order was cancelled(Dec 2nd) and reordered (Dec 7th) by Dell so I was hoping it was for the new fix but no I got one that is 15 degress off on two cores. When I play a game they hit 97

 

hey guys, I recently repasted and my experience and results can be found here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...sting-with-liquid-metal-my-experience.799962/

 

@iunlock, is it necessary replace stock thermal pads? I do not use the iGPU, i only use xGPU from Graphic Amplifier...

 

I received my AW nov 20th I will run my numbers unlocked and share it.

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So, I finally got the Conductonaut and FujiPoly pads delivered...

Found some interesting things that I don't believe that I've seen addressed here... or maybe my 'Alien is just special...

Here's what the heatsink looked like. Notice anything missing?



Oh, wait! Here's one of the missing pads!



Here's another one on the outside of the fan housing:



Would it have helped if Dell would have taken off the plastic backing of their tape? Wonder how much thermal impedance the plastic adds...



Anyone know what "Manufacturing Level 40" is?



Guess I could have made up my own service tag? I didn't as Dell has a difficult enough time providing support as it is...



My FujiPoly application on the heatsink... (just realized I hadn't added the last piece at the top when I took the pic)



Working up the temps and will post when stable...

 

Got mine back from repair center. Temps are good. 70ish max in occt. Fans barely run. Much better than 98x4 and throttling.

They put a 60hz panel replacement instead of the 120 tho and it looks like ****. Not sure if it's bc the mobo doesn't match the monitor or what. But it's really wonky.

It just needed bezel tape didn't need a whole screen. Fml


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