Alienware lied, the AW13 is not ready for prime time. (Graphics amp woes)

I just got off the phone with their senior support advisor, I've never been so pissed at CS rep before. Here's a few points:

-They actively admitted they have no idea how to get in contact with the people with this issue on Reddit, Notebook Review, or Alienware Arena.
-They've denied this is an issue. I was assured I was the ONLY one who has contacted them about it. (And the only person with this problem)
-They openly admitted all they can/will do is to continue to try to re-install the Nvidia drivers.
-They openly admitted that they have no idea how the driver actually works that is installed on the AW13, and how the mobile driver actually can possibly run the GTX 980
-They openly admitted that there is a "Hybrid Driver" in development and is in Nvidia's hands, and have no idea when it will ship.
-Their resolution to me was to buy an AMD Card, return the whole setup, or buy an additional 970/980 so they can continue to 'try' to reinstall drivers once again. (With no change in their strategy)

I'm going to buy another 970 tomorrow, they'll be calling me at 6PM -- if they can't resolve (Or admit an issue, and let me know they'll keep me up to date) it I'm returning the whole set up.

I've never been more disappointed in a tech product (and their support team) in my whole life (excluding you thexravenx, you're the only one who offered any other type of solution besides just reintalling drivers multiple times)

 

Thanks for your post. This answers a lot of questions for me. I called AW tech support to inquire about some of the reviews I have been reading about their disappointment in the drivers and how they are not allowing the graphics amplifier to perform well. AW tech support claimed there were no problems and everything was fine in almost a defensive tone. Now that I see the i7 option is only a dual core I have no interest in this setup anyways since I also do video and audio production, but it is ridiculous AW tech support lives in a bubble. That will only backfire on them in the end and p*ss off high paying customers like yourself. I am going to sit this out and hope they release a 15" or 17" model that has a decent quad core CPU and graphic amplifier support that actually works well. This should have never been released to market like this.

From laptopmag.com review:

"The Graphics Amplifier that Alienware sent us was using a pre-release graphics driver, which unfortunately did not offer the expected level of performance. In our initial testing, we saw gaming frame rates from the Amplifier that were higher than what the notebook offered by itself but lower than what 17-inch gaming rigs with Maxwell graphics offer."

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/alienware-13

 

Didn't see that one coming. -> Sarcasm

I'd return it and just walk away until they stop chasing their own tails. Everything they've said about the Graphics Amplifier was to get it sold - marketing at its finest.

 

Pretty much, putting it to rest. Something tells me I can't be all that surprised about all of this.

 

Not too surprised there are issues personally as it is something entirely "new" for Dellienware. I'm still of the firm belief that the G/A is the ultimate source of a lot of the delays lately, and this sort of thing lends credence that it's still a work in progress. I believe they will get it ironed out in time, as the fundamentals are there technically, but it's a shame they launched it without proper support.

 

Considering they started working on it in 2011, yeah, it's a shame to see how many issues they're having on the support side.

Better prepared than sorry. I guess that doesn't apply anymore.

 

I remember them saying they finished most of the GA in 2011. The software side needed some kinks, like unplugging the GA.

 

Ohy...that makes me feel even worse about all of this. Why couldn't they ship a finished product? Or at least, waited til the driver support was solid.

 

My r9 290x arrived today and i can say: its working!
But... The Performance is quite bad. In GPU intensive Games like CS:GO i get 100-110 fps with everything maxed. In WoW its Even worse: fps are higher than Intel gpu but lower than with gtx860m.
In my opinion the GA and/or the AW13 arent finished products. We are Alpha or Beta testers for alienware...
I have owned 5 Alienware Laptops from m11x r1 to m17x r4... and all i can say is, that the aw13 is the worst of all i have had.
Even the case is worse then every other aw. Dont get me wrong: the aw13 is still a good Notebook compared to other vendors, but for me its not the alienware i am used to.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I appreciate the feedback (as I was going to go out today and pick up another 970 or r9 290x). I wish that some people (especially on reddit) would stop apologizing for AW on this, the alpha way overshadowed the launch of the 13 and it seems like they didn't even want to talk about 13. Something off is going on, it's almost like they were forced to release it.

 

Something just occurred to me: MSI is about to fall in the same boat, right? Their launch of the MSI GS30 is pretty much similar to the Alienware 13 in concept.

 

I think so. The herd follows.

 

ULV + R9 290X?!

 

Thanks for taking the time to post your issues. I currently have an AW 13 i7 on order that is due to arrive in early Feb. If this isn't resolved in a few weeks I will be cancelling the order. Has anyone on this board been successful using the Graphics Amplifier with a GTX980/970?

Thanks,
Robert

 

Ah, I was thinking of getting the GA, But if this is no working I might return mine 13!

 

Sandman,

Any update on your attempts to resolve this issue?

Thanks,
Robert

 

Just got my Alienware 13 laptop and Graphics Amplifier and GTX 970 card. Followed the (minimal) instructions, installed the card and drivers, and ...nothing. The monitor is a black screen. Followed rules about when to plug in the cord. Swapped monitors, swapped output connectors, nothing. The card is not listed on the hardware as recognized, but the box is powered up and the cord lights up. When I hit the disconnect (fn F1) it tells me it's hooked up but there is zero output.

Worse than this is the horrific Dell support. It is virtually impossible to get any tech support, nor even to get a return processed. I have bought about 10 dells over the years, but this is the worst experience I've ever had. Go to support chat and....it freezes. Finally, I was able to use my order tracking to find a screen that would let me initaite a return, only to be told that since they INVOICED me over 30 days ago I can't return it. Never matter than it just arrived a week ago and my laptop only a few days ago. So how was I supposed to test it out before the propriatary laptop connection was there to test it on?

I am serious, I'm about to stroke out over this, it's so frustrating. We order 1-2 computers a year and use them in our business as well, and I would not recommend going anywhere near this contraption. The laptop itself is actually excellent, and the graphics quite good on average settings w/o the amplifier. Its even speeded up my internet connection somehow from 50mbs on all my other pcs to 110 mbs!

Maybe try the laptop. Avoid the amplifier box. Great idea, bad execution.

 

Someone got a GTX 980 to work using these steps. I don't know what version this hotfix driver is, but if he got it to work, then maybe someone here can too.

 

sucks to hear you early adopters have problems, I was debating whether to make the jump, but glad that I dodged a bullet. Looks like I will look elsewhere for a gaming laptop next year, I dont think AW can be trusted any more.

 

Um, the AW13 laptop is decent alone by itself. Please do not blame the laptop, but rather just put blame on the Graphics Amplifier, because I see no reason to put blame on the laptop, other than the Graphics Amplifier woes we all have.

 

Yup - very curious to see how that turns out.

 

I agree - the laptop itself is functioning better than I originally thought for the price (well, I paid 650 for it), exception of nitpicking here and there (Gosh, I hate those near-impossible-to-remove fingerprints on my palm rest and touchpad). But I connect my laptop to the monitor and use a separate keyboard for the most of the time and from testing a bunch of games, I am quite satisfied with the performance.

It's just the GA that might be the problem. Then again, we all knew that it was a bottleneck to start with.

 

I'm onboard with denouncing the haters as well. If you buy a new mustang and the Ford racing performance pack has an ECU calibration issue, do you start berating the excellent base car that the performance pack was made for? NO!

The GA is a well intended Accessory that is having some driver issues, let's leave the AW 13 out of the hate fest.

 

New Nvidia 347.09 WHQL-certified drivers were released today if someone wants to give them a try with their Graphics Amplifier and a GTX 980/970. I would if my AW 13 was delivered.

 

This is the exact same 347.09 driver as released previously, just with WHQL certification.

 

I was able to get my 970 working with those drivers by booting my AW13 with the GA plugged in and then uninstalling ALL of the nvidia software. I then installed the 347.09 driver and selected custom install and checked to box to do a clean install. At the end of the install it prompted me to reboot and then my 970 worked because the monitor I had plugged directly into fired on and worked and there was a noticeable difference in graphics improvement. The big issue remaining is, when I undock to laptop by going through the supported procedure, boot it up woithout the GA and then go to dock again, the system will again not recognize the graphics card again and I need to completely do the entire process again to get the external monitor to work again....does anyone have any ideas? It is almost as if the integrated graphics card is being used at boot time instead of the discrete one or the amp one and there is no bios option to fix that....so frustrating!

 

Disable the integrated graphics card, and press repeatedly the F2 key when you boot up?

 

Hello Tom_mai78101,

I am well aware of how to get into the BIOS options, unfortunately, there are no options in the BIOS settings at this point to disable the integrated graphics card and it is kind of frustrating. I bought an Alienware because I wanted something to function as a gaming machine that may not be as powerful as a desktop but that I would be able to bring with me much more easily than a Desktop. Dell/AlienWare has been a huge disappointment based on seeing how this machine was configured from the get go. I understand they probably put a CPU with integrated graphics in as a way of conserving battery life for performing casual tasks, however, it is touted as a gaming machine. I am also disappointed that it would appear they have not tested certain combinations of graphics cards with their AMP as that was a major decision point for me choosing this laptop over others as I have bought gaming laptops in the past and it always seemed that the graphics card would be the first thing to not be future proof.

I am going to write a support ticket to Dell to see what advice they have to offer. I understand their predicament that they are dealing with multiple vendors (Intel and NVidia in my case) and I also know I am an early adopter and there are certain features that may not work exactly 100% immediately, but I'm not a paid beta tester either. If Dell doesn't have a solution, they should be putting extreme pressure on the graphics card manufacturers to resolve their driver issues if that is what they are going to claim when I submit my ticket. It is simply unacceptable to have to completely uninstall all the drivers and then reinstall them every time I want to use my graphics amplifier with the laptop. Admittedly, I have not tested the graphics amp with the GeForce 770 I have in my desktop. Apologies to all if this seems like a rant.

 

Just to point this out, but all Intel Mobile CPUs have iGPUs. Can't complain there, sorry.

 

I never said to disable the integrated graphics card from the BIOS. I meant disabling it from the Device Manager in the Control Panel.

 

Anybody know if they got the driver issue fixed?

 

If you have an account on Alienware Arena and own a GA + 13, please visit here to help Alienware out. If you don't and still want to help out, then create an account.

 

http://na.alienwarearena.com/forums...ware/alienware-13-graphics-amplifier-solution
The post before my first post in the thread, and then read down.

 

Thanks Game7a1. Still looks like it is hit or miss. Still waiting for my 13 hopefully have a solid driver by then

 

Sad to hear.
However, if we are to use desktop drivers then, then at least we'll have the latest drivers all the time.

 

The AMD Omega drivers have been update for better GA support. Dell Alienware Graphics Amplifier Driver

 

I've returned my aw13 and graphics amp. Maybe some other day they'll get figured out. I spent 3 hours and 42 minutes on the phone today with aw support. I'm out.

 

Here's another solution.

 

Anyone try the "updated" drivers on the AW 13 drivers page? It has then listed as the old 340.84 drivers but with an updated date of 16 Jan. It might be worth a look.

Moderator Note:
Further general discussion on the Alienware 13 can be placed in the Owner's Lounge:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...s-lounge-thread-13-15-and-17-r2.770323/unread

Further general discussion on the eGPU/Graphics Accelerator can be placed in the Owner's Lounge for that device:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...s-lounge-thread-13-15-and-17-r2.770323/unread