Have you got your 240w PSU from Dell?

Depends. US and Canada don't have regulations on power supplies and laptops.

Basically, in the US (and Canada) Dell doesn't have to certify that the power supply won't short and burn down the house before the product can be sold. Almost all manufacturers do but it only applies to the power supply (not the laptop), and even so it's completely optional so they can still sell the product without it.

Now in the EU (and possibly other countries too) Dell has to certify that both the power supply AND the laptop that was sold with it won't short and burn the house down. They cannot legally sell the device unless that certification is obtained. The AW 17/15 were certified for use with a 180W PSU, so that's legally the only PSU they can sell/give with the laptop.

 

Exactly, I've been saying this for quite a while . I would guess dell will be resubmitting for CE marking with data for a 240w PSU (if they're smart).

 

How hard is this exactly for a huge multinational cooperation to spend a few bucks to have this done, cant be that much involved?

 

It could be money and/or time. I have no idea.

Keep in mind that there are other laptops with the same specs that work fine (and get the same benchmark scores) when using a 180W PSU.

That means that something is clearly wrong with the BIOS. Either that or Clevo has somehow found a magical way to significantly reduce power while maintaining similar performance. So it could just be that Dell would rather work on fixing that issue first (because well we all know that there are numerous issues with the BIOS anyways) and while they can legally get away with 240W PSUs in the US to do that.

 

It's not that expensive but EU bureaucracy puts a serious time overhead on approval. I recall US companies saying that they didn't care about the cost, just how quick they could get to market. I trimmed quite a few days lead time using electronic methods but there are parts of the process that bounce around various expert legal signatories before sign-off (and require signed hard copy!). It's all about CYA when safety is concerned, even something as apparently simple as changing a PSU.

 

It's cool that they paid attention to the videos and information I provided showing the difference in performance with 180W versus 240W AC adapters and published a tech support article. It's unfortunate that they are not making it an easy acquisition for some 15 and 17 owners to get the 240W AC adapter in some countries.

 

Laptop came, 180W PSU =(

Sent in a request!

 

So I got my replacement PSU shipped from Alienware, it shipped from the USA and it was sent by Fedex International Priority. So long story short, I just got a letter today from Fedex wanting me to pay them $30 in duty/tax and another $10 for "Advancement Brokerage Fee". Gotta love it, $40.

Nothing comes the easy way for me it goes to show.

 

Okay so after 4 contact attempts on the premium phone support, I managed to convince them to send me a new 240Watt adapter, and even then they tried to prevent me asking one, as in askign technical questions, but I knew what I was doing, and didn't gave them a single opportunity to accept the 180 watt I had.

So they did send me it for free, though they took the 180 watt one, not that I care that much, in the end I got my adapter.

PS: I'm from belgium.

 

Happy you got it in the end. Disgusted to read about the trouble you went through, and how many times you called "premium support"

 

I'm surprised they haven't just automated the change of PSU's when people configure the 980M like they used to do with the previous generation models. They must be hoping that customers won't realize it. How cheap can Alienware be? It's disgusting. Just upsets me every time I visit this sub-forum now.

 

[email protected] said to me the other day.



Thank you for contacting us.



Please accept our apologies for the inconveniences you have experienced with placing your order and being shipped with the 180 W power Supply,



Let me inform you that we are correcting these orders and changing the AC adapter to a 240 W before they ship. Nevertheless, if by any chance this unit ships arrives with the wrong adapter, we would appreciate if you can let us know and we will create a Dispatch to ship you one overnight.



If you have any additional concerns, please do not hesitate to reply back to us.

Best regards,

 

Well, that's good. Let's just hope it's a legitimate claim. I've had their reps. tell me the most ridiculous things.

 

Well i guess i will find out in a week or so. Their tech support for me has always been top notch but their sales team must pass around meth pipes at lunch.

 

Guys, I installed the bios fix prior to getting my 240watt adapter, since I I didn't though I'd manage yo convince them to send me the 240watt one.

But now I'm using the 240watt one with the bios ment for the 180watt fix. Any of you lnow if this does have any negative consequences for my system or it's performance?

 

No laptop power supply I know of is 100% efficient. I would expect a laptop power supply to have very high efficiency ratings over desktops. Therefore the full 180W may not be delivered, depending if the 180W is taken as the total consumption of the actual PSU, and not the actual delivered power. With that in mind, let say for arguments sake that this PSU has a total consumption of 180W and has of efficiency rating either 95% or 90%, therefore the following must be true and the PSU falls short of 180W delivered power.

95% of 180 = 171W

90% of 180 = 162W

 

But that's not how power supply ratings work. A power supply should be able to deliver its full power to the machine. A 90% efficient supply will deliver 180w to the machine but draw 200w from the wall to do so. An 80% efficient supply will draw 225W from the wall to deliver 180w.

 

It's entirely possible that Clevo simply has a far better "hybrid BIOS" than Dell does.

I faced the same issue when I installed a 980M on my AW17 R1. There was a massive difference in performance between the 180w & 240w PSU.

 

Did anyone outside the USA who got a replacement PSU get billed by Fedex for duty/taxes? I did even though I didn't pay anything for the PSU.

I wouldn't think the 980M would be able to run off 180W PERIOD considering the other draws of the machine. I'd say clevo must have a hybrid system or something else going on.

 

No, you are the first person that experienced this from what I can read on various forums.

 

Alright we'll see what alienware says about it then. The fedex letter on the top right says "Failure to pay will affect your credit." so hopefully this doesn't end up dragging on. Thanks

 

Hello, I'm from Malaysia. Thanks to the people on this forum I managed to get a 240w PSU delivered to me tomorrow. It took almost a week for me to convince them though. And guys with the 15, please don't use the Ao2 bios, it's raising my cpu temps by almost 8 degrees Celcius.

 

Yeah, I'd avoid the A02 for sure.


So I have a resolution on being charged $40 by Fedex for alienware sending me a replacement PSU. Fedex said it was a mistake on their end and didn't end up billing the tax back to Alienware. So it looks like it's all going to be billed backed to Alienware now so this has been solved thank god.

 

Called in Tech support today, and they said i should get the AC Adapter by Thursday, Will be just nice by the time the laptop arrives

 

Still no update on my parcel. Still in the USA so far. Any update for you?

 

checked like 5 min ago still not update, my guess is by wed should have an update and cant trust the Purolator Delivery date which stated supposed to be today

 

Yeah purolator are a garbage company. Still significantly better than UPS. UPS don't do their job, I've sat waiting for UPS and when they come I go to my door and half the time find them just leaving slips and retreating immediately, they don't even try to deliver the package.
It's ok though, because I call the UPS phone number and their dispatcher makes them come back and deliver it to me because of my complaint

At least Purolator actually knock or ring for me first.

 

I'm from Italy, in my case I got it after about 5 hours phone calls with Premium support, various diagnostics tests, Furmark and also forced BIOS flashing to A02 against my will (corporate policies).

Results are the only thing that matters, right?

I'm happy for your issue being solved bnosam.

 

lucky in my case i guess, I havent received the laptop yet, all i told the agent was i need new Ac adapter as the 180 watts throttle the CPU, he sent it right away

 

I got the 240w psu today and firestrike scores is 8430 compared to previous 7700 on 180w. But I had to return the 180w though.

 

I tried again, over in this region, Dell refused to give me 240W. I asked to buy brand new 240W, they also refused to sell me the unit, saying not compatible with the machine and that they have no such listed part anyhow. Dell went further to say and even if they did have a 240W PSU, they still would not sell me the unit. Even saying that if I did use a 240W power supply other than the 180W then I would not be covered by warranty. At this point I got tired of the wrestle war, as is apparent that I can never get a 240W unit from Dell even if I should try and buy one, then I figured why am I having so much discussions and offering to pay more on top of the already high price, at this stage I give up and filed for a refund instead, at least they could process that! It is a shame although, looks like I will be using my Alienware M17x R3 for bit longer yet.

 

I had similar experience, the rep even told me that the replacement is only available in the U.S. I kept bugging the guy for another 2 days and finally he said it got approved and sent me the psu on the following day.

 

Over here with Dell ANZ it doesn't work like that with call center that we get connected to. They don't know anything, then put through to deal with the tossers in Australia at 2nd level technical support which in my view worse than the sales reps, they just refuse and even if asked to get back to you, they just don't. I little bit more than p*ssed off right now for all the trouble I had to go through. I did try pretty hard, just wasn't going to work out the way I am trying to I guess, given that I did read through here and take suggestions and know what I am talking about. Moral of the story, don't buy from Dell ANZ they will not care the customer (the customer is not right, they are) and leave you high and dry.

 

I don't think it's them not caring about the customer. I think it's them most likely knowing the certifications and regulations in your country. They may not be legally allowed to give you one unless it was certified for the machine first.

 

Mate, that is so far over their head, that there is no way Dell ANZ could even get near that conclusion.

My main problem is that Dell ANZ is all I have to negotiate and deal with.

Would of been good, but is not to be now.

 

That may be the official statement they were given. It's possible for certain regions, they aren't as stupid as you think.

 

Each region is fairly independent from what I can tell so i would not be surprised.

 

I tried Dell ANZ one more time (ANZ is the region), this is what they said to a lengthy email "Unfortunately as advised by our Tech Support Agent the 240W power supply in unavailable at our stock for Australia."

 

This is most likely a certification issue for Australia. I would say you may be out of luck.

 

I am in New Zealand not Austraila (but they just automatically assume that everyone lives in Austraila).
ANZ which is Austraila and New Zealand. I doubt that would be certification. More like low priority, under resourced and service level reduced.

 

I don't know how it works in New Zealand, but don't be surprised if it is a certification thing and they're just following laws in your country. Do some research and find out.

 

Australia and New Zealand both share the same electric devices certification. RCM Electrical Safety Mark.

 

I am still working on it, I don't know what the deal is with offical electrical standards but would expect Dell to be able to answer that one for their own products. All I know is that today one of the sales reps sent me a quote for a 970M based machines, obviously no issues with this GPU and 180W from what I read. Good thing is the rep is actually go to chase some of the emails I was sending in regards to the 980M further up the chain, so hopefully still maybe a tiny bit of hope there. When I asked about what other Alienware 240W adaptors cost, said would be a few hundred dollars. Kind of awkward right now as refused delivery. If not or to late, then there is the fail safe 970M that is fine with the 180W, wasn't what I was aiming for but is a lot cheaper than 4K and 980M not to mention I would have to pay extra for 240W PSU which then makes it even more expensive.

 

Hello, I'm 95% decided on an Alienware 15 (4710HQ, 16GB RAM, 970M, 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD, FHD).

I've just been reading a lot about this PSU issue, and wanted to check with you guys first, if a model with these specs will work ok with the 180W PSU.

I've already talked with local support from my country and it seems they don't know about this yet.

Thanks.

 

Not sure if there is an issue with the 970m and the 180w as its rated 19w less, but someone here might have more info on that. Just remember these units are not upgradeable so make sure u have the one u want for years to come.

 

I am about to reorder it with 970M as draws about 90.5W under load and peak stress test (prime 95 plus furmark) have it at 165.9W
Means there is a little bit leaft over for battery charging and useful for some overclocking. No one runs prime 95 and furmark for anything useful, so there should be a lot spare power remaining with 970M and 180W configuration

Check under power comsuption here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-15-Notebook-Review.136667.0.html

Other than that the 980M is not worth the trouble for those who are refused the 240W, which means you will need to pay extra and source your own 240W on top of the increased price for the 980M. Not so much an issue for US region but a unnecceary hassle never the less.

 

Well looks like mine shipped with the 240w psu, says 100-240w right on it. Does the bios still recognize the 240w as a 180w?

Edit:

looks like im an idiot and misread the psu ....180w hope they send me the 240 haha

 

I have a dell 240w PSU (P/N: FWCRC) that I don't think I'd need (AW15 + 970m). I'd be open to trading someone for their original.

 

The current Dell representative I have has promised over and over that the 180 Watt PSU will power the 980m and 4710HQ. Going so far as to say it is engineer tested and approved, and that if I am unhappy with the performance I can receive a full refund...

 

It will with the hybrid BIOS. Basically under peak conditions its designed to pull power from the battery rather than pulling power from the wall.

Now is that ideal? Nope. But it seems to be the way Dell and Clevo have gone this generation.