*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R1/R2 Owner's Lounge

This is how I fix the light leak.

View attachment 120259

This is the light leak that I had.



This is the Alienware logo LED. This is not covered, so the light leaks easily if there is a gap between the bazel and the display.
I really don't understand why Dell did not cover this LED.
And the double-sided tape that was already applied on the bazel is weak... This is why AW15 has a gap.



These two tapes are 3M's elecrical tape and double-sided tape that I used.



Using some electrical tape, I covered two led at two ends of alienware logo.



Then, I applied stronger double-sided tape right above the LED, where the original tape was applied.



Finally, put the bazel back, and the light leak/the gap is now gone!
This is just a simple work. Only took 5 mins.

 

thanks! but cant see your attachments bro

just curious, you think the same problem may manifest in the UHD screen?

 

Just re-uploaded pictures.
I think UHD screen does not have same problem, since both of the display and the logo are under glass.
But if UHD screen has same problem, it will be way more difficult to fix, cuz you have to deal with the glass first.

 

every video i play on youtube stutter in chrome. i have a GTX 980m. i have done the following:

1.updated to lastest version of adobe flash
2. turn off/on hardware accelerator in chrome.

youtube videos play fine in IE

 

so I was running the fire strike benchmark and during the first two graphics test the cpu would never go above 62 but during the physics test it would go as high as 75, my gpu never went above 60.

 

What do you all think of the base i5 4210H and 965M? I did it as a budget build because benchmarks showed the i5 and i7 to be close performance wise and if this thing has a graphics amp then I figure there was some upgradability in the future if needed.

 

hmm.. Mine is 970m, and no problem at all. So the reason might be the graphics card or driver..

 

Finally they fixed the Italian site, i will order tonight the Alienware 15 with 4K display and gtx 980m probably, i hope chatting with dell will get me a discount on a second year warranty (which everyone here seems to advice)
price is high yea but i think at the moment its the best laptop (spec wise) out there for that size.
Battery i see some guys like it, i know on my 4k will be less but i hope i can get 4 hours of just web browsing or light stuff, maybe movies.
I hope that the guys who recieved it already will post more stuff about it, i m eager to see what they think and how thy like it!

 

it looks like i will be returning my alienware 15 laptop. I'm still experiencing video stuttering while watching youtube videos on chrome. reloading pc with factory image does not solve the issue. i even updated to latest video card drivers still no go.

 

So my delivery is scheduled for feb 6th I ordere the i7 with 4k gtx 970m 128gb with 1tb and 4 years warranty with accidenta and briefcase got the deal if a lifetime at 1800 out the door

 

Is Chrome running on the dedicated GPU? Don't know if the info in this link is too old... windows 8 - How to run Google Chrome with NVIDIA card (Optimus)? - Super User

Also, is "Use hardware acceleration when available" checked in Chrome?

 

how can i tell if chrome is on running on dedicated GPU? also i have checked to use Hardware acceleration when available" its checked in chrome. what is weird is that internet explorer works fine. I 'm able to play back 60 fps video without any stuttering In IE.

 

I don't have an Alienware myself, but on other systems I've seen that I can right click an icon and select which GPU a program should be running on. Don't know if it's done the same way on this system though. Another descripton to see which GPU is running: Determining which graphics card is used with NVIDIA Optimus

 

no go, I force chrome to use Nvidia GPU, after doiing that still the same results. I still see stuttering

 

Hi all,

Thanks for the info supplied by everyone here so far. I am considering getting an AW 15 and would appreciate some further input from those of you with experience with it already.

The main spec I'm torn on is whether to get the FHD or 4K screen (which is curiously listed as 3860 x 2146 in some places and standard 3840 x 2160 in others). I would like the higher dpi for general use but seems that some programs will likely be problematic with it (e.g. Steam and GIMP). At the same time the premium Dell charge for it seems to be excessive compared to the competition and I would rather have it without the touch layer. On the other hand, the FHD is matte while I prefer gloss. So I would appreciate any thoughts current owners might have, particularly on sharpness/contrast.
Also, presumably they are both 60 Hz with minimal bleed, lag and smearing?

Does the keyboard have a numpad as usually built into the m,j,k,l, etc. keys?

Can anyone in the UK confirm if it comes with a UK keyboard or just the US one depicted?
(also the UK configuration page always shows the last option to be slightly more expensive than the second last option even when they are configured to have exactly the same spec. Presumably this is just an error and there isn't actually any difference?)

Is there any / much thermal throttling of the CPU or GPU or CPU+GPU when maxed out together?

Presumably the M.2 slots are PCI-E rather than SATA?

Is the max memory supported 16 GB or could I upgrade it to 32 GB at a later date?

Quiet operation is important to me under light load but it sounds like from the comments here that this is normally OK.

Has anyone got a link to the standard manual to go along with the service manual listed here?

Sorry for all the questions. Input on any of them would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ix

 

check your memory usage when running chrome.
that browser is known for spawning multiple instances with each running at high memory

look for chorme.exe in the applications tab in task manager

 

I don't know where in the world you are. But if by chance you are in the US then this is worth a look:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/767397-new-direction-alienware-has-taken.html

 

i really want to know what do you tell to those operators to get those kind of deals!

 

I'm from Brazil and my sister will travel next week to the US and can not ask the Internet only in stores.
But I have seen on the micro center

 

Has anyone had any luck putting a 256gb transend m.2 ssd into it?

 

Anyone with the 4k screen have pics plz

 

Both 60Hz. Dell is not charging too much for the panel. Toshiba's recommended parts supplier charges more than $800 for the Sharp 4K screen and touch layer, more than $550 for the 4K screen and almost $300 for the touch layer separately. It's the crappy Samsung screen added to a few laptops such as the Y50 and at least one other that costs much less.

I haven't calibrated the 4K screen yet, but so far it is very nice and sharp. Writing a Word document, the text looks so crisp that I can't identify individual pixels, like I can on 1080p. Very premium. The Samsung 4K pentile screen is even more jaggy than 1080p. And yes, the Alienware 15 4K screen is the standard UHD resolution.

No. Added this to the OP under the FAQ.

Sorry, I do not have adequate answers to these questions. I added a link to the full manuals page on the Alienware site. Don't bother, the service manual is better than the other Alienware 15 manuals. The other ones are kind of useless from what I remember.

 

That was my exact issue. I RMAd it, they are sending a new one now. Per my previous post, the rep told me only Nvidia 344.73 driver works, and if you search for that driver you'll find it's a Dell OEM driver...Short answer we'll have to wait for it to post, which basically puts me out of my re-imaged drive until they do.

 

My RMA is in production for the 15. So sad, I like the computer otherwise except the keyboard is off center... Also I cannot do anything with the Samsung Evo 840 ssd I have because the Nvidia driver for the 970m is a Dell OEM driver they haven't posted on their driver page yet. They said it's v 344.73, can anyone confirm that or have a way to rip the driver and post it here? Running Win7.

 

yey production complete!

 

So its shipping out?

 

I'll submit the feedback to the team in charge. I have no information about that at the moment.

Thanks for the comment!

 

looks like it is still in the factory and may start shipping out tomorrow.

Estimated delivery time has been now reduced by 6 days

 

When did you order your system?

 

970m driver is not yet posted, but you can transfer the factory recovery disk into an USB by using Alien Respawn program.
Then, install your ssd and install the factory recovery on you ssd.
I yesterday put M.2 m500 480gb ssd in, and did same thing and it works really well.

 

Please do.. It looks bad for Alienware especially with the way the 980M is throttling.. 180W is enough for the 970M model but for 980M, 240W PSU's should be shipped with the laptop...

 

The 980M is finally an option that can be ordered from Europe.

It is marked as 0€. However when you choose that graphcis card. You need to change your CPU. It's the same i7 CPU but with another ID, which costs 290€ extra, which is actually the price of the 980M upgrade fromt he 970m.

Then you can order the laptop, But still very expensive and couldn't find a working coupon code at the moment for that laptop. So will be waiting for a coupon code.

Impressively. If you order it today, it ships 3 days later. Which is still faster than US. Even though the laptop has been available for quite some time now.

 

Honestly I called so many techs till I got the one that was in the mood to shine. The laptop was orginally 3100 otd I got the rep to take it down by just being friendly and talking to him I got him to go down to 2200 otd then used a coupon from dre to bring it to 1800. So in turn before coupon I got them to give me a 4 year warranty with acc and briefcase for free. He was a really cool rep and just was talking to me about the computers and gaming etc. So I think if you look hard enough you can get a great deal.

 

Does a battery dropping from about 98% to 34% over 2 hours from only streaming a Twitch video seem that it dropped too fast?

 

That doesn't seem out of the realms of possibility, though I'd check your task manager to see what you have running that might be killing battery. Yesterday I made a point of running my system until I got a "10% battery" warning to make sure it was nicely calibrated... that included some time gaming. Took about 3 hours or so (didn't exactly time it)... so now my system on battery predicts a 100% runtime of about 3 hours. So your 2 hours or so doesn't seem quite right but about consistent with my experience.

A gaming laptop simply isn't going to have the battery life of a more "business friendly laptop". My work laptop is actually a Dell E7240 that nets me about 6 and a half hours on battery. Vital when you are on the road as much as I am

 

Porras,

I just got my Alienware 15. Will Dell supply a better power supply? I really dislike being mislead about a product. I should be able to take full advantage of the GPU and Dell should be able to provide the right power supply for me to do this.

If your answer is a no, I feel I may have to return mine.

-Sean

 

that's impressive from you , well are you, in the states? here in italy i can't find any coupons, and i for sure cannot find a good operator, i chatted 3 times, 2 to ask what's up with the GPU and he had no idea what i was talking about, and today i asked about the system, the "full optional" one (i dont want to pus ssd and stuff myself) that comes out at 2600 euros almost, so i asked the operator if he could give me more infos about the CPU, since selecting a different i7 (its the same one but i guess EU sites are still not fully perfect) he could only tell me "what you see is all you can get"...so i was like okay, you aren't telling me anything new, if i spend 2600 on a system and you can't even tell me an info about the GPU, let's see if you can give me 2 years more of warranty, all he said was "you must pay what you see".
so i just gave up, here there is no chance to make some like that work (btw 3 times on chat 2 times same guy so i don't think i will find many new operators to talk to).

 

Does anyone know which 240w PSU model would be a good purchase? I really don't want to use the lower power variant if I can manage it.

 

Yes Im in the States. That sucks they won't give you a break

 

I want some 4k pics so bad

 

Finally, my Alienware 15 is scheduled to arrive tomorrow! I'll try to post pictures after.

 

anyone have any reports on battery life? I've only seen one report so far and I'm so close to pulling the trigger on this one! I'm split between this and the Sager NP8652 but I love my current M15x and really just want a newer version of the same thing that weighs a little less.

 

nice i want to see it with screen off and on for the 4k. Thank you uofaboy

 

Speed of m.2 M500 480gb is good, but this runs SUPER hot!



I've serched this issue and many people complined about this, and no good solution for this.
Also, m550 has this issue.
So, I'm thinking returnning this one and getting sandisk x300s.
Do you guys have any other suggestions?

 

As a sort of response to dogbirds... decided to run a CrystalDiskMark on the M.2 LITEONIT 240GB drive that ships from the factory in the Alienware 15. My results are attached.




Now, after all the complaints in this forum about this drive, I have to say I'm pretty impressed. It did a really good job, only falling behind the Crucial that dogbirds posted in random writes.

 

How about temperature?
m500 goes up to almost 80 degrees C, which is super hot.

 

Interested in seeing how this model turns out. Don't think I will buy one, but I have good coupons.

 

FYI: Dell is still handing out the 17% coupons. And I have two.

 

The original order was at Jan 16, the revised one was on Jan 23 (they had to cancel and generate a new order number for some weird reasons)

 

so I went ahead and install the Nvidia drivers 347.12 but now every time I plug and unplug my HDMI cable my Alienware 15 goes to blue screen and has to restart, so I'm guessing the only fix for this issue is to use the dell official drivers.