*OFFICIAL* Alienware m15 R2 / m17 R2 Owner's Lounge

I feel your pain. I used a 15R4 for my dissertation partially because of the hardware configuration. Both the Tesla V100 in the AGA and the GTX 1060 dGPU can operate headless if you disable the built-in display and only use an external monitor through the thunderbolt port that has the Intel UHD 630 wired to it.

 

Your University had a good sponsor I am guessing! Tesla are hard to get here! Very expensive due to import duty.

 

Has anyone managed to shunt mod their m15 R2?

 

Nobody's posted anything about it yet so probably not.

 

Hi all, anyone familiar with 2019 M15R2 9750H/2060 overheating and if the heatsinks tend to be poorly misaligned from the factory? Hitting 101C on load at full speeds. Dell sending tech to replace heatsink/fans, got thicker Coolermaster Maker paste, any tips on the heatsink alignment job and repasting to look out for, or improvements to do during the job, and how much of a difference they make?

 

Poor heatsink quality is quite common for alienware.

After a replacement + repaste it shouldn't throttle anymore.

 

Thank you. Hitting 101C on full CPU load at 4.0ghz. Cores 0, 2, 4 overheating, Cores 1, 3, 5 upto 15C lower. Also have a severe intermittent stutter where the system freezes for a moment then returns.

Is it advised to replace/fit thermal pads/shims etc as well at the same time?

 

Probably the same treatment as recommended for the m15: undervolt, repad using Gelid GP Extreme, repaste using Phobya Nanogrease Extreme or LM.

Dell tech is unlikely to do this for you properly.

 

Could you please share or direct to any info on how to re-pad properly in terms of fit and measurements etc? Since I have a tech able to come, how would you suggest to handle? Have never done this.

 

It was a first for me too, I found some photos and rough sizing info on the Web (prob in the m15 thread, same motherboard), purchased the pads, and took exact measurements after removing the heatsink.

 

Have undervolted and cooling pad already, instantly overheats under full load on Cores 0,2,4.

Have seen fujipoly and other pads recommended also, any thoughts on others?

Would you suggest letting the tech do the heatsink/fan replacement job with Dell supplied, and my paste, and just trying that first, and if doesn't work, trying the pads myself?

Could you help me understand what/how needs to be measured and in what spots the pads need to go?

 

If the tech needs to replace the heatsink, then talking them into doing the repaste might be worth a shot. I doubt they would repad though.

I understand fujipoly has less desirable mechanical properties (it's less soft, therefore could provide detrimental sink resistance) and would dismiss it on that basis.

 

Google is your friend.

https://amp.reddit.com/r/Alienware/comments/cv8fzc/m15_i78750_repaste_before_after/

Basically, remove the heatsink, clean cpou and GPU + heatsink, take a picture of the existing pad layout. Measure all pad pieces, remove, clean up, cut new, replace. If you get the aforementioned sheets you'll have enough to cover, assuming you cut sensibly to leave little scraps. It's mostly 0.5 pads + 2 1.5mm or 1mm strips.

Once you repad, don't apply paste yet, do a fit test. You should see nice and even contact on all pads after dry mounting the sink. Once. Happy apply paste and mount sink. Remember about screw order as per the service manual.

Hth

 

In this case would it make sense to let the tech replace the parts/use my paste (he said ok), watch/learn, and if still needed try the other stuff myself later - pads, shims, pch, lap heatsink etc?

Any ideas on the momentary system stutter/freezes?

 

Sure, if they are happy to do it. Chances are a repaste would suffice. When I had a tech over, he was in a hurry and convinced me the Toothpaste on the new mobo might be good enough. BS.


Sounds bad. Shouldn't happen even out if the box on Dell Toothpaste. Try a clean reinstall, if it doesn't help push for mobo replacement or system exchange. Good old Dell, my mobo was faulty on arrival.

BTW sorry, I noticed this is the R2 forum. Ignore the pad sizing advice I gave you, as well as the link - it was specific to R1. You need to find info pertaining to the R2, or take the opportunity of tech visit to take 3D measurements of the pads. There was this guy called @littlezipp who might be able to help you if he is around.

You will also have to deal with the idiotic inverted mobo in the R2, pay attention to that during the tech's visit.

 

Stutter most likely due to bad mobo/system? That's what I thought and why I don't want to waste too much time/effort myself if mobo/system is bad, can't be fixed, but Dell support wants to try this first.

What can you use to practically take 3D measurement of pad sizes and esp thickness?

Thank you.

 

Yeah, sounds like mobo. Any BSODs?

Obviously measuring width and height is trivial. I just used a normal ruler, but in all honesty this is not ideal for measuring depth of very thin pads (finger in the air came in handy). I've seen someone recommend calipers, although with this you would have to measure after removal I guess. Dell pads on the R1 were quite hard, but if memory serves kind of glued on, so had to rip/scrub them off.

 

Yes BSODs previously, first a ton with 'KERNEL MODE TRAP', that seemed to go away after some driver/system updates. Then more with 'WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR' that seemed to go away with reducing the undervolt. Currently not getting any but still have the system freeze/stutter, even under low load. Thoughts?

So regular ruler can work for the pad depth, of 0.3-0.5mm etc? What do you use to scrub/clean them off?

 

I don't recall temporary freezes as a result of too much UV. It would result in permanent freeze or BSOD. Stutter would be more likely related to GPU issues.

Try running it with no undervolt ideally on clean system and drivers. Any freezes or BSODs would most likely be due to mobo (in the BGA laptop sense, i. e. Including GPU).

You would struggle to differentiate between .3 and .5 mm depth using a ruler, however, you can tell. 5 from 1. and 1.5mm, which should be enough. Can use isopropyl alcohol + cotton swabs to clean paste/pads off. I used Noctua wipes to avoid the risk of any cotton fibres getting stuck on surfaces.

 

I recently got an M15 R2 OLED and it's great but when it turns on or boots up from sleep sometimes a part of the screen errors out. It's generally the same part (top left, a small box pattern) but it's slightly concerning. Sometimes there are some lines across the middle upon boot-up too. Is this normal for OLED displays or is this indicative of a problem or something shorting out? I am within the return window so I could return it or see if they will swap it for me. Anyone have advice?

 

I just got my m15 r2 , i7 9750H with rtx 2060 lunar white. does anyone know how to manually fan control? HWINFO doesn't work anymore :/

 

Guide: How to set Alien FX Lights according to the app you launch

 

You can use the Alienware Command Center to change the behaviour of fan speed and trigger levels.

 

Hello,

I have had my M15 R2 for over 6 months. It runs hotter than I would like while gaming, but I am used to it now.

I usually disable windows update (for allowed 2 months). But last week, 2 months were over and it installed some updates while restarting. On my next gaming session, the laptop crashed to a sky blue BSOD. Since then, I have been unable to completely recover my Laptop. I have tried many many times. The hardware diagnostics is clean and everything passes.

Clean installation of windows goes fine, but the moment I get to NVIDIA driver, whole laptop just freezes and starts running hot.
And on hard reset, it does not boot up. I have to boot into Revovery->Troubleshooting and do System Restore to get the Laptop up and running.

I have tried all multiple ways of installing NVIDIA Driver - Dell provided drivers, from GeForce Experience and using Windows Update as well. All the times, my laptop freezes halfway through installation and I have to repeat the above hard reset, system restore to use the laptop.

Any suggestions, what could be wrong with my System ?

 

Try these steps http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-owners-lounge.826831/page-2268#post-11032236

 

thanks. I still wish I can use HWINFO though as it's my preferred choice but this is better than nothing.

I already replaced the thermal pads with k5 pro viscous thermal paste for thermal pad, repasted gpu with kryonaut, cpu with conductonaut. Undervolted core at -125v and cache at -90v. i get max gpu temp of 80 degrees and 85 degrees while playing Division 2 at max full performance and max fan speed.

my only issue is the keyboard area and the rest of the top case is too hot too touch while on full load gaming. it's too uncomfortable while playing. is this normal?

 

R2 has issues with cooling and the temperatures you get is pretty good for 15 inch level. I have only replaced my thermal paste and still i get almost 100 degree and the area especially under WASD keys are pretty hot. This is a thin device so some warmth under the keyboard is okay. I can suggest you that if you are okay to get a little less performance you can use cool mode to reduce the temperatures.

 

The M15 R2 isnt a thin device by modern standards. Thin would be MSI GS or Asus Zephyrus series, the M15 R2 is in the medium sized category along with the MSI GE/Lenovo Legion series.

The main problem with alienwares is the inconsistent heatsink quality which is hopefully fixed with the recently released M15/17 R3 series. And even with a good heatsink its just average.

The new M15 R3 looks promising though
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-...iew-Vapor-Chamber-Saves-The-Day.483238.0.html

 

RAM is still soldered so overall the R3 is DOA rather than promising.

 

Was it ever really alive at that point

 

Is there a way to set CPU Turbo to 3.5ghz rather than 4.0? Or do I just need to set an OC profile while gaming?

 

Use throttlestop. In the FIVR tab you will see the clock speed multipliers for each core on the bottom left. Set core 5 and beyond to 35

 

Thanks man! Works perfect. I've been using a stable undervolt using this tab, but the rest of the options I hadn't messed with.

 

Hey guys

I have an m17 R2, with i7 9750H and 2070MQ. I was experiencing this weird lag when just using windows regularly. First off, I just want to say thermals are fine, and benchmarks are in line. so its not a hardware issue, probably software related.

I reset it to Alienware factory image, and I still had the lag even after all the updates were done after. It tends to happen most of the time when I'm doing a particular task and then quickly click start, it takes 2-3 seconds to snap out of it. it does happen with other things such as editing a document and clicking something. I tried uninstalling Support Assist ( As I know from the past it utilizes the CPU too much on my AW18.) I tried different things, like disabling tobii eye tracking. but still nothing. It doesn't happen all the time, but some times, and it just drives me crazy lol

I have tried using balanced, and high performance, both do the same. I tried setting a more active fan curve, that snaps in faster than the balanced mode.

Help would greatly be appreciated.

 

Do you have Windows 10 Home or Pro?

1) Disable the Program Compatibility Assistant service from services.msc

If you have Windows 10 Pro, you can also disable it from the Group Policy Editor:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Application Compatibility > Turn off program compatibility assistant

2) Ensure you have all the Windows updates and latest drivers

Finally? what AntiVirus are you using? I hope it's not Windows Defender

 

I have Windows 10 Home,
I disabled it, (hoping thats what it is). It was set to manual btw.

As for drivers and updates, everything is up to date. I had just gone back to the factory image, trying to figure this thing out. and just ran the alienware update thing to grab all drivers etc. so it should be up to date. (did this 2-3 days ago) same with windows update. everything is up to date.

As for Antivirus, I have not installed any programs yet, so none., literally on factory image since 2-3 days, and have not been using it as much till I figure out what the issue is. I have been using my AW18 in the meantime.

Now that I look at it, Windows Security is running down -_- Is that a known culprit for this?

 

I disable Windows Defender completely from within the app then also disable all its background services using this reg file:.

You can't disable any of them, they are all protected. In order to disable them, Windows Defender must be completely disabled from with in itself (as in all the switch toggles in the program) followed by immediately disabling it from Group Policy Editor so it doesn't re-enable itself then reboot.

Now you can use this reg file to disable the services then reboot:

Enable-Disable Windows Defender

Double click on Disable Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool.reg and Disable Windows Defender.reg

Reboot

 

Well, I did all of that, still no go, the issue is still there after disabling, and doing the reg thing, and rebooting...

 

So, I ran latency mon, and this is what I got.
https://prnt.sc/und2gp
https://prnt.sc/und2or
https://prnt.sc/und6xh
Any help would be appreciated, as I have not used this software before.

Update:
I just got a notification of new driver updates issued in 2 past days.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=562FN
Seems fairly inline with what I'm experiencing. Hoping this solves it.

Update 2:
Issue is still present

 

Did a bios update and undervolting has been locked.
Also all multipliers for the core clock became x45. So even on 6 cores. (have the i7-9750H)
But of course it can barely sustain those clocks, while I did thermally throttle with the undervolt of -135mv from time to time.

This is really annoying.

 

Alright so I'm using bios 1.3.1 on my m15 r2 with an i7 9750H. I scrolled through every page in this thread and couldn't find info about whether upgrading to the latest bios will affect my ability to keep my undervolt in throttle stop. Can someone deny or confirm my suspicion? I believe this was something associated with intel security vulnerabilities and plundervolt?
I'm currently on -145.5 mv offset on the core/cache and peak at 60c under full load. I'm happy with my thermals, but I wouldn't mind updating the bios if I'm able to maintain this type of performance.

 

you posted this as I was writing a reply, confirming my suspicion.

 

Can anyone remind me (if even possible) how I can downgrade a mandatory bios update?

 

I'm not sure if this will work but I seen this in a thread on dell that was marked as a solution. There's also a way to disable forced bios updates within the bios itself. Maybe worth a try? I have no idea if this will cause configuration issues, maybe someone else can chime in.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...PGRADE-YOUR-BIOS-TO-1-5-2-IF-YOU/td-p/7633928

 

Thanks a lot. This worked indeed. Managed to rollback to 1.3.1
And now can undervolt again.

Thanks again

 

My m15 r2 woke from sleep with the lid closed when it developed a low battery. Does anyone know how to prevent this? I'd rather have the battery die and lose data than it turn on when in sleep mode with the lid closed.

 

So after the fiasco, of when support tried to replace my heathsink due to the thermal issues I had on my m15 r2, And sicne I had 1 and a half month left for my premium support and accidental damage support, I thought I'd give repasting a chance.
I did a repaste using Kryonaut. It was successful. My CPU temps didn't go over 95 degrees, and My GPu didn't even reach 60 after my first couple cinebenches and time spy runs:
https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/51513408? (have a 400-500 higher score compared to before the repaste)

HOWEVER, I manage to break something unfortunately. I made a small mistake, and manage to damage 2 pins on the bridge that connects the IO board on the left side (ethernet, usb Headphonejack) with the motherboard (see image below).

This caused the USB on the left side to no longer work. Not a huge deal, as I still have my thunderbolt and 2 other usb ports to work with. But I want to fix this of course. And am planning to re-order this. But on saturday I couldn't order one, I had to wait till monday support said.

You guys have any idea price wise, how much this will cost me?

 

Just a little rant, I purchased a m17 r1 last December and immediately noticed it was extremely loud and very hot 100c. So called Dell and of course they wanted to run remote diagnostic and said it was with in limits. Well life happens so wasn't able to call them back until September of course now its definitely bad bad but refuse to exchange because more than 30 days had past. Dell didn't have the motherboard to replace so they offer exchange a m17 r2 so I agree. Computer shows up and I notice its dinged and coating is chipped, so I call them and send pictures and I'm told this is exceptable to them and if I wanted it fix they would be happy to quote me a repair price, what . I start it up and it idles at 81c and soon as you run anything, you guessed it 100c + and massive throttling .So another remote diagnostic and of course it's defective hardware, really you sent me another defective computer with the same problem. They offer to fix it, either on-site or send it to them, I told them I want a replacement or a refund, preferably a refund.
Well rant over now I sit and wait for Dell decision fingers crossed

 

Yeah thats the dell experience in a nutshell.

 

That's a lovely cautionary horror story, many thanks. My fav part is how they supplied a damaged refurb as a warranty replacement, they quoted the customer for the repairs. Where are you based, as this could be region-specific?