Random Issues with my 17R4

I am having the most random issues with my 17R4 currently. Specs are as follows:
7820HK (4ghz w/ 180mv undervolt). Temps get up to 175*F at highest.
GTX1080 (Stock, no OC or OV/UV). Temps get up to 165*F at highest. Wattage is anywhere from 140-195.
PCH gets up to 155*F
Toshiba SSD M.2 gets up to 145*F
1440p 120hz Screen (Newer without lines)
I have also pasted with Conductonaut, taking all precautions except for the foam dam (which I didn't see on here till a month+ after I pasted.

1) While playing most games I do not notice any kind of flicker but while playing Heroes of the Storm/Starcraft 2 I have noticed a random flicker on the screen, a single 1/4-1/8 sec black screen and back to normal as if nothing happened and audio is not affected. This occurs randomly and not after any real length of time and normally several minutes apart.
2) The other issue is if I turn my FPS limiter up from 90-100 to unlimited, then after a bit of time I will get the usual stutter freezes that slowly get longer until they last for a bit over half a second, audio is unaffected and afterwards act like nothing has happened.

During my gaming on Starcraft 2, CPU hit 154*F, GPU hit 151*F, PCH hit 145*F and SSD hit 136*F. The micro flicker listed below in "1" was occuring at those lower temperatures, but playing Elder Scrolls Online where the temps are higher, I am not seeing either of the two issues, but if I let FPS run free, "2" starts happening.

Would both of these issues be related to the VRMs/GDDR5 chips on the GPU not having enough thermal padding? And since I have a month left on my warranty, (This was an upgrade/replacement from a 17xR4) should I get Alienware involved on replacing stuff, or once the warranty runs out I am done, even mid repair process? Also, Warranty is at its 5 year mark as well, so no extending for me unless someone knows a way how to do it.

Thanks for taking time to check this out, thanks.

 

nvidia driver version?
Try elevating the back of the laptop and see if it fixes random issue you observed.
Some games might introduce brief stutters but go back to normal. Temps looks fine to me.
Are you using XTU or Throttlestop to undervolt?

 

Forgot to mention that, it's on a CoolerMaster U3 cooling pad. Using Throttlestop as XTU on a prior installation of Windows introduced BSoDs, no idea why though. Not at computer atm but I think the driver installed was the newest roughly a month back.

And the blank screens are brief but occur with quite a bit of randomness and can go many minutes in between. But the stutters occur with a relative degree of consistency and get slightly worse as it goes, but can be a few minutes apart. Haven't had these issues till more recently.

 

Hmm yes, #2 sounds like the GPU vram stutter issue, only way to cure that is to do it yourself or send it to a pro. Dell engineers are monkeys that don't understand the issue and will likely break something else while opening it up.

I would DEFINITELY open up your laptop and protect your motherboard from that LM. It's not worth the risk!!

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Do you have XTU completely uninstalled? Have you reset BIOS settings to default before applying bios oc? What's your BIOS oc settings? What's your Throttlestop settings?

Also, when gaming for an hour +, what's your SSD temp? (In Celsius please) which SSD do you have?

FYI the more GPU demanding the game, the worse the stutter issues will be

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The SSD I have is the Toshiba 1TB M.2 drive. And Dell wouldn't understand my drive was overheating by hitting 85*C and causing my r4 to BSoD, I took the issue into my own hands and created a 'bridge' of sorts with two sided thermal tape and some thermal pads, bridged the SSD to the closest fan and now temps are 60*C at highest, even for hours on end in games like Elder Scrolls Online and other games.

XTU has been fully uninstalled, bios reset and OC in bios is 40x on all four cores, no over volt and wattage set to 100 watts max. When in Throttlestop, all settings match properly and the stutter in both cases, blank screen flicker and the lurches, occur with 0mv undervolt and with my current undervolt of 180mv.

As for the very very fast blank screen flickers, what can cause that? They don't occur regularly, and happen for just a frame or two every few minutes.

 

To be honest i had that as well as the stuttering like you and when it fixed the pads on the VRMs, both issues went away. Congrats on the SSD mod!

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I will have to order the pads most likely, I know there are a few guides out with some different information as to how to pad, any particular guide to follow?

And on the topic about the SSD Mod, it is rather ugly looking but I can probably refine it. I bought the M.2 cut copper heatsink (chunk of copper with grooves cut crosswise through it), used some double sided thermal tape at the left side of the SSD, attached the thin heatsink that it came with to it and went straight up to connect it to the fan shroud with some more double sided tape. Then used some more double sided tape on the thin heatsink and some thermal pads running along it, not only to help spread heat better but to bulk it out so it lightly presses on the bottom frame to hold the mod in place. Acts like a heatpipe for my uses.

For my PCH, I used some more of the thermal pads. I cut an outline using the mid frame as the template from the PCH to the heat pipes, two thick on the 1.5mm pads and at the PCH itself 3 thick to make sure it enveloped it. If you look at my laptop with the bottom off, you cannot see this mod at all.

68*C for the PCH and 60*C for the SSD with the mods I listed above, Do you see any issues down the road I may have with those? And the best guide or any good pictures that you personally go by for the pads?

 

Hey that sounds interesting do you have some pictures, that'll be easier to see if you're likely to have any issues?

Have you checked by looking down the underside of the laptop from one side that there's no bulging? Don't want the pressure of the back panel bending your mobo because of the mods.

Pads wise i just make sure they're all contacting. I also try to move them with tweezers and shine a flashlight behind to see for gaps. Are you using squishy artic pads?



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The blue pads used: ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UYTU6Z6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

The lighting in my apartment is rather poor so the flash caused by my Galaxy S8+ caused the blue pads to turn white. Let me know your thoughts on it such as it being pads as the only thing I need or anything. I am going into as much detail as I can here, hoping it gives a decent impression. And the pads you use in particular for the repadding on the GPU/CPU, you think you could link them to me from amazon or wherever you purchased yours so I can have as close to perfect as possible?

This is a run of Valley after 4 passes through benching, then benching the 5th and recording (Giving the machine some built up heat first):


This is how my HWinfo64 temps look across the board after the above, and Prime95 for 20 minutes. Also, after finishing anything intensive, my CPU drops back to the Minimum temps pretty fast. It is 24*C ambient in my apartment unit:


This is how it looks from the bottom:


This is how it looks with the bottom (Panel Removed):


This one is the mod to the SSD and the "Bridge" from the SSD to the Fan:


These two pictures are the thermal pad bridge I made from both sides:

 

Yah those drives get hot. Luckily I had pro support so they sent me a 512gb samsung960 evo bec the toshiba got so hot!

 

@cskx2001
There's some FW update for Toshiba SSD and see if changes anything.

 

Nice, thanks for the info and good work!

Would you be able to run crystal disk mark 3-4 times in a row with 5 runs and 16GB set and post the results of the last run with hwinfo. Just want to check it works at full speed and isn't throttling to keep the temps down.

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These can also get hot, much hotter actually. I've had 3 so I know, your looking for Drive Temperature 2 in hwinfo whilst under heavy load (like multiple crystal disk mark runs)

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Every time I went to re run the test, the temperatures would drop back down to near minimum temp every time. Also on my drive, there is no Drive Temp 2, just the one sensor reading.
I have not applied the latest firmware yet (need to locate my USB stick that I think my cat stole).

Also, on the picture I posted, the top left info is in *F, but the *C conversion at max temps is 83.333*C. And that was simply doing a file transfer TO the drive from my HDD. Should I complain to Dell/Alienware due to the speeds being lackluster or is that acceptable for the Toshiba.

And on a side note, is there anything aside thermal pads I could use for the GPUs VRMs and GDDR5 chips? I have heard randomly about using Ceramique in place of it as its a bit thicker and will harden a bit. Any thoughts?

 

Hi there, The "Drive Temperature 2" sensor is only available on Samsung drives and this is the actual controller temp. All "Drive Temperature" sensors from all manufacturers is just the memory chip temp.

I see you have a Toshiba XG3 which are pretty bad. so 83C for the memory Temps on an SSD is pretty terrible just for a file copy and will only get a lot worse during a benchmark or heavy load with greater ambient temps. I'd definitely replace that POS. Ask for an XG5 or a Samsung. Run two or 3 CDM runs and screenshot highest temp. You can then send this as evidence to Dell. Max operating temperature is 82 or 83C I think according to Toshiba's spec.

For the GPU VRMs you can use a pad like Arctic but if contact is light or not quite there then you can fill the gap with "k5 pro"

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@Pete Light I just went crazy on CDM v6 with insane settings to test the limits of NVMe drive. PM951
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q=512,T=64) : 1087.025 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q=512,T=64) : 321.160 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T=18) : 1017.106 MB/s [ 248316.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T=18) : 312.982 MB/s [ 76411.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T=19) : 1018.392 MB/s [ 248630.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T=19) : 314.600 MB/s [ 76806.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T=17) : 516.896 MB/s [ 126195.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T=17) : 312.389 MB/s [ 76266.8 IOPS]

Test : 1024 MiB [C: 16.1% (38.4/237.8 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=10 sec]
Date : 2017/12/10 15:04:43
OS : Windows 10 [10.0 Build 15063] (x64)
I'd love to see the benchmarks on XG5. Change the settings of CDM Queues and Threads.

 

The top left temps were before mod, the current temps are on right, after mod. I'll just remove my modification and give dell a call after stressing the SSD to get its temps up, then bench while on phone to verify its issue. How hard will I be arguing with the phone person ya think?

And I'm just trying to figure what could be slightly wrong to rectify it before new years (warranty ends then, been renewed to 5yrs already). I've tried extending but 5 years is the cap sadly.

My heatsink as well is the S-J-1 variant, given my cpu temps, wouldn't even bother trying for an S-J-2 version, or could be worse than what I have?

Thanks for all the input, I'll be posting in here as I go. One last question, what happens if my warranty ends while in the middle of a major troubleshooting that could go on for a week or two with Dell/AW?

 

This is the parts list of what they are sending me. I took off my SSD mod to verify the overheat, played Prey before calling and SSD was at 80*C, the tech did some tests with it running knowingly and SSD hit 82*C with speeds dropping down to below 50MB/sec. The audio jacks are a tad loose, one USB port is loose (can wiggle plug and disconnects) AND keyboard lights flash when it happens. The guy (from Costa Rica) also said he couldn't upgrade me to a samsung ssd, but the items below say otherwise. Thus everything below is being replaced:

1 D91R7 ASSY,PWA,PLN,I7-7820HK,G3,8,GS
1 PC0XY CRD GDE,W8P/10P/10H,SERVICE
1 WNCVH SVC,ALSOSHIP,7RMPY QTY2,06335
1 66H10 SSDR,1TB,P34,80S3,SMSNG,PM961
1 Y90RR AC Adapter, 330W, 19.5V, 3 Pin, 7.4mm, C14 Straight Power Cord, Delta Products, (Lot 6)
1 5120P Power Cord, 3 Pin, 6 feet, 125 Volts, 13 Amp, SPT2, Unshielded, (NEMA 5-15P)
1 0WN4Y KYBD,103,US,ENG,M16IXF-BW
1 GRVVT TAPE,ADH,FMTD,ANW,CASSINI
1 G3PWR IO BOARD NV 17
1 0N2MV ASSY I/O Board Cable, (for AW17R4)

 

Hey buddy, sorry it took a while but here it is:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 6.0.0 x64 (C) 2007-2017 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : https://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

Sequential Read (Q=512,T=64) : 1809.316 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q=512,T=64) : 423.032 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 8,T=18) : 884.101 MB/s [ 215845.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 8,T=18) : 457.168 MB/s [ 111613.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T=19) : 886.813 MB/s [ 216507.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T=19) : 465.469 MB/s [ 113639.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T=17) : 468.512 MB/s [ 114382.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T=17) : 460.577 MB/s [ 112445.6 IOPS]

Test : 1024 MiB [C: 13.6% (64.6/475.1 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=10 sec]
Date : 2017/12/16 20:04:12
OS : Windows 10 [10.0 Build 15063] (x64)

 

From your screenie, I go to know that Toshiba is notoriously hotter than other SSDs in your AW 17. Even mine has the same SSD temps 55C on benchmarking constantly all thanks to thermal pads. judal57 was the one suggested to apply some pads. 20C reduction on 100% SSD load. Before it was 85C, now maxes out at 75C (if ambient temp is >30C).
If you're interested to improve the nvme performance see the post #43{Its not approved by Fernando since he told me he'll test them some time later} https://www.win-raid.com/t26f29-How...e-performance-of-Intel-Chipset-systems-2.html

 

So I have some good news and bad news.

The good first, my Toshiba XG3 was swapped with a pm961. It does have use on it though but still shows 100% life.

The bad, first motherboard swap due to loose audio ports and usb ports... no audio devices are detected. AW Sound won't even install. I think the audio processing chip is broke, everything is fully connected. And the power button takes some mashing to turn on.

The tech couldn't get the computer to boot when it was reassembled, but I was able to get it running. From bios splash going away to desktop coming up, not even 3 seconds. Shutting down takes maybe 2 seconds.

Any ideas on the audio? Or am I best waiting till Wednesday for another motherboard?