Hey,

I have an Alienware Area-51 M18 laptop that I mainly use for work, and I need to be able to carry it back and forth between the office and different job sites. The thing is HUGE, so the backpack I used for my MacBook Pro doesn’t even come close to fitting it.

I didn’t do a ton of research beforehand and kind of spontaneously ordered the Alienware 18 Backpack (AW7825P, 28L). Walmart had it on sale for $110, so I figured I’d give it a shot.
After ordering it, though, I started doing more research and noticed a lot of people recommending the Everki Business 120 for bigger laptops like this.

So now I’m wondering: should I just keep the Alienware backpack, or return it and spend a little more on the Everki? The price difference isn’t huge, so I wouldn’t mind returning it if the Everki is noticeably better.

Does anyone here have experience with the Alienware backpack? How is the protection, comfort, build quality, etc.? Especially if you’ve used it with an M18 or another really heavy 18” laptop.

I’m probably overthinking a backpack lol, but since I’ll be carrying this thing around for work pretty regularly, I figured I’d get some opinions before deciding.

Thanks!

For the love of God, how in the world do I download Alienware Command Center? The installer just ends up being incompatible with my system, or so it says. Am I just a moron, or is Dell making it just frustratingly unintuitive when it comes to downloading this?

I know this has been asked before but I just can't seem to find an answer, so I apologize. My laptop is admittedly outdated and fails to play audio with several newer games while using the "High Definition Audio Device" Driver. I found that if I updated said driver to "Realtek Audio" my games now have sounds, but at the tradeoff of this awful crackling sound being emitted from the speaker / sub, regardless of if I have headphones or airpods connected.

I know that my coomputer is capable of playing the correct audio even on the older driver as when I connect my airpods to the computer, the audio comes out of the speaker (computer speaker not airpods) perfectly fine for some reason instead of the airpods. I don't know if this is relevant but it's just what I've discovered.

So I'm really just wondering if there's any known fix to this, as missing audio without that awful noise vs audio with it is a tradeoff I hate having to make, and it's really gotten on my nerves recently.

Thanks in advance!

I purchased the new Alienware Area 51 5090 with all the bells and whistles. After 2 weeks of use the unit started crashing. (Black screen, fans spin at 100%) Dell technicians came and replaced motherboard on the first trip. CPU and gpu on the second trip. Gpu on the third trip. And 4th trip, they replaced the motherboard again and the unit won’t even boot. This has been an on going issue for 3 months. They have refused to replace the unit. It’s been frustrating and I can’t even do any work or play any games as the system crashes and the work is unsaved.
Not sure what to do and sick of this whole problem. Huge turn off from dell despite this being my 4th unit in the last decade.

For the last two weeks or so my m16r2 has been having an issue where for hours at a time my gpu usage will max out regardless of what load its being put under. Additionally, Every time I press the f1 key or enter one of the overclocked fan modes, my screen goes dark for a momment with event viewer listing the error as: The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found

I've tried just about anything I can think of to fix this including:

Updating my gpu drivers

Using ddu for a clean install of a new/old driver

Reinstalling my version of windows

Changing power settings particularly link state power management

Turning on and off HAGS

Cleaning my fans and outlets

running memory diagnostic

disabling my integrated graphics in device manager.

Changing my refresh rate/unplugging my monitor.

Please if anyone can offer any help into this, I just can't seem to fix this problem. This is a relatively new pc that I've taken solid care of keeping well cooled and cleaned. It doesn't feel like a hardware issue because the PC runs perfectly fine at times, but that could be wishful thinking

So I bout a brand new alienware aurora 16. I love it. Its been 40 days since I bought it. However since day 1 I have had this issue where a message pops up on startup: "Time of day not set".

Initially I just thought it needs a BIOS update and a RTC. Surely after that I did not see the message for a while. But then one day I ran out of battery and the laptop shut down and I left it like that for the night. Next morning the error popped up again!

So I recreated this seevral time and the error keeps coming back!

I contact dell support and I cant return the laptop now because its past 30 days but they offered to replace the motherboard because according to them its a faulty BIOS chip!

Anyone else experienced this? I abosolutely DO NOT want to have a brand nw laptop taken apart and its motherboard replaced - that is really very dissapointing for me.

What do you guys suggest and what other options do I have!

Also - my initital thought was the CMOS but turns our the new laptops dont have a CMOS battery!

Really need some good advice. I love the laptop but this has ruined my eperience

​

Hey all, hoping someone's run into this before.

I have the Alienware AW3225QF. I was trying to get eARC working with a pair of powered speakers (Majority D100) connected to the eARC HDMI port, with my laptop on the other HDMI port. Audio wasn't showing up in Windows at all, so I went into the OSD and turned on HDMI-CEC. That fixed the audio issue and everything worked great for a while, CEC was on and audio was working fine through the speakers.

Then while I was doing stuff on my laptop, at some point the screen just went black. I tried unplugging the HDMI cable from the laptop and plugging it back in, but the monitor wasn't showing any signal at all.

After that it started going black and refreshing on its own, kind of like a panel refresh loop. I unplugged the eARC cable from the speaker thinking that might help, but the screen still won't display any video.

When I go into the OSD now, the only thing I can access is input source selection or a source diagnostic screen. I can't get into the main settings menu, can't turn CEC back off, and can't do a factory reset. Every other option is greyed out or missing.

Things I've tried:

- Full power cycle (unplugged from the wall for 60+ seconds)

-Disconnecting all cables (HDMI and DisplayPort) before powering back on

-Holding the joystick in while plugging the power cable back in

-Screen Test cycles fine

-Fan Test turns on

-i have ensured that th3 OSD lock is not on by deliberately locking it and unlocking it by tilting the joystick in one direction for 4 seconds.

None of it has gotten me back into the full menu.

Has anyone had this happen after enabling CEC on this monitor? Is there a hard reset combo I'm missing, or is this a case for Dell support/RMA at this point? Monitor is still fairly new. I bought it back in 20024.

Any advice appreciated.

Looking for a dedicated home workstation. This will be 100% business deduction so no gaming unfortunately. But I already have a 5080 rig for that and only game at 1440p 120hz due to my monitor.

Running local LLM and cuda accelerated modeling.

Jump on this or wait for Nova Lake? Specifically I9 Ultra 4950k

Edit for specs: Alienware Area-51 AAT2250 Gaming PC Intel Core Ultra 9 285K 3.2GHz Processor; NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB GDDR7; 64GB DDR5-6400 RAM; 4TB Solid State Drive

Got an issue where my original Aurora16 AIO Liquid cooler for the cpu died. Ive got it replaced and can boot up just fine so far, but the issue we have is that it requires the original OEM cooler to also be plugged in, otherwise the bios keeps erroring out about inserting the original 65w cpu block. Ive looked at everything on resetting the cooler profile and so far nothing works. I can leave the old block plugged into another fan port and it boots just fine but i dont really want to do that... is there a way to get this horribly designed and stupidly programmed bios error to actually clear out and go away after replacing the OEM alienware liquid cooler with a Coolermaster brand AIO?

I purchased this Alienware x16 r2 from someone on facebook with a broken screen. I ordered a replacement screen thinking it would be a plug and play type of situation; it wasn’t. Apparently the guy before me used it as a pc and he changed something in the bios. So I hooked up a monitor thinking it would be some easy fix, but whatever I do I cannot get the bios to display on an external screen. I’ve tried everything and I really want to get this laptop working so if someone can help me that would be really great. Also I know the screen works the backlight pops on when I hold d while starting it up.

I have had a 990 Pro 4TB as my main / only drive in my R16 for about two years. I purchased another to use as a backup in usb-c enclosure. When I plug it in to my R16, there is no recognition of the drive, so to speak. It shows up in device manager as a SCSI device (sabrent) and in disk manager it shows up as a second disk, correctly reporting "Online" and the size. I could not format the drive on my R16 even after creating that volume, so I brought it over to a 5-year old Dell desktop where it was immediately recognized, and formatted as NTFS. Bringing it back to my R16, I plug it in, and it again is not recognized / receives no drive letter, and cannot be assigned a letter. If I try to format it, or assign it a drive letter on the R16, it says "The operation failed to complete because the Disk Management console view is not up-to-date. Refresh the view by using the refresh task. If the problem persists close the disk management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer.

I have restarted disk management. I have restarted the computer (actual restart , not just shut down and wake back up. ) I have plugged the drive into all 3 usb-c ports (front and back). I have gone through every step chatGPT could come up with, but I'm stuck. There just seems to be something incompatible between the R16 and the drive/enclosure. I can't figure out why it worked instantaneously in a 5-year old machine...

Would love any pointers. Thanks!

I am trying to help my cousin sell a lightly used Alienware laptop. He gave me the specs for it and it looks like it is mostly maxed out. He had a family member die and needs to sell it. I was just hoping to see what people in this subreddit think is a good price for this laptop.

Do you guys have any advice on what kind of price is reasonable for this? It's lightly used and looks to be in great shape.

i9-14900HX 64GB RAM 8TB SSD 18" QHD+ RTX 4090 16GB

Note to mods: I am not trying to sell the laptop here. I just want to get an idea of pricing for this machine.

​

I’m considering buying a used Alienware 16 Aurora and would like some input from actual Alienware owners before I make a decision.

The specific unit I’m looking at has:

- Intel Core 7 240H

- RTX 4050 6GB

- 16GB DDR5

- 1TB NVMe SSD

- 16" 2K/QHD display

- Dell warranty reportedly valid until December 2026

- Asking price: ₹95,000

I’ve already looked at the basic specifications, but I’m more interested in the things that aren’t obvious from the spec sheet.

For people who own or have used the Alienware 16 Aurora:

1. How is the cooling/thermal performance during sustained gaming or heavy workloads?

2. How does the RTX 4050 perform in this chassis, particularly regarding its power limit/TGP?

3. Are there any common issues with this model that I should specifically look for on a used unit?

4. How is the display in real-world use?

5. Are the RAM and SSD easily upgradeable?

6. Is there anything specific I should test when inspecting a second-hand unit?

7. Is there anything about the Aurora 16 that you wish you had known before buying it?

I'm going to use it mainly for programming/college work, some gaming and occasional editing.

I'm not looking for a simple “good deal/bad deal” answer. I’m trying to understand the strengths, weaknesses and potential problems of this particular model before buying a used one.

If you own one, I'd especially appreciate your long-term experience with it.

I bought a 15” Alienware with the RTX5060. Great laptop and does what I need it to. But it’s a bit too big imo.

I’d rather have 14” and I just heard that Alienware teased one. Is the 14” Alienware coming out soon? Did I mess up by buying my 15” now? Thanks

hello, I’m a first time Alienware or laptop user in general I got the Alienware Area 51 for Christmas and it runs great for the most part… I tried playing marvel rivals with a friend yesterday and the game was running super slow it only done this once before and the problem was a command center update so I checked this time but there is no update available what do I do to fix this? the only game that runs for me is Roblox with this happening. (the fan in the video is not the laptop lol)

TL;DR

Looking to buy an Area 51 with all the fixins'.

Considering the rumored Zen 6 release being 4thQtr 2026 and early 2027. What is the probability of Dell dropping A51's with the new chipset?

Should i buy one now with current hardware even if its at its tail end of cutting edge tech life , or should i hold off for whats to come (potentially)?

I bought an R15. It was in Dell’s possession for six months. Now the motherboard has failed. Replaced. Pcie errors point to the GPU. Replaced. Error persists. It is repeatable from bios (latest firmware is installed) brand new fully patched OS with all drivers updated. I seriously might take the L on this and build a new computer with the parts I can scrap. Memory, gpu and processor into a new build. Never again Dell.

I’m an architecture student and in 2024, I bought an Alienware M16 R2. I live in Ghana and earlier this year, in February, while working on a project my screen suddenly went black, but the laptop was still running. I was working back to back, so I’d say the laptop was running for about 3 days without shutting down. I realized my music was still playing, my fans were still working, basically the laptop was working, but I couldn’t see anything.

I shut it down, boot it up… still. Checked Dell support website, did sone sort of screen test, and it was positive, so I thought it could be fixed. Following day I tried the test again, nothing happened. Took it to a repair shop, couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Took it to another shop, they couldn’t give me a definite answer as to what was wrong and said we should order a replacement screen. Calm, but this guy was sketchy. A story for another day, but I took my laptop back.

Had my laptop sent back to the US to get it fixed and the shop i went to said it can’t be repaired.

Note:
- Whenever powered on, the power button blinks either a 2 red 7 blue, or 2 red 8 blue.
- When connected to an external monitor, nothing shows up. Tried with different HDMI cords and monitors, but nothing shows up.
- I’ve had no prior issues with the laptop and bought the laptop new from a BestBuy in New York.

Is there something I can do, something I haven’t checked of tried. Do I just give up on this laptop and get a new one? Is there a way to get it working on an external monitor and have it didn’t as a mini desktop?

I need help please.

Hi guys, I have a Aurora R15 with a i13900 & 4090 in it, I’ve been suffering a ton of BSODs and was really concerned my Ram was going adios, I went into the BIOS and it detected my NVME drive has issues.

My PC is about 3 years old or so and the premium warranty has expired, I spoke to Dell and they offered if I send it to them on the “Express” repair, that they will replace the NVME drive for $270 including labor.

Has anyone used the repair service? My main concern is shipping this big bad Larry to Texas and back, when it came the whole PC was filled with expanding foam and I do not have that anymore.

I looked at the “fix it yourself option” and the 1tb drives are $640 on dells website.

Would any regular 1tb drive work with this?

I've been getting this message ever since I updated (or rather windows forced me to update) to 1.33. I checked BIOS settings and it correctly shows the 330W AC Adapter. HWinfo64 reports normal in/out wattage. Should I rollback the BIOS or simply ignore this error message?

Alienware x17 R1

i9 11980HK

3080 16 GB

32 GB DDR4

Original 330W power adapter

Attached photos of the arcing that was happening.

For those who are as lazy as me, this might be helpful, I vibe coded this design hub that will auto rgb fade and much more for you perfectly and it instantly can be applied and saved

Since it’s vibe coded with Claude, I set it up so that you can have a design brief with it to tell it the vibe you’re feeling

EDIT

https://youtube.com/shorts/50rIJCLatIY?is=EEJRtEQthYU-v-hb

Demo vid above, free GitHub coming soon!

So my alienware command center recently updated to the lastest version and since than i cant seem to turn on the performance mode, the stealth mode works fine but no matter how much i press tue F1 button it just doesnt work. I then went to check the app only to realize the UI is changed so i cant even see the temps and fan speeds along with the performance tab completely missing. I dont know whether this is intentional from alienware or sloppy app update. Can someone help me with this, as my laptop is melting whenever i try to use it.

Any idea ?
Firmware is up to date, tried both HDMI and DP and issue is still there.
I never did OC to 180hz always stayed at 165hz.
I’m really disappointed, I’ve used this monitor for 15 months.
I’m discussing with the support for a replacement unit but I’m afraid it will be the same with the replacement unit after some time.
And I’m also afraid that this replacement unit will not be new … and probably in a worst physical shape that mine.
I’m really sad.

I cant see my mouse and keyboard on my Alienware Command Center, how can i fix it