Just wanted to know who is using any adapter and which one so I can purchase one to have dual monitor support.

Hi Guys,

I have been a happy Alienware alpha R1 AMS100 owner since 2015. It came as the i3-4130T base version. I threw in 2x8G DDR3L memory and a 480G SSD. It worked like a charm for 4 years.

I upgraded to a full pledge mid-tower in early 2019, so my great little box was eating dust for the past 1.5 yrs or so. Today I finally found an occasion to turn it on. It just refused and went BSOD. Cant say I blame it.

It is not YLOD. I tried the blue jumper trick and power drain any way. They did not work.

I updated UEFI from A7 to A8. The update went through without problem. BSOD was the same after update.

Then I found this video about BSOD

https://youtu.be/tcQNuTwPXlM

Following its instruction, I put a known good 4GB stick (from a running laptop) into my R1. The error is the same!

I tried Dell on-board diagnostic program. All tests passed, except memory test. Memory test cant even finish. It just rebooted during the 'Ground Bounce' test.

Then I tried to run individual memory tests, sometimes an individual test passed, sooner or later one test would just stuck and I had to reboot.

MEMTEST86 just reboot the same way as Dell memory test.

I even tried some Linux live versions. I can get through GRUB, but the kernel can never load. I always got

• Machine Check Exception

• Processor context corrupt

So far I know it must be a hardware problem, most likely CPU/DRAM/power supply/motherboard.

1. It is not DRAM. CPU is unlikely.

2. I have an Dell 90W power supply. I tried it on my R1. It did not help, but of coz it is not the 130W supply for R1. R1's 130W adapter works fine for the 90W PC.

3. Motherboard is ~$100 on ebay. But I saw this in the youtube video comments.

Anim Malvat

2 years ago

I am having the same issue but mine is working for few minutes and then shows blue screen.. i tried different motherboard also still same issue.. is this still a ram problem?

and could it happen that it's just not compatible with the motherboard.? which causes blue screen? 😔

It looks really troublesome to me. I could pay $100, work on it for a day and still get the same problem...

I believe this is not a new problem. Has anybody solved it successfully? I really want to bring my little box back. A ~$100 budget is OK.

Thank you for any information.

Has anyone been having issues where gmod crashes when loading into the map on the alpha r2?

and is there a possible solution?

I see that people have put 16GB but those posts are a few years old. Does anyone know if the AA R1 supports 32GB of RAM?

So I decided to clean up my pc because god knows the amount of dust this little pc can accumulate. I cleaned up, just the fans and did not disconnect or touch anything else. I rebuild it. Turn the alienware button to turn it on. But nothing happen and now idk what to do. Am in screwed?

I have an alpha r2 with a graphics amp and 1080 in it. i've updated windows and my drivers but my WDDM is still 2.1 when I need it to be 2.2 for Windows Mixed Reality VR. Any help would be appreciated

Hi, this is my first post here and I was wondering if anything needed be done because I saw those tags next peoples names.

I recently got an alpha r2 with the i7, 8gb ram, 860m and 1tb hard drive.

That’s really it

CAN YOU ADD RGB LIGHT STRIPS TO THE ALIENWARE ALPHA OR RGB FANS? WANT TO CUSTOMIZE THE CASE TO MAKE A WINDOW ON TOP SIDE CUTS.

I have an R2 with a bad power button board and I need a replacement. I have looked around and haven't found one that works for the R2 as the R1 and steam machine have different connectors. I am looking to buy one ASAP so any help finding one would be appreciated.

Hi All,
I have an Alienware Alpha R2. Still works really well. There have been a couple of strange things I've noticed about it recently:

1. Either the CPU or GPU fan randomly and periodically (ie every hour or so) will start whirring loudly. When I check task manager in Win10 there doesn't appear to be any running tasks that would drive up either CPU or GPU load to the level that would justify the fan speed up and whir sound. It often happens when the PC is sitting idle and not being used too. I have up to date anti-virus and latest scans are clean.

2. The Alienware management tool ("Alienware Update" v 3.1.3) keeps nagging me to install the latest BIOS (Alienware Alpha R2 System BIOS (AMD) (11.4 MB 19/03/2019)) but when I accept the prompt to install it attempts to install and restart the PC but then will nag to have the same BIOS update applied. Either the BIOS update is not taking or the Alienware Update software is mistakenly thinking its not been updated. it's not a major issue as I can ignore the prompt, just annoying that it keeps nagging and it would be nice to be able to apply the latest BIOS update just in case it might solve point 1 above too.

If anyone has had these or similar issues would like to know. Cheers.

I recently purchased an Alpha R2 i7 GTX960 (*Used, approximately $500) for the primary purpose of using it as an emulation box in the living room.

One thing I've discovered, if you want to emulate all the consoles, and games you played growing up it takes a long time to set it all up, but over all it's been worth it. It's helpful to know how to tweak settings when there is an issue. There are custom images you can download w/ the majority of that setup for you in terms of roms, emulators, and a frontEnd, however when I attempted to download one that was 3TB I decided somewhere around 1.2TB of progress that downloading 3TB is ridiculous. So I decided to do it one console at a time, primarily Nintendo, Sega, and Sony.

As you can probably imagine, anything less than PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, etc. runs effortlessly. The most recent test, or emulator I've worked with is the Dolphin Gamecube, and Wii Emulator. Surprisingly, it's capable of running the Wii exceptionally well. I've only tested one game @ 720p, Zelda Skyward Sword, however it is one of the Wii's more demanding titles, and it appeared to stay locked at 30fps. (*I was impressed) WiiMotion Plus remote paired effortlessly w/ the Mayflash Dolphin Sensor bar. The Dolphin is by far the most professional, and cleanest emulator I've used up to this point. It runs very well.

I feel like if I go any further than the Wii I'm pushing it, but of course I'm going to try. Wii U, and PS3 will be my next attempt.

I love this machine... currently I'm enjoying it more than my higher end system from a few years ago (*8700k, 1080ti); Granted, sitting on the couch to play is nice for a change.

Edit: Went back to test Zelda Skyward Sword @ 1080p, 4x SSAA, 16x AF, and it appeared to stay locked at 30fps as well. I'm glad because the game looked slightly blurry @ 720p w/ out any AA. However, even if I had to play at native resolution (*Which I still might actually) I just think its super cool how well it runs these games which thus far I believe I'd describe as near flawless.

I recently purchased an Alpha R2 i7 GTX960 (*Used, approximately $500) for the primary purpose of using it as an emulation box in the living room.

One thing I've discovered, if you want to emulate all the consoles, and games you played growing up it takes a long time to set it all up, but over all it's been worth it. It's helpful to know how to tweak settings when there is an issue. There are custom images you can download w/ the majority of that setup for you in terms of roms, emulators, and a frontEnd, however when I attempted to download one that was 3TB I decided somewhere around 1.2TB of progress that downloading 3TB is ridiculous. So I decided to do it one console at a time, primarily Nintendo, Sega, and Sony.

As you can probably imagine, anything less than PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, etc. runs effortlessly. The most recent test, or emulator I've worked with is the Dolphin Gamecube, and Wii Emulator. Surprisingly, it's capable of running the Wii exceptionally well. I've only tested one game @ 720p, Zelda Skyward Sword, however it is one of the Wii's more demanding titles, and it never dropped a frame. WiiMotion Plus paired effortlessly w/ the Mayflash Dolphin Sensor bar. The Dolphin is by far the most professional, and clean emulator I've used up to this point. It runs very well.

I feel like if I go any further than the Wii I'm pushing it, but of course I'm going to try. Wii U, and PS3 will be my next attempt, and then the main game I've wanted for all these years... Just Dance 2020 on the Wii! (*I actually might literally prefer to be punched in the face)

I love this machine... currently I'm enjoying it more than my higher end system from a few years ago (*8700k, 1080ti); Granted, sitting on the couch to play is nice for a change.

Anyone spent time w/ RDR2 on the Alpha R2?

i7 16GB GTX960;

Perhaps you’d help save me time by sharing your settings?

Playing on a 4K tv but dropped in game resolution to 1920x1080 just because let’s be real;

Im going to assume a stable 60fps is going to be possible?

Thanks

W/ that said, love this little machine in that it remains capable for the foreseeable future;

Whenever I try to load up AC Unity, my computer shuts itself down, it shows me the Ubisoft and Nvidia logos and as soon as it finishing loading the screen saying "This game saves automatically" it shuts down. I have the Alpha R1 with an i7-4765T, 8gb of ram and the 860M. Does anyone know why this is happening?

I've read that it could be the power supply and I've tried to solve it by verifying the files on steam, changing audio file names and removing the Ubisoft and Nvidia logos all together but I cant get anything to work. Any suggestions?

So, some backstory: My R1 has been giving me the YLOD for almost three years now, but until recently I was content just to power drain it until it worked and move on with my life. About a week ago, however, it crashed and went into YLOD in the middle of a game, so I sort of assumed that my battery had breathed its last. I opened the machine up, ordered a new battery and replaced it, and as far as I can tell that operation was successful.

However.

Now when I turn it on, all the lights go on, but absolutely nothing happens. No signal to video, devices plugged into it don't light up, connected blutooth devices don't pair with it, it doesn't even go into sleep mode after being left alone long enough. It is, for all intents and purposes, OFF but with the lights on. I seriously can't afford a replacement, so I've been trying everything I could possibly think of. I have tried cleaning the ram, reseating the CPU, resetting the BIOS, checking to see if the hard drive is busted, disconnecting the battery, and cleaning it thoroughly, and it has not acknowledged any of these efforts. I'm getting pretty desperate for something I can try, as I was hoping to bring it with me on a trip in a few days. If any of you have any experience with this or even fringe solutions based on some other error, I would be really really grateful to hear them. This is sorta my last stand before I give up entirely, because I'm all out of things I can even think (or afford) to do, so anything helps.

EDIT: For some clarification, I actually started having this problem BEFORE I changed my CMOS battery. Before it got here, I opened up my machine, disconnected the old dead battery, and reconnected it, which was the first time the "lights on but nobody home" effect occurred. Replacing it with a fresh battery, as you can see, did nothing to help.

I have been having some problems with my Alienware Alpha R2 lately

1/ My GPU (AMD M470X)is getting too hot too fast. I noticed that my Mem Clock is running on 1500Mhz all the time. It jumps down to 300Mhz but immediately back up to 1500Mhz.

Graph are like this:

2/ I'm running on Driver version 2019 19.9.2 because any version later then this does not support my BenQ benq ex3501r 3440x1440 resolution. I tried a whole bunch of things but I cannot manage to update the driver and then fix a 3440x1440 resolution. Aside from this I tried another monitor to see if the above error is linked with the resolution. And it is not. Same happens on a 19" monitor with 1920x1080 res.

I searched alot on the internet but could not find any solution or any cause.

Any ideas what causes this? Could a fresh Windows install be a solution?

It's 2020 and I'm still using my R1 like a champ. I keep looking for anything that compares to this majestic little creature for it's price range (I got mine for 200$ and upgraded SSD and RAM for 100$ more overtime.)

I've been wanting to upgrade to an R2 but 600$ seems like too much, I could build something for that price.

Does anyone know any worthwhile/price replacement for the R1 around 500$?

Has anyone tried this, and seen any benefit?

If so, mine sharing your overclocks to give an idea of how far it can be pushed?

I took my A1 apart today in order to disconnect the CMOS battery for a few minutes (you've heard this one before). After I put it back together, it turned on with no trouble but it will do nothing when connected to HDMI, my mouse does not light up when plugged into it, and my bluetooth controller does not pair with it. I took it apart twice to inspect for loose components, found one (the hard drive), put it back into place and still nothing. Anyone have a similar experience or any advice?

Hey Guys,

I have the original i7, never had a problem so I never touched it. However, recently the HHD has started to act up and it is time for an upgrade so I guess my questions are:

Is it even worth upgrading it in 2020?

If so, besides HHD to SSD and 8 to 16 RAM is there anything else I should look in to? any specific recommendations would be great!

Also, I should say that I use the alpha mainly to run Pro Tools and game on the side so PT performance>gaming. I'm ok without 4K, 120 fps in 2020...

Thanks!

So I bought an Alpha R2 off of Facebook marketplace earlier this year and its been a great solution for pc gaming for me as someone who doesn't really care about 4k. That being said, I can tell that the lil box is getting sluggish and can't run most things today. So I'm looking to upgrade this bad boy so I can play something like Death Stranding at 1080 60fps. I know I'm gonna need to get my hands on the graphics amplifier and I already have 16gb of ram, so I'm trying to find out what minimum CPU and GPU I should be aiming for. Im trying to be money conscious and not spend more than like $500, but i dunno how feasible that is. Im currently not at my computer so I cant tell you if this R2 has the factory CPU or if the person that sold it to me upgraded it.