r/Alienware

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.

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

https://preview.redd.it/5pnu248dhdkh1.png?width=1065&format=png&auto=webp&s=e20fb4d9048aa24dbd365f72675bc893008f9743

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

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 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.

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 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!

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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.

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

I got offered a alienware 15r3 with a i7 7820hk gtx 1080 for a steam deck should I do it the steam decks runs windows and is my only pc would I be able to play all games still if I traded I’m not too educated on computers so idk if it’s a good deal or not with it’s age

I just got a new area 51 18inch laptop this week and have noticed that it downloads way slower than my m17 use to both over wifi and via Ethernet. Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

I have an Alienware r16 with intel i7 and GeForce rtx 4070, if that is relevant. The stock aio stopped working, I couldn’t afford the OeM one, so after researching I believed the Corsair titan 240 rx grab would be compatible. Ordered it, installed it, now the pc won’t power on. It is completely dead, no LEDs, no fan spins, nothing.
I have checked every connection I know how to, I didn’t unplug or change anything other than the aio. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Is the aio not compatible?

A few things I noticed, if they matter, the original aio plugged into 3 ports. Fan cpu, sys fan 4, and sys fan 5. The corsair only connects to fan CPU, it is a 4 prong port on the motherboard and the corsair was a 3 prong plug. I don’t know if this is relevant or if the 3/4 prong plug would matter. But it’s the only thing I can think of that would cause some error. But I thought the pc would at least do something.

I appreciate any help y’all can offer. I’m not super tech savvy, but I’m broke and need to get shit fixed.