How To prevent Alienware Laptop (Area51) from overheating

[canispeaktodave]

Hello all,

Long time reader etc.

I bought the new Alienware Area51 machine recently, but had a lot of problems with overheating, which caused many blue screens. It only overheated when display drivers were installed, so I thought I had a faulty graphics card. So I tried new heat paste on the card, that didn't work, but made the blue screens less often. However looking again, I noticed the heat pads contacting on the memory did not fully cover the memory chips. After I moved the heat pads, to cover them completely, everything works!! Obviously I would not recommend everyone to do this, but I need to use my laptop for work, so could not afford the time it takes to send it back.

Just thought I'd let people know if they are experiencing something similar.

Cheers!

[Guest ANTHONY BREWSTER]

For all the People out there Having problems with Alienware notebooks.. Then this is for you.. I bought a Alienware m7700 corporate display model from a authorized dealer about 3 months ago. I had only turned it on maybe 12 times since i've had it.. I paid 1895.00 for it which was quite an expensive laptop,... I had never installed a game on it since i've owned it.. well I started needing money because my wife just had our baby girl, so I posted it on craigslist and put it up for sale... found a buyer, he came over a couple of days later to see what it would do so I installed F.E.A.R on it so he could see what a nvidia 7800GTX could do.. He gave me half of the money walked out the door ( I kept the laptop till final pay) and not two minutes went by and the display started artifacting... then the 2000.00 alienware laptop that has only been turned on 15 times shut down and would not boot back up.. Called Alienware co. and they wouldn't have any thing to do with it or me since I did not purchase it directly from them.. What a crock of S*!T I thought.. well any way to make the long story short if you plan on fixing this problem by yourself... I was minutes away from paying 499.00 for a new video card but I didnt know if it could be the motherboard instead.. so I did a complete teardown and found something very suspicious... where the 7800GTX screwed down to the D900K motherboard, I noticed that the board risers there were plastic centers and the rest were metal... WELL HERE IS MY POINT... THE HEATSINK AND THE GPU CARD NEED TO BE GROUNDED TO THE MOTHERBOARD, IF YOU NOTICE THE COVER OVER THE VIDEO CARD SLOT TOUCHES ONE OF THE SCREWS OF THE HEATSINK, THE SOLDER HOLDING THE BOARD RISERS ON THE ALIENWARE D900K HAD A HAIRLINE CRACK AROUND THEM.....SOLDERED THEM BACK DOWN, PUT THE MACHINE BACK TOGETHER TURNED IT ON, WALAH...

I RAN PRIME95 STRESS TEST FOR 48 HOURS

LAPTOP IS WORKING FLAWLESLY

SO SPEND ONE HOUR MAX. DO A TEARDOWN. PULL OUT THE SOLDERING GUN OUT OF YOUR CLOSET, DO A MINOR REPAIR, AND SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF TIME AND HEADACHES, AND KEEP 500-600 DOLLERS IN YOUR POCKET!!!!!!

I HOPE THIS WILL HELP SOMEONE OUT THERE OUT.. I JUST HATE IT WHEN COMPANIES WITH BIG NAMES TRY TO SCREW PEOPLE OUT OF A LOT OF MONEY...

ITPRO2000@GMAIL.COM :)

[Darmdorf]

Now that is the type of information that makes a forum members "tell me more" cells get warmer. Thanks to you both for the solid information. Should be of great help to the individuals looking for a way out out their misery. Not all of our members have your talents.

Hey Anthony, how about registering with the forum so you can pass on more good tips. :)

Once again, a big thanks to you both.

[Guest Jim]

I have another great Idea and easier. DON'T BUY ALIENWARE It is only OVERPRICED not even close to being worth the money. Get a GATEWAY FX7811 SUPER GAMER for 1/2 the price better warranty! But if you did get an Alienware, this is good info!

[Andrew55]

Actually, although alienware is admittedly overpriced, they are great systems as far as aesthetics go and we all know how important this is for some gamers. It depends on your budget, really. Otherwise, alienware would have no customers.

[MonkeyMhz]

One of my friends bought the top of the line alienware a long time ago, when the 6800 Ultra was the thing. And he had overheating too, I dunno what it is with alienware but alot of them overheat.

They are overpriced too. Most of them.

So far my lappy brands that I trust are

Gateway, LG, Thats all i really really trust, im sure Dell is good too, o yea and i trust Voodo PC's/Laptops they are amazing but make alien wares price look like a shipping cost.

Edited October 1, 2008 by MonkeyMhz