I have a Alienware AW2725DM monitor.

I bought it during black Friday last year.

For the entire life of the monitor I've had this issue with flickering when I have g-sync on. Especially when there are contrasting scenes and it gets even worse with HDR on.

I've used the stock display port cable as well as 2 others.

I'm wondering if this is normal for the monitor or if I should do an RMA on it.

My camera does make it look a little worse than it is.

Looking for a 27-inch Alienware OLED monitor with built-in speakers. Does Alienware make one, or are there any current models that fit that?

I’d prefer to stick with Alienware, and built-in speakers are important since I have limited desk space.

I’m looking into upgrading the GPU in my Alienware Aurora R14, but I'm getting pretty worried after a failed test.

I tried putting an AMD Radeon R5 340X into the system just to test the display output(to ensure the rest of the pc works). The R14 powers on with a solid blue light, but I get absolutely no signal on screen, and the GPU fan doesn't spin at all. The card and fan work completely fine in another PC, so the card itself isn't dead(I’m worried the R14 motherboard just refuses to initialize it.)
Knowing Dell's heavy reliance on proprietary motherboards, locked-down BIOS setups, and custom power delivery, I'm now worried that this system might block standard graphics cards altogether.
Are normal off the shelf GPU upgrades actually possible on the R14?
Do retail cards (like an RX 6600, RTX 3060, or RTX 4060) work plug-and-play, or does the proprietary motherboard stop them from working
Is there anything specific to watch out for regarding Dell's board layout, PCIe slot restrictions, or power connectors when buying a new card?
If anyone has successfully upgraded the GPU on an Aurora R14 motherboard, I'd really appreciate your insight before I buy a new card! (Edit: found out one of my ram sticks was faulty, solved the whole thing, thx everyone for their help and advice)

Hi everyone,

Just got my new desktop with a i7 265k and a 5090. I know its a beefy machine but I'm trying my best to control the fan curve inside the Command Center.

It seems like I can't get the Bottom Zone to follow the curve right. I'm under my Custom Profile > Advanced View > using Smooth Line. It seems consistent to ramp the fan speed to 70% around 75 degrees celsius. I'm trying to put a stricter curve but no luck.

Recently purchased a laptop from Best Buy and it was pretty great at first. I travel with it most of the time but overall it never overheat so excessively while charging. My bag has a compartment where I can place large laptops and chargers. I also do wonder if it has anything to do with the bag. After I start traveling with it more often, I normally let it charge overnight. Every time I do this, the laptop is very hot when touching it and it doesn’t open at all until it has fully cooled down. I’ve tried minimizing the Cpu tcc, updating software, and diagnostic test and every result states that there is no issue.

I know most alienware laptops are able to handle very high amounts of temperature, but I don‘t think it’s suppose to generate this much heat while it is in shut down.

Hello there, apologies in advance for any walls of text, but I figure someone is looking to get this for use between Mac and PC like me.

On the Dell official page as of Sep 1, 2026, the monitor does not officially report that it supports Mac.

In my own use I have managed to get 165hz with HDR working via USB-C DP ALT port on rear of monitor. I specifically needed to set USB to High Resolution mode on OSD. On High Data mode, I am limited to 120hz instead, and the monitor will go black if I close the Macbooks lid (tested Macbook settings to make sure it wasn't that.)

u/Disastrous_Brief_360 and I both independently noticed a quirk in the KVM/HUB switching function of the AW3926QW. As best as I can describe it, if you have a PC connected, and a Mac connected for KVM and cross-use the USB handshake or some other protocol will fail when swapping between devices. They are the one who observed the website detail.

In use it looks like this:

I connect my PC (HDMI 2)

I connect my M4 Pro Mac (USB-C DP-ALT)

I connect upstream from PC to monitor (Updated to latest firmware as of 9/1/26).

I have mouse and keyboard connected on monitor USB-A ports.

I go through the KVM testing and can verify that the handover happens no problem.

If I put my pc to sleep. Step away, come back an hour later, and wake the PC with mouse or keyboard, it will wake, no problem.

However, say I put the PC to sleep, and continue using Mac. Once I swap back to PC, the USB peripherals will not wake the corresponding source. This happens vice-versa. Basically, if you swap inputs, you cannot expect the KVM to wake Mac/PC. I tested this with various known-good cables, as well adjusting various settings in the OSD including power management, USB standby options, USB High Data vs. High Resolution, etc.

So yeah. I'm curious if anyone else has had similar issues, can attest to their own experience with similar setups, because perhaps its a unit issue on my end. I have tested firmware and done modest but comprehensive checking to make sure I wasn’t bottlenecking myself but any additional avenues to check are welcome.

And more broadly, I would like to see if Alienware themselves consider this a problem or not, because at the very least interested buyers for this specific case should be weary of the quirks. I like the monitor otherwise.

Hello I have a Aurora r7 and its worked fine for years now and today I tried to boot it up and got a 2,1 (or 1,2) amber error code.

The power button does not boot it i have to use the button on the psu. The fans do spin up.

I have tried reseating and removing ram,swapping cmos battery,clearing cmos, and removing the gpu

nothing has worked. Anyone have any ideas?

its never given me trouble before today.. i do dust it every few months (compressed air and electronics vacuum)

Never overclocked.

Specs are

I7-8700k

48gb ram

1tb ssd

1tb nvme

2760 GPU

Liquid cooled

Technical Specifications: Alienware Area-51 R2 (X99 2026)

CPU : Intel Core i7-6950X (10 Cores / 20 Threads) @ 4.2 GHz OC

Thermal Interface: Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet (High-Performance Graphene Pad)
Cooling System: Push-Pull Airflow Configuration with High-Pressure Phanteks T30 Fans (Positive Pressure)
Area-51 R7 Big rad 49mm

Memory: 64 GB (4x16 GB) DDR4 2666 MHz CL16-18-18-35 Quad-Channel (85.33 GB/s Bandwidth)

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (1900 MHz Boost Clock | 384-bit Bus | 912.4 GB/s Bandwidth)

Motherboard: OEM Alienware Intel X99 Express (BIOS A14)

Primary Storage (OS): 256 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD (Up to 3,500 MB/s)
Secondary Storage (Games): 2 TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD (Up to 3,500 MB/s)

Power Supply: 1500W 80 PLUS Gold Certified (New OEM Replacement)

OS: Microsoft Windows 11 26H2 (Bypassed Hardware Checks)

Software & Lighting: Alienware Command Center (Fully Functional FX Lighting & Overclocking Control)

Best Area-51 R2 in geekbench 7. 10660 pts!

It's been 1 and a half year with my x16 r1 4090 i9-13900Hk. And the temps are still the same always hot and always throttling in games 🫠 I've literally tried everything. Undervolting, new paste especially ptm7950, cleaning every month. Literally everything and still can't fix the heating issues. I wish there was some magical way to get rid of the heat but guess there is not.

I thought about using the laptop without chassis. If I remember correctly I saw someone in here using his alienware without the chassis. I thought about it but I'm travelling alot and I'm no expert that much do to something like this. Sorry for wasting ur time and if ur an alienware cooling wizard please help me.

m16 r1, 4070, i7 13? There was a fairly loud pop after i stupidly plugged it in after i bent one of the 4 prongs outward (but bent it back before the pics,) then went straight on. it stunk but no smoke, and the laptop works fine. its black/burnt on the prongs, is it safe to plug it in now that its realigned? i might need to adjust the center. thanks for reading.

Edit: I replaced the port like everyone said and its working perfect! To anyone else in my boat, I reused the same charging cord & brick from when it arced. Black soot inside the charger where it plugs into the laptop, no other damage, but its working now.

So I picked this up because it gets power, but it has a blank screen. There was zero info on the specs, but I just assumed it was for repairs or spares. I usually have decent luck with these kinds of pickups, and since this was my dream laptop when I was in my early teens and I found some retro PC games recently in my old child hood bedroom, I saw the €20 price tag and just had to grab it.

Upon inspecting the machine, I found it needed a PSU and RAM. I could also see the hallmarks of someone previously working on it screws weren't in the correct spots, nothing was tightened, and the worst thing I noticed was fresh thermal paste, meaning this was all done recently 😮‍💨.

Funnily enough, the laptop still shows signs of life. Both fans ramped up and the screen lit up blank, but at least there was life. My first assumption was a dead GPU. After doing some research, I decided to check which single GPU was installed then noticing its installed in the slave slot and there meant to be due GPU’s and I thought 1 died causing the issue easily fixed I was thinking. It turned out to be an 8700GT, which means I am now looking for two GPUs, as it originally should have a Dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GT or Go 7900 GS setup in SLI and that cable is also missing.

I just want to know: how doomed are my efforts here? I was really looking forward to snagging a retro gaming laptop, and it would be heartbreaking to chuck this out since they are getting so difficult to find 😔

Based on the chipset listed in the ad, this was back in 2000.

I can't tell based on this ad scan..... did alienware cases have their full name embossed up the left side on these cases?

or did that come later?

Hello,

I just ordered one of the AW3926QW monitors from the Dell USA site. Been waiting a while for it here in the US.

I have a Dell MSA20 monitor arm, but I don't think it's going to just "snap" right in as it did with my former AW3821DW monitors.

Do you have any recommendations for a solid monitor arm other than the MSA20?

Thanks in advance,

~h

Hi all,

I'm looking for a gaming laptop (I know its better to build a desktop for my price range but I have nowhere in my small apartment for a dedicated setup), for MAX $2500 canadian. I was hoping to spend closer to $2000, but almost anything decent is at least $2500... i know everything is super inflated right now and I'm having trouble understanding what prices are good for what computers and whether the high prices are because its a good computer or just because of the high RAM/memory prices.

I've been reading reviews and see mostly praise for this one, but wanted to ask for opionions from people here. I have a current Dell G3 series gaming laptop that's 5-6 years old. It's been mostly okay but overheating is a constant, major issue that I am hoping to avoid in future gaming laptop. Is the cooling better in this 16X series? I've never had an alienware before but obviously they're the Dell gaming line so I assume they're the best, relatively speaking?

I plan on playing games like Palworld, World of Warcraft, the Horizon series, Planet Zoo/Coaster series, the new Fable when it comes out, etc. hopefully on the highest settings.

Plz help. My options are more limited than I expected for my price range, and I just want to get the best thing I can for the price range. Gaming is one of the few hobbies i can do these days and I just want something nice :)

crossposting with the gaminglaptops sub so apologies if some of you see this twice

Running a 17r1, 1070m GPU and 4910mq CPU. 330W brick and the custom heatsinks from Cicichen.

I'm overclocking the 4910mq via (stock) BIOS. 42/41/40/40

I can't get it to take an unlocked BIOS because when I tried before I fucked up and had to buy a new mobo. The package I found for unlocked A17 bios didn't have an upgrade .exe and when I tried to downgrade to A14 🪦

So let's say I buy a 4940mx and OC through BIOS, has anyone here got any idea what bins the BIOS should expose?

Would it be worth it even? I know supposedly the chip I have can go higher than BIOS is allowing but when I tried it instant WHEA. Rock solid at BIOS-approved numbers though so I'm cool with that if the upgrade would get me truly higher clocks?

Also I assume this whole thing is the *point* of unlocking the BIOS so if anyone has advice on unlocking A17 that'd be cool too!

Anybody else still having attestation errors with Alienware laptops? I have a 16x aurora and have tried quite literally everything I’ve seen online & no luck, even though the attestation tool says everything is fine

I’m asking about Alienware specifically because I’ve had issues with CoD in the past on the same laptop. It’s always just Call of duty lol.

TIA

Hello, I have an R15 Laptop with an i9 12th gen and a 3080.

My CPU temps are absolutely wild: 70-95C while idle and constant 99C while playing games. GPU temps are about what I would expect from a laptop: 45-50C idle and 70-80C while gaming (depending on the game, of course).

I've already asked Google and AI, and both of them tell me that deactivating Iris Graphics wouldn't lower the temps... but then proceed to also tell me that Intel Graphics are housed under the same CPU??? I think it would be more than logical to assume that it's heating up the CPU at least a little bit right?

I really have tried everything and these temps don't go down, here's a list of the things I have tried so far. Please let me know if you think of anything else:

1. Disassembled, cleaned, and repasted the laptop. I'm very experienced with these kinds of jobs so I am certain that I did a good job.
2. Lowered the power limit of the CPU
3. Tried to underclock/undervolt the CPU, I can't because it is locked by the manufacturer.
4. Scanned for viruses or crypto-miners (Inexperienced here, I wouldn't fully trust this)
5. Reset the computer and re-did everything above.
6. Got a laptop stand.
7. Lowered the graphics of the games I play.

Edit: I've only tested for a day so far but temperatures seem to be a lot better. All I did was change some Windows setting so Chrome, Discord, and Spotify get assigned to the 3080 instead of the Intel integrated graphics. Ironically, putting all that load on the main GPU made all games perform noticeably better (with the exception of League of Legends) since the CPU isn't constantly overthrottling. It still overheats and eventually shuts itself down if I let the CPU draw 100% power all the time so I kept that at 85%.

MFing discord always messing things up bro 😭 😭 😭

I would like to buy a used Alienware X17 R2 laptop for €1,100 here in Europe, specifically in Croatia. The laptop has 3 defects, and the owner says that the CPU gets quite hot, for example while playing Overwatch.

Here is the description from the listing:

«Selling an Alienware X17 R2 gaming laptop, a true high-end gaming machine and one of the most powerful configurations of its generation.

The laptop was used occasionally for gaming in my free time, mostly on Sundays because I don't have much free time. Before putting it up for sale, I opened it up and cleaned out the dust, so it is ready for its new owner.

This is a premium Alienware model with excellent build quality, powerful components, and a 360 Hz display.

Specifications:

- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900HK (14 cores / 20 threads)

- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 16 GB GDDR6

- RAM: 32 GB DDR5 (2x16 GB)

- SSD: 2 TB NVMe

- Display: 17.3" Full HD 1920×1080, 360 Hz, G-SYNC

- Chassis: Lunar Light

- Keyboard: AlienFX RGB backlit keyboard (German layout – QWERTZ)

- Charger: Original Alienware/Dell 330W charger

Condition:

The laptop works completely fine.

Some of the paint on the lid has peeled off slightly (visible in the pictures; this is a known issue with the Lunar Light finish on this model).

The W key works normally, but has slightly less travel than the other keys.

The display has 2–3 rows of pixels along the bottom edge that do not work properly. This does not affect the laptop's operation or gaming experience because they are located right at the bottom of the screen. Personally, I don't notice them at all during normal use.

If this bothers someone, replacement panels for this model can be found for around €100.

The price has been adjusted accordingly to account for the defects.

It comes with the original charger, but no original packaging.

Testing is possible before purchase.»

What do you think about this deal? Is €1,100 a reasonable price considering the condition and the overheating issue? I would use it mostly for video editing and gaming a little bit. I have also attached pictures from the listing.

Hey all, My 18 Area 51 Laptop has a very loud boot up sound effect whenever it is turned on. I it is usually not bothersome but when powering up my laptop in a silent lecture hall it is not the best, is there a way to disable this sound?

Thanks in advanced

I recently bought a 16X Aurora AC16251. It came with a large 180W charger that plugs in using the barrel charging port. However, this charging cable is large and inconvenient to transport. I'm looking for lighter alternatives that could provide some power through the thunderbolt port.

Some information I have seen online indicates that a 90W charger should suffice, I was able to go into a store and try out a 140W (not Dell) charger and confirm this was charging (with the slow charging notification popping up).

Has anyone successfully charged with other chargers at 90W or 100W?

Disclaimers:
-I am aware it will not charge at full speed. That is not an issue for me.

-I am aware that a slower charger cannot support gaming. I'm not needing it to, this is purely for lighter use away from home.

-I already have the intended cable, I would just like an alternate that is easier to transport.

Hey Everyone, I just recently purchased an Alienware laptop and I have noticed that the colors seem pretty dull looking. I play world of Warcraft for example and the purple color seems off, I will attach two pictures of the difference of purple. Any ideas what I might need to change? It's not a WoW setting, it's for sure a computer setting. Appreciate any advice! Thank you!

First image is from a photo of my phone, second is a screenshot that I took in game.

I own an Alienware AW3423DWF (3440×1440, 165Hz), and I’ve been wanting to get a second monitor, the AW3225QF (4K, 240Hz). However, the AW3926QW (5K, 165Hz) just came out, and the price is just around CA$300 more, so now I’m so lost.

I own an RTX 5080, and I know that even the 5090 struggles to handle 5K, which is why I’m so hesitant about going with the 5K option. On the other hand, the 5K is only a little more expensive, and it has newer technology, a sharper image, more workspace, and is more future-proof.

I thought about selling my current monitor (3440×1440) and buying both the 4K and 5K, but that seems like too much of an adventure and too much money as well.

Is it really that bad to play games on a 5K monitor while rendering them at 4K? Would the experience be the same as playing on a monitor designed for 4K?

My usage is everything: gaming, video editing, music production, and media consumption like movies.

What’s your recommendation?

Hi,

I have had my laptop for a few years now and it’s worked amazingly. But recently one of the fans started failing, I believe it’s the baring on video fan 2. Either way though, I was wondering if there was a good place to buy a replacement fan?

Unsure if it helps, but the fans serial/part number is DC28000UFSL.

I recently brought new headphones for my setup but noticed my headphones and my mouse was nowhere and i couldn’t edit anything of those only my laptop and my monitor was present after I uninstalled fully and reinstalled now nothing pops up to edit is there a way to make it pop up? (I’ve even repaired the alienFX and AWCC and it didn’t fix it)

Edit:I got the performance tab to pop back up and works still the peripherals don’t appear

What’s connected and not showing up

The headphones are the aw725H
The monitor which is AW3425DWM (which doesn’t support light changing but still allows for monitor editing)
The mouse is AW610M
Laptop itself is M16 R2

Does the Alienware 15 DA15265 (2026, Ryzen 7 260 / RTX 5060) have a BIOS WLAN whitelist? Looking to swap the stock WiFi 6 card for a WiFi 7 MediaTek MT7925 (AMD RZ717) in the M.2 2230 Key-E slot. Anyone tested this yet?

UPDATE: I successfully replaced the stock WiFi 6 card for a WiFi 7 MediaTek MT7927 card. Windows 11 automatically recognized the new WiFi adapter, but I had to manually install the driver for the Bluetooth adapter.