Alienware General - Read Only

[hermesX]

Hi everyone. I´ve recieved my Aurora ALX a week ago. At first, delivery was fast. Order date was 12/21/2009 and delivering was 01/07/2010. Must say that I´m from Austria.

But back to my problem. The complete PC is loud, specially the fan for the liquid cooling on the rear. Much louder than a better cpu fan like Noctua. I also can not hear any difference beetween idle mode or when I play games. In the Command Center the speed don´t change. It stays on approx. 1400 rpm. I´ve install the new version of the Comand Center. But it doesnt help. Have also spoken with the tech support in Bratislava, but they can´t help me. Think they have not so many experience with the new Aurora.

Hope that someone here in the community can help or someone have the same problem. For gaming the noise level is ok, but much too loud in idle mode when I check mails and so on.

Thanks!

[varattunimi]

Hi, I have the same problem with my Aurora (not ALX) that I recived 3 days ago.  I was totaly suprised it has so much noise since on the alienware auroras info page it says:

"Liquid Cooling — Eliminate distractions with high-performance CPU liquid cooling, which is more than twice as quiet as the standard heatsink and fans on other PCs."

I had therefore hoped for a very quiet computer but what I got is a constant annoying noise that is louder then my old computer. It's ok if i listen to music or so, but in a otherwise quiet room its frustraiting. Readings from the thermal control says that my system fan is about 1200 RPM, PCI Fan 1587 RPM (4%), Hard Drive Fan 1072 RPM (29%) and CPU Pump 1440. All sensors at 25C. And this is also in idle mode for me (when only surfing the net and light stuff like that). I tried adjusting the fan speeds a bit but the control acted so wierd that I gave up and restored default.

I've search the net and these forums for anwsers/info and others seem to have this issue also. One thing i have in common with some other complainers is the GTX 260 graphic card, and i read that NVIDIA cards are louder then ATI. But i havn't tried playing any heavy games yett and i dont think its the card making the noise. Also read a comment that fans blowing at 100% at start up is normal, that sure scared me the first time.

I tried contacting technical support by e-mail about this + asking for more info on the liquid cooling system (would like to know what kind of maintance it requiers) but not goten any reply so far. Please anwser to these posts and tell us what we can do the get a more pleasant experiense with our new computers!

[vvaldez]

This happened to me too with my Area-51.  It ended up being the Command Center.  Try going into the vent section, and choosing "manual vent control" play with the controls a bit, hit "apply" -most likely nothing will happen.  Now select "auto" again, and hit apply, it *should* idle down

Edit: I was writing this from memory, the correct place is "Thermal Controls", under "Thermal Control" select "Manual (User Control), hit apply.  Then change back to "Auto (Alien control) and it will idle down.

If not, completely remove the software, reboot, and install the new Command Center (which has a firmware update for the control board) that was released a couple of weeks ago.  

You must reboot in between the installs, though.

If it still doesn't work, then post your results here.

[varattunimi]

Thanx for the anwser. I havn't tried your suggestion yet because I can't find where to download the command center (therefore not uninstalled it either). I found out you get it from alieanware.com - support - my hive, but Im unable to create an account with my (foreign) dell account number. Secondly, my Aurora dosn't have the top vents and altho i had the vent section in the control center yesterday it no longer exist. Computer updated something and I asumed it was the newer command center. Version is 2.5.35.0 , seems to be old. Any other ways of geting the new command center downloaded?

[vvaldez]

There is a newer version:

Alienware Command Center, v.2.5.40.0, A05

Release Date:  1/8/2010
Criticality:  Optional

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&SystemID=Alw_dt_Area_51&servicetag=&os=W764&osl=en&deviceid=21524&libid=25&dateid=-1&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&catid=-1&impid=-1&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&releaseid=R254244

support.dell.com is where you want to go (though it is slow for me right now for some reason).  I didn't even try aliewenware.com.  Everything is Dell now.

[varattunimi]

Thank you very much! Pages where very slow for me also but I managed to get the new version and installed it. It didn't help me with the noise problem but worth a try. All readings at the same level as before. Any other suggestions on what to do? Anyone gotten an anwser from dell about this? Do we have the right to complain? One person posted in an other thread that hes computer was very quiet so is there something wrong whit the noisy ones? Or do we just got different components that cause it?

Its such a shame that a new expensive and otherwise good computer makes so much noise. I realy am dissapointed.

[hermesX]

Has already installed the latest version, but it doesnt´t help. Have also run some benchmark tests to check if the fans become faster if there is a heavy loud on the system. And this happens. But in idle mode the PC is too loud. Can only compare my Aurora ALX with my last PC. Last PC was a XPS 420. And in idle mode this PC was really not loud.

I think the noise comes from the CPU-Pump fan. But neither you can control this fan in the BIOS nor in the Command Center.

Here a screen shot from the command center when the PC is in idle mode:

http://freenet-homepage.de/hermesx/screen1.jpg

Have anyone the same data? 

Maybe Dell use not the same typ of fan and so the noise level varied for each system.

[Chriswl]

Hello Hermes,

i have an Aurora ALX and was also doing some tricks to get the "noise" (i prefer calling it sound level) a little bit down.

Its hard for me to compare because my last PC was noisy like an airplane engine

My actual reading are looking like this:

I am using a customised fan curve for the 2 adjustable fans:

Basically i pulled down the level of the fan @25°C to approx. 4%.

This is working fine, even during gaming.

Before this customising, the HDD fan was alway around 20%.

I also think it would be nice if you could define similar curves for the other cooling fan (and the pump) also!

Hope i could help you a little bit! if you need more info, just post here!

Greetings from Germany,

Christian

[hermesX]

Hi Christian!

Thanks for your posting. Have also played with the curves. But the "noise-maker" is the CPU-Pump Fan. Have plugged of the fan for a short time. Just to see what happens. And without the CPU-Pump Fan the PC ist really quiet.

I think until Dell don´t release a new version of BIOS and a new version of Command Center it´s not able to reduce the speed of the other fans. 

Regards
hermesX

[DELL-Chris M]

hermesX,

Get support to replace, K7JKG CPU/Chipset Liquid cooling.