My brother did upgrade my memory to 16 a while back. I went to look into the other questions and my hardware is NOT the same as what is listed as being shipped with my computer. I am wondering if he changed the hard drive also but even if so, I don't see the 1TB drive at all. It should show up here shouldn't it?
Hi @triciagalexnder welcome to this user to user discussion forum. Thank you for sharing the current Alienware 17 R4 build information.
Note that the 2017 main battery is changing to 100% of capacity, but charge capacity has reduced to 36% of its design capacity. Laptop without battery is designed to function as desktop on ac adapter power. However, the 17 R4 Hybrid Power Design is reliant on combined battery and ac adapter power to give optimum gaming performance.
The Windows 10 x64 is installed on the very slow SATA 3 Gbps SSD 160GB drive installed in the 2.5" bay.
Alienware 17 R4 Storage. There are no slow SATA 6 Gbps or fast/ultrafast PCIe Gen3.0 x4 NVMe up to 32 Gbps storage drives in the M.2 slots. The system will routinely say the "running out of disk space" error message.
Note that system temperature is 100ºC in your build information, and if not being used during high performance, this seems to indicate that the CPU,GPU interface with its cooling system wants repasting. Also check that air vents and fans are not blocked and dust/debris has been removed, from these parts and generally from the motherboard.
To support online gaming, the OS(C:) boot drive should be at least an ultrafast 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3.0 x4 NVMe, with GPT (not MBR) partition format and with BIOS Boot list option UEFI enabled. All personal files should be on a high capacity storage drive, so that the OS(C:) boot drive only has applications, and there is ample room for the creation of temporary files during gaming.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
After reading what you both said and my own specs that were showing up, I decided to actually look at the hardware because I was certain I had an SSD and wasn't seeing it. I have attached photos because I do have a 256GB SSD. I remembered that I replaced the fans a while back and when restarting the system, I couldn't get it to boot. I tried to figure it out and decided to take it to a computer repair shop instead because it seemed more then I could do safely. I am now thinking they might have just bypassed one completely to get the system to boot again or somehow didn't set things back up correctly. Any ideas here?
I have everything ready to go with a clean install of windows 10 but even after setting the bios to default settings and making sure the AHCI was the drive configuration, I am still not seeing the 256GB drive to use.
any other ideas as to why I visually see it in the computer but it isn't showing up anywhere I can find to utilize it?
Hi @triciagalexnder thank you for sharing two images. Note the blades of both fans are in dire need of a good clean to remove the dust/debris.
Windows does not see the 258GB NVMe drive. Perhaps it has lost its drive letter and become a hidden partition. From your Local Admin account's desktop screen (1) press Windows+R keys, (2) copy and paste diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, (3) right click on Disk 1 and assign a drive letter (not C). The NVMe drive will then be included in the This PC window.
WEEEEELL, it is with both frustration and relief that I get to report that the issue is now solved. After spending all day researching and trying every trouble shooting thing I could find online with respect to BIOS and booting, I decided to take it out and try to reseat it. Interestingly enough, it wasn't even INSERTED at all. When pushed into place it no longer reaches the screw to be secured down (I did notice on videos that others had a metal plate over theirs and mine is a refurb so that was obviously missing). I was very excited thinking this would solve the problem but it still didn't show up. I figured I would swap spots and in number 2 it was seen immediately and booting to my old operating system that I was told by the computer repair store was accidentally erased.
I sure appreciate all of the help and advice. Even though my issue turned out to be physical, I found a lot of settings were not as you mentioned so I got those fixed and probably wouldn't have had success otherwise!
Advocate your new gaming OS(C:) boot drive should be a 1TB M.2 2280 Samsung 980 (MZ-V8V1T0BW) PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 with up to 3,500 MB/s sequential read and 3,000 MB/s write.
Use Macrium Reflect Free to clone the existing OS(C:) boot drive. If you are happy with the existing Windows 10 x64 on the current OS(C:) boot drive, there is no requirement to buy another Windows 10 x64.
U2CAMEB4ME
4 Operator
•
6.2K Posts
1
June 5th, 2021 18:00
Welcome to the Dell Community @triciagalexnder
Just a few questions for now.
The 256GB SSD, do you use it for just the OS and applications???
Is the 1TB drive set as "Default" storage???
Recommend you upgrade to16GB memory with a matching 8GB DIMM.
Best regards,
U2
U2CAMEB4ME
4 Operator
•
6.2K Posts
1
June 5th, 2021 20:00
@triciagalexnder
16GB memory is good but a 160GB SSD is bad very bad.
For the main M.2 SSD you would want at least 256GB, 512GB would be better.
Then for storage you would want at least a 1TB HDD or a 1TB SSD.
https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/alienware-17-laptop/alienware-17-r4-servicemanual/procedure?guid=guid-c8f2f365-a2d2-48b6-bcf3-db15a342c546&lang=en-us
Like you say though, money is a factor???
Regards,
U2
triciagalexnder
1 Rookie
•
34 Posts
0
June 5th, 2021 20:00
My brother did upgrade my memory to 16 a while back. I went to look into the other questions and my hardware is NOT the same as what is listed as being shipped with my computer. I am wondering if he changed the hard drive also but even if so, I don't see the 1TB drive at all. It should show up here shouldn't it?
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
1
June 6th, 2021 02:00
Hi @triciagalexnder welcome to this user to user discussion forum. Thank you for sharing the current Alienware 17 R4 build information.
Note that the 2017 main battery is changing to 100% of capacity, but charge capacity has reduced to 36% of its design capacity. Laptop without battery is designed to function as desktop on ac adapter power. However, the 17 R4 Hybrid Power Design is reliant on combined battery and ac adapter power to give optimum gaming performance.
Alienware 17 R4 / Alienware 15 R3 Original 4-cell Laptop Battery 68Wh - Dell P/N 44T2R
Alienware 17 R4 / Alienware 15 R3 Original 6-cell Laptop Battery 99Wh - Dell P/N 9NJM1
The Windows 10 x64 is installed on the very slow SATA 3 Gbps SSD 160GB drive installed in the 2.5" bay.
Alienware 17 R4 Storage. There are no slow SATA 6 Gbps or fast/ultrafast PCIe Gen3.0 x4 NVMe up to 32 Gbps storage drives in the M.2 slots. The system will routinely say the "running out of disk space" error message.
Note that system temperature is 100ºC in your build information, and if not being used during high performance, this seems to indicate that the CPU,GPU interface with its cooling system wants repasting. Also check that air vents and fans are not blocked and dust/debris has been removed, from these parts and generally from the motherboard.
To support online gaming, the OS(C:) boot drive should be at least an ultrafast 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3.0 x4 NVMe, with GPT (not MBR) partition format and with BIOS Boot list option UEFI enabled. All personal files should be on a high capacity storage drive, so that the OS(C:) boot drive only has applications, and there is ample room for the creation of temporary files during gaming.
Please click on Kudos to say thank you for response from user that is not employed by Dell. Please share an update on progress, so that other users derive benefit from your experience. Thank you.
triciagalexnder
1 Rookie
•
34 Posts
0
June 6th, 2021 08:00
Thank you very much for the great information @crimsom and @U2CAMEB4ME !
After reading what you both said and my own specs that were showing up, I decided to actually look at the hardware because I was certain I had an SSD and wasn't seeing it. I have attached photos because I do have a 256GB SSD. I remembered that I replaced the fans a while back and when restarting the system, I couldn't get it to boot. I tried to figure it out and decided to take it to a computer repair shop instead because it seemed more then I could do safely. I am now thinking they might have just bypassed one completely to get the system to boot again or somehow didn't set things back up correctly. Any ideas here?
U2CAMEB4ME
4 Operator
•
6.2K Posts
1
June 6th, 2021 10:00
@triciagalexnder
Looks like you have a 256GB M.2 and the 160GB SSD installed
SSD1 = Empty
SSD2 = Empty
SSD3 = Toshiba 256GB NVMe SSD
SATA = Intel 160GB SSD
Set the Drive Configuration to AHCI.
Install a fresh W10 OS on the 256GB drive.
Install a larger HDD/SSD in the SATA slot and configure it as "Default" storage.
Regards,
U2
triciagalexnder
1 Rookie
•
34 Posts
0
June 6th, 2021 16:00
I have everything ready to go with a clean install of windows 10 but even after setting the bios to default settings and making sure the AHCI was the drive configuration, I am still not seeing the 256GB drive to use.
any other ideas as to why I visually see it in the computer but it isn't showing up anywhere I can find to utilize it?
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
1
June 6th, 2021 19:00
Hi @triciagalexnder thank you for sharing two images. Note the blades of both fans are in dire need of a good clean to remove the dust/debris.
Windows does not see the 258GB NVMe drive. Perhaps it has lost its drive letter and become a hidden partition. From your Local Admin account's desktop screen (1) press Windows+R keys, (2) copy and paste diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, (3) right click on Disk 1 and assign a drive letter (not C). The NVMe drive will then be included in the This PC window.
triciagalexnder
1 Rookie
•
34 Posts
0
June 6th, 2021 20:00
WEEEEELL, it is with both frustration and relief that I get to report that the issue is now solved. After spending all day researching and trying every trouble shooting thing I could find online with respect to BIOS and booting, I decided to take it out and try to reseat it. Interestingly enough, it wasn't even INSERTED at all. When pushed into place it no longer reaches the screw to be secured down (I did notice on videos that others had a metal plate over theirs and mine is a refurb so that was obviously missing). I was very excited thinking this would solve the problem but it still didn't show up. I figured I would swap spots and in number 2 it was seen immediately and booting to my old operating system that I was told by the computer repair store was accidentally erased.
I sure appreciate all of the help and advice. Even though my issue turned out to be physical, I found a lot of settings were not as you mentioned so I got those fixed and probably wouldn't have had success otherwise!
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
June 6th, 2021 20:00
The M.2 2280 drive card in the SSD-3 slot is not installed in its PCIe socket.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
June 6th, 2021 20:00
Hi @triciagalexnder
Download Crystal Disk Info x64 to check that all your drives are in good shape.
Advocate your new gaming OS(C:) boot drive should be a 1TB M.2 2280 Samsung 980 (MZ-V8V1T0BW) PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 with up to 3,500 MB/s sequential read and 3,000 MB/s write.
Use Macrium Reflect Free to clone the existing OS(C:) boot drive. If you are happy with the existing Windows 10 x64 on the current OS(C:) boot drive, there is no requirement to buy another Windows 10 x64.
crimsom
7 Technologist
•
6.1K Posts
0
June 6th, 2021 23:00