also he should run the ePSA diagnostics to verify temps and fan speeds.

Here’s the stuff to get 4.2Ghz at 75c under Heavy load.

Thermal paste:

https://www.amazon.com/MorningDawn-Performance-Thermal-Paste-Metallic/dp/B071K7R5PF/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=Server+grade+paste&qid=1596497622&sr=8-7

Thermal pads:

https://www.amazon.com/100x100x1-5mm-Aikenuo-Conductivity-Conductive-Temperature/dp/B075JDF6JV/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=1.5mm+thermal+pads&qid=1596497661&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFONTg5WkNKU0M0MEomZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwMTUzNTg5T0Q4VjBaQkhTUzYmZW5jcnlwdGVkQWRJZD1BMDM2NDgwMkI0WEFCNDhYTlFLRiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

I’ve owned all Alienware systems from 2002 - 2020 and I’ve had multiple thermal issues like you. All I did was just add these items and then the thermal issues magically disappeared. It’s because the stock thermal paste and thermal pads are pretty bad.

then I’d add a cooling pad to get better thermals.

Hi I also have a faulty one and Dell asked me to send it back to replace heat sink. I am more concerned about the uneven temperature among cores, which causes thermal throttling because 3 cores are overheated while the other 3 cores are under-stressed, resulting in an overall frequency slightly below 3GHz (mine is i7-9750H so Dell's spec is 3GHz - 4GHz) in stress test. Have you checked whether there are certain cores running hotter than the others? HWMonitor should tell you when you run stress test.

Hi @Alienware and @BenTG
Thanks for the details, I appreciate that.
I had Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut put during one of the repairs, Did not change a thing, Funny is that it always runs cool after Bios re-installation. as for the pad i do have aluminum cooling pad with 2 fans blowing onto intakes forcing additional cool air to circle around. I also have r4 17 which is superb, really i love that one.
I can certainly follow your advice to re-paste it and change the cooling fans. The thing is that there is that smell coming out of the m15 , the smell of overheated breakboard- you probably know the smell of burning electronics. That means, that the laptop. that was in qualified Dell service might have been poorly repaired.One more thing follows: any other component like RAM, HDD,SDD WIFI card that receives excess heat will fail much faster.  And it was not the first service. So even if it would be a thermal paste and pads conductivity problem, which I doubt, i should have that option given by the tech that takes the info from  me, I'm not sure if someone reads the history while talking to me.  It's just same story: that this is ok, 100 is fine. Well TjMax is 100 and actually this runs over the limit, and yest it's thermal dispersion rate that is too low and heat builds up to point when i can burn my fingers by touching the keyboard parts, temp there can exceed 70C.

I really feel like i have no choice but not to buy Dell anymore, would you? after 6th or 7th repair? repair that did not fix the issue?


Ehh well I have r4 17 which is absolutely great, but this story has no happy end and I lost faith that it will.

I had my 15 R1 fixed and it’s temps used to be 105C but it wouldn’t thermal throttle for some reason. A new repaste and some new thermal pads were the key for success.

i also put some thermal pads on the WiFi card and ram modules.

and if anyone needs some repair i can do it on your laptop.

also, i recommend setting the cpu at 2.8Ghz.

@Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006 What thickness thermal pads would you suggest for a m15 r1? Ive undervolted it which helped, but I do still hit 100c depending on how demanding the game is. I got a cooling pad but I really wanna try out the thermal grease and pads you recommend.

I'd get the 1.5mm ones but the thicker the better.

@Alienware Area-51 ALX 2006  Sweet thanks man.

Yes, m15R1 is HOT. Very hot. I think no more "thin" notebooks for me, it's impossible to put adequate cooling system inside.

For mine m15R1, i use this measures to cool it down:

1. Install BIOS 2.1.1 or early.

2. Install ThrottleStop and undervolt CPU as high as possible (also good for TPU limit).

3. In ThrottleStop, play with max. Turbo multiplier - setting it to lower value for 5 and 6 core loads helps a lot (my values is 39 for 5 cores, and 36 for six cores. 

Now i have 80-95C at CPU under full load, and max. 75C on GPU.

I don’t understand how these thin laptops have bad cooling. Their close to the same size as the original 17 and 15.