Alienware Area 51-R2 heat issues - help!

Question

About a month ago the fans started going nuts under any kind of load - more than half a dozen Chrome tabs open and they'd get really loud.

I cleaned off the thermal paste and reapplied, that helped a little. I'm running 64GB RAM.

But still, under load when running automation in Lightroom, CPU usage goes up to 100% and the fans run really loud - all the cores get pretty hot too. (although in the attached screenshot of HWMonitor, they're all about 8 degrees under their normal load performance)

(NB: I had to do a clean install of Windows a while back, and haven't been able to get Command Center to work ever since. Well, it works partially after installing it, but as soon as it's time to restart the computer it won't load Windows. I've seen others with this issue too, but no solution yet. All my drivers are up to date)

Any ideas? Do I need a new CPU fan? New CPU? New computer?!

Tesla1856 · Answer

@jpshar wrote:

About a month ago the fans started going nuts under any kind of load - more than half a dozen Chrome tabs open and they'd get really loud.

1. I cleaned off the thermal paste and reapplied, that helped a little.

2. But still, under load when running automation in Lightroom, CPU usage goes up to 100%

3. and the fans run really loud - all the cores get pretty hot too. (although in the attached screenshot of HWMonitor, they're all about 8 degrees under their normal load performance)

4. I had to do a clean install of Windows a while back

5. and haven't been able to get Command Center to work ever since. Well, it works partially after installing it, but as soon as it's time to restart the computer it won't load Windows.

1. I wonder if the Liquid-Cooler is gummed-up, clogged, or just malfunctioning:

Is one hose really hot and the other is pretty cool?

2. Isn't that normal? Like when you encode video, all cores go to 100% (like they are suppose to).

3. Yeah, those temps are about 10c too high. IIRC, Liquid-Cooler should be holding cores around 70c (even if they are running at 100%).

4. Good

5. Very bad. Hard to say how well Liquid-Cooler and/or other fans will work without proper Alienware Command Center (and its Thermal Controller) installed and working.

Edited now that I can see pic and temps.

Tesla1856 · Answer

Yours should be similar to this: https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/My-2014-Area-51-R2-ePSA-steps-and-results-page/m-p/6135568#M5004

PUC_Snakeman · Answer

Alienware Command Center, making Windows completely freeze on startup, on an Area-51 R2 with 64 GB Ram, is a known issue, that Dell has not made any effort to fix.

A workaround can be found here, which allows you to install Alienware Command Center and only lose a little bit of functionality:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General/Area-51-R2-64GB-Memory-Support/m-p/5536909/highlight/true#M38858

I've lost all hope of them fixing this issue. :(

PS: Sounds like your water cooler might need replacing, but I'm no expert.

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Alienware Area 51-R2 heat issues - help!

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