Area-51m R2, Overheating Information

Hello!

I have recently gone through some severe overheating issues with my Alienware Area 51m R2 laptop. I have tentatively resolved the issues and would like to share what I learned in the hopes it helps someone else.

For starters, my rig:

Area 51m Revision 2. Intel i-9-9900 CPU. 16 Gigabyte ram, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060

I purchased this laptop right at the end of January 2020. From the very beginning, it would run at temperatures of ~75 Celsius cpu/70 gpu when playing "intermediately demanding" games like most MMOs. "Highly demanding" games hit ~85cpu/76 to 80 gpu. Idle speeds when just watching a video or checking email ranged ~50cpu/45gpu.

I wasn't very comfortable with the +80 Celsius temperatures, but supposedly they are "in range" according to the manufacturers and since it is a very compact gaming laptop, I decided to take their word for it and not worry. However, from the very first day I unboxed the laptop, the power button and the case a few inches to either side would become unbearably hot at +75 degrees. Again, I chalked that up to the price of not using a desktop.

Well, about three weeks ago, my system starting hitting 90 degrees, then 95 degrees and the heat transferred from the case around the power button, down the keyboard to the places intended as hand rests and after as little as 20 minutes of gaming, it became hot enough to leave a red mark on my hand. Finally the cpu hit 100 which is the highest the Alienware command center will allow it to read and the gpu was pushing 95.

After trying several unsuccessful, common sense solutions, I called Dell. The best things I can say about the call was that my wait time was very short and the technical support person was knowledgeable about how to run tests.

As expected, he had me do many of the things I'd already done- update my graphics drivers, flash the bios, check for special dell drivers and run the support assist tests. He then had me do some surprising things like download a special preview version of a future windows update and run a bios level test that mirrored what support assist already does. He also found it necessary to talk down to me and generally be condescending. Maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he was as sick of the 30+ minute call as I was, but I did not appreciate the answer to my question of 'why is my laptop running so much hotter than it was three weeks ago?' with "electronics get hot when you run a current through them." It felt a lot like when an at&t rep told me my internet service was cutting in and out because I hadn't cleared my browser cache recently.

In short, nothing worked and he felt it necessary to lie to me by saying that opening the case on this highly moddable laptop voids the warranty. He also made it plain that as long as the computer doesn't exceed 100 degrees, which his software is coded to not register regardless, I remind you, Dell doesn't have to do anything. Nevermind that both Intel and Dell have hidden throttles on your system that trigger before this temperature is reached by either cpu or gpu. His final advice was that I just wait for a software update and in the mean time use a computer that was actually burning me.

With that bit of information logged away, here are the things I tried that did not help.

Calling Dell
Updating the BIOS
Updating drivers for Alienware command center, Dell Supportassist, Nvidia graphics card, Intel processor, and Windows 10 (Except for the BIOS, I was already up to date on all of those anyway)
Setting the fan to High Performance Mode in the BIOS
Disabling Hyperthreading in the BIOS

*Undervolting the CPU
*Manually adjusting the fan speeds with non-alienware software

I marked those last two because they should have worked. For anyone who doesn't know, Intel and Dell came together to lock out the ability to undervolt with a series of updates and BIOS updates earlier this year. People who were reducing the i9900's infamous capacity to sometimes run too hot suddenly found their temps climbing again following these updates and Dell has subsequently restricted the ability to revert to older BIOS.

Following some updates to support assist and the ACC about a month ago, I noticed my fans weren't shifting in speed like they were before regardless of how I changed the settings and that they were sometimes dropping down in speed after launching a high intensity game. This made me suspicious of the information given in the ACC and made me search for other programs to read temperatures and fan speeds. ACC isn't entirely to blame since no program has matched up readings so far.

Now, for what did help.

With the help of my clever wife, I spent days studying forums and various videos and testing a number of things. The whole undervolting thing ate almost three days before I noticed in another program that the voltage offset was not actually moving and subsequently learned about the ability to undervolt being taken away.

Removing Alienware Command Center and Dell SupportAssist
-This lowered my average temperatures by 5 degrees. I don't understand why exactly, but other owners of this laptop have verified the results, if maybe with different temp values. I only learned about this in the process of reinstalling Windows 10 completely since I was worried about some hidden driver hindering chip performance or fans from functioning at full force. I verified this myself by measuring temperatures after reinstalling ACC and then deleting it- thankfully without another several hour windows reinstall!

Lowering Maximum processor state
-Huge thanks to my wife for finding a youtube video regarding this. Look under Windows Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings, then the Change advanced power settings link and you can find this option under Processor power management. Just be aware that sometimes windows, or maybe dell, hides this setting and it needs to be reenabled with a simple registry edit along with 'processor performance boost mode.' The theory behind why this works is that it disables the TurboBoost function of the processor. At the least, it reduces how much power the processor is getting. I'm not sure my processor has turboboost. Regardless, I am running at 70% setting and have a 6 degree improvement in temperatures which I can verify by raising the processor state again. Some people saw a benefit from simply dropping the state to 99% and some people reported larger temperature reductions.

Cleaning out the intake grill on the case plus the fan blades and the rear grill on the heatsink
-I realize laptops don't have much interior breathing room and dust restricts air flow and traps heat. So, I cleaned the exterior grills frequently, but I didn't worry too much about fans which looked okay visually. Another big thanks to my wife for noticing that the exhaust side of the heatsink at the rear of the laptop was putting out significantly less air than a week ago when we started our studying. I hadn't once thought about the exhaust port, but I found a forum post regarding someone with "normal" temperatures but no rear exhaust who used compressed air to clean out the grill fins back there. So in addition to brushing off the fan blades and using compressed air to blow through the heatsink, I then spent several minutes sending air in the opposite direction, aiming diagonally through the fins on the rear of the heatsink up through the fan housing. This yielded a significant amount of dust and I kept at it from both sides until it seemed as clean as possible. I do not have a temperature reduction here, because of the next part.

Reapplying thermal paste to the CPU and GPU
-Fairly normal maintenance on a desktop, this is a little intimidating on a laptop. However, after reading some guides and watching official videos by the alienware support team, I did this. (Learn to love your grounding bracelet!) The 51m case is almost as moddable, 'lift in and out' easy as they claim. Mostly it was just screwdriver work with only a couple vexing, but ultimately simple, spots.
Based on how there was almost no thermal paste on the gpu and the cpu was mostly lined around its perimeter and not the surface, I am positive that the paste was poorly applied and either low quality or very, very old when it was shipped to me. Additionally, the thermal pads in my machine did not match up to what is shown in the alienware videos.
With the combination of thoroughly cleaning the rear vent and repasting, here are my new temperature ranges. 
"High intensity" gaming, ~55gpu/56cpu. "Mid intensity" gaming, ~42cpu/38gpu. "Idling" temp (while I've been writing this post) ~35cpu/32gpu.
Exactly how much the paste improved it compared to the vent cleaning, I don't know. I decided to do both at once since I was already in there with the rear panel removed to access the fins. Reading other forum posts, people have reported anywhere from 10-30 degree improvements from repasting. Considering my computer is running in excess of 20 degrees cooler than when it was "new", I'd say the pasting is the big hero- and that it never should have been shipped with that shoddy pasting job!

Theoretically, with higher quality thermal pads and a higher tier of paste, I could reduce my gaming temperature further. Some people also reported mild to significant improvements from using a raised pad with usb powered fans. I had a laptop pad with five fans that I bought with the laptop, but I only ever noticed 1 degree of improvement from that and used it primarily to keep the intake grill open when I held the laptop. Maybe a pad with higher rpm fans and a non-usb power source would help more?

I hope that this information is useful to someone. It represents several days of research across many sources and five stressful days of testing. Some options I listed worked for other people, but not for me. Conversely, some of the the things that worked for me had varied results for other people. I'm not sure what the forum policy is on posting links, but I used MX-4 thermal paste and the relevant youtube videos are four different ones regarding disassembly, safety, and repasting by Alienware Support.

I plan to ask on the Alienware discord, but there are a couple things I'd like to know. Does anyone know what thickness the thermal pads used underneath the 51m R2's heatsink assembly is? One source said 1.5mm, but I'd like to verify it. I also have ordered a used heatsink assembly for the 2080 gpu and am curious if anyone knows what the rpms are for those fans and whether a stronger pair of power supply bricks are needed? Supposedly the 2060 fans run at 3700 and 3800 rpms for the cpu and gpu respectively, but that is again, unverified.

(For anyone who just skipped to the bottom- repaste and clean exhaust grill fins for biggest results)

Good luck!

-Steven