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m18 R1, constant issues
I have had 4 Alienware m18 R1 AMD's and all 4 have had basically the same issue.
My 1st Alienware m18: I got an Alienware m18 R1 AMD in September 2023. From the beginning I was having intermittent issues. The sound would crackle and become staticky and when that would happen during gaming whatever game I was playing it would stutter during the sound event. The same sound issue would happen intermittently no matter what I was doing: It would happen during Youtube videos, listening to radio programs, and it would also happen when I listened to audiobooks and watched movies on different streaming sites, it would even happen during movies I had downloaded to the laptop. I spent 4 days exchanging emails with technical support sending me instructions of things to try and also during this time there were multiple times I was on the phone with technical support allowing them to takeover remote access of the laptop and they tried things from their end. After all this the issue persisted and Dell said they would send me a replacement since I had only had the laptop less than 30 days.
My 2nd Alienware m18: I got my replacement and sent the original back to Dell. And the replacement did the EXACT same thing as the original, except with this one I also noticed that when I unplugged and plugged the charger in to the back of the laptop it would make some odd crackle and staticky sounds but much more intensely than if I was just gaming or listening to something. So once again I hours over multiple days speaking with technical support, emailing back and forth with them and allowing them to take over remote access to try things on their end. Just like the original laptop the issue persisted and AGAIN Dell said they would send me a new laptop.
My 3rd Alienware m18: I just got this one yesterday and from the get go I had to call Technical Support because the power button was flashing 3 reds and 1 blue, this issue was able to be taken care of via Technical Support. Also during this session they took over remote access and had to change some things and uninstall and reinstall SupportAssist because it was not working properly and having issues. I didn't do much on the laptop yesterday since my evening consisted of setting it up and speaking with support. So now it is today and AGAIN this thing is having the EXACT same issues as my previous m18s. This has the intermittent sound issues and it does the same thing when I unplug and plug back in the charger in the back of the laptop.
My 4th Alienware m18 (I am currently using this right now): This one is even more of a mess. It constantly Blue Screens. It does it on idle with nothing open, it does it downloading games, it does it in the middle of games, and it will do it when I am closing a game. So basically I have a gaming system that crashes when I play games. The stutter and static sound issue is still present on this 4th one, the only thing I can say about this one is that the issue when I unplug and plug in the charger isn't present like the other m18s. Tech Support is having someone come out and change the motherboard but that can't be done for 5-6 weeks due to the part being on backorder. So basically I am stuck with an expensive paper weight. This is all just ridiculous.
It makes me curious if anyone else that has recently purchased the Alienware m18 R1 AMD is experiencing the same things I am. This is the craziest thing. I previously had an Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 that I used for 2 years and it was great, it was just very small and that was the only reason why I upgraded to the m18. The specs on all 4 of the m18s have been the same:
Operating System: Windows 11 Home
Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU
Memory: 32GB
Storage: 2TB SSD
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Posted April 22nd, 2024 03:10
I have a Alienware R17 it will play netflix now but not with out delays. It will stop and start. The sound will stop. I do not have these problems with a NVidia zotac 520
MY old dell plays netflix flawlessly. this Alienware keeps freezing up. When I turn this alienware on it makes this weird fluttery noise in the speaker. that stops until I turn the sound off.
It used to blink when I hooked it to be big screen. Now the blinking stopped and now it will stop and start quickly and the sound will stop. It freezes up when I try to play. Its really not working and I have lost hope that it will ever work right. I like it for 3d modeling with blender. It does that well. But do not buy one of these to play games as it will just take up many hours of your time. You will never get it to be right. Alienware don't work for games. Maybe the brand new ones work for a few years ?? Do they work when they are new ? and then after a few years they stop working right ? You take one of these apart and it is just AMAZING how well made these are. You can put 2 hard drives and I think 2 more of the m1chip style ssd drives. Everything is so incredibly well made yet the things cant do what they are intended to do. It reminds me of that space shuttle in 1986 I want to know what the true reason is for this. Why are these machines that are made to do one thing the best ever yet they will not. What ever is causing these laptops that are high end and supposed to be the ultimate and very best for playing games but yet they won't be any good for games. WHY ? We need to know why, all of us need to know.
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Posted February 19th, 2025 01:55
Won't be buying Alienware again. Multiple returns of new M-18 R1 for crashes that I spent hours on the phone with tech trouble shooting. They did a terrible job on this computer, and I fear for most of us that this will end with premature failure and it's just not worth the hassle/cost or continued problems to fix. And their foreign based tech support leaves everything to be desired with no ability to speak to someone who actually has English as a first language.
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Posted December 10th, 2025 01:57
I have the same stuttering issue in games but with the AMD 7900m version. Basically everything except the quiet preset is guaranteed to start a repeating stuttering cycle with audio crackling and fps tanking, repeating every few seconds. Totally unplayable. It is just shocking how badly they messed up such an expensive laptop. So I am stuck loosing out on like 30% of the performance of the dGPU because it can't handle even the "balanced preset" which is supposedly the one with the rated power levels and clocks. The fact that so many people have this and after 2 years this hasn't been fixed makes me think it can't be fixed. Not to mention the constant black screen/smarmux problems even with current drivers.
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Posted December 13th, 2025 20:57
I have already repasted and I am using a Thermaltake massive extreme cooler. The video I linked was running AC Valhalla in the background, with that cooler at 2000 rpm, CPU temps at 68C (all other temps fine too) and the stuttering was STILL happening! That leads me to think its a power spiking issue.
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Posted December 13th, 2025 21:01
It may be. Have you tried other power bricks? Maybe these are faulty or the system is drawing to much power to for the gpu. I gave up on mine, and it now seems to work fine. I used some nvidia settings to change performance and it works right, but I rarely use it.
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Posted December 13th, 2025 21:07
I have the original massive power brick and a slimq 330w aftermarket gan charger. Happens with both.
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Posted December 13th, 2025 22:16
In addition to the video above take a look at this, specifically the timestamp I am pointing at which is seconds after the stuttering starts. Look at that PPT FAST limit.
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Posted November 19th, 2023 23:54
@alw1981 Are you able to completely uninstall Support Assist and see if anything changes? I haven't heard of SA causing sound issues on this model laptop but it has done a few strange things to other systems. It caused audio stuttering in my Aurora R15 and only uninstalling SA fixed the problem.
There is more than one SA program to uninstall though so go through the list in 'Uninstall a Program' and remove them all. Usually 3 to remove.
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Posted November 28th, 2023 20:51
Yeah I have the same problem as well I had just gotten my laptop on 11/24/23 and it’s having the same problem that you presented . A constant stutter that affect my laptops audio and gameplay if I’m gaming or just watching videos on YouTube or shows on Netflix. I have tried updating my drivers and updating windows but to no avail. Hopefully a solution is found because it’s really annoying and I would hate to go through what you had which was having 3 laptops replaced for them all to not be fixed. :/
managelrn
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Posted November 30th, 2023 08:27
I'm pretty angry at the poor design and poor technical support. My M-18 was barely used and less than 2 months old when it started stuttering/lagging in game, then started randomly rebooting, and then I noticed the battery was stuck at 42% while plugged in. Ran bios and Alienware diagnostics and no problems were found, so I called them, they spent 1 1/2 days working the issue on the phone with me and I sent it back. They put in a new main board and battery, said that all the diagnostics were fine but...I start trying to load my programs and play my game and it started shutting down randomly again. Critical kernel issues were popping up left and right, my fans weren't working properly, and I ended up calling again. I'm a dope on a rope at this point and I feel like I just spent $3K on a paperweight. With the problems you're having I'm not feeling that there is a likelihood that they are going to fix my defective computer.
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