Does anyone run linux on their laptops and if so does the backlit rgb keyboard work?

I’m looking to purchase an Alienware 18 5090. Right now it’s on “sale” at microcenter for $4300. Is that a good price or should I wait for Black Friday and hope for a better deal? Prices keep going up.. thanks!

https://www.microcenter.com/product/713031/alienware-18-area-51-aa18250-18-gaming-laptop-computer-liquid-teal

Hello, firstly I know the Dell outlet stuff I see today will be gone tomorrow or the next few days! But good machines pop up a lot on there. So in the first place, I wanted to ask is it still worth waiting for Black Friday - to see if Dell do deals on the outlet machines as well? Further reductions?

Secondly, I wouldn’t buy a scratch and dent machine but would go for the certified refurbished ones. What are people’s experiences of buying certified refurbed machines? Anything to watch out for? Would the inside components potentially be run down from heat and so on? Basically I’m trying to find a very powerful machine that will last a while.

For example, I can see it’s around £4800 new for what I’m looking for (area 51 18 with top specs) vs £3280 for the same specs and machine refurbed.

Thank you!

255hx 5060 32gb 1tb, Got it for 1200 cad!

Loving it!!

I’ve tried both the original cable that came with the monitor and a other HDMI 2.1 cable.

In neither case does the monitor actually run in 2.1 mode.

The maximum refresh rate is 144Hz, and it’s limited to just 8-bit color.

WTF?

GPU 3080ti with HDMI 2.1

Looking for the best card to swap out my rtx 2070 super. Have an 850w power supply.

Thanks in advance.

Intel i9-13900KF and 4090. Great gaming PC for the last couple years doing 4K on a LG OLED 42”. Always kept BIOS and drivers updated. Over past year, it would sometimes not POST - no keyboard lights and nothing on monitor. Power cycling would usually bring it right back up.

Last week, the machine started heavily freezing and became unusable. Could barely log into Windows before it would freeze. I swapped out C: NVME for an old 2024 backup, and I was able to play games for few hours, but I was sometimes getting weird lines and artifacts as if it was a bad video card. Figured old drivers.

That night I ran all the windows updates and driver updates, the next morning, I was not able to boot Windows or login without it quickly freezing. I pulled the two memory modules out and tried one at a time. Same issue. I bought a new video card (omg, 5080 very expensive) and installed it, same issue. I tried to reinstall the operating system, same issue.

To be clear, the machine takes a couple power cycles for it to show anything, and loading any type of operating system always causes it to freeze. Diagnostics always passes without finding any error. “Support assist recovery OS” freezes, and USB stick to reinstall Windows freezes.

CPU very rarely go bad, but I started looking at buying various replacements compatible with this chipset. Few hundred bucks, but way cheaper than the video card I’m returning…

After reading some of the forum post here, (Thank you!) I called up Dell and after checking a few things, mentioned this forum reporting free Dell repairs for some, and Dell Knowledge Base Article [000227933](tel:000227933) , they are sending me a depot repair box and said they will test to confirm and replace the CPU at no cost. But if it’s a motherboard or power supply issue, I will pay out of pocket.

Seems fair to me. I will keep you updated. Let me know if you had a similar journey.

Up until a few days ago you could configure An Area-51 desktop and add a 5090 card for a $1,500 upcharge from the 5080 . Looking at it today (Oct 26) the upcharge jumped to $5,000 and it shows it being out of stock if you try to add a 5090. If Dell can't get their hands on 5090 cards any more, then who can?
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/desktop-computers/spd/alienwarearea51aat2265/aat2265_reg_01#customization-anchor

Hi guys, is anyone able to see the Dell "AlienFX board cable conversion kit" for sale? I think the product code is 470-bczc. Whenever I click on a google result link, I get sent back to the store frontpage. Didn't find any on ebay.

I've recent;y dual-booted my Alienware X14 (R1) with Fedora 44 and KDE Plasma 6.7.5

But I'm having some trouble with Fn+Multimedia keys and keyboard backlight -- I cannot control the keyboard backlight. Some of the multimedia keys don't work at all (F1: performance mode, F9: toggle bluetooth), and the Mic Mute indicator always remains on.

Any tips and help are welcome.

I used to own an Alienware Area 51 275HX RTX 5070 Ti. It had presence sensing settings in the windows power options menu. I could select how many feet it would automatically wake up in and such. This support article describes all of it.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/privacy/managing-presence-sensing-settings-in-windows-11

I sold that and upgraded to the same system but with a 290HX plus and a RTX 5090. Now there are no presence sensing settings present.

Did Dell remove presence sensing in the new refresh?

I liked them and they were quite useful to have laptop ready before you even touch it.

The factory application from Dell is excellent. The GPU temperatures were perfect. After repasting there is no noticeable difference to the GPU temperatures. Fan noise is consistent as well. The CPU though used to spike instantly to 104 C. It still does this but not as often or instantly. My recommendation is not to do it. It is a delicate operation taking about 1.5 to 2 hours. Not worth the time and effort for minimal gains. Element 31 thermal paste had a lot of Liquid Metal in it. That took careful removal. I previously reposted a system that was serviced by Dell’s service center in Texas and I found that they did not use Element 31 Thermal grease because when I repasted that system with PTM7950 I found a curious lack of Liquid Metal. Now this new system that has not been touched by anyone had plenty of Liquid Metal in it.

One pic is of two PC configs with AMD CPU's, and the same two configs a week later.

And the other pic is the same but with Intel CPU's.

October 17 and October 25

Just recieved the Alienware aw2725d and after four hours of usage it automatically started pixel refresh but by mistake | turned off then again I did a manual pixel refresh but there is black distortion only in HDR I am using true black 400 in osd menu and nvidia 10bpc display settings this is only happening in HDR mode calibrated using Microsoft hdR tool.

Alright so my laptop (m16 r2) had a broken keyboard piece -- no biggies

So i contacted dell support and asked for a keyboard replacement

Dell promptly intervened after a few weeks

And the repair guy also broke my motherboard

Dell thankfully replaced the dead motherboard with a new one...

Which is not working (yay)

I tried flashing a fresh windows OS and even the damned installer was tweaking out

Firefox is not working and constantly crashes same for word powershell or docker/wsl...

And now it has been three weeks since i've started fighting with dell support to get them to fix the damn thing

Im in Europe and i wonder what do i do now?

Dell is being unresponsive and i feel like they are stalling for time wasting my time in hopes i give up

I talked about this with a lawyer friend and he said that i should send them a letter and if nothing works sue

Help is desperatly needed, this is my work+school laptop and my projects have stopped to a grinding halt...

Hello, I’m looking for a gaming machine and will be purchasing during Black Friday. Ideally a laptop would suit me as I also need one for work.

I expected the desktops to be cheaper and was open to getting one if there was a good deal for similar specs. However, just looking at the website - I’m seeing the laptops mostly running 1000-2000 GBP pounds cheaper than the desktops. Is there some parts shortage for desktops components driving them up currently?

Thanks

Hello I wanted to ask if anyone else was experiencing these issues or found a solution hopefully.

PC specs

• Alienware Aurora R16
• Intel i9-14900KF
• NVIDIA RTX 4090
• BIOS 2.26.0 (October 2026)
• Gaming at 1080p, targeting 240 FPS

I mostly play league of legends on the PC, and that game is optimized to be played on a toaster I swear. I cant hold stable fps. I usually run the game at Very High for all the graphis and High on shadow, borderless, and cap it at 240 fps.

My other computer with worst specs runs it with no problem, can stream, and have whatever open and it's fine, but THIS pc just has a super hard time running league by itself, AND I even lower the settings to medium or low and I still get Horrible FPS drops and its just so infurting.

I tried capping it down to 60 FPS, restored the pc 3 times ( reset this pc / Redownloading windows / Done all the updates ) and I feel like this hardware should not be perfoming this poorly.

• Reinstalled Windows twice.
• Updated BIOS to 2.26.0.
• Uninstalled Dell SupportAssist — helped somewhat, but didn't fix it.
• Adjusted Windows power settings for performance.
• Checked CPU boost, clock speeds, temperatures, and power limits.
• Ran performance diagnostics using HWiNFO and Windows tracing tools.

If anyone has any advice or can relate please let me know, from what I can tell others have experienced similar issues but none of the posts via reddit or Dell have given a permanent solution.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a wonderful rest of your day!

Alienware - AW3425DW 34" QD-OLED WQHD 240Hz 0.03ms FreeSync Premium Pro Curved Gaming Monitor with HDR (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB) - Interstellar Indigo

Is there a speaker set I can purchase to work with this monitor?

Hey peoples, does anyone have or know where to get a pcie slot cover for a Alienware Area 51 desktop, preferably in Australia. I have somehow lost one and all the generic replacements are triggering my ocd.

Absolute pitch-black levels in a dark room and later realised I was sent the 2026 model with an OLED and (?upgraded) CPU (unsure if 275hx to 290hx plus is considered an upgrade). And cherry on the top - it was almost brand new (0% battery wear, and practically 0 cycles)

The 5090 runs well for a 16 inch laptop in overdrive mode

Even got the mouse to match the aurora colours 😭 , Amazing laptop, my eyes got watery when I played pragmata on that beautiful screen

My setup used to be a Aurora R16 with some razer Components, but I hated how soulless the New Aurora's Look. Found this r4 for free nearby fell in love with the case and I knew I had to use that as my case for the first time building a PC instead of buying a Pre built I think I did okay... It's Running win11 btw just reskined to look like win7

Luckily my Dad used to be an Alienware geek Back then so I took his TactX Peripherals (found the headset on eBay too, arriving soon) I'm replacing the dell with an Old Alienware monitor to match.

Bonus at the End of my Next current project, gonna be my Retro PC, Can't decide between XP or Windows 7...

God I'm getting nostalgic, can we please go back!

Should I remove the wallpaper and just run a black screen? Do you guys run wallpaper engine on your oled Alienware laptops? Just picked this up and it’s coming later today 😬

Why does my M18 R2 make noises like a HDD reading and writing?