Please do NOT advertise your Alpha for sale here. Either as a post or a comment. This is not ebay.

Just sharing upgrade experience with Alienware Alpha R1 network card upgrade.

Tl;dr Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9260 works great.

I upgraded this about 2 years ago due poor speed at a distance. Roughly $15 on amazon. Works fine, no issues since. The benefits are

• Bluetooth 5.
• improved network stability and speed to an access point about 50 ft away

Per a speed test, there was no obvious improvement over the original card if the R1 is moved closer, within 20 ft of the access point. Also, I did need to download drivers from intel for the product "AC 9260NGW"

Edit: also, the upgrade was as easy as adding new RAM.

So I bought a ZOTAC RTX 2080 AMP Extreme for my AGA and it doesn’t work. It booted to Windows but before could do anything it totally crashed. Kept trying it and sometimes I would just get the RGB, sometimes it would get as far as BIOS and sometimes it would get to Windows and then immediately crash.

Never had a high end GPU and kinda crushed. Any ideas on how to get it working? (Also, it doesn’t seem to fit. Has anyone else gotten the case closed with one of these. Dell’s website specifically says this card is supported so idk wtf is up.)

I have a alpha r2 with the m470m, last year I upgraded the cpu to the 6700t and 16gb of ram and a 2tb m.2 and the psu block, is there a way I can upgrade the cpu more? Also by chance could I do 32gb of ram in one channel? The cpu supports 64gb but there's only 1 slot I believe.

So I recently got an AGA for my 960 R2 and am still shopping for a GPU, so decided to do some benchmarking on the 960 before it gets put out to pasture.

Now I had always assumed that the 960 on-board was a scaled down version of the full-size with same performance. However, I ran a UserBenchmark (ikik) and the GPU landed in the 7th percentile for 960s! (All other components were between 59-83)

So then I ran Superposition (1080p Med) and scored a 4063 — maybe not so bad? Nope! Of the 11 published scores for 960s the lowest is 4566 with the highest at 5313. So that’s >10% lower performance than the next lowest.

I also recently found out that Alienware was selling a stripped down version of the 2080 ti in some of their desktops that are apparently trash. Kinda disappointing, but I guess Im glad I got the AGA.

If anyone else has an R2 with a 960 and has some scores they’d like to share I’d be very interested in how other ones work! Maybe mine’s just washed.

Hi everyone.
I have a R1 and a R2 lying around, and I'd love to boot them on Steam OS.

Has anyone here done it ?
What is the best distro to install ?

I tried some of them without success some time ago...

I had it set up to my tv from 2016 to 2022. A year in i started having the yellow light. At first i changed the cmos battery and it worked fine for a few months.Then i started resetting the cmos instead of changing the battery it got so annoying to the point i soldered a switch to the reset pins and hid it in the bottom compartment. One day in 2022 it wouldn’t turn on, and the cmos reset wouldn’t work anymore. All i got was the yellow light of death. I disassembled it completely and by accident the cable i used for the quick reset touched another point on the power button. Smoke came out. I was moving abroad a few days later so my buddy couldn’t make the trip. Had to say goodbye and put it in a recycling bin. I still miss it bros. It was the coolest looking computer but also the one that gave me the moat problems. Maybe someday i will find a mini pc like that but i doubt it. For now i will keep missing my aloha r1.

Appreciate the info

I have the version with the i3 processor.

I am wondering if anyone has ever upgraded one of these? I don't use it much for gaming, but could give it some upgrades.

Advice would be appreciated

Okay so ive had my alienware alpha for years now and it still works, slow but works. I played a few games on it last year when I pulled it out of storage from moving (metro series) but now it won't run games well, even after defragging.

Im wanting to get a computer for my kiddo. She's 8 and is a little gamer. Then I thought we'll maybe it's possible to to upgrade it for a while anyway. Is that even possible anymore???

Sooo my question is would it be cost efficient to upgrade the cpu, ram, memory etc on my alpha for her to play things like minecraft, roblox, goat game, maybe diablo if it could keep up ... she won't be trying to run anything graphic heavy on it.

Or should I just get her a good setup now? 🤔 I'm will to spend a good bit cuz her bday and Christmas is back to back and I know she loves it and already has streaming setup on dad's computer.

I'm just about to give up on this Alpha R2 and throw the mobo in the bin but I wanted to see if this made sense to anyone else.

At this point, the system is completely dead. No lights, no fan spinning, no nothing EXCEPT sometimes when I plug the AC adapter into the mobo, I could swear I feel a very faint short vibration coming from the system. I can't find anything about this online but that tells me the power is going into the system.

Before anyone @s me about the battery, I've already replace it and yes, the terminals are connected correctly.

I've tried multiple different AC adapters. Different RAM chips and speeds pulled from old Dell laptops. Also tried a different CPU. No SSD plugged in and no Wi-fi plugged in either. Tried the jumper on the CMOS reset option, middle and not connected at all.

Anyone know what the slight vibration could mean? Thanks.

Anyone have a source for the proprietary cable for the npy83 graphics amplifier (or have one to sell)?

Purchased one on ebay and missed the small print that it didn't include the cable.

I picked up this R1 from a friend and it had a YLOD. I changed CMOS/SSD/Thermal Paste. It still would only flash Yellow. I ended up booting with 1 ram stick in the first slot and it started just fine. It now has a fresh install of windows+NVIDIA driver. I tried a variety of sticks (only 1 set is matching-4+4) and configurations. The PC will never boot with a stick in the 2nd slot. I have a 16gb matching set coming tomorrow but I'm sure it still won't boot with two. Any solutions to this issue?

Pretty sure it’s on windows 10. It only sometimes shows my network and when I try to connect it tells me my password is wrong even though I have triple checked. I cant get into windows desktop because I’m signed out and get a Microsoft prompt that won’t load because I have no network connection. It won’t connect to Wi-Fi through the sign in page either. I also have a little white flashing light in the back. Please help!

I think that the eeprom is corrupted (i followed all the steps for it the cmos clear etc. but nothing) i have no clue where to begin, i de-soldered the eeprom chip, but it got mangled in the process so im gonna order replacements. When i do, where can i find the bios file to flash it and solder it back in?

I’m trying to update my CPU for my Alienware alpha, model D07U, which I believe is an r2. Feel free to correct me. I just want it to be good enough to run fortnight. I found a I5- 4570 and an I7 - 4770, On the low. Which one would be better? The alpha currently has an I3. I’m not big into computer. Just doing to play fortnight with my friends. Any help would be nice. Thank you.

I'm trying to figure out which mini pc to buy so l can play Wuthering waves cuz I don't feel like waiting for the ps5 release. I don't know much about pos but I'm just wondering if I can play with a mini or I should just wait. Someone plz help

I had the yellow light issue a couple days ago and instead of buying a new one wirh the shrink wrap and everything for ten bucks, I just broke the tack welds off the old one and electrical taped them to a normal CR2032 watch battery we had around.

It's been working for around a week, but today I saw it needs to be a CL version. What does this mean and should I change it?

My steam machine is an R2 with R9 m280x gpu. I've installed batocera and it's loading the amdgpu driver ok, but I have no sound over HDMI. I've tried adding kernel parm amdgpu.dc=1 per a post I found in the batocera forums but that doesn't seem to help. Does anyone have batocera running on similar hardware?

I just replaced the battery, brand new and it's the exact right one, however it's still doing the 'blink of death'. My Alpha is really old so I don't have much hope, but I can't afford a new computer so I bring my issue here in case any of you have a solution!

Got a alpha r1 mini pc and reset it and now it won't go past the Alienware loading boot it's stuck in a loop I read it could be the battery but it worked fine when I got it today and now it's stuck in loop

Hey fellow Alpha enthusiasts,

I could really use some help with my Alienware Alpha R1, which has been sitting in my closet for a few years. Here’s a breakdown of the situation I’m facing:

1. CMOS Battery Replacement: I had to swap out the CMOS battery to get it to boot initially. I had to go through moving the jumper.
2. Persistent Yellow LEDs and Fans: Once plugged into power, the front LEDs turn yellow and the fans stay on, even when the system is technically "off". However, when I press the power button, the system seems to boot normally and the LEDs and fans operate as expected. When turning the system "off" again, the issues come back.
3. Internal SSD Issues: The system had no hard drive, so I tried using an internal SSD. Unfortunately, the computer restarts every time I try using it. It runs fine in BIOS, with a Linux live USB, and even with Windows 10 from an external HDD. But using the internal drive slot, like trying to install an OS, partitioning, or running diagnostics, causes it to restart. I connected it to my desk to to test it several times, and it appears fine. The SSD is A Samsung 870 EVO 1TB. The BIOS detects the SSD correctly.
4. BIOS Update Problems: I attempted to update the BIOS through the external Windows 10, but it gives an error about the version being incorrect. I’m still on the original BIOS version with no apparent way to upgrade.
5. Onboard Diagnostics: The onboard diagnostics do run, but I have to remove the SSD. Even then, the system restarts during the CPU fan test.
6. Checked Hardware: I’ve checked all capacitors and reseated the RAM, but the issues persist.

Has anyone encountered similar problems or have any suggestions on what else I could try? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

I recently brought a 8GB Intel i5-4590T Dell Alienware Alpha Mini and it didn’t come with a power supply.

I was curious if anyone has a link or a place where I could buy one?

Thanks in advance

I got my Steam Machine in 2017, and it wasn't until last December where I finally found the fix for the yellow light issue that's been plagging me ever since. I've looked up tons of things on it, and they were mostly temporary fixes. As the years past, it got progressively worse.

I tried:

• Doing the jumper reset

• Removing the CMOS battery for a period of time

• Holding the power button for a "power drain"

Or any mix of the above with differing timings. Even went as far as to leave out the CMOS battery for 12 whole hours, and that was when I realised the battery was finally dying. I'd go up to 3 whole days until I could boot it up again, and a whole week in December.

The fix was replacing the CMOS battery. It uses a CR2032CL 3v. The pin of the one I bought wasn't compatible, so I had a neighbour transfer the one from the old one into the new one, and it worked out perfectly.

Had no issues ever since, and I could turn it off and it boot it normally. I used to leave it on sleep because I literally couldn't turn it off without risking a yellow light every time.

All worth it.

I have an R2, used to be very slow, with only 4gb, of ram, I upgraded the ram to 16GB, I’m very new to pc gaming, is there anything else I can do to upgrade it ? I was thinking a new cpu, or even a egpu, but I’m not sure how to set that up, and I’m not sure if certain things would fit, any suggestions?

Hi all, I recently bought a wifi card off of ebay to upgrade my Alienware Alpha R1 with (https://www.ebay.com/itm/133559020349), as per the suggestion on that "Alienware Alpha is 2020" post. However, it didn't work and kept giving me a code 10 error, even after making sure the 1 and 2 (black and white triangle) connections were correct. I even tried them switched to make sure and reset the bios and network settings multiple times for both configurations. I ended up having to go back to my original wifi card, which worked immediately. Did I receive a faulty wifi card, forget some step, or bought an incompatible card? Alternatively, is there a better card anyone could recommend as a cheap upgrade for my Alienware Alpha R1 that may give a noticeable difference.

Thanks!

Hi! I’ve been searching for the setup file for alienware command center for my alpha r2. No luck so far. Dell took the file down from the support site. If someone has the file could you please share?

Thanks

So I have a roccat keyboard and a corsair mouse I just ran into a issue while i was running steam in pc mode I downloaded support for the Xbox one controller through steam and now my mouse and keyboard do not work except on startup and no controller works it goes straight to console mode and I'm trying to get rid of hivemind so I can use my mouse and keyboard but I can't find anything to help me with this issue I can get into some settings by pressing f12 as soon as it boots up and then the mouse and keyboard work in settings but once it loads hivemind I'm fucked I can't use anything to navigate or get out of it any ideas ok how to fix I'm not very pc smart but I can do some basic stuff if someone has a answer I'd love you forever please help thank you