Alienware M18 R2 tweaking information 14900hx

[i.bakar]

hello everyone

 

I recently bought a brand new Alienware M18 R2 ( 4 days ago)  that was shipped back in march 2025 with 14900HX CPU, RTX 4090 GPU and 64GB or RAM from someone who bought it and never opened the box so the box was sealed…

 

I went through all the posts about that laptop here on NotebookTalk and over techpowerup and so far I was able to gather some information…  some was very helpful, other was scarry…

Based on those information I was able to undervolt using throttlestop by unlocking UV from bios using the video from that like : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzQ6IwbLje0&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fnotebooktalk.net%2F&themeRefresh=1   by @ssj92  thanks man and because of this i was able to undervolt the CPU by -50mv and increased my stock score on cinabench 23 from 29194 to 31812  ( this is just my first undervolt for this CPU so i am being conservative for my first week with the laptop ) 
 

however there is a few questions that I still cant answer yet.

1- the following link mentions 13th and 14th gen intel CPU self destruct issue : https://notebooktalk.net/topic/2380-13th-and-14th-gen-intel-cpu-self-destruct-issue/#comment-49611
I still cant tell if my laprop proccessor is effected by this or no ? is it related to the patch date Q1, Q2 or something else?
I also found a post on dell website asking the same question about the m18 R2 that dell answered by saying this issue applies to desktop variant only (K) of the 14900k and not the 14900HX link below:

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/alienware/m18-r2-cpu-voltage-problem/66c3a07547effa74c48660a3

 

2- would I be able to save my throttlestop settings permanently even if I keep AWCC installed so I can run the fans on different speeds without AWCC override my throttlestop settings ?

3- could the 14900HX handle an undervolt to -140mv as the 13980HX can ? or the 14900HX is already runs at lower volt over the 13980hx ?

I found a link to a post on techpowerup that shows some stable sittings to undervolt the 13980HX which goes all the way down to -165mv  link below :

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/i9-13890hx-undervolting-suggestions.321679/

 

4- this question is a bit tricky….. I used to use Honeywell PTM7950 on my area-51m with 9900k with almost identical result to what I got with liquid metal on the same CPU (the 9900k) which was about 9 degrees C below KPX thermal paste , however I don’t know how good the element 31 stock thermal past from dell is compared to normal thermal paste or KPX so I cant tell if  replacing the dell element 31 paste will make a huge different to be worth disassembling my new ( under warranty) m18 R2 ?
 I know the Honeywell PTM7950 is going to be better then the stock element 31 from dell to handle thermal transfer but by how much ? and is it worth it?
maybe I will get a lower temps by undervolting over repasting ?  

 

Any more tips is highly appreciated

[i.bakar]

well, i just noticed that throttle stop wasn't even undervolting. i tried the (UniversalAMDFormBrowser) and it saved the settings but throttlestop still doesn't undervolt.
- tried reinstall windows without AWCC : didnt work 

- tried different versions of throttle stop 9.7 & 9.7.3 : didnt work 

it seems that all comes down to the version of BIOS. 
i am really desperate here ... any idea?

[i.bakar]

this post is for anyone who might come to be in the same situation, i found the solution to my issue , 
i kept searching online and came across a post on Reddit about someone who had the same issue and someone advised him with the following :
-  Disable virtualization from bios.

- Disable Memory integrity protection from windows defender.

- Disable windows hypervisor platform from Turn windows features on/off .

 

also i posted the issue i am facing on an old post and withing 30 minutes the author of the post messaged me and told me to go to AWCC and in the sitting go to performance and let AWCC control fans only (there is an option there for this )

 

so i noted all of them and i applied all of them one by one and tested the undervolt offset on throttlestop after applying each step. it turned up the issue was two things:

1- control fans only in AWCC and restart 

2- virtualization from bios need to be disabled 
the issue was solved and i was able to undervolt. so far i went to -125mv and everything is stable after 30 minutes in cinebench R23
down here is my score with my throttlestop settings. i still didn't finish undervolting yet but this is a good starting point