Alienware AW3418DW User manual

Alienware AW3418DW and AW3418HW
Monitor Troubleshooting Guide
Summary: Setting up and general
troubleshooting tips for your Alienware
AW3418DW or AW3418HW Monitor
Table of Contents:
1. Setting up the Game Enhance Mode
2. AlienFX Lighting Set up (Auto & Manual)
3. Downlight Control
4. Built-in Diagnostic Self-Test (BID)
5. Assembling the Cable Cover
6. Disassembling the Cable Cover
7. NVidia G-SYNC setup requirements
8. AW3418HW/DW High-frequency noise (Flicker) issue
9. Light leakage on four corners of the screen
10. Monitor will not wake when the monitor is set to sleep mode.
Setting up the Game Enhance Mode
The AW3418DW & AW3418HW displays support "Game Enhance Mode" which offers three
available functions to enhance your gameplay experience:
Timer
Allows you to disable or enable the timer at the upper left corner of the display. The timer
shows the time elapsed since the game starts. Select an option from the time-interval list
to measure your target game rate.
Frame Rate
Selecting On allows you to display the current frames per second when playing games.
The higher the rate, the smoother the motion appears.
Display Alignment
Activate the function to help ensure the perfect alignment of the video contents from
multiple displays.
Using the On-Screen Display (OSD) Menu:

Go to OSD ->Game -> Game Enhance Mode-> Select Timer, Frame Rate or Display
Alignment (Figures 1, 2 & 3.)
Figure 1. - Setting the Game Enhance Mode in the OSD
Figure 2. - Timer selected
Figure 3. - Frame Rate selected
The Display Alignment option allows you display the anchor pattern to accurately align multiple
displays where an image is presented over more than one display.

Figure 4. - Display Alignment selected showing the anchor tabs
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AlienFX Lighting Set up (Auto & Manual)
The AW3418DW & AW3418HW provide "AlienFX Lighting" functionality for you to adjust the
lighting color of following four zones:
Zone1: Alienware logo lighting and Triad lights on the back
Zone2: Stand of the monitor
Zone3: Downlights on the bottom of the monitor
Zone4: Power button.
AlienFX Lighting offers following two different adjusting modes:
Color:
Allow you to manually specify an LED lighting color from the list of 20 available colors.
Spectrum:
When you select On, the LED lighting automatically glows and changes colors in
sequence of spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
To automatically set up AlienFX Lighting:
Go to the OSD->AlienFX Lighting->Spectrum->Select "On" (Figure 5.)
Figure 5. - Automatic setup of AlienFX Lighting
To manually set up AlienFX Lighting:
Go to the OSD->AlienFX Lighting->select All Zones, Zone1, Zone 2, Zone 3 or Zone 4 -
>Select Custom Color->Select color from the list of 20 available colors. (Figure 6.)

Figure 6. - Manual setup of AlienFX Lighting
The location of the four lighting zones (Figure 7.)
Figure 7. - Location of AlienFX Lighting zones

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Downlight Control
Both AW3418DW & AW3418HW displays have the downlights in the bottom of monitor. You
can tap the touch sensor to turn the downlights on or off.
When the monitor is completely set up, tap the touch sensor to turn the downlights on or off.
(Figure 8.)
Figure 8. - Control for the monitor downlighting
NOTE: The factory setting is on, the downlights are active if the power cable is connected.
NOTE: When the Spectrum function is On, the downlights are turned off.
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Built-in Diagnostic Self-Test (BID)

Each AW3418DW & AW3418HW monitor has a built-in diagnostic tool that helps you
determine if the screen abnormality you are experiencing is an inherent problem with your
monitor, or with your computer and video card.
To run the built-in diagnostics:
1. Ensure that the screen is clean (no dust particles on the surface of the screen).
2. Unplug the video cable(s) from the back of the computer or monitor. The monitor then
goes into the self-test mode.
3. Press and hold Button 3 for 5 seconds. A gray screen appears after 1 second. (Figure 9.)
Figure 9. - Accessing the monitor self-test using the OSD controls.
4. Carefully inspect the screen for abnormalities.
5. Press Button 3 again. The color of the screen changes to red.
6. Inspect the display for any abnormalities.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to inspect the display in green, blue, black, and white screens.
8. The test is complete when the white screen appears. To exit, press Button 3 again.
If you do not detect any screen abnormalities upon using the built-in diagnostic tool, the monitor
is functioning properly. Check the video card and computer.
NOTE: You can run the built-in diagnostics only when the video cable is unplugged and the
monitor is in self-test mode
NOTE: For AW3418DW & AW3418HW, the gray screen will delay one second to appear.
NOTE: AW3418DW & AW3418HW will not show text pattern because they are G-sync model
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Assembling the Cable Cover
The AW3418DW & AW3418HW have a cable cover to assemble with the back cover of
monitor.
If you want to assemble cable cover, please slide the cable cover till it snaps into place. (Figure
10.)
NOTE: Note: Please check the 6 position of monitor back cover and cable cover

Figure 10. - Cable cover snap locations
To assemble cable cover with the back cover of monitor:
1. Positioning the Right/Left snaps
2. Slide the cable cover till it snaps into place
3. Press down the cable cover and let the middle snaps hook up with the holes
4. Make sure all snaps is into place and no significant gap between cable cover and back
cover (Figure 11.)
Figure 11. - Cable cover installation process
NOTE: If any snap is not into place, it is difficult to put the cable cover well (the cable cover is
slant) or damage the snaps of cable cover. (Figure 12.)

Figure 12. - Correct and incorrect cable cover installion examples
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Disassembling the Cable Cover
The AW3418DW & AW3418HW have a cable cover to assemble with the back cover of
monitor.
If you want to disassemble cable cover, please gently slide off the cable cover from the back
cover of monitor to prevent from breaking the snap of cable cover.
To disassemble cable cover from the back cover of monitor:
Using your thumbs, apply gentle pressure on the cable cover to horizontally slide it off from the
monitor. (Figure 13.)

Figure 13. - Cable cover removal
NOTE: Please don't pull cable cover directly. Otherwise, it may cause damage to cable cover
(figure 14.)
Figure 14. - Incorrect cable cover removal
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NVidia G-SYNC setup requirements
The AW3418DW & AW3418HW monitors contain a G-SYNC module for gaming at high
refresh rates. See the hardware requirements below to configure your G-SYNC monitor.
G-SYNC minimum system requirements Desktop:
1. GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST GPU or higher.
2. Driver: R340.52 or higher
3. Operating System: Windows 7/ 8/ 8.1/ 10
4. System Requirement: Must support DisplayPort 1.2 directly from the GPU.

NOTE: Please visit NVIDIA official website to know whether your NVIDIA graphics card
supports the G-SYNC feature.
For Desktop Systems:
For Notebook Systems:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
How to enable G-SYNC on your PC:
1. Right-click on the Windows desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel" or launching
the "NVIDIA Control Panel" application from your Start menu
2. Select "Display" from the links on the left and choose "Set up G-SYNC"
3. Check the box titled "Enable G-SYNC"
4. Click on "Apply" (Figure 15.)
Figure 15. - G-Sync setup steps
5. Select "Set up Multiple Displays" from the links on the left.
6. Set the "AW3418DW" or "AW3418HW " as the primary display.

7. Click on "Apply" (Figure 16.)
Figure 16. - Multiple Display Configuration
8. Select "Manage 3D settings" from the links on the left.
9. Set Monitor Technology to "G-SYNC" (Figure 17.)
Figure 17. - Managing 3D settings for G-Sync
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AW3418HW/DW High-frequency noise (flicker) issue
Over-clock mainly support for motion display (Games and Videos).
High - Frequency Noise (Flicker) may be observed with Over-clock enabled. This symptom will
disappear when Over-clocking is disabled.
How to check if Over-clocking is turned on:
1. Press on "Menu Key "(No.5) to launch following information on screen
2. Check "Over-clock" shows "On" or "Off (Figure 18.)
Figure 18. - Enabling Over-clock option
How to disable Over-clocking:
Enter OSD menu->Select "Game"=>Select "Over-clock" =>Switch from "On" to "Off"
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Light leakage on four corners of the screen
The AW3418DW and AW3418HW monitors have a curved screen. Due to this design the
optimal viewing position should be at the center of the screen.
Light Leakage Testing:
Light leakage inspections should not be performed in dark room.
All Dell monitors are inspected per industry standard, which is with 70 lux ambient
lighting (similar to typical office lighting) and the pattern of 16 Gray levels. (Any visual
inspection should be done in the same manner.)
Due to the screen curvature, some corners of the screen may appear yellowish or pinkish
especially when displaying a dark image in a dark room. This is normal monitor behavior
for curved screen and typically does not affect overall viewing performance
Workaround:
1. Inspect the condition of the monitor.
2. Perform the monitor inspection of the monitor in a normally lighted (not dark) room

3. Small light leakage at the corners (See Figure 19.) are normal and should not affect the
viewing experience under normal lighting conditions.
Figure 19. - Light leakage in display corners
NOTE: This is the technical performance and limitation for curved monitor.
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Monitor will not wake when the monitor is set to sleep mode
You may encounter a situation where the AW3418DW/AW3418HW display will not wake using
keyboard or mouse input after the display enters the sleep mode. Powering off then powering on
the display resolves the issue until the monitor sleeps again.
In order to meet the sleep mode power consumption of 0.5W, the NVidia G-sync module within
the AW3418DW/AW3418HW display will be turned off after the monitor enters sleep mode.
This state will ignore mouse movement.
There is no issue when the PC is set for sleep mode. Both PC and monitor will wake from sleep
with Mouse movement.
Recommended Solution:
1. Press any of the monitor front panel buttons once and the monitor will recover from
sleep.
2. Power cycling the monitor will also allow the monitor to wake from sleep.