QUOTE(anfieldude @ Oct 26 2018, 09:19 AM)
I had a fun time trying to troubleshoot the low speeds with the Alienware 15 R1.
Followed John's notes and renamed mcupdate and reboot. Speeds in speedtest app was similar ~ 660 -720Mbps. Speeds in Edge browser, higher ~ 740-750Mbps. Chrome browser was similar to speedtest app. This was even with McAfee virus scan and firewalls turned off and the browser extensions all turned off. On the Asus router,AI Protection was also off (QoS as well). So nothing I did allowed me to get the speeds up to 800Mbps on the Alienware.
Moved to testing with the Macbook Air 13 (2014) using thuderbolt to gigabit adapter. This was a laptop that was on Windows 7 (Bootcamp). Similar speeds seen. Moved to booting with MacOS and tested with app on Mac OS X --- boom 820Mbps, 210Mbps UL.
So definitely something about windows config in my setups that is limiting. Will spend some time in the weekend figuring this out.
BTW, did check my microcode and since its a Haswell chip, it did indeed show x024. Oddly, Dell did carry out a BIOS update in February that shd hv fixed the Spectre thingy at least from the BIOS portion but looks like the Windows update has not caught up.
Anyway, long story short, TM did actually get the speeds right, while I don't really see the benefits as typical speedtests to US or European servers seem muted to 230 -300Mbps anyway, I'm not sure how much the 800Mbps is actually helping.
BTW, my bill is still RM299...so probably another visit to TM Point or chats likely in a few months..
Wait a minute.....you mean after you renamed mcupdate and reboot, rweverything still report PatchID 0x24 for your haswell?

EDIT:
You mentioned you have BIOS update from dell? From what I can search, Dell Alienware15/ Alienware 17 R2 System BIOS BIOS was release on 23 Feb 2018. This only contain the problematic 0x24 microcode.
So...renaming the mcupdate will not do anything as the problematic microcode is loaded in UEFI stage instead of windows loading it at kernel boot stage.
Thus, you will have to go commando.......by registry method.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/40...ative-executionTo disable mitigations for CVE-2017-5715 (Spectre Variant 2) and CVE-2017-5754 (Meltdown)CODE
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
Or....
To disable Variant 2: (CVE-2017-5715 – "Branch Target Injection") mitigation ONLY: CODE
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
Reboot is required....
Then speedtest and report back.
EDIT2: The other alternative is modding your own BIOS with latest haswell microcode
0x25....or wait next year for WIN10 retpoline build.
This post has been edited by JohnLai: Oct 26 2018, 10:16 PM