Getting a new M17x R1 in a few weeks, what first?

Hi there

As thread states, I am getting a brand new M17x R1 in a few weeks (ordered today via ebay).

I read in horror about all of the problems that have occured snce release. Other than remove the 3 month virus trial & download AVG, what should I be doing on day one e.g. will the BIOS need updating, whats the most stable video drivers, any bad option that needs turning off, etc, etc.

Here's the spec:

Dell Alienware M17x Laptop


1 Year Dell Warranty
Processor and Memory:

Intel Core 2 DUO Core p8700 at 2.53GHz, 3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB

4GB DDR3 at 1366MHz (2x2048 MB)


Hard Drive and Multimedia Drives:


500gb Hard Drive with Free Fall Protection

Slot Load DVD

8-in-1 Media Card Reader


Audio, Video and Graphics:

1GB Dual NVIDIA Ge Force 260M SLI Enabled Graphics

Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio


Connectivity:


Internal 300 Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n wireless with MIMO technology

Bluetoot 2.1+EDR


Ports/Slots:
4 Hi-speed USB 2.0 ports

1 eSATA/USB 2.0 Combo (2-in-1 port) with PowerShare

IEEE 1394a (4-pin) port

ExpressCard Slot

DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA - Video Output

Front Speakers Audio Out Connector / Headphone Jack
Center Speaker and Subwoofer Audio Out Connector / Headphone Jack
Rear Surround Audio Out Connector

Audio In / Microphone Jack
Two Built-In Front Speakers

Keyboard, Display and Webcam:
17” Wide UXGA 1440x900 LCD

Integrated Webcam

AlienFX tm Illuminated Keyboard- Exclusive Design
Power:9-cell Lithium Ion Battery

Dimensions: 15.98"W x 2.02"-2.11"H x 12.65"D
Weight: Approximately 11.7 lbs.


Additional Information and Software:
Adobe Reader 9.0 multi-language


Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64 Bit


Cheers guys!!

 

may i know how much u brought it?

 

£349 delivered

 

I am gonna take a wild guess he paid £349 on Ebay, as someone sold ten on there this week with that exact spec Wonder if they will ever be recieved

I also was one of those lucky/unlucky ten.......

 

Hi fellow bidder

The guy had a 100% rating & i paid using a Credit Card Paypal payment so am covered.

Anyway what do I do to it on day one as its probably gonna contain old drivers & firmware?

 

Polo,

I am in the same boat as you so will be keeping an eye on this thread for tips

I know we are both covered by paypal but I think that these m17x are so cheap that the ebayer realises she can get loads more for them and relists them at a higher price and we get shafted

 

you can get all the new drivers here:

Drivers & Downloads

 

Cheers Inap, very useful!

Anything else we should do i.e.Bios changes, turning off any troublesome Windows 7 elements, etc?

Basically if you own a R1 M17x & you had the chance to start again from scracth what would you do?

 

i never tried an r1 before, i suggest searching around the r1 threads for more info.

 

Found a thread that stated:

Just grab the latest drivers from Nvidia.com , Turn PCIE Gen2 off in the BIOS and you're good to go.

Is it worth trying the Test bios as well as this?

 

i recommend sticking with the dell bios for now. just enjoy it, if when you have an issue then change drivers and bios.

 

I was curious...good luck brand new m17x r1 at £349 delivered and 30 of them sold....hmmmmmmmm


Dell Alienware M17x 17" 2 GHz Laptop PC on eBay (end time 09-Mar-11 11:10:55 GMT)

 

Smells funky to me. Hope you get what you paid for.

 

Update, all drivers, from Dell's, when updating, chipset driver, do not update the Ethernet driver, leave the windows default. And video drivers, Dell's beta 197.84 (otherwise you will get BSOD).

Update BIOS to A06 (fix touchpad) , then get the new EC code to remove the throttling.

That is all.

 

Look at that Q&A on the bottom, sounds funny lol:

Plus, NO feedback for any of the 30 laps that were "SOLD".

I knew there are a lot of ebay top seller accounts that are hacked and then ended up being banned for scam.


Hmmm...

 

I have a feeling that I won't ever see this laptop but I live in hope

Here is the link to the last page of the original main r1 thread just so we know what we are missing out on!!!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/385557-official-alienware-m17x-owners-lounge-1000.html

 

Me too mate, seller wont reply to my questions. Have you had any luck?

 

They actually replied a minute later, here you go:

"It is brand new it has a dell warranty. I can not discuss suppliers details eg where it came from. Yes it will be insured.


- caistergames"

Maybe its not a con?

 

I got my thru another seller, discountgamingcouk, who sold 10 on the same day as yours was listed. Interestingly both sellers are based in Great Yarmouth!

There was a contact number so I may give it a ring to comfirm.

Any idea what this spec m17x is really worth?

 

I reckoned on about £800 - £900. What do other users reckon?

 

I probably sound like one of those typical disgruntled customers, but since you read around this forum about the R1 why would you buy one ?

The only way I would get an R1 now is if it were free

 

Cheers Alex

I'm starting to think that I should sell it on the minute it arrives (if it arrives)?

 

It was me who said that You can do that if you want to make the latest verde drivers stable (They normally give BSODs and Lockups). The stable driver from Dell will not make full use of SLI in the latest releases. I don't know why most still stick with the Dell beta driver, for me verde driver with PCIE Gen2 off works perfectly.

 

Trust me there are a lot of happy R1 users, the days of it having "issues" are gone, plus i don't think there's that perfect issueless laptop.

 

Has anyone received their lap top yet?

 

let's be serious everytime a new laptop arises(or only m17x) there has to be a guy like this (the seller) i don't know what they're after,probably somebody that will pay without protection and BAM!

 

Polo,

Any news on delivery front?

 

I'm in love with my R1 w/crossfire. It seems like the R1's with Nvidia GPU's are the ones that had most of the issues. The throttling issue might bother some, but Throttlestop fixes that, and gives you tons of control over your cpu OC. Plus, I think the latest bios update solves the throttling problem anyway. It also runs very cool. With no overclocks, nothing will even break 70c under load.

 

I've been told that mine won't be released from the "paypal block" until 25 feedbacks for them have been entered. I'm number 38, any luck with yours?

 

Nope, nothing. It really does look like a scam because the two sellers discountgaming ( my seller ) has received feedback from your seller and both no longer have items to sell although previously they had items that still had 28 days to run etc.

I think that both sellers really believe that the laptops exist so maybe they are actually being scammed as well.

What does the Paypal block mean?

 

What is this throttling problem on R1?
I got R1 few weeks ago and so far no problem other than Alien FX(lights).
bought X9100 280sli 500gb blu ray for $900.
I always thought alienware is just overpriced laptop. But that changed after getting this one. Built quality/performance is def worth money.

 

When the power draw hits a certain point, the system will downclock the CPU considerably making your frame rates drop to unplayable levels for a few seconds, before slowly working themselves back up. This was a BIOS limitation, and not an actual power limitation. A program called Throttlestop can disable it, and was the only way to do so until very recently when a BIOS update was finally released.

I think the only people experiencing it with stock clock speeds were qx9300 owners that had 280 sli. I don't think it was as bad with the ATI cards. Mostly though, without throttlestop, it made it hard to overclock your system. I originally had a T9600 (2 cores), and I could make my system throttle by overclocking it and the graphics cards. And these systems have such great cooling for a laptop that they're just begging to be overclocked. Even with overclocked and overvolted CPU/GPU's my system has temps that would make a stock Asus owner jealous.

 

And the only way to get an R1 for free is dreaming

Seriously, I was extremely satisfied with my R1 and I know there are a lot of other folks were/are.

 

It even made my 2009 MBP 15" running 10.5.8 jealous lol. Alienware is darn cool even compared to non-gaming laptops.

 

I think Paypal noticed too much money moving through the account and wanted to restrict their risk, they have essentially told him to release the laptops in batches. My seller has offered me the option of refund or a longish wait. For now I'll wait.

 

I'm also waiting from discountgamingcouk, the delivery window is 22/23 of march. Dont want it to be a scam, what a bargain. Protected either way

 

I've bought one of these too... got a bit of a sinking feeling about it. I messaged the seller yesterday to ask if the laptops had been received from the wholesalers yet but i've had no reply.
does anyone have any more news? did anyone try phoning her yet?

 

Not a dickie bird
I did ring the lady last week and she said that the wholesalers would deliver direct? I may have got confused but it didnt seem that they would be delivered to her and then sent out.

 

Right, well i suppose it's a good sign that there was someone to talk to. she did message me this last week:

"You will receive the laptop as per item details page, the delivery time is approximate. It is enroute from the wholesalers to our shop"

i suppose there's nothing to do except wait for now

 

You could always give her a ring. The contact number is listed at the bottom of the eBay listing page.

If you do, can you post her response on here.

 

I may give her a ring later on today.
I had a little look on the interweb and found the shop though.

Great Yarmouth - E&A Browse

Discount Gaming is half way down the page. The telephone number matches the one on ebay too so must be the same person. looks good but I still don't know how they could be making any profit at £349 per laptop... Hope they haven't been ripped off themselves.

 

My eBay seller is now saying the delivery is delayed a bit by the earthquake in Japan. Are these machines made over there?

 

What a silly excuse. R1s are no longer manufactured.
One can hope that this is not an attempt to stall time and get past the 45 days(time you can open a dispute on eBay.

 

I'm happy to hear there are satisfied R1 owners, just had too many issues with this machine. I just wish it could do basic laptop-ish things like waking up from sleep for example. It's not too much to ask from a 2.5k euro machine.

Not to mention that after all the hacks and workarounds on this forums, you have to be a computer wizz to get this thing working

Is crossfire an aftermarket thing for R1's or did they come with ATI as well ?

 

The R1 is a very capable machine and yeah as every laptop It had its bad moments.
And for the ATi cards it came with single or CF mobility 4870.

 

If the seller is located in Japan then postage may be delayed.

 

The seller is based in the UK. Sounds like stalling to me?

 

My seller is now saying that the machines are somewhere in France and that is all she knows

 

You don't need to be an engineer from the N.A.S.A to get a R1 to work perfect.

1. flash to last BIOS A07 (fix throttle & fix touchpad polling rate)
2. Install 197.84 nvidia drivers (fix latency issues and are stable)
3. Update all drivers from Dell

And you are done.

 

I remember seeing this thread some time ago, after looking through it and coming to this post, chances are not looking to good now. The way I feel, someone should not be selling old stock they do not have, especially if their supplier is unknown to them or even worse not in the same country.
I really do hope this turns out right in the end for all you people.