Help. Feeling hopeless about my M17x R3 :(

Hello forum members.

Read many great posts on this forum and I feel like you guys can help me.

I was really happy buy my M17x R3 back in December 2011 (Bought it used). It was working great for a year then the touchpad stopped working. It was not a big deal for me because I use a mouse. The touchpad would work once in a while then shut off again. Never found a solution to this problem. Re-installed Windows 7 and installed all the updated drivers but it will still not work. Then my alien command? (The program where you change light colors) stopped working. An error pops up. Another problem that came up recently. I have 4 usb ports (2 left are 3.0 and 2 right are regular 2.0) The ones on the right work on and off. I also realized a noticeable decline in my laptop's performance. My fps would drop on and off randomly.

I currently use my m17x like a PC. I use an HDMI and hook it up to my 27" monitor. I really feel hopeless about this laptop. I feel like I wasted my money. Unless I can improve the performance or do something about the hardware problems, I'm thinking about selling it. Another thing is that I hibernate my laptop instead of shutting it down about 90% of the time. Not sure if that is a cause of my laptop problems. Is there a way to run a test on my laptop to figure out/solve the problems? Should I upgrade some hardware?

Sorry for asking a lot but I hope you guys will help me

My m17x R3 Specs (Here's a copy of my dxdiag -> DxDiag


Machine name: M17XR3-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
System Manufacturer: Alienware
System Model: M17xR3
BIOS: InsydeH2O Version 1.0 A04
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 12236MB RAM
Page File: 4808MB used, 19661MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode


Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6900M Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI display adapter (0x6720)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6720&SUBSYS_04BA1028&REV_00
Display Memory: 4095 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2026 MB
Shared Memory: 2069 MB

 

First off welcome to NBR!!!


Your machine is probably overheating and throttling itself. Have you tried cleaning out the vents?

 

Thing worth mentioning is R3 motherboards were introduced with a defect in its chipset, that was made by intel.

 

Yeah but those never made it to the general public, it was because of these motherboards that AW delayed its SB line till the 2nd Q

I do agree it could be the heating

Though I'd advise you to flash the latest bios for the R3 on dells website once again,even though you may have it, I've found it somehow resets things, otherwise do a power drain, and plug it into another power socket (grounding issues)

 

there is an A12 available for your system, and don't worry bios upgrading is quite safe , also if I recall there was an update for the bios of the board that powers the lighting effects on the AW you may have to reinstall the OS after all of this..I believe it will work

 

yeah you need to clean the vents. open the panel on the backside and take the fans out hold in place by 3 screws each (6 total because 2 fans) and one connector each (2 total). then you can just suck the dust out of the cooling fins, which are now exposed, with a vacuum cleaner.

 

careful with using a vacuum cleaner. If can generate a static charge and zap your beloved machine. I'd advise using compressed air instead.

 

Yep, plus one on not using a vacuum cleaner, I'm pretty sure I fried my last lot of RAM on this laptop by using a vacuum cleaner! I just use a can of compressed air, and backflush the heatsink (against the normal flow air) to blow out the vents and fans. I leave the fan & heastink in place and just remove the bottom cover. (I don't take the fan out.).

 

Thank you so much for the fast response guys . I upgraded the Bios like you guys told me from A04 to A12. It was an easy process and I also cleaned out my fan. My right USB ports seem to work now (so far) My touchpad does not work. I just disabled it for now

I had another question since you guys are so helpful. I'm thinking about getting an SSD? for faster boot and file transfer. I have an empty tray for a drive. I currently have one main HD 500GB and an external HD 1TB. I dont really need the SSD for space. Just for performance. Any recommendations? Thank you

 

I reckon the cheapest one you can get that's big enough for what you need. Even though some are faster than others in benchmarks, that doesn't translate hugely to a difference in user experience in how it feels. The biggest difference is going from HDD to SSD, not mediocre SSD to blazingly fast SSD. So, just get the best value one you can find, and perhaps one that has a good reputation for reliablity (but they're all pretty reliable). I've got a 64GB SSD, and it's big enough for Windows 7, my office programs, internet browsers, and a couple of games (or one massive game). In hindsight, a 128GB drive would have suited me better, but they were a lot more expensive at the time. Depending how many games or programs you want to put on your SSD I'd go with at least a 64GB SSD, but probably a 128GB version would be better (they tend to have faster write performance than the 64GB drives too).


EDIT: shrink the page file to smallest allowable size, then afterwards set to No Page File. This can free up to 1.5 times the size of your RAM in GB. Disabling hibernation will also remove the hibernation file, for similar gains in space.

 

make sure you put it in slot zero though for max performance.

 

Yeah and if possible find an oem liteon drive that dell uses for cheap, otherwise my advice would be crucial m4

 

Did you also upgrade the alienfx bios? After all that I'd suggest a power drain

 

I can't believe no one has said this but the touch pad assembly can be quite easily replaced and that would most likely fix the issue. Unless the motherboard is faulty or even the cable connected to the touch pad assembly.

 

And I can't believe you didn't say that earlier! ;-)

 

Also don't forget that an SSD only shines if you put your Operating system on it (windows 7 or 8). That means re-installing your OS on the SSD, I read somewhere that using an image to transfer your OS will give you all kinds of problems.


Also in bios the setting for SSD should be AHCI. I realize that is something that should go without saying, but that is exactly what makes it hard to find out after a bios reset. Crucial M4 would be my recommendation btw, no less than 128gb. You buy this SSD for the future 64gb won't cut it anymore. I am even struggling with 128gb right now.

 

Having it in RAID mode doesn't really slow it down much though, probably not in a noticeable way anyway, but then again what's the advantage of leaving it in RAID mode.

Just a note on the touchpad. I used to have problems with mine after long typing sessions. I noticed that after typing it would take a few minutes for the trackpad to start working reliably & properly again - as long as I kept my hands away from the keyboard. Turned out a little moisture from my palms was getting down into the trackpad from where it joins the rubber palm rest. I cured all these problems by putting some red electrical insulating tape (I have the Nebula Red version, so wanted it to look just a little less sh*t!), by putting the insulating tape over the joins of the trackpad on the left hand side, which is the side that gets the most palm contact. Works absolutely fine like that, and only looks a little bit sh*t! But, my laptop doesn't get out much anyway, so mostly it's just me that has to live with the shame!

 

If you want the baddest most awesome data drive to pair up with your SSD, look no further than HITACHI

 

Update on my M17x R3

The right usb ports stopped working. I restarted the laptop and it works again. I turn it back on and the right ports worked for about 2 minutes and they shut off.. -__- I have to use my 3.0 usb ports for my mouse and keyboard...

Then guess who decided to work. My trackpad started working again flawlessly. Then it shuts off.. I seriously don't know what is wrong with my laptop lol..

 

That sounds like it could be a motherboard problem to me, because that's the one common item that joins all of those items. Have a look in Device Manager (in Windows 7) to see what it says about your trackpad & USB ports. Usually a yellow exclamation mark by the side of them indicates a problem, and it might give you a description of what's wrong too.