M17x-R2 Issues

Hello everyone,

I am new to notebokreview.com, great site though. I recently bought AlienWare M17x, got it 4 days ago.

It has:

Intel Core i7 840QM
4GB DDR3 1333Mhz
RGB LED 1200p Screen
ATi Mobility Radeon CrossFireX 5870
500GBx2 HDD
BluRay On-Slot Drive

So down to the issues:

1. Getting Blank Screen after the Laptop goes to sleep
2. Windows Loads Darn Slow
3. Sound Shuttering Occurs when i change music or there is a change is music stream
4. Over All the laptop is slow a bit

So, for the Sleep issues, i tried applying A01 bios and latest drivers, but no luck.

Audio, tried downloading and installing the driver provided in the site.

Running Windows 7 Home Premium. It loads slower then the Dell Vostro|Sony Vaio| other brands which have lower specifications though.

Well i am sorry if i have approached the issue again, if it had been solved already and yea, no offense for comparing laptops.

 

The slow speed is due to stealth mode...the little dial on the top right of your touch bar below the screen....Hit this switch to turn stealth mode off and you will see yoru machine fly

The blank screen after sleep is a known issue, mine does this, simple hit the power button, wait for it to turn off then hit it again and you will back to the logon screen within 2 seconds. The sound issue is a bit more tricky...I'll keep digging for you

 

1. Installing the newest BIOS, VBIOS and drivers fixed that for me.
3. Not for me.
2., 4. Are you kidding? I boot in 20-25 seconds from the time I press power on button. Maybe next time get an SSD instead of that super-duper-quad core CPU. Mine feels extremely snappy, even when doing a bit of multitasking and alt+tabbing.

 

If following the above directions (reinstalling drivers, upgrading to A09 bios etc.) doesn't fix your problems, you may have gotten a lemon. Call dell up and order a new replacement. You have 21 days from when it shipped...

 

Lemon?

Should i try re-installing the Operating System ?

@gintor

Well stealth mode is turned off. i noticed it when the game was showing up 15fps. then came to know that stealth was on and turned it off yet this boots way slow.

sound bug? do you have this too ? i am using WMP 12 x64 not 32 bit. Winamp doesn't bug though. When i play a song in wmp and switch to windows sound like opening a folder(tune). A disturbing noise pops. (popping sound may be)

PS: Just noticed that sound shuttering occurs with wmp 12 x86 too.

@unreal I see you are using SSD for OS ? Well i am on Magnetic HDDs. I think that me be a reason. I'll exactly calculate the time took to boot soon.

Well does non ssd drives does take this longer to boot? a vostro boots faster -.-

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Well will re-installing the Operating System void my warranty? (Same disc, Win7 Home Premium AW)

this lappy took 28 days to build and ship from Malaysia and Stay in India, i don't want to sit without pc for another 30 days. :S

Thank you guys.

 

Yes you should definitely reinstall the OS and rest assured that doesn't void your warranty. Try to avoid using the drivers on the resource cd, as they are generally outdated, use the dell support page for the latest.

 

Well the very FIRST boot will take longer immediately when you get it from Dell, as Windows is setting up your account and so on. I remember the boot took a bit on any computer I used without an SSD. So I can't single out m17x there.

Yeah I'd try and do a clean Windows install, get all the upgrades, patches and newest drivers and see if things get better.

 

All of the above is solid advice... i had a few problems with the laptop being slow until i updated the drivers.... food for thought.

 

Well as i said, im on latest drivers and mobo/vga Bios on. I'll try re-installing Windows today.

And guys, one more question. When i launch Command Center, I don't get the " ALIEN SPACESHIP " image as for the loading. Do you get them? this came as a doubt after seeing youtube videos of other m17x users.

Thanks again.

 

alright, after hours of spending time on laptop and going through google, i found out that enabling Memory OverVoltage does affect the Sleep/Suspend State.

I had my voltage overclocked to 1.7, hence my aw didn't want to wake up after a sleep.

I disabled it and now seems to be fine, idk for how long though.

Well 1 Down 1 more to go. Audio Shuttering is still bothering me a lot.

 

Hm, I don't have Alien spaceship either. I think that might depend which version of CC you have.

 

Food for thought...I had the blank screen after sleep. After updating the GPU drivers with the latest ATI ones, i have no issues after sleep anymore

 

Did anyone try OverVolting RAM ? Try that and put your lappy to sleep, i think it wont wake up later.

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For the Audio, can some one do a 1min test?

play a song and pause it. Now hit stealth mode dial, along with its warning windows tone , do you hear an UNUSUAL Cracking/Distortion/POP Sound as Prefix ??
also
My sound freezes when i eject a CD/DVD from the slot during the playback of the song. Is it common or something wrong here?

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PS: I Lost AlienWare's Pre-installed theme and Avatars. Could some one upload them for me?
Thanks