*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M17x-R2 Edition Owner's Lounge - Part 2

Well, same here, kind of 10 seconds more to boot on my R2 compared to my R1...

Imho, it's either the BIOS, or the ATI drivers, as all the rest is pretty much the same, start-up programs and everything...

 

If I am just at my desktop/minimal stuff no. It downclocks as it should and remains there. If I am doing things I have seen the primary upclock before the secondary one will.

 

Well I had the opposite experience. My R1 booted way slower than my r2. The reason you should disable the software ect is to see what is causing it. You have to do process of elimination to identify why it may be slower. This way you will know what needs to be reinstalled/looked at.

 

Hmmm... Thanks for the response. My setup is weird then. As soon as I plug in an external monitor via HDMI or VGA it clocks up and stays at 550. I thought it was because of the 3 simultaneous displays but it happens with just one external monitor too.

What drivers are you using? I bet 10.3. I am on 10.5 beta since those are the only ones that allow me to run 3 simultaneous displays.

I hope someone else can verify this too.

 

Well first things first, I always have my external plugged in from turn on to turn off.. I can test unplugging and plugging back in with system on.

Also, I have CF enabled and just use one display. I have the notebook one turned off. I am sure that if you are running multiple displays ect and have stuff on both, that the card may need to upclock to drive all the items on there. That is alot of display to be drawn between the three so It may upclock regardless.

Using 10.3 preview drivers

 

Ah, I see. That makes it better I think. I should have mentioned that I was interested in seeing if the clocks for one card stay up when you have at least 2 displays active.

To me it makes sense that if you have CrossfireX enabled and are running more than 1 display one card should clock up to drive the other monitor.

I need to do more testing, and have more dudes respond.

 

SSDs 2x Intel x25-m 160gb in raid 0 running the latest firmware and the latest intel driver (which supports trim in raid 0)

I have verified trim is working. Also a note to get the 2nd ssd to update firmware I had to temporarily move it to slot 0 to flash and then move it back.

As for the red, there is no doubt in my mind it was the correct choice. Before ordering I went to my local Microcenter where they had a black r2 in stock and in my opinion have the 2 different shades of black (rubber area and anodized area) did not look quite right, so the only real choices were silver and red.

 

I have not had any issues with fingerprints at all.

 

Black (or any totally dark color) it's likely to show up more fingerprints. As the color become lighter it will have the same figerprints, but less noticeable. (personally I will like a dark blue color as in: Hue=160, Sat=240, Lum=20; or in Red=0, Green 0, Blue 43)
A good meassure anyway is to wash your hands before you start touching... Then certainly, if you're not a "chronic sweater", you will have less fingerprints...
I have hear of a spray that avoid that fingerprints mark themselves on dark paints metal, etc.
Have not found it yet. If someone know better please post and address.
g.
P.S: or you can find some matte "skins" (even a totally transparent one): http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/343748/how_mod_your_laptop/?

 

Finally got my laptop Yesterday after waiting over a month, I formatted it straight away after installing my Intel 160GB SSD and did some initial testing with a couple of games to see if I had any flickering issues but none seen so all looks good so far.

I Will play around more tonight and do some SSD tests. I have to say the screen is very nice, as good if not better then the U2410 I have.

 

I just got my M17xR2 and this is driving me crazy. I constantly hear this.

Can it be fixed or do i need to return the unit and look elsewhere

 

New OSD and Audio drivers up on dell today.

Notice no difference in the new audio.

OSD actually works properly now, when i adjust volume etc, it shows on screen. Last version did not for me.

 

I have a really weird issue with my M17x. The far left quadrant of my keyboard will not display blue when on. It will display blue when it's off. Needless to say Dell is sending me a new keyboard.

 

Man, I'm loving these raid 0 ssd speeds

 

*celebrates the first 12 hours of his alien ownership*

 

I broke down and just ordered an Intel 25x SSD, 160gig.

I'll drop the Kingston in my desktop.

 

Welcome to the club...

I am not going to say that I'm glad I'm not the only one who is suffering from this horrible NOISE, but at least, I'll say that it would be fine if we could simply all of us hearing it report that issue to Dellienware...

When I first received my R2 replacement unit, I was so unhappy when I realized that permanent sound was to annoy me everytime I power up my rig. Then, I just found that not only it would annoy me, but on top of it, it actually gave me headhaches, not to say that I simply can't focus when I work with my lappy.

I called Alienware and they sent a tech to replace the mobo. I then promised myself I would do the job on my own next time it would happen; I am much more cautious with my machine than this guy was. Anyways, when he was finished, I could still hear the noise, but it was not as loud as with the previous board. Unfortunately, I just took a hit right in the face when, more or less two days after, the noise came back as loud as before.

Called Ali-Yen-Where again, the tech had me doing some testings (remove battery - video cards - etc - you-name-it) and then we decided to change the video cards and the fans. Told him to send the cards and keep the tech ! Which they did. They sent me the cards and fans, but they sent two right-wing fans, no left-wing one. I changed the video cards and the processor's and right wing video card's fans. That was yesterday...

Now, the noise is, again, but for how long, much smoother than previously. But, FOR HOW LONG ...​

I am no engineer, neither an electro-magnetical specialist, however, I am a human who can hear and feel the pain that this sound is making. Thing is that not every motherboard pitch that sound, it's actually more an exeption than a rule of thumb...

Back in 2004 or so, I had another lappy and the board died; the manufacturer did exchange my board and the one they've put in was making such noise; called them, they replaced it again, and then it was fine. This was no Dell-nor-Lienware lappy.

Back in 2007, I had a Blackberry Curve, which was fully made in Canada. When I bought the Storm in 2008, noticed it was made for some parts in China, and guess what? Well, as soon as I plug the A/C adapter in the wall, it starts making a loud eeeeeeeeeee until I plug the charger into the phone.

On that note, try this: Plug your A/C adapter to the wall, then to your M17X-r2, but do not power-on the system;
just put your ear close to your lappy and tell me if you do indeed hear an eeeeeeeeeeee !​

If-no;goto:you're-either-deaf-or-lucky.com
If-yes;goto:welcome-to-the-club.com


Don't get me wrong: I am in no way pretending that Chineese-made-devices are not on par with the ones made in some other countries; however, just pure common sense and logig here: If a company (Alien-Where for instance) is having their product build in countries like China, it's most likely because they can have them build in a more cost effective way, meaning, for cheaper, right ?

Now, if they can get cheaper labor cost this way, why wouldn't they go the same way with COMPONENTS ? And this is exactly my opinion as to what's going on here: cheap components are used to build this lappy, and this explains that. Cheaper components will do the job as well as the more expensive and better quality ones, but because nobody really complains about issues that may rise using such cheaper components, why would they bother?

All this being said, to answer your question, as to whether or not this can be solved, again, I am no engineer, neither do I work for Dell-nor-Lienware; however, from my experience, it is from my understanding that some boards, some video cards, some processors, what you will, do suffer for not using highest-quality-based components, which in return produce some noises that are not supposed to be.

So, what can be done do you ask ?​

Well, imho, the only way we can, both end-users and the manufacturer, gain from this issue is to actually report it to Dell. Think about it: if we are several dozens of people calling tech support about how to fix the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-ssue, well, they will HAVE TO look into it as they won't want to swap the motherboards of every R-2 they sold, right ?

We wanna work together, end-users and manufacturers, so we can both be happy and enjoy what we're doing for each other. Let's help them to help us by firstly let them know about the issue, else, nothing will happen.

If we don't report the issue, it's not gonna be fixed, period.​

Are we ready to rock ?
Are we ready to roll ?

Let's do it !

 

Well I am have 4-6 computers running all the time and when I am gaming I have a headset on so I never hear it. I totally understand how annoying that can be. I hate tvs that would do that.. I refused to watch tv at my friends house that had that annoying eeeeeee

 

This is very strange man. Never heard of that before.

 

eYe-I-aïe...,

Would you mind shooting and posting some video of that sound? It might help shed some light onto your problem, as well as let the rest of us experience your issue.

 

What brand and type of TV was doing that? And did it happen to be at high elevation? (Like I've heard plasmas are iffy in the mountains). Sure glad either my stuff doesn't do that, or my crazy loud job has wrecked my hearing so I can't hear it :-/

 

That'd be a great idea, however, I currently do not have access to a device to video it, and also, as I was saying, I changed my video cards yesterday and, for NOW, I barely hear the eeeeeeeeeee. Wait and see if it comes back though, for sure, that'd be a very good idea. Thanks !

If I get into a room where there's an old type of TV, you know, the old ones with cathodic tubes and transistors, opposite to plasma and LCDs...

If the sound is muted, and even if I don't see that the TV is on, I hear a constant eeeeeeeeee, so I know the TV is on...

It's not loud, because if the TV is not muted, I shall most likely not notice the sound, not hear it. But if the TV is muted, I surely hear it.

Thing is that I WORK MUCH CLOSER TO MY LAPPY THAN I WATCH MY TV...

That makes me think this NOISE is actually worse from my lappy than from my TV (it's a Toshiba 32" since you asked) because my head is relatively much more closer to the piece of junk that causes that noise in my lappy than it is to the piece of junk that makes that noise in my TV...

Now, again, not everybody gets to hear this noisy transistor sound, wish I was NOT one of them, screw me, I hear it pretty well thank you. And speaking of weird sounds that only some humans get to be able to hear, I have SSDs in my lappy; if I run a Crystal Disk Mark bench on them, when it tests the 4K READs (not writes), I hear a metal sound, like two pieces of metal rubbed together, hard to explain, but aren't those devices supposed to be completely silent May I get rid of my ears/brain for free

Bottom line, it'd be great if everyone experiencing it could report it to Dell; might not lead to a fast resolution from them, but at least, they would have been made awared of it.

Hopefully, we are able this way to help ourselves, using technology for a better world

 

Oh, yeah, I heard CRTs too. It's been...hmm...I'm not sure I've been around a CRT this year even! That sure is weird to think.

 

Didn't your R2 come with a webcam?

 

Can anyone point me to a thread with how to uninstall 8.68.2-091125a1-092358C-Dell.2, A00 and reinstall ATI Catalyst 10.4 properly?

M17x-R2 came yesterday with 8.68.2-091125a1-092358C-Dell.2, A00 already installed.
I downloaded 10.4 and tried installing overtop of old ccc and the CCC reports that i have the latest drivers but device manager still says "8.680.2.0"

Then I tried simply 'uninstalling' the old ccc and reinstaling new 10.4 with no luck

Then I tried installing just the 'driver only' with no success

Then I tried manually updating drivers (in device manager and pointing to ati folder) and it still says 8.680.2.0 is the latest on the 10.4 release notes says that it should be 8.723.

thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

While playing COH Tales of Valor game play looks good but numbers and some letters can not be recognized. I tried different screen settings with no difference.
Any idea what is causing this?
Also what is the best way to record game play so I can post it to better show what I am talking about.
By the way ATI crossfire logo is showing on the top right of game play that tells me that both cards are working?

BIOS: VER A02 1.00
Driver Packaging Version 8.68.2-091125a1-092358C-Dell
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.984
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0716
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9210
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2009.1125.2309.41491

 

here is the screen shot i get when i try to install "10-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc"

​

uh....lemme rephrase.... how do i fix this without reformating and reinstalling from start? ....lol

 

my m17x sounds like a jet engine... jesus

my fan keeps turning on for 4 seconds then turns off then right back on... its continuous and really annoying... anyone have any suggestions?

 

Does it do this all the time?

 

yes... got my laptop on Tuesday... havnt had much time with it... but i noticed it today... and yeah so far its doing it constantly... if there anyway to analayze why it keeps turning on.... i do have gpuz - my current temp is 55...

 

hey ramatar14... try HWiNFO32 Download i got it after reading all the posts in this thread and am really happy with it.

EDIT: oh.. and it's free too.

 

What setting do you have your "power options" profile at?

 

Try to do a power drain:

1. Shut off the computer.
2. Take out the battery.
3. Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds.
4. Put battery back in and reboot.

In the past this has helped people who's system fans were running constantly for no reason. Also, what is the ambient temperature in your room? Finally, do you have any antivirus software or any other 3rd party software that may be constantly running in the background? I've found that sometimes Windows update (auto update: on) will run in the background and cause the fans to come on and off so I'd suggest setting it to manual or off.

 

My original r2 had a lot of issues and this was one of them. For some reason the fans would go off in short little bursts whenever i opened a program regardless of the temps. I ended up returning it and my replacement doesn't ever do this.

 

Hey 5150Joker! Love the Wiki!

is there a way we could have added a page there about properly uninstalling catalyst ....to be able to reinstall ? (cause i neeed to know ..lol)

just got the M17x-r2 yesterday and cant' for the life of me figure out how to deinstall the factory drivers.

 

+rep I did the power drain and also uninstalled mcafee suite... no revving anymore... fan is still on though... constantly... not as annoying but still a problem...

my room temperature is about 70... would that affect it?

Relic - I have power options set to performance

 

Here's one way:

1. Go to Device Mgr (Control Panel>Hardware, etc>Device Manager. Then select Display Adapter, select 4870, right click, then Properties, select Driver tab, Uninstall, in the popup window check Delete software, etc. It should remove the driver, reboot and hopefully you come back up with a VGA driver.

2. Then to install the new driver, go back to Device Mgr (Control Panel>Hardware, etc>Device Manager. Select Display Adapter, select 4870, right click, then Properties, select Driver tab, then Update Driver. Then select "Browse my Computer . . " and browse to and select folder c:\ATI Technologies\Support\10-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc. Let Windows find and install the drivers. When it reboots, you should have the new 10.4 drivers.

 

ok i just tried it and it looked like it was going to work untill when i rebooted... it didn't load the vga drivers and when i went to 'update driver' and 'browse my computer'... found the new 10.4 folder and it replied.. 'best driver for your computer is already installed' .... so.. still says "8.680.2.0" as the driver .. why is this so hard??..lol.. you would think it would see that the latest version is a newer version number and just accept it.... so what now?

 

Try this. Go to the 10.4 folder and run setup.exe. That should launch Install Manager. Select Unintall. Then Custom to see what is available for removal by this method. Hopefully, it will include the Dell drivers and accessories. Uninstall everything. We may have to repeat in the Dell driver folder if not successful.

 

Does anyone have any advice to my questions?

While playing COH Tales of Valor game play looks good but numbers and some letters can not be recognized. I tried different screen settings with no difference.
Any idea what is causing this?
Also what is the best way to record game play so I can post it to better show what I am talking about.
By the way ATI crossfire logo is showing on the top right of game play that tells me that both cards are working?

BIOS: VER A02 1.00
Driver Packaging Version 8.68.2-091125a1-092358C-Dell
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.984
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0716
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9210
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2009.1125.2309.41491

 

Yup, the logo means that CF is working.

 

Thanks JCrichton,
I am just confuse about my other problems. I am starting to think I am the only one here that plays COH TOV.

 

No worries. I asked the same question last week!

 

Hey guys, I've got some questions and I need the opinions of all you tech savvy people here

I ordered my AW m17x last week with a single 5870 GPU and an i7 720QM. There is just one 500 GB 7200 RPM HDD and 8GB 1333 Mhz RAM. The bundled PSU with my AW is the 150W one. I've got 3 quick questions here:

1. Is 150w going to be enough or am I going to face throttling issues?

2. Assuming the single 5870 does have a CF connector, if I add in another 5870 in the future and make it a crossfire setup...will I have to purchase the 240W PSU as well?

3. I've already discussed this in a different thread but I would like more opinions. What do you think the performance diff is going to be between a single 5870 vs 4870 crossfire in the AW m17x?

 

Hey, congrats on the purchase!
1. There should be no throttling issues with one card.
2. Yes, you're going to need the 240W adapter for two cards setup
3. 4870CF is marginally faster than one 5870 card in games that support CF
Having said that, i think it's wise of you to purchase the one 5870. When it won't be enough anymore, you can always add another card (assuming it has a CF connector )

 

Well, if the 5870 does have a CF connector then I would feel very happy about my purchase. Are there no reports in yet confirming this?

Anyways, I just feel that I should have ordered a Blu-ray writer and a secondary 500GB HDD as well. The blu-ray writer was juz $100 upgrade (here in canada) and same with the secondary HDD. So for $200 more I would have a relatively future proof system and save up on a lot of money when I upgrade in the future (especially the blu-ray writer...its almost $400)

Also, do you think I should call Dell and ask for the 240W PSU?

One more thing, the latest update on Dell Canada's website is that the 4870 CrossfireX option is no longer there for the GPU customization. There is just one option and its the single 5870...not even the 5870 CF. And neither is the 1333 Mhz RAM available anymore. I got lucky with the RAM as it happened just 2 days after I ordered mine. What's the status on Dell websites in other countries?

 

Hi!, I don't know if this is the right site for this post but since I'm just very curiouse about: Why Dell's AW doesn't offer some of the customizing options that it's offered for the precision m6500? I mean such as:
" 4 years Complete Care with Accidental Damage Protection"
and also
" System Tracking Services"
From my long years of experience with my other Dell's computers this has proven as more than very useful...
Some one know the answer? (or has a fundamented opinion about?)

 

The Complete Care is under the Warranty section.

Dunno what you mean by System Tracking Services. You mean like Lojack?

 

Maybe it's something alike LoJack... I certainly don't know. But in the Precision M6500 they offer a different 4years total premium warranty than the one in AW and also, there is an additional configuration for the "accidental damage protection"... so, any think spill, broken or alike will be assumed by Dell during the 4 years...
I wish to have those options in AW too.

 

Read it again, Alienware offers the accidental damage protection. You just have to click around. Check the "Advanced Service Plan" on the warranty page when configuring the M17x.

Here's more:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/services/learn_more?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs