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

Well, maybe I'm wrong but there seem to be some differences betwen the warranty options for the Precision M6500 and the AW M17x...
There are differences also between this two expressions: " Accidental Damage Protection" and " CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection" as you can find here: Dell - ProSupport for End Users | Dell
If it's the same, what's the reason behind the use of different language and expressions for the different systems?
Are there differences between a "Premium Service Plan" and a "Pro-Support Service Plan" as stated here: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/services/prosupport/options?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd?
For some reason in the Precision they put the options in different pages of the configuration and in the all mighty AW they put it "toghether"... but when you read after the differences, you find them in the different expressions that refferes to each one.
Maybe I'm wrong, I hope I'm. But it seems to be substantial differences. Unless you or anyone else can post some light about...
Thanks in advance!
P.S.: Here ( http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...prosupport/completecare?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd) Dell state that the CompleteCare Accidental damage Protection" is only in "**Available on Dell Precision, Latitude and Vostro notebooks."

 

All you need to know is what Dell/Alienware is selling you on the warranty page on the website for the machine you chose to purchase. Whatever it says applies to the product you are buying.

I'm not going through all that because it's just semantics at this point but if you'd like to state the significant differences between the ACP & CCADP since you've already researched I say go for it.

 

Well, I was expecting that someone coud explain even a little why the differences.
I understand that they are different systems. But the two of them are supposed to be tghe "top of the line" or the state of art... So back to my firts post in this matter I was just wondering (and maybe someone could answer or have a fundamented opinion on that) "Why Dell's AW doesn't offer some of the customizing options that it's offered for the precision m6500".
It's a legal question since it can magnifiy the standart of reliability of the AW systems. Specially regarding the actualization of the systems and they maintenance in time. One of my preffered Dell laptops is going, thanks to this kind of "pro complete care" option, into it's 7th year of full service.
I wish I could buy an equal support service for an AW...
Those "semantics" as you can call them, are the little letters that can change everything in warranty or support service and in the satisfaction of the costumers.

 

What notebook coolers are you guys rocking? I was thinking between the NZXT Cryo or the zalman nc2000

 

I don't have one yet, but for the M17x-R2 the NZXT Cryo LX is the one to get.

 

You don't really need one, it's a waste of money and space. If you want to use it on your lap, get a cheap targus chillpad from best buy for $30. It's comfortable and light weight. Otherwise there's no point if you plan to use it on a desk.

 

I use the cryo lx and very happy with it. One mod that i did to fight dust as much as i can is to put dust filters on all air entrances of the cryo. I assume that most of the air that the laptop sucks is being pushed by the fans of the cooler and if this air is dust filtered it should help.
This is just an assumption for now since i just made it a month ago and can't really say if it's working yet.

 

Thanks for the input guys, those with coolers how big of a temperature drop are you seeing?

 

Did you get a caddy for the second drive bay? I've been told Dell should include it so you don't have to buy two drives just to chuck one :-D

 

2-3 degrees, not more than that plus as i mentioned i use it as a dust filter and another purpose i see for it is that it slightly tilts the laptop and for me it feels more comfortable to type.

 

Changing the subject a little.; I got Eyefinity to work with the 4870's on the M17x!



Nah, just kidding.

More pics of my setup here

 

Damn. That's a fancy setup you got going on.

 

Oooooo.

Preeeettttty.

 

RGB LED owners: Does anyone have the product serial number, or know the response time offhand?

 

This is the info i get from HWiNFO32 for the RGB.

Monitor Name: K1NFP€170CT
Serial Number: Unknown
Date Of Manufacture: Week: 0, Year: 2009

Max. Vertical Size: 23 cm
Max. Horizontal Size: 37 cm

Advanced parameters
Input Signal: Digital
Color Bit Depth: 8 Bits per Primary Color
Display Type: RGB color
Gamma Factor: 2.20

DPMS Modes
Standby: Not Supported
Suspend: Not Supported
Active Off: Not Supported
Standard Colour Space: Not Supported
Preferred Timing Mode: Supported
Default GTF Supported: Not Supported
DFP 1.x Compatible: No

Supported Video Modes
1920 x 1200 367 x 230 mm, Pixel Clock 164.80 MHz
1920 x 1200 367 x 230 mm, Pixel Clock 164.80 MHz

 

I am looking for a good tool to monitor SMART status of my HD's...anyone have any reccomendations, dont mind if I need to pay for it.

Would be nice if I could have it auto email me if there are issues, but thats a nice to have not a need.

 

I believe Active@ Hard Disk Monitor is what you're looking for
It can even send emails as you requested

Cheers!

 

Cheers SAUCE <3

 

Fellas, where are you getting 10.4's? or is everyone using 10.3? I was running 10.5 from strags.com but there are artifacts in Crysis wars.

Are these it?
10.4 from GAME.AMD.COM

 

I got mine from

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

Thanks bro. Those fixed the little issue I was having.

 

i should have asked this q on this thread.. apologies

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System

Model: Alienware M17X10

..it shows m17x10 as the model

I am curious about the 10 that comes after the m17x, anyone knows what exactly am i looking at?

thanks.

 

A05 BIOS is up on Dell's website

supposedly it fixes the virtualization issue

 

Hey guys I know it's crazy to get an Alienware for battery life but what's the longest an m17x without integrated graphics can last. I'm thinking maybe 2 hours but most figures I saw were for integrated graphics...

 

heard from some of the guys that its about 1hr 30 mins if you have dual 4870s but ive never tried it out so i cant confirm it

 

just updated to bios a05 and i noticed a few changes(the package dint come with a changelog txt)

my alienhead on the lid and power button now lights up upon power up unlike with a02 where the lid head and power button only lights up when windows boots up and command centre starts

theres virtualization support in bios option

windows(for me) now takes a hell load longer to boot after typing in the password. with bios a02, it takes about 20 seconds after keying in the password to get to the desktop and start loading icons etc. with bios a05, it takes 30 seconds which seems like a year after typing in the password.

my r1 only takes 4 seconds after typing in the password to get to the desktop with ALL icons loaded both my r1 and r2 have the same startup programs and services.

my cpu temps also seem to have gone down with a05, idling in the 50s compared to 60s with a02. no increase in fan noise noticed.

thats about it, ill post more if i discover more good or bad stuff about a05

 

I wonder if with a single 5870 and ssd if it would go 2 hours. Interesting. I'm wondering just for like really low brightness and taking notes in Word. Most of the classes at Uni have outlets all over but one or two I may need to run on battery. Each class is 50 minutes long so hopefully it could last. Pretty impractical laptop for school I know but what can I say I'm stricken with the alienware performance/ design.

 

I wonder how low they'll be able to get CPU/GPU power utilization eventually? With Nehalam with it's own power management logic...does it really matter anymore for power life how many cores you have or how fast they can clock up to, if you're at idle? Be pretty cool when you could have a high end GPU draw the same amount of power as an Intel part at idle (given the same process).

 

Hi all, got my new M17x, very happy over all but I am have some (possibly noobish) problems:

1. Got the 10.4 catalyst drivers to install, but in the process I lost CCC. Can't get it to install. I have tried all sorts of things and even tried to revert o dell drivers but it doesn't seem to work. Is not having CCC a big problem?

2. Whenever my screen goes off (eg close the lid, goes off to save power) I can't get it to come back on. Got to do a hard restart.

3. When I try to restart\shutdown it logs out of windows and then sits at a blank screen still running. This may be related to the above I suspect. Not sure what is going on though.

4. My array mic seem to pick up the buzz of the fans. So if I listen to what is going through it, it sounds aweful. Tried updating the driver as suggested in another thread but that doesn't seem to have helped.

Anyway any advice would be appreciated.

 

OK, I fixed the 1st problem by using the driver package off the dell website. It allowed me to install CCC, but keep the 10.4 driver. That's something at least.

Still working on the others.

 

Here are the release notes for the M17x-R2 A05 BIOS. I've included the A03 and A04 notes in there too.

Edit: I just had a quick look, and it appears that "Broadway XT" is the codename for the Radeon Mobility 5870. Based on these notes it looks like there has been some work on getting XF5870 working.

 

I have now fixed the failure to reboot problem and failure to go properly into sleep\hibernation and therefore wakeup by re-installing the dell graphics driver. The one for 5870's on the support site.

Good to have it all working, except I noticed that driver giving me some gliches in game the other day. So I was hoping to upgrade. I will give 10.6 and 10.5 a go later, hopefully one of those will allow shut down and glich free gaming.

 

I am now an official owner! I had to celebrate by taking a picture =P I love the red!

Wheeeeeeeeeeee! .

EDIT: Bigger pic here.

 

Width of 800px is usually safe.

 

That looks amazing buddy...your picture makes me re-think my color choice of space black :-/

 

hey guys

So my AW has 2 SSDs in it already (stock 128 and a new Intel 160GB) - since i run several VMs for work i'm always looking to spread the load around. I bought an external eSATA enclosure and put my older 60GB SSD in it, but to use it I also needed to hook up a USB cable and this was becoming less fun to carry around (my backpack already weighs about 30lbs with the AW, powerpack and other items)

So i looked around for a eSATA Flash drive and i found the Kanguru - i ordered the 64GB version ($200 US).

It arrived yesterday and i tried to plug it into the eSATA port - DAMMIT - who designed the port to be recessed?!?! I have to use the eSATA cable they shipped with the Kanguru to connect this (poor design Dell) - just kidding.. the Kanguru is just too wide.... POS

Anyway - here are some performance comparisons for the Kanguru on eSATA and USB (it's dual sided so you can use eSATA and others can use USB)

 

Guy's I seem to have a problem with my new m17x r2 the specs are in the sig. Well I noticed gaming wasn't up to par, then I noticed my windows WEI for my processor was extremely low. I was getting a processor score of WEI, so I turned on the overlock in the bios to 5% and the set the vcore to 150 with no change.

Then I noticed my HWinfo32 was showing that my Cores were running at only 1300 mhz despite a multiplier of 24x. I tried to check this with E-Leet. Well here's a screenshot to show you what I mean.

So it's obvious my CPU's are throttling, but I don't know why. I looked at the m15x thread on throttling and I downloaded throttlestop and that seems to work in stopping the throttling. I just want a permanent solution and find out why HWinfo32 is displaying a multiplier of 24x-26x. This wasn't happening a couple days ago so why all of a sudden?

 

NM i'm an idiot, somehow I had turned on stealth mode by accident.

 

Hey DesertFox9 how did you get the 5870s in crossfire?
I am due for a m17x r2 replacement any time but i am waiting till the 5870 cf are available!

I currently have 2 in my possesion lol and am able to call for a 3rd lol soon as the new setup is out.

 

It's just a single 5870

 

Does anyone know if the Zagg invisibleSHIELD™ for the Alienware Area-51 M17X fits the M17X R2?

 

The M17x has a different shaped lid, but since it should be bigger - you should still be able to put it on

 

Ergh, so I'm receiving my first M17x tommorow, but I'm returning it. (Went into the shipping stage the night before crossfire 5870s released ). I know if I "deny" the package, I dont have to pay the restocking fee. If I open it and mess around with it a little(maybe even see that a single 5870 is fine for me), and then ship it back to Dell within the 21 day period would I get away without paying the restocking fee, or is it just safer to not open it and risk losing money for no reason?





Can I still join the owners club

 

According to everything I've read around here you should accept the shipment and then you can return it for no penalty as long as you order another one.

 

Already ordered it...i is that bad?

 

I imagine you should call their sales department and get it squared away. Sounds like it should work out just fine since they are still getting your business.

 

Has anyone seen the new OS Customization (AlienGUIse Theme Manager with Breed Theme)? Is anyone getting it? Or am I the only one that's interested in it?

 

I'm not really into the AlienGuise themes changing my whole PC but would definitely like to see the Breed theme. The regular AlienGuise you can download down doesn't include this theme, unfortunately.

By the way, I would also like to see part 2 of the Breed movie ( www.alienware.com/breed). It was supposed to be out a while ago...

 

When your original arrives call dell and tell them you want to return it and they will send you the shipping label info. At the same time give them your new order number and they won't charge the restocking fee.