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

Definitely back them up. I forgot to do that and now im a background-less alien

 

Hey, pm me, I'll send them to you

 

I appreciate the offer, but im getting a new alienware friday . If i screw up again though ill shoot you a pm

 

That is why you learn how to take apart your own laptop....do not trust the idiots without a high school education that you will usually have sent to "fix" your laptop

Some are good, but most are just stupid

It is just not that hard to take apart a laptop...

 

Well, for a dummy user, it can be complicated. There are some plastic parts that if you dont't know exactly how to disassamble them, you can broke some "pins" in them and then you're in problem. One of my unique complains to Dell is that they send those unexperted people that make more damage than actually repair anyting. By the way, I know some people that never ever finish their high school: Abi Lincoln, Ben Franklyn, Jesus, Socrates, etc... the list is very extense... but this is not the matter of this really rocking forum!

 

Let Dell trash it, and then they can replace it.

If you start breaking pieces, you're in deep doo-doo.

They broke two of mine, and replaced two of mine.

 

i got my R2 yesterday, and today i loaded up 3dmark06 & vantage to see what kind of an increase in performance i got over the m17. i was somewhat surprised to see i ran a 13946 out of the box. shouldn't it be higher??? the i5 540 should be better performance wise to the t9400 i used in the m17, actaully it should be closer to a t9900 or t9800. i was able to get 13900's with the 3870s & The t9400. any tips? suggestions? how can i check to see if x-fire is enabled? it shows 2 gpus in gpu-z

edit installed 10.4 & used amd tool to oc the gpu to 625 & 1100 and got 14455...meh is the i5 really that much of a bottleneck?

 

so, my right fan started making a grinding noise when spinning fast.
i called AW and they insist on sending a technician out, i am arguing that all i want is the fan dispatched and i'll replace it myself and the rep is giving me a hard time claiming that it's not something they do.
what's that about ?

 

Do you have the CC warranty? You could get it serviced in Israel. Otherwise, buy a fan separately, it doesn't cost that much.

 

I only got 15123...my system specs in my sig.

 

You're missing the video cards in your sig. You might want to add them to it.

 

So I do, fixed.

 

Kinda random, but Big Bang Theory had a M17X on this weeks show Looks like they upgraded

 

R1/R2 All Powerful version?

 

Yes, not sure about if it was a R1 or R2, It was black.

 

Dear friend, this is something to start getting worried about? For how long you have your alien beast?
It's not too soon to start having problems?. O any kind?
It will be very interesting how Dell answer your demands and solve the issue... Please, let us know.

 

I am actually on a trip to brazil right now
and they agreed to send it to my us address after a lot of arguing.

I agree that it is too soon for a new laptop to start breaking but fan is not something that I am really worried that it breaks. It's a simple replacement and it could happen to anybody. What I do worry is that it's the A05 bios causing this as I have already seen one case of the same problem reported on this forum after installing the new bios. We all know it has issue with fans spinning super fast on powerup etc, maybe it overloads them with too much voltage ? Just a thought...

 

Yeah, the fans do spin very fast on startup with latest BIOS, but the fans should handle this temp fast spin fine, you probably just had a bad fan, maybe it is not such a bad thing that the BIOS does this fast spin on startup, this way if you have a poor production fan it will give up the ghost already and be replaced with hopefully a good one this time around.
I also request Dell to send me the replacement parts rather than sending a dude to do the installing for me, I am absolutely not comfortable with this techs touching my rigs, unless I know it is an issue that will very likely require a full replacement anyhow..
Glad they agreed to send you the fan, good luck with it!

 

Huh ?

So basically, I'm not the only one who noticed that my M17X got a so POWERFULL boost after upgrading to A5 that it felt it was now a super-duper-helicopter who dreamed to fly in the sky ?

Actually, firt time I booted it up after the upgrade, I was so lucky I had time to catch it before it started to levitate, almost lost it to the clouds...

Needless to say I am back on A2...


Apart from the helicopter dream, wasn't A5 supposed to fix the power button & HDD's led not working on boot until windows is fully loaded ? (it worked for me the first time, than never again...)

Thing is that since I have two sammy's SSDs in RAID (bought straight from Dell along with the laptop - so they have to support it), I have to rely on ITGC to clean the garbage, and the best way to do that being to leave the lappy from a fresh boot at the logon screen, well, don't ask me why, but I would really appreciate to see the HDD's lights confirming me that ITGC is working; @ $500 each SSD (back from my first order in Oct.'09), I am expecting something's working. Now, to see it, I have to boot, logon, and reboot; not that it's such a pain, but I should not have to go there...

Dellianware, please wake-up and thanks a whole bunch in advance !

 

Hello MFractal, may I ask which kind of warranty you have? Always I have the 4 years Premium and Have no problem in getting tech support wherever I'm, even at the most unusual situations (like being two hours up the Amazon river in the forest).
Another question, why the A5 BIOS does the fast spin on startup? If the computer has been off it's obviously cold so, why it need to spin up the fans? I don't get it.

 

It's like a self-check or test, to make sure the fans are properly working.

 

10.5 mobility drivers up

ATI Catalyst 10.5 Windows 7 | Vista (64-bit)

 

^Any reports on the new 10.5s?

 

Is that the episode where the apartment gets robbed? My TV reception is a little fuzzy, but I was pretty sure I Sheldon with a black M17x in that episode. For some reason they decide to change the colour, and in another 1 or 2 episodes he should be using a red M17x.

At least the Alien is a bit more subdued than the Dell XPS systems they were using.

 

I noticed that the headphone/audio plugs on that M17x were colored my black M17xR-2 has black plugs?

 

Zero problems so far.

 

I guess I'm one of the unlucky ones. I just received my system but it arrived with 2-3 dead pixels right in the middle of the screen, so I just ordered a replacement. This sucks, after all the wait, I still can't enjoy my new toy.

 

Sorry, Vradev. That's bad fortune.

 

I got mine, it's sweet!!!

 

Dear Vradev, it will be nice to know:

how the tech behave?
was he/she professional?
was "delicate" with your alien?
didn't break anything when changing the screen?
etc.​

As you may know there have been a lot (means a LOT ) of complaints regarding those "techs" people.
Also, are you in the US or in any other place?
Thanks!
g.

 

I actually called for a full system replacement. I spent around $3300 for the system and I wouldn't want some tech opeing it up on its first day and installing refurbished parts in it. And yes, I'm in the US.

 

Me too. Blazingly fast and so far everything I expected and more. It's nice to be back on a 17" screen again.

 

For what it is worth, I have had 2 techs so far and both were outstanding. Only one of the two had worked with an M17x before. Both were very gentle and careful with the laptop though

If they are actually breaking parts, they are just idiots and need to be fired. I have liked the two I have had so far

 

Vradev: You're the man!
Costumers must organize to ask for better testing procedures BEFORE they send a machine. Not matter if it cost 3000 or 3 pennies. They MUST learn that in a truly democracy people deserve more respect.
By the way, do someone know what are the testing postproduction procedures/rules at Dell/AW?
Don't those must be clearly stated "on the table" before offering something to the costumers?
Don't understand this silly non-sense buy-first-complain-after (if you can)...

 

Man you have been lucky! God bless you! Sadly, those you call idiots (I prefer to call them irresponsables same as their senders) are growing among us everywhere (just look at the BP & associated actions in the gulf).
I have had other kind of experiences. Even I have read in this forum, regarding Dell, Hp, Toshiba, etc. creepy stories about the new arrived machines and the professional behaviour (and results) of those "techs"...

 

Indeed you should ask for a replacement and a compensation for the trouble they are causing you.

 

New VID driver out at

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

I don't know why but about 30 mins ago the 10.5 gave me a beating. I am gonna stick to 10.4 for now. Weird because no one else seems to be having an issue with it.

How did you guys install it? Did you do anything different like install from Device Manager?

 

Weird, I removed 10.4, went to install 10.5 and it dident find a driver ?? sigh oh well. -- edit -- Guess would help if I download FULL instead of CCC only...sigh

How did it "give you a beating" what happened ?

 

Well, the thing gave me warnings. And the log showed that CCC wasn't installed, it only installed the C++ redistributable. I tried a couple of times too. Then tried a System Restore and my screen was black. It very annoying to say the least. So, yes, I am back with 10.4.

 

Have you tried manually installing the driver (through device manager)?

 

No. That's why I was asking if that's how people were installing. I didn't want to deal with it so I just rolled back. Maybe later this week I'll give it another go.

 

i just spent the last hour trying to make it work about 5 different ways...no go. went back to dells drivers....

 

one thing, to get the updater to "see" your drivers and ccc you need to attempt an install, then after it fails you go to

c:\ati\support\10.5...\config

find the file installmanager.cfg

Open it and change "workaroundinstall=false to =true

save it and rerun setup from c:\ati\support\10.5...

i did try this method and it did update the CCC but the drivers update would fail and i'd get random bluescreens...so i went back to dells drivers...

i did call ati support and they said too bad, so sad but we dont support alienware...

so they released a mobile driver for thier cards but they dont support them. nice ati....

 

Hey guys, I'm going to put in my new cpu but I can't find the manual on here to guide me, anyone have a quick link or point me to it?

 

WaR, I had the same issue on a non-AW computer. I just went through Device Manager to uninstall the existing driver (which was 10.6beta) and to delete the software back to the Win 7 VGA driver. Then running setup in the Mobility 10-5 folder loads Install Mgr. which sees the 10.5 drivers, CCC, etc and it all installs smoothly like previous versions. However, you may not want to do it because there appears to be problems with 10.5 and the 5870 in crossfire. Singles seem to work.

 

You can find the R2 documentation at Alienware: Online Documentation.

 

there's a link to a service manual on in the first post of this thread.
It's really easy to follow..