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

As for adding extra years on the warranty, I added 4 years of complete care (Advanced warranty) to my M17x R1 after purchasing the system, and I was quoted $1100 which I talked down to $950. My guess would be about $250 to ad one year for the advanced.

 

Hmm okay I see! Not sure what I´m gonna do, don´t know if I want to pay around $2450 for a laptop with 3 years advanced warranty.

 

Guys, is there a tool that can show me fans speeds or voltages of the M17x-R2?
I am asking because the author of HWiNFO32 is trying to figure out how to read the north bridge controller of the beast and having some issues and such a tool might give him a direction.
So, please, if anybody can help, then do

 

have not seen anything do fan speeds

voltages maybe from XTU or cpu-z?

 

you could use amd gpu clock tool (voltage) and fan speed is set by the graphic bios : to change this value you have to load your bios change the fan settings and reflash but do that at your own risk (you can change the voltage in the bios too).

 

The fan speed is set by the system BIOS, not the video card. Which makes it that much harder to determine

 

So there's no soft that can read the voltages/fans ?

 

Stealth mode button stopped working. Crap.

How do you uninstall stealth mode altogether?

 

Go to BIOS and Disable it.

 

On mFractals suggestion, I did Power Drain (yeah way to go about things on the first day of having this laptop), then never EVER touch that button again.

 

Don't think I have ever seen that option in the BIOS, care to tell where it is? I would love to disable it if possible.

 

I assumed it was in BIOS at least somewhere, as BIOS are the one controlling the power. But for a easier solution go Start>Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Power Options. See if you can disable it there.

 

Don't believe it is a disableable option. I have gone through the power options and the BIOS, nada. I use Wattos' little application so I know if I am in SM or not. The red/green Alienhead makes it so easy. Wish AW would take note and implement it into their software.

 

My Alienhead didn't change color. Maybe that's why it's called Stealth Mode... there's no way to tell whether it's on

I wish they would just remove the option all together and possibly put it back when it actually works properly.

 

No, Wattos' application found here...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/463382-stealth-mode-indicator-2.html#post5978132

It has its own taskbar icon that is green if SM is off, red if SM is on. Run it as admin and you are golden. No more guessing.

 

Stealth mode is accessible only through alienware software, not in BIOS or windows power options

and yes, it is stupid and needs to just be removed

 

So any way to set this to run at startup ?

 

just drag it to the startup folder
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

 

You can get GPU fan speeds (% basis) from Everest Ultimate, GPU-Z or Open Hardware Monitor (fairly new).

Can find GPU voltage from Open Hardware Monitor (which may just be reading from vbios setting) or AMD GPU Clock Tool (which always reports 1.05v for my 5870m, regardless of whether the vbios is set for 1.05, 1.10 or 1.15v, so don't know where the reading comes from or whether it is accurate).

 

Are you sure Everest Ultimate correctly reads that info? AFAIR, it showed nothing but the "--%", when I tried it last time. GPU-Z always shows 30% for some reason.

 

mfractal meant fan speeds or voltages for mainboard, not the GPU (that has its own controls which are already supported by HWiNFO32).

 

Thanks, Mumak. Just installed the latest version. I like it very much!

 

There is, but I haven't been able to get someone to say exactly how they got it to work.

It needs admin privileges to work. I don't think you can get it to run like this just by putting it in the start up folder. I would imagine that you would get the nag screen every single boot...

 

even if uac is disabled in nags ??

 

That I am not 100% sure of. I don't know how to get something to automatically start with elevated privileges. It will appear to work like usual until you actually try to use it...it won't work at all.

 

Just right click on the exe, go to compatibility tab and choose run as admin. Also disable uac. (do you know how?)

 

Has anyone with a 5870 (single or CF) been able to install 10.5 ati drivers?

I tried through the ati setup and it wouldn't install the driver and by removing the driver through device manager, but even when it was back to the standard vga driver it would not install 10.5 over the top. Anyone had anymore success?

 

I do, but from time to time I do some web security stuff so I keep it enabled.

 

Yup, worked fine on my first single card machine.

 

i once tried to solve that problem, and could not. If UAC is enabled there's not much you can do, you're going to have to keep clicking ok/allow or whatever...

 

BlueKornchips, what method did you use to install it?

 

That's great, a nice addition. Where are the fan speed and voltage for the GPU reported?

 

ok guys, lots of blood, sweat and tears here but i just did it....

here it goes:

1) extract the drivers from dell
2) extract the 10.5 drivers to a separate location.

3) copy the GPU identifier from the dell inf C7_95371 and paste into the 10.5 ATI inf file C7100002. I also did the same from the second Dell inf file and pasted into the ATI second inf file. Not sure if that was necessary. I have included it below to save you some time.

I pasted this into the top of the [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1] section by going to the beginning of the first entry and hitting enter. then pasted this below.

"ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870" = ati2mtag_Manhattan, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68A0&SUBSYS_043A1028

then i went to the config file "C:\ATi\support\10-5\config\InstallManager.cfg" and changed the installworkaround=false to =true.

i returned to the ATI folder and ran the installer located at c:\ATI\support\10-5...

I didnt even uninstall the dell driver and it worked like a charm....(good idea?Bad idea? what do you think?)

Driver Packaging Version 8.732-100504a-100002C-ATI
Catalyst™ Version 10.5
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1030
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0753
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9836
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0504.2152.37420

im going to paste this info into one other post where this was being discussed just to get the info out.

 

Not sure it reads it correctly, but the reported fan speed correlates pretty well with the fan control temp-speed parameters in the 5870 vbios. This is the current version of Everest Ultimate:

​

The newest version of GPU-Z also shows GPU fan speed as a percentage, but still does not show fan RPM for the 5870's. I'll spare you another screenshot. LOL.

 

I would uninstall the Dell drivers, but other than that, can't wait to see how it works! Good job!

 

Are you able to play any games though? I tried your method and the drivers still cause a BSOD when a game launches. So the install workaround works great for getting the installer to detect the drivers but the end result is unfortunately the same.

 

@Aranthira -- Brilliant. Now, how do the 10.5's work with your 5870CF setup?

 

In his thread he said he got BSODing as well with this work around. So it comes down that it has to be a VBIO Issue...

 

Bummer. Apparently desktop Crossfire users are also having problems with 10.5 drivers, so it may turn out not to be the Dell vbios after all. Or, it might. On the other hand, none of the desktop users have problems with the 10.3 drivers, but Joker said he also tried those in the M17x and had the same results. Has to be very frustrating for the new R2 owners.

 

That depends on particular GPU model. Also please make sure to use the latest version of HWiNFO32.
Please attach a screenshot of Sensors, so I can see what's there.

 

if i try everest on mine all is see no matter if the fans are off or turning is 30%..
i think it can't read the 4870 well, or maybe it's the cf it's having problems with.

 

Here's the screenshot. Using a single 5870m with HWiNFO32 v. 3.51-748.

​

 

Same here both in Everest and GPU-Z - constant 30%

 

Hi Guys,

yeah, its been discouraging to realize that dell appears to have nerfed the 5870CF. Dell is famous...or infamous for releasing maybe 2 drivers and then forgetting that a gpu lineup ever existed.

So if we have maybe 1 more 5870 driver update left then we're stuck on old drivers....

I for one will return my unit based on this and the issue im having where both cards dont engage consistently. I already contacted alienware support, they saw the random card engagement and put notes on my account so i can return it. Unfortunately i couldnt call returns dept since by then they had closed.

So i'll be calling them tomorrow to setup a return. For 3700.00 who wants to be stuck on a gpu platform that neither ATI or Dell will support beyone 1 more driver update.

Looks like i'll be waiting for an Nvidia based R3....or new M17xxx

 

I agree that the situation with the 5870 so far isn't good.
Why not reorder with the 4870s? They are almost as fast and you can wait for the next video card refresh to upgrade..

 

Quick question to those that have (or had) both 4870's and 5870's. Have you really seen a performance differance? I was looking at some Metro 2033 benchmarks, and it looks pretty much unplayable at max settings on the the M17x. Are the 5870's worth the price increase? Do you actually notice a differance as far as DX10 vs. DX11? It'll be interesting to see how the M17x performs with 480Ms. My guess is dell will cripple those as well.

I'm just curious to see since I'm going to be waiting for mine for a while.

 

I don't have the game but I agree. Who knows what Dell will do to the 480m's but up to this point it doesn't look encouraging. I'm afraid to realize that the M17x-R2 with 4870's was the last great configuration for this revision. Anything better will take place on the R3. At least that's my take on it.

I'm sticking to my current R2/4870's configuration for a while. After seeing the results with the 5870's my next point of interest will be sometime when the R3 is announced. It sucks but what are you gonna do...

 

I agree. I'm resisting change to 16:9 and any potential change to a plastic chasis. So the 5870's R2 is the end of the line for me at this point. Unless I have hardware issues that require some sort of replacement. Hopefully one that isn't crippled.

 

one know where I can get more of the alienhead stickers...my son wants some more :0

I will pay just wondering if anyone knows

 

This is the exact reason I'm returning my 5870m based system as well. Nice try dell but this 5870m xfire release was a total failure. I don't recommend anyone order the xfire 5870 system unless you're willing to accept a nerfed system with no possible driver updates. The 4870s are 90-95% as fast and they aren't constrained by dell drivers. Who cares about dx11 on mobile cards?