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

I have seen odd behavior with my brightness as well when I am messing with SLI/CF and overclocking and stuff. I just took it as it is what it is.

Works fine during regular use

 

Yea, I haven't found a solution to the problem and single card does actually have an affect on the display's brightness controls. It's strange because I just found that AION does not play well with cfx however all of my other games do and while playing I saw that my screen was dimmed and when I went to brighten my screen it just wouldn't have it.

I just thought I'd mention this as it now appears that many are unaware of it?

 

Yes, I noticed this last night, but I was set to about half brightness, and when I tried to lower it the display would tell me I was at minimum and also if I try to increase brightness, nothing happens, and it did not matter if I was running CF or not, I reset the PC and then every thing worked fine, looks like if you swap between CF and Single at any time this happens.

I just tought it was some weird glitch with windows on my pc, nice to see that it is not just mine .

 

if your screen brightness won't change, just close the lid and open it(I have it set to do nothing when closing the lid). This fixed the problem for me

 

I've been in the same boat. Wanting something nice and small for travel but I don't want to give up to much performance for the basic stuff. I keep thinking about going apple and then my sister comes over with hers and doing simple things like putting a TV show on a external HDD don't work. And other crazy things, plus when she gives it to me to play with me I'm just lost. Whats the battery life on the m11x for things like word? IE?

 

dual core gets you about 7-8 hours if your not doing anything intensive, which is why i have my m11x. For things like web browsing on the couch or traveling.

 

Wish I had an M11x over this crap Asus UL80Vt from work

It overclocks well but the build quality is awful compared to alienwares (and the screen is trash)

 

Well the M11x has the screen hinge issue, but other than that it's not bad. It's my main computer now that my M17x is at the depot. Not much of a CPU overclocker though. But you knew that. At least with the R1

 

You would be fine if you had setfsb working. That is all that allowed my Asus to go so far. Got to 320 FSB hehe

 

i still feel very lucky upgrading my 4870s with working 5870s. What you are saying actually confirms what i said about buying 5870s. At least you will use your system till the replacement comes.

 

My outlet systems replacement came today and Dell put the wrong parts in it (dell 1520 wifi instead of intel 6300, dvd rom vs blu ray and no complete care on the invoice) so now I'm on the phone with them trying to get it all sorted out. So JStar, I'm right there with you lol. The good thing is this replacement system has a perfect screen from what I can see, there's no dust, dead pixels and its perfectly uniform. The down side is the hinge is a bit loose compared to other M17x's I've owned in the past. Going to swap out all the parts and put them in my refurb in case Dell screws up even further and can't sort the issue out.


Edit: lol, the AW tech guy said they're going to send me an exact config replacement but it's going to be a refurb. Guess I'll just wait and see what they send. In the mean time I'm going to swap out all the parts from the new system into this one. Sigh Dell customer service ftl.

 

I used to be an Thinkpad junkie and have been looking at there X series now. Small. long battery etc. but when I hear these Dell/Alienware Horror stories that end with whole systems being replaced or new cards, or upgrades it really makes me feel Alienware takes care of there customers and makes me want to stay in the Alienware family....Then I hear stories like Jokers and wonder if I'm crazy and get m11xr2 for a small and light, heck from what I understand I could even play some light old games like the MW2.

 

If you have the patience to deal with Dell's endless customer service roulette, then yes you will eventually get a new system and/or upgrades out of them. However, that can entail hours of time on the phone that spans over several weeks. The customer service needs better integration so that this sort of bouncing around is vastly reduced.

 

I agree that Dell don't always make it easy, but still, they do stand by their products. If you're patient, persistent, and polite, then you'll almost certainly come out on top... eventually.

I've had several problems with my various systems and even a few horror stories (2+ months with a non-functioning £2K laptop), but Dell have ultimately fixed them. It's this support that allows me to recommend Dell to others, and why I will continue to be a customer of theirs in future.

The one problem I think Dell has, is that they're not so good at dealing with knowledgeable and technical users.

 

Wow what a story but the good thing is you started from an M15x with a 260M and ended up with an M17x-R2 with RGB LED and dual 5870s! Can't beat that no matter how you slice it. I just finished transplanting almost every single new part (rgb led display, cpu, hard drive + cages, palm rest, magnesium cover, fans, cmos battery, control cover, keyboard, video cards) to my old refurb system and stuck the old damaged stuff in the new exchange unit. I'm not confident AW tech support will come through with a good refurb so I'll probably just send back the exchange unit and keep my now fully functioning original system. So I guess knowledge of how to disassemble an M17x on your own FTW.

 

lol yeah man for sure, if you've got the knowledge then swapping the parts yourself instead of dealing with Dell or their contracted techs is the best way to go. I'm kicking myself for not doing the retention mod on the GPU's when I had the system opened up. Now I'll have to go back in and do it. These suckers are hitting 95C in furmark so they definitely need new paste + the mod. CPU with MX-3 is running a cool idle of 42C and 57C load so that's great the way it is, the CPU fan hardly ever comes on. I'm digging this new keyboard too, it's a bit more mushy than the last one but it feels better to type with.

 

......fan boi =p

 

Yeah I saw some of the reviews, the MX-4 looks promising. On the phone with AW tech support and the guy initially was going to do a CPU upgrade but then said he couldn't and will give me 8 GB 1333 mhz memory in the new factory replacement. Better than nothing I guess. Tip to those that want to skip Dell hell: Contact AW tech support instead, they speak better English and have a lot more flexibility with ordering new systems and/or doing upgrades. If they issue you a system replacement, MAKE SURE to go over the specs with them on the phone before they submit the new exchange unit. The one I got yesterday was missing the blu ray drive, wifi 6300 card and had the wrong type of ram on the invoice. Right now the guy is going over every little detail with me while configuring the new order and giving me upgraded ram to go with it and is going to give me a custom name plate engraving instead of the generic one my outlet system came with.

 

New here and wanted to say thanks for everything people have done to compile so much amazing information for this model laptop!

 

Heya Joker, is there anyway to DL the walpapers from your wiki ?

 

Well, my M17x R2 came back from the Depot. Suprisingly they fixed everything needed, scratched nothing and it works like a charm. I put my 940XM in it, but need to reorder thermal paste, then I'll re paste and repad the system. But sadly I have to run to work at the Buy More

 

Wow....you must be blessed haha

 

Not nessarially a M17 question but the VM is running on a M17 so its KINDA related I have a VM running Windos XP, not my choice, its a work thing, anyway, curently I have 4G memory and 4procs dedicated to it. Procs arent causing a problem, but I am thinking that 4G memory is a bit much and want to squeze as much free mem as possible out.

Was wondering, would 3.5G be better or ? any opinions ?

 

Sorry, are you asking how much RAM to dedicate to the virtual machine? That would depend on what you're doing in it (plus how much RAM you've got of course).

32-bit Windows can't really use more than 3-3.5GB at most anyway, so I wouldn't go above 3 or so regardless of what you're doing. I'm stuck running XP in a VM too, in my case for some 16-bit programs I have to run. I've randomly assigned it 1GB just 'cause, since I've got the RAM to spare. This particular setup doesn't need much though, thankfully.

 

Yea, currently I have 4G RAM dedicated to the VM, my M17 has 8G. I am thinking reducing it to 3.5G for the VM if it wont use all 4, I want to give it as much as possible, and was not sure if it would use a entire 4G since it was in a VM

Probably will reduce it to 3.5G soon as I can boot it

 

On a diff note, looking to pick up a good wired mouse...suggestions ?

 

G9x is a beast, I have been loving mine since I got it

 

I'm also using a logitech G9 (old version) and I love it. I don't really use any of the fancy features but it's nice to know it can do a lot more than I need it to.

 

I am just enjoying crazy sensitivity and not having my battery die mid game (used to use a bluetooth MX Revolution)

 

Alienware TactX Mouse Product Details

Looks identical

 

that is because they are

I got the TactX Keyboard and the cd even says logitech software on it haha

 

I didn't even realize that they were basically the same. I also have a tactx keyboard (free with my m11x).

You can even change the LED color to whatever you want to match your color scheme.

 

my keyboard mouse and laptop are all the same light teal color

reminds me of glaciers which I like

 

I'm going to hunt down the R.A.T. 7 next week for sure during the sales. If not, then yes, the G9 will do. I'm done using wireless.

 

Hi there,

I'm trying to do a clean install of Windows 7 with the included DVD. I have never done this before. After this is done, I'm supposed to download all the drivers for M17x from Dell and install them, right? Is there a particular order in which I should install them or anything is fine? Any help would be great.

Thank you

 

This is what I used for order. The links may not be up to date so just use the listed order and download the latest from dell. If you've already done the video BIOS no need to do it again.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...70-september-2010-incl-vbios-flash-guide.html

 

Yeah, shouldn't matter whether it's in a VM or not, it would just be what the OS can support, so basically 3-3.5GB max for 32 bit Windows. Some systems it's even less than 3GB, though probably for the "system" being run in the VM it would be in that 3-3.5GB range. I want to say 32-bit programs are limited to 2GB of RAM each? I'm not as sure about that.

 

Well that's weird.
I was browsing the net when I noticed that the fans are too loud so I checked the temps- all in check, CPU and gpus are under 45 degrees but the fans still pretty loud..
So I think to myself I'll warm up the cards to see what will happen.
Next I fire up furmark and watch the temps start to climb..
Once the gpus hit 50 I hear a click, the laptop shuts down and now it won't turn on anymore- no lights no noises, nada..

I am thinking the mobo..

Calling Dell....

 

I just used my 20% off outlet coupon and ordered this

M17x
Intel Core i7 940XM Quad Core CPU
8GB DDR3 Memory
1.2TB of Hard Drive Space (Two 640GB 7200RPM drives on RAID0)
Dual ATI CrossFireX 5870 1GB Video Cards
WUXGA+ RGB LED HD 17 Inch LCD Screen
Slot Load 4x Blu-ray & DVD+/-RW Combo Drive
Dell DW1520 Wireless N Card
Dell Bluetooth 370 Card
9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
240W External Power Supply

I ordered an intel 6200 wifi card to replace the one it comes with.

I cant wait for it to get here, this is going to replace my aging desktop, now I have the whole family

 

Haha nice, 3 alienwares. Thinking of the money spent on all 3 gives me tachycardia.

 

Hmm..let me know what apens here, I have noticed, recently, my fans dont spin down...I mean they stay full bore all time and I am getting un-nerved about his.

Thanks.

 

Hmm..let me know what apens here, I have noticed, recently, my fans dont spin down...I mean they stay full bore all time and I am getting un-nerved about his.

Thanks.

 

ok wwoods, for now i called dell and they are shipping a mobo, both video cards and a new battery.. my bet is that the mobo alone would solve the problem...

 

Intresting, I ran that (furmark) and it ran fine, did not shut down, but my fans have been stuck on "high" lately even after a gaming sesion and am not liking this..any ideas n that ? have BIOS A09. I did notice this did not start happening till after the new vid driver though, might roll that back and see.

I can reboot and the fans go back to normal, but after a aming session when they spin up, they never return to normal.

 

hmm, my problem is probably different as i was on 10.5 and this is the first time i noticed it happened.
Try to roll you driver back to 10.8 and see if that goes away. however, i can't see how the driver can affect this - the fans are controlled by the bios and the only input it considers is the temps of the cards....

 

Yea just finished a roll back to 10.10 from 10.11, and firing up a game now see what heppens. Also my touch strip was unresponsive, so had to fix that also...

OK, after a roll back to 10.10 fans seem normal again, spin down. Now not sure if it was the 10.10 rollback or the battery pull and hold power button for 30 seconds (did that because the touch strip wasnt working). Odd....I guess 10.11 was running hotter for some reason...makes no sence.

 

guys can you hep me in something please?

is the hdmi only ouput or input too? actually i am going to buy the nokie n8 which has an hdmi cable for connecting to screens. Will i be able to see the N8 screen on the M17X screen?

thus for those interested in a cheap 8gb 1333mhz ram upgrade have a look at this

TRANSCEND :: TS512MSK64V3N

which is the same as this

http://cgi.ebay.com/TRANSCEND-TS512...112?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588b256660

huge price difference isnt it?

i just bought two of those.

 

HDMI is output only.

 

so is there any way- accesory to show n8 screen on m17x screen via hdmi?

 

The HDMI in M17x is output only................................... it means exactly that