*OFFICIAL* "All Powerful" M17xR2 Edition Owner's Lounge - Part 3

Lovin' the avatar and user title....I almost wet myself....top notch...gotta rep you just for that....

 

Lol thanks, i could get used to this

 

I am using the G.SKILL 8GB kit and it works great for me. There are several reviews on Newegg.com from M17x users and it appears they have had good results also. The price is also great.

 

I love my theme, just figured I'd share a pic

 

that is sick, i love it!!! care to share, hehehe

 

Sure, I got it from here, don't remember what I searched though, but here it is

 

shweet!!! thanks man

 

Not much action in this lounge lol

 

The real action is on the M11x. Not that I am posting on that forum either, but just saying. I just got mine and it is AWESOME; a really fun toy

 

Is anyone using the new AMD Graphics driver 11.5? If so any problems?

 

i do. no issues. i still the have the problem with a few games with random flickering but this occurs with other amd drivers as well. stil trying to find out the cause but didnt find anything yet.

Apart from this all other games run flawlessy (without flickering) and rating also raised from 7.2 to 7.3 on win 7 ultimate x64

 

Just rejoined the ranks of the R2 owners. Feels good to have this system again; scoring p 15,850 Vantage scores bone stock and blasting any game I throw at it. The R2 is still a beast.

No way in hell would I get the m18x without the RGB; the R2 is the complete and total system with every component being in rhythm with what I can only say is a dream laptop.

Seriously, I'm hangin on to this one for a few years. When the new consoles come out, that's when I'll upgrade (and hopefully then Alienware will offer another RGB).

I sold my old R2 because I bought it before the 5870's dropped and it had a lot of problems. This new R2 is near perfection.

 

you got the right word -complete- . if someone can play crysis 2 on highest settings why would someone need something more? if any..

i personally bought R1. then Dell replaced with R2 due to some issues. Then bought 5870s and sold 4870s. just my short story

 

Hi,
AMD Mobility drivers 11.5 are available some time now. I still have 11.12 drivers.
Are 11.5 worth the effort??
If yes how is it done correctly?? Uninstall Drivers and CCC and than install what??
I am unsure because installing AMD Drivers always is such a "risk".
Do I still need these programs like driversweep and CCleaner??

 

So far so good Buddy.

Worth a shot if your willing to upgrade and try.
Haven't noticed any issues.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/577219-amd-ati-11-5-driver-released.html

Cheers.

 

Hey there buddy,

If things are running super well for you still then thats great, however yeah since you haven't upgraded GPU drivers in a while I would give them a go.

The usual uninstalling and installing of the new drivers applies.

Uninstall the previous current drivers.
Load into safe mode and run driver sweeper;
run ccleaner
restart
install new GPU driver.

If you don't feel like doing all the above you can also just install the 11.5 directly over the top and test them out to see how you like them.
I do that sometimes when I don't have much time or when I'm lazy lol

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/577219-amd-ati-11-5-driver-released.html

Cheers.

 

i finally found the reason for the flashing on some games. it was the settings of CCC.

but i still have the issue on cod mw2 multiplayer. random lines appear on screen and the same time the alienware mouse discconects. this disconnection doesnt happen the other mouse i have. any ideas? power issues maybe?

 

What settings? What did you change to correct it?

 

Think he's meaning the CCC settings for colour etc - I have noted that if you "calibrate" your internal using CCC, it has the propensity to make things flicker. Using default colour settings doesnt.

Have a play with it, try it out as you can always revert to defaults.

It is rather annoying though, that given these options are within CCC, you would assume that you would be able to adjust them without side-effects.....dont know if this is the same for Reference & Dell video drivers....never tested it out on both.

 

thats exactly what i mean. specifically the hue and saturation settings. they were at -5 and 85 before and now i have them at -5 and 87 and dont get any flickering

what i am trying to find is what happens with cod mw2 multiplayer and the alienware mouse disconnection.

 

Thinking about getting The Witcher 2. How can I expect it to run on my R2? I've heard it's a rig eater like Metro 2033.

 

Well, Metro does literally "extract the urine" outta my system !! - its very demanding, just like Crysis.

I have read a few posts about people getting dismal FPS with Witcher 2, but maybe thats because its so new and no AMD profile for it yet.....might improve with next CAP....who knows!

 

Definatly Agree with You on this.

 

I know it runs pretty good on m14x, so i don't see why it wouldn't run on the R2. maybe not everything maxed out but decent settings for sure.

 

the witcher2 has no CF or SLI support at the moment. On my system runs very playable at native res with a mix up of settings between high and ultra just on one 5870.

There is at the moment the option of using radeonpro forcing DIRT2 profile and alternate rendering option. This way i get silk smooth gameplay.

A CAP for 11.5 and a new driver are on their way to fix the issue officialy, so AMD said about it. Anyway the game is more than playable with just one card, once the issue of CF/SLI negative scaling will be fixed, the game will have a good boost in fps. (since i already experienced the boost with radeonpro forcing the profile).

the only settings that is overwhelming (and it is true also for more powerfull desktop system) is the Ubersampling.

Just tested with fraps. range is 40-60 fps. v-sync on

 

I agree, too. The R2 is an awesome machine. It's definitely not perfect, but it is excellent. IMHO it is, hands down, the best laptop money can buy.

 

i remember there was an issue with vertical and orizontal lines in games under crossfire. actually this is what i am facing right now. i tried so many things. the only thing that works is disable crossfire.

was there any solution to that ?

 

Is this something that is occurring on your screen at all times, or only when running specific games in crossfire?

 

thanks for the interest my friend. this suprisingly doesnt occur with all games.On some of them it just appears on certain menus of the game then stop in game, on other it occurs randomly in game (like cod mw2), and finally on others like crysis 2 it doesnt happen at all. But what i can say for sure is that i didnt have this issue before on any game on windows desktop this never happens if you asked me that

i ve done even a fresh format and then the same situation again.. i also tried each gpu (primary and secondary) as primary (without crossfire) and never had vertical or horizontal lines on any game or any menu of the games

any clue?

 

Aristotelhs2060, it seems to me that there are some games that just don't behave properly in a multi-GPU environment, but I wouldn't give up on that premise. The process you have outlined seems to eliminate hardware issues. Nice job there, buddy. +1 for the good troubleshooting steps.

Now that I am thinking about it, I have seen horizontal lines on some of the NVIDIA and Intel and EA Games advertisement splash screens that load prior to the first menu in a few games. However, I have not seen it in-game. My assumption about the lines on the splash screens was the 1200p resolution of my RGB LED was just so far beyond the resolution of those low quality splash screens that they simply did not registered nicely.

Have you tried running the affected games in different resolutions to see if the situation improves or worsens? Another suggestion would be tinkering with some of the 3D Application Settings in CCC? I suspect there is a possibility that one of the settings does not play nice with the affected games. It's going to take some trial and error, but I bet there's a sweet spot with the settings that will solve this. Did the problem begin with a particular display driver update, or is it essentially the same regardless of which driver is installed?

One thing I have experienced with Crysis is, after exiting the game or the Crysis64 benchmark, my screen has sort of a washed out look. It's not severe, but is readily noticeable with a dark colored wallpaper. This goes away with a reboot. This happens no matter what driver version is installed, and it only seems to occur with Crysis.

 

I have an r2 with 5870s and q740 and I play on ultra settings with uber sampling off and the frame rate is good at all times. I am really picky about this stuff but I haven't bothered with fraps as the game works fine it looks really good as well.

I don't think it's as much of a system killer as metro. I had a lot of problems at first but they are all fixed now since the developer patched the game and ati cap 3 was released.

if you can play metro you can play this but probably with higher settings.

 

thanks for the time spent to post all those. after so many installation changing even drives on my system and so many stuff the problem is a few better. no clue. I realy suspect power issues to be honest as i didnt have such issues on any game before. so it shouldnt be the game itself. the problem just appeared. it wasnt a specific ati driver causing this. also tried old drivers to test. there were the same lines.

Now i have another problem. the touch buttons dont light up or work. the alienfx detects the touch buttons but they are just dead. also tried a replacement hing cover i have and the same again.

maybe the cable connecting the motherboard with the hinge cover got faulty during all those tests with my system? if yes where to buy a new one?

 

Does your on/off and eject button function?
If yes, try a full power drain:

-remove power cord
-remove system battery
-take the back cover and remove the coincell battery next to the system fan
-depress the power button for ~20 seconds

Now replace everything back, redo your BIOS settings as you had them(if applicable) and see if they work.
Probably this is due to a bad ribbon seating and this should fix it.

 

power button is the only button working (even though without light too). eject button doesnt.

 

Just try to reset the CMOS(above steps),if your ribbon is seated properly(straight into its plug), it should work.

 

i tried it before a while. No luck i believe the motherboard or the ribbon cable is faulty.

 

The ribbon is easy to diagnose: check that on both terminals none of the pins are disrupted. Try seating it again, I know it took me 3 tries before having it right and had the same thoughts , now I find it easier disconnecting it on the mobo only(after the keyboard) and never from the touchstrip, I actually used a piece of paper duct tape to keep it secure.

Might sound silly but try reinstalling the OSD appl.

 

ok i purchased a new hinge cover coming with the cable. the time of truth comes.. i ll let you know.

 

It hope it will.
Why didn't you try a ribbon only first, or you found them together?
Do let me know.

Cheers

 

oh i got what you mean now. i already purchased the whole set before i see your post. Anyway i will be more sure about whats wrong even though i am sure its not the touchstrip itself. if this doesnt work then its the motherboard for sure and i dont plan on replacing it..

 

I posted a link in the other thread, it's also a bit longer which is great

 

HELP:
For a few days now I have a chattering noise coming out from the right side of my M17X-R2 . I suspect the CoolingVan from the graphics cards (I have Xfire configuration). It is especially loud when running in low rpms.
Tried cleaning it to get the dust out but didn't really help.
Any ideas??

 

Yes, you will have to replace it. Are u under warranty? If so contact Dell. If not you'll have to replace it yourself.

 

Hey guys, I was wondering:

What is the preferred method for overclocking the 5870's? Would MSI Afterburner work?

I'm looking to milk this system for all it's worth as my temps are VERY good on my NZXT Cryo. I just got into Throttlestop, but I'm more interested in adding some power to the GPUs.

 

I've had issues with Afterburner. The AMD Clock tool was somewhat useful. I've used RivaTuner with the best success, and you can find more info at Tech|Inferno (under Miscellaneous Tutorials).

You might want to check out Trixx software. LINK Check out the screen shots in my signature.

I'll send you a PM with more info.

 

finally i bought the cable you proposed from ebay and the touchstrip is back! it was a cables issue finally and not the motherboard. thank God!

 

Great, I knew it
I think mine is in the mail too, bought it just in case

 

the bad news is that i bought a spare touchstrip with the defualt cable which is on its way and i cant cancel it. so just spent money for nothing. ayway at least it works now! thanks my friend

 

No problem, happy to help, it took me a while to find the proper one.
How much did you pay it, idk i may be interested, pm me.

 

you mean the spare touchstrip? i paid 50 dollars (including shipping)