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

ssdreview.com has some great tips for SSD and Win 7 optimization. It is run by a former NBR member.

Also the issue with RAID 0 SSD is that you lose trim, which is a function that gets passed to the drive to do the "cleaning" which keeps the drive running like new. So in RAID 0, it will slow over time. What you can do to keep the trim is wipe reinstall windows on a single drive, and use the other SSD for games and such.

I had an SSD RAID 0 setup and it was fast, but to me there was really no noticable differance between SSD RAID 0 and running the drives independantly. The only differance was in benchmarks. Also if you want to run the drives in RAID 0, click the link in my sig. I have guides linked in that post to all the tweaks I did.

I have one SSD for OS/Apps, and the other for games, then swaped my blu-ray burner for a 1TB drive for media storage. Just some food for thought. The HDD swap is in my sig as well.

Another Guide

 

Thanks for the reply mate! I have been all over your sig like a tramp on chips today.

Well that's given me a starter for what to attack tonight. Looks like a Windows reinstall and splitting the RAID. Woohoo.

Is the drivers list at the beginning of the thread still relatively up-to-date?

Cheers,

Raymond

 

For the most part. I have used the Dell drivers for everything by the GPU. I am using the 11.9 beta drivers. I know there are 11.10 preview drivers, but I havn't used them. Not sure what the best is for 5870's, but they shound be good.

Here is a link for the dell drivers: Link

I'm in the process of doing a new fresh install so thats most of what I used, but I had them already downloaded a long time ago. Suppose I should go back tonight and see if I have some old drivers that need updating.

 

Legend. Rep+1

 

i am having trouble finding where to buy the 6990m for my mx17r2. can someone please share?

 

anyone got face this issue??

with original a10 bios and 11.10 ati driver@ original dell ati 6970m gc..

the system unable to reboot and restart... system go blank and fan still spinning.

 

Try clearing the CMOS, see if it helps. Does it hang the same way when you choose to shut it down?

 

Hi guys,
got a silly question, how do I enter safe mode since currently I have my system set up as RAID 0?
before this I just press F8, but now after using RAID 0 configuration, the menu will not show up when I press F8.

And one more thing, I would like to repaste my GPU, is this a good one?
IC Diamond 7 CPU Thermal Paste - OEM Tube | eBay

and for the thermal paste remover, this one, Arctic Silver ArctiClean Thermal Material Remover & Surface Purifier 60ml Kit: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Are those good?
Thanks in advance guys.

 

-press F8 multiple times.

-yes, ICD 7 is a good paste but honestly if you can find cheaper it's also good as there's only a small difference between brands.

-I use acetone or alcohol at 70° or 90° to remove thermal paste.
Find acetone at hardware stores 5-6 euros/5 liters (i also need it for other stuff too and my wife uses it to remove nail polish ) and alcohol at your local pharmacy.

Cheers

 

I think I have tried, but maybe I will try again.
Thanks katalin.

 

Hi guys, need some help from the brain tank. I have been getting random restarts while my system sits over night. When I pull up the event viewer I'm finding an error for "kernel power failure" and apparently has been going on for months. I have noticed this one because the OSD failed to load on start up. I have checked google and most have just sent it back, complained about the PSU adapter, or referenced Nvidia problems. My system i directly plugged in to the wall, and according to the event viewer is usually at idle for hours when the restart occurs. I have no power issues during normal or gaming use. (HAHA isn't normal use gaming...anyway ) My system is stock with the exception of the bios A10 mod, which has been on for a month. Many gracious thanks in advance.

 

Guys, I'm looking for the ExpressCard 54mm usb 3.0 adapter, any recommendations?

 

^^ e.bay is full of them, for cheap too.

 

Can I trust any cheap unbranded stuff?
Or will they be easily spoiled or damaged?
There's cheap one I found that cost around 10GBP, but there is no brand stated.
But, for Buffalo and other well known brand, the price goes up to 30GBP or more.

 

That i can't tell you, hidz. I bought a no name brand too for ~9euro and the speeds were on par with others that bought different brands.
i sold it though and kept the remote in its place

 

Haha thanks for the opinion katalin. appreciate it.

 

does anyone who has this tried to open a 2.5 inch 1.5tb drive without extra power from the cable? well it never gives enough power for me. Thus transferring really big files (usually iso) always turns off my 1.5tb extrarnal usb drive. But with my 32gb usb 3.0 stick i have no problem.

 

Guys, remember my problem when I tried to install the secondary HD5870M into my system?
Now it works, I forgot to try the ebay card in the master slot, now the cards work in crossfire, in BIOS A10!
No more problem when I tried to boot. Thank GOD.
Thanks again katalin, DR and everyone who helps me.

But it seems like the ebay card is very hot, it reached 100C when I play BFBC2, do you think repasting would solve the problem?

 

Hey Hidz7 that is great news. Cool!

Yeh give it a re-paste and new pads if you can as well.
Try a re-paste 1st and then check temps again.

Cheers.

 

Hey reborn I should thank you as well!
You also have been a great help.

I will repaste it, thinking of ordering IC Diamond 7 for this, found a pretty good deal on ebay.
What do you think?

 

Sounds good man! I am planning on getting some myself as well.

Cheers.

 

Hi guys,

I think I'm having a common problem for crossfire users, which is flickering!

I think I have it in almost every game whenever I look at the light source/sun/lens flare or something like that in the game.

Whenever I run the game in single card, (I tried the ebay card and dell card individually) the problem is not there.

Any solutions guys?

 

What drivers are you on, hidz?

 

I have the 11.9 catalyst version and I have 11.9 CAP 2 for the crossfire profile.
Do I need to try different driver version?

 

I hope this doesn't happen to you, but I had a flickering issue with my old 5870's and no matter what game I played or what drivers I used, it would still flicker. I ended up getting new cards from Dell which now do not flicker (but do not overclock either.....like at all).

 

Thanks for the information.
So this means this it maybe has anything to do with the card right?
What about crossfire cable?
Could this be causing this problem as well?

 

If your under warranty I would call Dell. Have you flashed your cards with the latest Dell vbios?

 

In GPU-z it says 012.020.000.027.037640 for both cards, that's the latest vbios right?
Unfortunately my system actually comes with single card, then I bought another card from ebay.
How can I know which card is defective?

 

Guys, found a simple FIX!
What I did is I tried to lower the brightness in CCC to -10.
and voila, before this when I played Deus Ex, it flickers like crazy, now not at all.
I'm really grateful and totally excited.
Will see how it goes.

 

Nice!

Odd that it's something like that, that would fix the issue. I hope it's permanant.

 

Yeah that's odd for me too, and I hope this is permanent as well.
I tried several games, and none of them flickers.
Really happy now.

 

Well shoot I wish I would have known about that! I could have possibly kept my old cards.

 

At least you got a pair of new cards, that's a good too.
I got my secondary card from ebay, so it's kinda difficult to sort this thing with dell.
Luckily I found this fix.Really grateful.

 

Hi guys, just got myself a cheap SSD yesterday (as stated in my sig), out of the box after clean windows install, my read and write sequential is 176/178 mb/s.

After doing some optimizations based on this website, The SSD Optimization Guide - The SSD Review

my read jump to 198mb/s, but my write down to 140+ mb/s, is it normal?
Sorry forgot to take a screenshot after doing the optimization.

 

hi all, for those who have 6990m setups for their r2s, who or where did you get them from?

 

Your question would be better directed here at the targeted audience.
[Guide] Installing AMD Radeon 6970M in your M17x-R2 (Single GPU and CrossfireX)

 

Guys, just repasted both of my GPUs with IC Diamond 7, now the heat problem on the ebay card is gone.
Max temperature when I play Metro2033 is only at 71C, before this it was 100C!

 

Great news, hidz, 71 C is good.

 

Thanks to you and others, you guys never stop responding and replying to every question, which is great and helping me a lot!

 

Man so I finally took the plunge and wiped the system clean. I just have one issue and I think I resolved it but need another opinion. My system came installed with Dell's data safe backup software. The original image was riddled with issues and errors, so I formatted the partition and got rid of it. I am now using the Alienware respawn and successfully created an image using the installer. Is there any other step that is required for imaging backup?

Until this I have only used the original Alienware respawn from the area 51 systems that utilized Norton's ghost image creator/restore.

 

Battlefield 3 comes out tommorrow right? I'm definately going to be getting it. Hopefully soon. Can't wait to run it in RGB goodness with 6990s!!

My favorite BF3 video online so far. 99 Problems
<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D645LFhAOJs?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D645LFhAOJs?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width='640' height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

 

Yeah tomorrow it is, I bet your system will be able to play it at a very decent setting!
Too bad in the UK I need to wait until 28th to test it.

Hopefully my system can still handle this game, I have pre-ordered though.

 

Yes BF3 looks awesome...I am torn though, I want it for PC but all my work buddies are on PS3.

 

just extended warranty on my m17xr2 for another 2 years for $424aus woohoo was going to get 6970m's cards but thought maybe this machine will be warranty replaced someday again lol hope it was worth it! love this m17xr2 One problem is SLI micro-stuttering and throttling of cards, does anyone have this issue?

 

I have not experienced your issue but I have seen several threads and comments on that same problem. Fortunately, there are several workarounds that work for some and not so much for others. Dig through this thread, I saw some that changed settings in the ATI Control Center, and others that need a VBIOS flash. Hids7 also discovered this:

But as you stated you got a replacement and maybe if you complain enough you may get another.

 

Man so I wiped the HDD and reinstalled all the drivers and support software and yet I'm still getting random unexpected restarts. I have found zilch on the web for solutions, except for calling alienware support. So I'm gonna dive and call the "pros" for service. I'll let you know what the deal is.

 

Any BSODs?

 

i have nvidia cards i have logged with dell support and they are replacing Motherboard, heatsinks, gpus & touchpanel which has not really work for day one just didn't want to go through dell hell again. the grx cards are on backorder so they kinda said they have requested 5870m's.

getting complete system freeze now after playing a game 3-5mins (sound goes into a loop and sometimes BSOD or hard shutdown) a

 

Look what I just picked up. Now the question remains. Do I sand and custom paint or do I keep it silver? I always thought I'd like the silver color. I picked up "B" grade lid and base with the intentions of painting. Well see. If I do it will be a Metallic Gun Metal Grey. I guess my rush to get it done will all depend on the quality of the parts.

Maybe they will come looking perfect. If not I can sand/wetsand them and paint.

Picked up the pair for $69. Though I had $35 in my paypal thats been there for months that I forgot about. So it actually feels like I only $34 for them.

 

Silver is nice and extinct,not a fingerprint magnet like the red or black ones, but since I had it from the beginning and the R2 ia also silver, I wanted something else

Good luck with your project.