*OFFICIAL* Alienware 17 Ranger (2013) Owner's Lounge Thread

Yes, that is wrong. The SSD should have the OS. You can call Dell and explain the situation and they will send you a recovery disc to restore Windows on the SSD. Simple as that.

 

Ha, I am on the phone right now with Order Modification and they're telling me my order is in its final stages and will be 'ready to ship' tomorrow. Just yesterday I was told my order was not even in production.

Edit: I am so confused right now. Maybe the request I made actually went through?

 

Hi everyone been a while since I have been to the forums..Just thought I would stop by and tell you I orderd my first alienware laptop on the 17th of sept., still in the production stage at Dell. I ordered the base model for 1499.00.
I will be adding a SSD 240Gig to my system, another 8 Gig of RAM as well as a fresh windows 8 install when it arrives.
I did not get the 1080 screen because my current Dell studio laptop has the 1600x900 screen and I found it to be perfect for my Video editing and gaming needs..
It was time to retire my studio laptop and the alienware seemed the best bang for the buck...
Hopefully it will ship next week well before the projected 10/16 date...

 

Just an FYI, the extra financing was approved and I'm getting everything I wanted on my original order. Also they are throwing in the Accident Warranty for 2 years (I asked for 3, can't complain as it's not costing me anything).

Just have to work on the delivery date now. I would imagine they are going to have to re-submit the order yet again, which is going to cause further delays but hopefully they won't be too severe.

 

Huh???? I am able to play Crysis 3, Metro LL, Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, and Witcher 2 all on ultra, crysis 3 is the only one it struggles with but still playable.

 

So.....I phoned Dell tech support on behalf of my mate and they are REFUSING to send out recovery discs because the laptop was purchased on the outlet (UK). I then spoke with Customer Care who again told me there's nothing that can be done because it was an outlet model (their T&C's apparently). I'm kinda raging because my friend has a laptop which isn't set up as you would receive if buying new as the OS is always on the SSD. I told Dell he may well return it because installing W8 would mean having to buy a product key on the SSD and, again, they didn't really care despite it being the mistake of the person in the factory who installed it on the wrong drive. They also closed the door on any form of refund.

I'm very disappointed with the total lack of care. Think an email to Mr Dell (probably one of his many secretary's) may be on the way (did this before with my own machine concerning lack of care and got a partial refund and the part in question replaced).

Anyway, does anyone know of a way to install W8 on the SSD? AlienRespawn tells me the destination disk is too small and obviously we don't have any OS disks or product key.

 

I have been having some trouble that sounds a little crazy. Getting a good screen display resolution with the Intel graphic options and the Nvidia control panel. I prefer to get the best setting from the Intel display but run into trouble when I play a game - the general settings look good but the game settings have to be tweaked. The game is too dark and even changing the game settings is not enough - I have to raise the gamma or darkness setting on the Intel side which gives me a display I don't like. I do turn off the nvida control and turn it on to see if I can get a happy medium. So my question is - could some people share what Intel settings they have for their resolution? Gamma - brightness - contrast etc?

Many thanks

 

That's nice. I should ask for extra warranty as well considering my original order was supposed to have 2 years, but was removed without my knowledge. On the brighter side of things... I guess my system is shipping today or tomorrow. According to them, it is done being built. We'll see about that...

You should be able to make your own recovery DVD or USB using AlienRespawn, and then simply restore the SSD.

Do you have the Alienware 17? You shouldn't be experiencing any of this with a brand new system. The screen comes per-calibrated from the factory. I did not notice anything of what you are describing when I had my previous 17.

 

Awesome news!!! Congratualtions!!!

 

Thanks... It is good, assuming it's true, LOL. Supposedly, the expedite request went through... Hopefully yours goes straight into production.

 

Yes - the 17 - I started with adjusting the Nividia settings not aware of the Intel Graphics options. Then started adjusting them. I googled for two days to see if there were any "recommended resolution settings" for Alienware - laptops in general but there were none. I did find examples for desktops. That is why I am asking here

 

We tried AlienRespawn but there's no recovery partition and it says corrupted environment. The ONLY way we can reinstall W8 is have the recovery disks or buy it. Anyone know of a way of installing W8 on the new drive without AlienRespawn or recovery disks? We really need help. I have a spare W7 key but I'm not sure how you would 'donwgrade'.

 

This should help: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/597163-m18x-screen-calibration-profile-included.html. It works for the M17x R4, so, it should work with the 17.

Um, not possible unless you use PirateBay and illegally download it and install it onto your computer.

Did your system come with a warranty? If you have a warranty, send a PM to this guy: http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=508812.

 

It depends what settings you talk about, and at what resolution. 1080p, and maxing out all the in-game settings, including AA, then you won't achieve above 30 fps minimum frame rate at all times. Sure the average might be a tad higher than 30fps, but it will drop below that in some instances. I used a site called notebookcheck to come to those conclusions, see this link:

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - NotebookCheck.net Tech

 

I agree with Rob on this one.

While you may see 30+ FPS most of the time, during intense scenes and what not, the FPS can dramatically dip. But as we've agreed before: not all games are optimized and drivers also influence what performance you are seeing. Bottom line: The 780M is an excellent card and will last a year, maybe two, with most games, but not all.

Thankfully these systems are upgradeable. :thumbsup: Also, we've made Alienware aware of our need for a new BIOS to unleash the hidden performance of these systems. Hopefully this will boost performance! If you want better performance, make an account and promote this idea: IdeaStorm.

 

Hi
I have a question for you J.Dre?? When did you order your laptop? I ordered mine on the 18th of this month and they are telling me it will not be shipped till the 14th of October
Here are the specs
Thanks in advance...

Alienware 17


4th Gen Intel Core i7-4930MX processor

16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz

17.3 WLED FHD 1920 x 1080 3D Bundle

256G mSATA + 750G 7200 RPM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5

 

My order was placed on the 17th.

More information can be found throughout this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-17-owners-lounge-thread-214.html#post9385298
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-17-owners-lounge-thread-216.html#post9385971
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-17-owners-lounge-thread-214.html#post9385338

 

I think there are sites where you can download a free copy of Windows, and then use your Windows Serial Number located on the Windows Verification Sticker (normally stuck to bottom of laptop) to activate Windows. That's what I did with my laptop that was bought from the outlet when I installed an SSD and did a clean install of Windows 7 on it. (I have the name Digital River in my mind, but not sure if that was the site or not).

 

Yeah, that's possible with W7 but not W8 as they don't provide a sticker. I think the product key can be found using such programs as BelArc advisor but still don't know if having the product key would work as I'm not sure you can legally make an .iso of W8 as you could with W7. My friend already hates Windows 8 AND Dell. We'll have a look at all avenues but it's looking very complicated unless we go down the illegal route.

 

Well crap - the file was deleted from that link - i will search on profiles and see what comes up

 

I'm surprised Dell didn't help you with this problem, and refused to send out a hard copy of Windows 8 for you, especially given your predicament. Maybe you could PM one of the Alienware reps that contribute to these forums for some advice or help on how to approach Dell. Maybe they have contacts that can sort you out.

EDIT: If you see post #2119, that's from an Alienware Rep, maybe he can help you. In his sig he says quickest way to get support is through Facebook or twitter. I think this makes sense, because the complaints are in the public domain, and it's in their interest to have these problems seeing to be solved.

 

There, all done. I do believe I've delayed my delivery even further, but at least this guy was upfront about it. 15 business days. He did say that he will put a rush on it, but can't make any promises, which is fair. I take news this way a lot better vs lying to me about something and letting me figure it out later...

I ended up getting 3 year Alien Enhanced In Home Warranty and 3 Year Accidental Warranty, though I had to do some juggling. I had an mini display port to vga adapter and an extra power adapter on my order, which I swapped out for the 3 year Accidental Warranty. If we're honest, I can get those items on ebay for a fraction of the cost as what Dell charges and save myself ~$140. He also gave me $300 in discounts. So I essentially got everything I wanted for what I was paying for originally, which is great!

This service was night and day difference from what I went through before. This was how buying a laptop of this magnitude should be. I guess I must have ran into a string of terrible agents and got lucky and finally managed to get a good one.

Edit: Yup, screwed the pooch on my shipping date. Now Oct. 23rd Oh well, at least I'm getting everything I wanted this time and was told that ahead of time!!

 

That's good. Now the wait begins...

 

My new AW17 with 780m and 120Hz display arrived - and have been busy loading software.

Only major problem is trying to run Windows 8 Media Center with a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime CableCard tuner. Media Center gives me a DRM error (display driver error) when trying to view live TV channels.

Has anyone else encountered this problem - and come up with a solution?

Has anyone else attempted to install Media Center on a 780m/120Hz system running Windows 8?

 

Hello

I was just informed by alienware customer care two minutes ago that the two alienware laptops that I ordered are on backlog and I will not be receiving them till the end of October. One was suppose to be shipped tomorrow........
So if anyone has been told that there laptop will be shipped this week or anytime soon better call customer care because there is a global shortage on parts...

 

I checked on my order with three different representatives and they all said mine is ready to ship. I guess only time will tell...

 

Hi J.Dre
Yes one of the alienware laptops I ordered also was suppose to be shipped tomorrow but now they informed me that they are all on backlog. One way to know for sure is to call customer support and they will update the bad news.
If your order ships please inform us....

 

Thanks for help with my question. That explains it

 

Does anyone know if the power adapter from an m17x r3 with 6990m will work with a 17 with 780m?

 

I am really worried now dont know what to do.I NEED YOUR ALL HELP.in my alienware m17 gtx 780 first i got horizontal lines which were clealy visible when the background of the screen was blue or in dark colour.it only occured when i was on nvidia gpu.intel gpu dint had such problem.called dell yesterday an was told to reinstall bios from A04 to A04 again and it did worked excellent.but today morning as i started the laptop same problem occured with more horizontal lines.called back alienware and after talking for nealy 2 and half hours they downgraded my nvidia drivers from 327.23 to the old 311.48 from the dell support website.now again my system is working good.they told me that in future it would be good to download the nvidia divers or any other drivers from dell website only as those one are specially designed for alienware laptops.was also told not to update the drivers even if i get notifications from nvidia as they are simply not compatible and may create issues.I just want to confirm that what i told was true ot not.if yes why did the 327.23 drivers worked perfectly earlier.anyways now my system is perfoming excellent on 311.48 drivers.what do you expert guys think.
Does sometimes new drivers create such issues?can it be also a hardware issue?plz help me.was also told that if the problem occurs again the only way is to replace the hardware(graphic card).now my system is working flawlessly.now will check it again tommorow morning as the problem only occured when the laptop was shut on ofter a long time.your comments would be highly appreciated.thanks

 

If you have the 240W adapter - it might.

Received my AW17-780m/120Hz laptop yesterday - and the adapter's part number is FWCRC. Looks like that adapter may be compatible with all of the M17x versions.

 

Thanks for that part number. I have the same number on my m17x, so I hope they are compatible.

 

So I had purchased an MSI GS70 from newegg, used it for several hours and noticed that the LED's on the keyboard were very dim and missing in quite a few keys. So I returned it for an exchange, then saw today on Alienware's site that my old setup/options was several hundred dollars cheaper! So I just returned the MSI GS70 completely(it was a very nice and fast laptop, just a faulty keyboard)

Anyways.. I JUST got an M 17 about 15 minutes ago JUST under $3000! haha

Specs:
Specs on the Alienware M 17:
1 210-AAPS Alienware 17 Base
1 370-AANN 16GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
1 580-ABEG English Keyboard
1 490-BBGQ NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5
1 658-BBOD Broadcom 4352 Driver
1 400-AASX 256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s
1 619-ACMQ Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, English
1 429-AAFS Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BD-ROM, DVDRW, CD-RW)
1 555-BBEQ Broadcom 4352 802.11 ac 2x2 and Bluetooth 4.0
1 470-AAKG US 125V Power Cord
1 340-ABEU Documentation, English
1 421-1723 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
1 950-3337 1 Year Limited Warranty
1 950-9797 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1 994-3730 Warranty Support, Initial Year
1 954-4168 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus On-Site Service, Initial Year
1 954-4191 In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year
1 951-6520 Accidental Damage Service, 1 Year
1 338-BCHW Overclocked 4th Gen Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4900MQ Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
1 391-BBEI 17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle
1 451-BBCB 8-cell Lithium Ion (86 wHr) Battery
1 450-AAJI 240W AC Adapter
1 354-BBBC Anodized Aluminum (3D)
1 640-BBLC Alienware Command Center 3.0
1 658-BBNS System Software for Alienware M17xR1
1 340-ADEN Alienware 17 Anodized Aluminum - 3D
1 389-BCCZ Windows 7 Label, OptiPlex, Fixed Precision, Vostro Desktop
1 430-XYGR Power DVD 9.6 BD, 3D,V2
1 340-ADEV Setup Instructions English
1 332-1530 Dell.com Order
1 332-1530 Dell.com Order
1 658-BBNX Additional Software
1 340-ACQQ Not Included
1 630-AAAU Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial
1 817-BBBP None Required
1 730-5531 Thank You for Choosing Dell
1 A5750525 Dell Advantage benefits have been applied. CashBack eGift card arrives in 10-20 days & carries a 90 day expiration

 

If you can, I would seriously recommend getting the 1080p60 screen instead - It's matte instead of glossy, and will have significantly better battery life due to Optimus actually working. (Optimus is disabled for 120hz screens)

Just my personal opinion though

Hope you enjoy your new 17!

 

I have a glossy screen on my M 17x R3 currently, I am fine with it really.. haha this thing will always be plugged in also.. haha

Thanks for the opinion though... really what it boiled down to was upgrading almost everything I could.. and talk them down! lol

On the GS70 the screen was matte, I liked the look for sure... but I am fine with it being glossy...

Thanks again, and I will!

 

I am not sure which parts they are having a shortage on. My order said 18th but in the last few hours it has updated to build complete and the date has moved forward to the 4th. I was very surprised.

Maybe there's a shortage on ssd drives? I only took the default raid 0 + cache option (been wondering if I may have picked the wrong option there, judging by the builds people are buying on here, but nevermind).

 

Yep, they are shipping now. I'm hoping mine does today!

 

so optimus is completely disabled in 17 inch laptop. I wanted to go for 18 inch originally but I didn't want it with sli and was not considering 17 inch because of optimus. so if I upgrade my 17 inch with 3d bundle then I don't have to deal with optimus then as mine will always be plugged in ?

 

Correct. The 3D bundle does not have Optimus, and it also does not have integrated graphics.

 

J.Dre, thanks for the help. its tough decision whether to go for 18 inch or 17 inch but now I m considering 17 inch again. I was under the impression that optimus was causing throttle issues because of switching by itself from dedicated graphics card to optimus during gaming by itself.

 

I haven't heard of that issue with the 17. That issue was present with the M17x, if I remember correctly. I had an AW 17 with the regular 60Hz 1080p screen and never experienced that. Also, I used NVIDIA inspector to raise temperature limits to allow for great utilization of the GPU. This eliminated throttling.

 

hmmmmm, ok. now lets say if I m not bothered about sli, do you think I won't encounter any significant difference between 18 inch and 17 inch apart from that extra inch difference. both of theme sbild quality, screen quality and cooling system you think. I have been reading these boards regularly and I saw on previous pages that quite a few people were complaining about issues with throttling.

 

Hahaha. a desktop would be really better. But don't forget the reason why people buy laptops. Are you able to bring your desktop around when you're on the go?

 

The throttling was resolved a while ago. And as I said before, NVIDIA inspector eliminates this issue.

The 18 has dual GPU's, it is a little easier to work on (upgrades), and it comes standard with a 60Hz TrueLife display. It will undoubtedly perform better because of the dual GPU capability. Check out the AW 18 forum for more info.

 

Ok, but some of the games don't support SLI. what do you think about that. I am not very good with laptop technology like you guys I am just asking what I have read and coming to my own conclusion based on what you guys are telling me. I am not going to upgrade anything on laptop, my only problem with SLI is some games don't support it from what I read and system can get overheat quite easily, that's why I was leaning towards 17 inch. Only turn off for me about 17 inch was throttling and optimus. I don't need optimus either. Thanks again J.Dre for being patient with me and replying to my queries.

 

If the game runs like crap using SLI, just disable SLI on an 18 and you're effectively then running the game as you would do on a 17 :thumbsup:

 

You could do this, yes. But then this begs the question: "Is it worth getting dual 780M's for another $600 when I'll just disable one?" "And do I really need dual 780M's?"

If money is no object, I wouldn't even consider these two questions. But if you're a student or someone who has a limited budget to work with, take into consideration whether or not you will need the extra GPU. Everyone wants it, but is it really necessary?

And on top of that, by choosing the Alienware 18, you lose the 120Hz screen. Whether or not this is important is 100% personal preference, but I do have to say, it is pretty awesome. It is, without a doubt, better than the previous M17x R4's. This is one of the things I appreciate about the Alienware 17.

 

True. But for those games that CAN utilise SLI well, dual gpu's are gonna kick butt in comparison. There are more games that do fully support SLI than those that don't.......

Another point about the 17 and 120hz - battery life. It'll get sucked faster than a virgin at a vampire party....

 

Battery life with the 3D bundle is about the same as the Alienware 18.

On YouTube, a user ran down the battery of his AW 17 and saw about 2 hours and 20 minutes on the battery before having to plug it in at around 10%. The power adapter is also much thinner, so, it's somewhat easier to deal with while traveling, in my opinion. However, the AW 18 has integrated graphics and users are seeing an average of 3 hours on that.

It all comes down to what you want, prefer, or need as an individual. We can go back and forth, all day, debating which is better. But that means nothing in the end.

---

EDIT: This is unrelated to the discussion above, but I have confirmed that my Alienware has finished production and is expected to ship within a couple business days. I hate that it finished on a weekend...no shipping. At least I was given "Next Business Day" shipping, so, hopefully it will ship today and arrive Monday, but it probably won't ship until Monday (9/30) or Tuesday (10/1).

 

I just want the 120Hz screen... lol

Edit:

Serious question: Should I upgrade to Windows 8? Are there any benefits or draw-backs? From the few hours I was on it on the MSI GS70, it was pretty nice, I just got W7 cause it is what I know now... thoughts?

Edit 2: Just saw that the laptop is "In Production" already...