*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

Your Girlfriend should get an account here and post also!

 

those are good rigs too, but i got a good deal on my m15x... all my specs for 1910. i saved like 600 bucks

 

@Moo...... and i already got a 17in clevo, i think it has that H1N1 virus or something....hopefully i can get that fixed soon. (Jk @ H1N1 virus)

 

GUYS will be able to install an i7 core on M17X when they will available for purchase?

 

you'll be able to install if only if the motherboard is identical(except for the CPU socket obvs)

 

She hates this thread actually. I've been reading the posts on this thread since a few months ago, and she'd get mad at me for staying up so late when I'd have work the next morning (like I'd be sleeping at 3 am and waking up at 6:30 am) ^__^

We can install i7's on the M17x? That would be super! (Well, if we COULD, of course.)

Still, I'm pretty happy with the q9000. Gets the work done.

 

No - not without a motherboard change (which does not exist at the moment). See the thread Scytus created - M17x Refresh Discussion.

 

Batboy's driver is hosted on Dell's website???

 

lol - no (Actually, its Douglaz's driver)

The 186.24 released by Dell for the XPS M1730 requires a modded INF to work with the M17x (this was the one I tweaked). The current 186.64 from Dell (one moo linked to) is ok, but I prefer the Windows Update released 186.82.

The 195.39 BETA from NVIDIA's site will not install on a M17x with 280Ms. The reason for this is NVIDIA decided to leave out the 280M GTX DevID info from the INF. The INF includes the 260M and 9400M G DevIDs. Be interesting to see what 260M owners report. I also tried using LV2Go's modded INF for it and the driver installed however after reboot I had a black screen with only mouse cursor visible greeting me.

Back to 186.82 for me.

 

I'm actually downloading those drivers now. Thanks for the heads up about the 260m's. Will let you guys know about it...

Thing is, HOW will I let you know if something has improved? What do I do? What do I show you guys?

 

yes i get that screen as well. i hate that screen. but you can toggle by fn+7 on certain drivers and it turns on the 9400m. it's weird how it works.

 

Thanks for that dondadah - for me though, if I see that type of behavior I dump it and go back to the stable. Just not worth it to me. NV needs to do it right the first time.

@crash:
just post back if the driver installs fine for you and all is well.

 

i'll try it. right now i'm downloading ubuntu 9.10 and my bandwidth is very limited. then i'll download the new driver and see what's up.

 

Uninstalled 186.64 drivers from Dell and installed 195.39 drivers.

"The Nvidia Setup Program could not find the drivers for your current hardware. Setup will now close."

Going back to the 186.64 drivers. ^__^

 

Now that really has me curious. The INF has the 260M DevID. Hmmmmm... Well, like I said - Thanks a lot NVIDIA. Leaving out the 'All Powerful'... *SIGH*

For those of you who want to let them know how you feel about this lack of support, fill out this form:

NVIDIA GEFORCE & ION Driver Feedback

*Be sure to include your system is the Dell/Alienware M17x 'All Powerful' with 9400M G and whichever discrete GPU(s) you have. This way, they don't pull the 'we thought you meant the m17'....

 

I think i missed something here. the 195.39 supports hybrid and gtx260m and not gtx280m? we cant use a modded inf or something?

be sure that i left my feedback already

 

i installed it. with the 9400m i get the black screen of the computer is working but i can't see anything. with the 9400m disabled. it works but performance is garbage. i stutter and nothing goes right. i'll test it more before saying yes or no to this driver.

 

I could not get the 195.39 to install, so still using 186.64 myself

 

do you have your 9400m on with your 186.64....

 

ok the driver doesnt support hybrid. but with the GTX280 in sli the performance rocks! it fixed my blank and white screen on pes2010. game performance with sli update 3 is amazing and smooth. i need to test other games too. refresh rate cant be set to 60hz again ( i begin to really be anxious about this story)

i think that i should ignore that hybrid sli and 9400 m is there and just work only with gtx280 sli and the newest drivers now on

to install you need to download the modded inf and replace the other one.

 

Does anybody have a definitive answer on what video cards are superior? The Dual ATI 4870's in CrossfireX or Dual NVIDIA 280m GTX in SLI?

When I go to http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4870-X2-Crossfire.14406.0.html it lists the 280m's as the best mobile cards available. Yet when I go to the Dell website they state the Dual ATI 4870's are the best performing cards available. Does anybody have any idea which cards are superior?

 

the problem with the 9400m is that it forces on on battery. like right now i'm unplugged... it forces on the battery so i would like to know that my Os wil still be stable when i use it off the A/C.

 

we need more benchmarker to do it.

 

4870's will be faster as of now

 

Real world faster? if so, is it by a wide margin? Or just faster in benching?

 

we need more benchmarkers. There aren't enough to know.

in benchmarking vantage gpu, The highest stock I got is 10261 and the 4870 was 106?.

 

The 4870's will not be more then 5-10%

IMO go with 260's for value

 

the 260's have always been the better value

even before the 4870s were in the picture

 

I just ran a benchmark test. I hope I did it correctly. No oc, just factory fresh

3DMark Score 11331 3DMarks

I am confused. Dell says the 4870's are better, but notebookcheck.net says the 280's are superior

 

Ignore what notebook check has to say about the 4870s entirely..

Those 4870s were from the W90 and all there tests were wrong to begin with...

Should we not be calling these 4870s 4850s ? since thats what they called the W90 GPUs based on the lack of DDR5 which is what makes a 4870 ...

 

Quad is correct

trust me the 4850's are faster

 

I checked and I have GDDR3 not GDDR5 as Dell had in thier configuration. They later had dropped the GDDR5 from the video card description.

 

i missed your point ......

 

i did as well.

yeah getting 10,600 on the 280m stock is alittle harder then i thought.

 

Told you Donda

Here is my best stock clocks score for my M17x. I got a GPU score over 10400 but didn't save because it was lower overall

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=1450795
P10333 for the lazy

 

Yeah its a long running joke from the Asus W90 days.. All the Alienware M17 owners called the W90 4870s,4850s, because they lacked DDR5 and here we are many months later and now Dell is calling there DDR3 cards 4870s.. Something Asus got slammed into the ground for doing... M17 owners were convinced they would be getting DDR5 cards and after all that time they got 4850 DDR3s .. What a mess...

 

get a life ....

 

Lol i should have told you the same when you were lounging around the W90 forums ..

 

Good old reliable nvidia. Never stirring up all this dust over vram haha

Not stirring up ANY dust really....using a 2 year old GPU is working just fine for them (with brand new pricing though of course!!)

 

Sorry I didn't see your post before I replied

 

Yeah Nvidia just renames things for that new car smell till you actually start it up and realize its the same old car ..

ATI on the other hand has atleast innovated by bringing there newer desktop tech to the mobile market.. Now if they could only get the Vram issues worked out all would be good ..

 

for me the only reason that the 4870s would be faster than GTX280s would be if they were DDR5.

if they are DDR3 then they can be even slower than GTX280s. Dell can support anything for promotion reasons. Also drivers support for nvidia is better and drivers are also important for performance especially for notebooks. Finally most games support more nvidia than ATI.

i would be very angry if i was supposed to get DDR5 and i got DDR3. This myth with the DDR5 is out there for months now even before the M17X was released. My opinion is that they tried to install DDR5 but major issues led to DDR3.

 

suprisingly enough after a restart 195.39 driver worked with hybrid sli.

initially i disabled the 9400, logged in and then after restart i enabled in bios. now hybrid sli with 195.39.


all games i tried worked in sli. however performance dropped on some of them... less stuttering is also a fact for me.

 

Time to post some benchmarks then...

 

i will after format. just to install the appropriate way. thus i think that tuneup utilities did a mess on performance again. i will install 186.9 drivers again just to see if the tuneup is the cause of it.

 

Yeah I would "Just say No!" to those all in one "Automatic" tuneup apps. They just dont play nice with the OS.

So a couple of questions for you on your install method for this particular driver:

• At time of install, you had Integrated/Hybrid Graphics both enabled in the BIOS? Or,
• At time of install Integrated/Hybrid Graphics both disabled in the BIOS and only the 280's were active and visible to the OS?
• Did you use LV2Go's Modded INF or did you use the INFs within the "Addtional INFs" .zip archive of the driver?
• Once installed and rebooted, you had the blank screen with only the mouse pointer visible and then hard reset and booted up normally (enabling the 9400) without issue? Or,
• You did not encounter the blank screen at any time.

I am looking at this again and want to pin down what is causing the blank screen so the process you used will be helpful in locating the issue. ALso monitor your temps closely, quite a few are reporting an increase in temps using this driver (on other systems of course).

Thanks.

 

Hi guys. Where do I download Dox drivers? Just wanted to see if I could get better framerates with them. I've tried searching for the Dox drivers here and on Google, but there are lots. Which do I download?

 

LV2Go - See Here

 

I recently received my 17X as a replacement for my dead XPS m1730. I removed the second HD from the 1730 in hopes of using it in the 17x. When I opened the the computer's drive bay, I noticed that the connectors do not match. The 1730 had a ribbon cable with a plug on the end. The 17x does not have a cable but a different type of connector. Can someone enlighten me on a way to install this HD? I was looking in the manual and noticed something called an "interposer", as I am new to Alienware laptops, I'm not sure what this is. Looking for any help. thanks.

 

[*] at time of install i had intergrated and gtx280s enabled in bios (as always)
i used the modded inf from LV2GO
[*] after install -restart i got this blank screen with only the mouse
[*] then i disabled intergrated graphics. then played pes2010 and something else maybe.
[*] today i just enabled intergrated graphic ( i didnt think of the blank screen i got before) and i got hybrid!
[*] when i say i get hybrid i always mean i never have this blank screen.

hope this helps. time for some testing now that i uninstalled tuneup utilities.