*OFFICIAL* Alienware M17x Owners Lounge - Part 2

anyone find it hot around A W D S keys when gaming, bn playing cod mw2 and its around 70 degrees on my 1st card, and i dont think 2nd card works with this game though, its anoying=s any way to make it cooler or stop them getting hot on those keys?

 

I haven't installed the game yet, but in COD5 there was an option in the game for dual video cards in the settings. Try that and it may utilize both video cards.

 

If the driver you're using doesn't have a SLi profile setup, create your own.

This guy used nHancer to create a profile mixing COD4:MW and COD5:WaW settings.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=3345097

 

so can you tell us in detail what settings should we use? when i set enhancements-antialiansing to sli i get 11 fps. without using nhancer at all i get over 40 fps with one gpu. and this is a common problem on most of the games. it looks like that if the driver doesnt support sli for a game by default if you configure the game in sli (with sli update or nhancer) then stuttering is more than permanent problem and the fps make the game unplayable..

do you guys have the same issues? i wonder if its a problem with my M17X or a common bios-motherboard issue

 

I won't make a new post about this, after I installed Windows 7, I haven't been able to disable my touchpad. I downloaded the AW command center and the "sense" button pulls up nothing. I'll also add that I'm new to Windows 7 (1 day in) so it's a bit confusing. Thanks for the help anyone!

 

Install touchpad drivers...

 

my keyboard doesnt get hotter but my cards go up to around 70 as well.

there are no sli profiles for the game yet and there is no option for dual gfx cards.

it amazes me that the game actually looks like a REALLY bad port by looking at the options available compared to other previous cod games.

you can manually add the game into your nvidia control panel and switch the sli rendering mode to one of the sli rendering modes to force sli on.

forcing sli on will create random spikes in fps though.

just run on 1 card for now. 1 card should be able to play the game at all max.

i have all settings maxed out on single gpu with avg 70-80 fps.

 

I loaded the game last night and there was no option for dual video cards. It appeared both video cards were operating though. I didn't try the link from KracsN yet. A person would think they had fixed the problem they had in the option from WaW.

 

You need to install the Synaptics touch pad drivers so you can disable the touchpad or have it auto detect you plugged in a mouse and have it disable that way as well.. Without those drivers it wont do any of that ..

 

the game has not this option as the previous COD. maybe it will be added on a later patch. you can use nhancer to use both gpus.

finally i figured out the optimal settings for M17X and i get 60fps all the time. however stutter as always is there and of course frames drops randomly due to this. i dont think my gpus reach 70C because i open hwmonitor immediately after i close COD. i will try now and leave it run on the background detecting the temps.

did you try fn-f12? i have win7 and havent installed synaptics driver. this disables touchpad lighting as well if it doesnt matter for you.

 

ok i was playing COD MW2 for half an hour and maximum temp for both cards was 63 degrees celcius. for BOTH of them. and when i detected the temp both gpus were at 53. obviously they are working in sli. use nhancer.

and for an unknown reason no stutering of fps drop this time. 59 fps constantly. game is maxed out of course.

i can post my setting for COD MW2 with nhancer if you want. I actually think that this programm is great. There should be a thread for M17X and sli which should contain posts for optimal settings for nhancer and for all the games out there that don work in sli by default. even if you use sli update to add sli to games this may cause problems and you cant remove it. with nhancer its only a tick to enable or disable sli.

Wht do you guys think?

 

Could you post the settings you used. I use the ones from Guru3d.com and it started to lag really bad.

thanks in advance

 

ive had bad experiences with nhancer with my xps 1730. is it really all that good?

anyway when i force sli on with alternate frame rendering 2 i get about 80-100++ fps all the time except for the sudden spikes and lag due to sli.

if you get 60fps stable is it due to vertical sync? i dont think its working properly if v sync is off and you only get 60fps

i guess we have to wait for drivers with a sli profile for mw2?

 

Do any of you guys have this backpack? I'm wondering if this would fit well - anyone here have it and use it for their M17x? Maybe one of you fellow ex 1730 users can chime in?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...69#post5512669

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=468-4242

 

This might seem like a dumb question, but when I boot up my CPU-Z it shows my core speed jumping from 1599-2002. Is that normal?

 

yeah. Check your system power plan option.

 

Any reason why nhancer would be saying "detected gforce version 179.5 this tool is only compatible with versions 182 and up!"

 

its on high performance like always.

 

Because you driver is 179 and u need 182 or higher driver ????? ????? .....?????

 

Yah I thought that...I suppose what I meant was...how much newer can my driver get lol, its already up to date!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5512669

This is the backpack sorry guess the link got truncated. Do any of you guys have this backpack? I'm wondering if this would fit well - anyone here have it and use it for their M17x? Maybe one of you fellow ex 1730 users can chime in?

 

Zath, I replied to your other post. See the Backpack thread.

 

Ok i took screenshots. be sure to set them exactly as you see them.basically in enhancements be sure to untick everything and application controlled (except ambient occlusion which must be set).


and i think that stable 59 or 60fps is much better than 180fps and random frames drop. it doesnt matter if fps are always over 30fps right?





which application do you use to see the fps? i use fraps v3 but it never showed me more than 63 fps for any game.

 

Well I just purchased the M17x
Red Metallic T9600 2.8 GHz
4GB DDR3 1066MHz Win. 7 Ult. 64 bit.
17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
CrossFireX-Dual 1GB ATI HD 4870
640GB (320GB x2) Raid 0
Blu-ray reder (BR-ROM, DVD+RW, CD-RW)

haha I forgot to put an engraveing on the plate, im a dummie.
Anyone have any great softwhere they recomend i download on this machine?

 

Go to BatBoy's blog. It's in his signature.

 

i use fraps 2.99. i think your fps nv exceeds 63 because you always have v sync on. try turning it off and see if u get any higher fpses.

but it also depends on the game your playing though.

im abit hesitant to try nhancer. if im not wrong i have to reinstall the graphic drivers if i want to uninstall nhancer cos it screws up the sli profiles. or at least thats what happened with my xps 1730

 

Really ruby? Did you 'write all profiles to registry'? Because if I don't even load nHancer upon startup, it doesn't work. I have to literally double-click the icon in the icon tray and wait for the loading bar to hit 100%, then I can start playing games and it will implement the profiles.

 

if you're using 179, it is definitely not up to date....

 

you are right. with vsync disabled i reached even 180fps for a few seconds but as low as 50 for seconds again. not stable 60fps. but i tried with anisotropic filtering at 16x as well with vsync disabled!

one is for sure, with vsync disabled, pes2010 works perfect with sli enabled.

i would say that vsync should be enabled for other games and for others it doesnt matter but with vsync the fps are more stable.

 

Thanks now i get 60 fps constant. The other reason why my it was also stuttering was because the power supply was not properly connected.

 

happy to hear it worked. generally nhancer made me happy i bought two gpus. it was until now that i couldnt make sli work or if i could the default settings caused problems.it just needs a few minutes to figure out the best settings for each game.

an other example is red faction where i got 32fps contantly but now with nhancer i could configure sli for dx10 as well. now i get around 45 fps constantly. SLI and NHANCER come together. its a great freeware.

 

did anyone receive the M17X now with win7 preinstalled or not yet?

 

Quite a few people have received theres with Win7 installed i believe..

 

Mine's a week old and came with windows 7.

Question about the E-Sata port, i bought an enclosure from ebay. It has USB 2.0 and ESata.


USB 2.0 works fine I can read my drive, but ESata i plug it in and nothing happens.

Is there anything I need to enable on the M17x for it to work?

 

Also, about the bluetooth on it,

How does bluetooth work? it's not its own chip i gather, is it integrated with the Wifi chip?

Bluesoleil that worked great on my M1730 doesnt seem to work on this..

 

The bluetooth in the M17x is the full height mini PCI-e card on the left. The half height card in the middle is the wifi. You can see them both if you just slide off the palm rest (remove battery and the 3 screws it covers, then slide palm rest towards the front of the machine)

 

Actually, it is a dedicated Bluetooth Card (D P/N: 0P560G). See attached pics.

EDIT: Scook beat me to it

LOL @ your comment below Scook... :rolleyes2:

 

why is it hidden then, except for when I install the dell drivers?

Both Broadcom and Bluesoleil drivers can't find the card. And when I have no Bluetooth drivers installed it doesn't show up as anything in the Device Manager. Only the Dell install seems to wake it up..

 

Sorry to take your thunder there haha

 

no i dint write to registry

when i used nhancer last time it totally screwed all my sli profiles and even after uninstall the global profile is "custom" and all the other profiles were stuck at custom or something else

 

e-sata needs external power while usb 2.0 doesnt. if you put external power e-sata will work.

i cant understand how it screwed your settings but in any case write down the default settings in case something changes to worse so you can go back manually.

 

writing down wouldnt do any good cos i couldnt even change the settings.

 

Maybe run nhancer with administrator rights?

 

Ok, M17X is going crazy. Command centre opens, fusion doesnt work but everything else does, this is after a clean install of it. All of my CPU's are at 60-80% while idling and then if I try and boot up anything, even something simple it shoots up to 100%. I've checked everything on task manager, showed all users, used the resource monitor cant find anything out of the ordinary. Have already run reg fixes and HDD fixes, currently running CCleaner...I've been trying to fix this for hours and I absolutely can't find anything. Any ideas anyone?

edit - I put the command centre comment because I meant to say that there is no way I can figure out if stealth mode is on. I've tried the media button but cant see anything happening but I know the other media buttons work.

 

I actually purchased this backpack for my 1730. I never used it, since I bought a briefcase style case that worked better for me. My 17X fits in the briefcase, so it should fit the backpack.

 

Nice setup, you'll love it. Thinking about going solid state when I order my mine. My son went with a 7200 rpm hdd.

 

does anyone know if the e-sata port of the M17X is really self-powered or not? i mean i want to buy one of those new e-sata flash disks. will it work with e-sata port and will i be able to boot from the e-sata port through bios?

 

it is powered via the usb pot integrated into it....go into your bios, there is even a setting to enable the USB to provide power

 

and does the bios have the option to boot from e-sata? it shouldnt appear like e-sata in boot list? i cant see e-sata. it will appear as usb?

 

Anyone else getting annoyed with how easily the AC adapter unplugs itself? I use my M17x as *gasp* a laptop sitting on *gasp* my lap. From time to time, moving it around causes the AC adapter to fall out even slightly - which is enough to make the computer run on battery. Nothing's more annoying than starting up the laptop thinking the AC adapter is plugged in only to be greeted with a BIOS message and have to go into the BIOS and turn off integrated graphics...